Tuesday, September 21, 2010

In-House Answering Service: A Bad Idea

The reason why some businesses are turned-off by the prospect of hiring an answering service call center, believe it or not, is cost. The solution, they believe for this predicament is doing their answering services in-house. Not the smartest idea given that their main issue with having that service in particular is cost. Here's why:

1. An in-house answering service team requires agents trained in answering, which means you'll have to do the training yourselves. Of course this means that you have to work double-time making the training modules for voice and non-voice and what not. Retaining the services of a professional answering service call center eliminates the stress associated with hiring and training agents to work on your project. The concept here is to shift as much of the non-core tasks of your business to the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) unit.

2. Affordability and Cost-efficiency. A full-time answering service eliminates the outlay associated with providing a physical workplace for the agents, the technology needed to maintain an answering service, hiring and maintaining additional employees including vacation planning, hiring and training, benefits spending, and paid overtime.

3. Experience-wise, an outsourced answering service still has a great advantage over their in-house counterpart. BPO agents are skilled in different projects and has a better understanding of the work that they have to do. Their experience cuts down the loss of resources that will come your way in case of in-house teams. The answering service call centers know the obstacles on the way of the project and can suggest ways in which you can bypass those roadblocks. Without this guide, your answering service effort may seem extravagant at a time when resources are expensive.

Bottom line is, when you've ruptured your spleen or punctured your lung you don't seek help from your gardener... you go to a doctor who specializes in internal medicine . The operative word here is 'specializes.' In the same manner you seek professional help from an answering service call center when your business dictates that you use a professional answering service.

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