How to Maintain Control When Outsourcing to a Call Center

If you’ve ever had an outsourcing partnership go “off the rails”—or you’re afraid of that happening—then you might be wondering how to maintain more control when outsourcing. 

Control tends to be especially important when it comes to outsourced call centers. When you’re asking another team to manage customer communications, interactions with frustrated clients and more, maintaining some control is an important factor in a quality partnership. You likely want to have some control over: 

• quality and quality assurance processes 
• day-to-day operations 
• procedures, processes and scripts 
• customer communications and resolutions 
  
  

While a great outsourcing partner should have the expertise and experience to provide quality service and efficient processes without you having to make every decision, sometimes you may want or need to have more control over the processes to ensure quality. 

So how can you maintain control over your service and customer experiences when outsourcing to a call center? We’ll walk you through what to consider, how to shape the process to maintain control, and picking a call center that will allow you the control you need. 

Define Your Objectives and Expectations

Before the partnership even begins, start by defining your objectives and expectations of the outsourcing provider and the partnership as a whole. 

• What do you hope to achieve by outsourcing? 
• What are your goals for customer service and your call center more broadly? 
• What are your expectations for service levels and quality? 
• What are your key objectives for your outsourcing partner? 
• How much control do you wish to have over day-to-day operations or various aspects of your partnership?
  
  

By clearly identifying the answers to these questions, you can more clearly communicate expectations to a provider and ensure they are able to meet them before you sign a contract. In addition, you can ensure that you’ll be able to have the level of control you’re looking for, stopping problems before they start. 

You should also establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals and objectives for evaluating your call center. Which KPIs are the most important to measure? In general, you should ensure you’re focusing on both internal (operational) metrics and external (experiential) metrics. Some key metrics for call centers to track include: 

• CSAT and NPS 
• Average Time in Queue 
• First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate
• CRR (Customer Retention Rate) 
• Speed of Answer 
  
  

However, your call center should focus on the KPIs that most closely align with your goals and objectives for both customer service and call center performance. You should also set expectations early for how KPIs will be tracked, measured and reported on. 

Choose the Right Call Center Partner

As you clarify your goals and expectations, you’ll want to choose a partner that can meet them, of course—but there’s so much more to consider when it comes choosing the right call center partner. When you’re researching, do your due diligence—don’t rush the process, and don’t simply choose the cheapest option you find.

Instead, be sure to understand how much control you’ll be able to maintain as you research potential providers. There’s a number of factors that will influence how much control you’re able to have, and therefore, the right partner for you. For example: 

Location. The closer your call center to your place of business, the more control you’ll be able to have (in general). Nearshoring, for example, offers much more control than offshoring, since the proximity means you’ll be able to travel to your call center more frequently, and similar time zones open up more opportunities for collaboration. 

Expertise and experience. More expertise within a call center means less control will be needed for quality assurance and service levels. When outsourcing, consider how much control you’ll need to have to maintain quality—and opt for a call center provider that can offer quality without as much control whenever possible. 

Reputation. Talk to current or past clients of your potential providers about both quality and results and communication. Look for strong results, yes, but also look for providers who offer clear, open and reliable communication. Easy and clear communication will give you much more control throughout the outsourcing partnership than a provider who is difficult to get in touch with. 

Workplace habits and culture. Some call centers make it easier to be involved than others—so pay attention to how your call center operates throughout the vetting process. Do they invite your feedback and keep communication lines open, or are they inflexible and unresponsive? Look for a provider who has a similar workplace culture to yours to make collaboration easier. 

Reporting. Understand how your potential call center providers will measure and deliver results. Staying on top of reporting, performance and results is an effective way to maintain control over your call center—but if this reporting is haphazard, inconsistent or ineffective, you won’t be able to monitor quality and improve. 

With any of these categories, keep in mind that—similar to a first date—providers during the vetting phase are trying to impress you. If something feels off during the vetting process, it’s likely not going to get better once you sign a contract. 

Develop a Detailed Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Once you’ve found a great call center partner, develop a detailed SLA to  define the scope of the work, deliverables, quality standards and expectations of the partnership. 

Remember: the more communication, the better. A detailed SLA helps you put expectations into writing and keeps both you and your call center provider accountable to your goals and objectives. In addition, a detailed SLA helps you maintain control by setting expectations early and having standards you can ensure are being adhered to. 

Managing quality starts from the beginning of your partnership. Within your SLA, be sure to include: 

• a description of the services that should be included in the partnership 
• any services that should be excluded from the partnership 
• service performance—clear expectations for performance levels that need to be met
• risk mitigation and security processes
• service and performance tracking and reporting standards
• stakeholders and roles—clear expectations for who is in charge of what tasks and responsibilities 
  
  

Creating a clear SLA from the outset not only ensures quality standards, but it helps to delineate roles of different stakeholders and create a guide that gives you control throughout the partnership. If you want to be in charge of getting customer issues resolved favorably, you can also include protocols for communication and issue resolution.