If you missed last week’s webinar with Assembled, “Better Together: How to Build a Winning Strategy for Modern BPO Management”, don’t worry it’s been turned into an insightful article now available on Assembled’s blog. It dives into the best strategies for onboarding BPOs and driving performance, with a focus on speed and seamless alignment. It’s a must-read before scaling up a BPO.
Now, let’s talk about the best BPO setup I’ve seen in my career, one that actually works!
The Shift to BPOs: Opportunity or Challenge?
Over the years, we’ve all seen how companies increasingly turn to BPOs, not just to optimize costs but also to offload the complexities of managing support teams, such as attrition, motivation, development, and performance management. Additionally, BPOs are often seen as a solution to handle seasonality peaks, providing businesses with the flexibility to scale their operations up or down based on demand.
It’s become common to see businesses outsourcing their customer support operations to “cheaper” markets like India, Africa, the Philippines, Greece, or Portugal. Many also extend this approach to supporting roles like WFM, QA, and Training.
But here’s the thing: while this might save costs upfront, I’m afraid that in the long run, it may create larger economic and operational challenges. By concentrating certain roles in lower-wage countries, we risk taking away opportunities from higher-wage countries, and this shift could have unintended consequences.
So, let’s take a step back and ask:
What Do You Really Need for a High-Performing, Optimized CS Team?
The short answer is control.
For your customer service to outperform, you need strong agent performance management and real-time visibility of key KPIs. This is where outsourcing often falls short. When you hand over operations to a BPO, you lose:
• Direct control over individual agent performance.
• Accuracy and transparency in scheduling and performance data due to different tools and systems.
Ultimately, this can hurt both CX and operational efficiency, negating any cost benefits you were aiming for.
So, What’s the Solution?
The best BPO setup I’ve come across in my career comes from Vodafone Greece, where I worked earlier in my WFM journey. It’s a hybrid model that achieves the perfect balance between cost optimization, performance management, and agent engagement.
Here’s how it works:
1. Outsourced Agents, In-House Management
Vodafone contracts a BPO to handle recruitment and payroll for outsourced agents. However, the agents report directly to Vodafone’s in-house CS management team.
2. Rigorous Recruitment Process
Vodafone collaborates with the BPO to recruit the right talent. The BPO screens candidates, but Vodafone conducts the final interviews and selects the successful agents.
3. In-House Training and Support
Once hired, agents are onboarded as if they were in-house employees. Training, workforce management, quality assurance, and team leadership are all managed internally by Vodafone.
This setup creates what I like to call “pseudo in-house agents.”
Why Does This Work So Well?
Here are the standout benefits:
1. Full Control Over Performance Management
With in-house CS management overseeing the agents, you retain full control over individual performance, ensuring accountability and alignment with your business goals.
2. Ownership of Scheduling and Real-Time Operations
In-house WFM teams handle scheduling and real-time management, eliminating the reliance on third parties who may not fully understand your business needs.
3. Cost Efficiency with Flexibility
This model keeps costs lower than hiring in-house agents while allowing for easier contract termination if performance doesn’t meet expectations.
4. Agent Motivation and Growth Opportunities
High-performing outsourced agents have the chance to be promoted to in-house roles, which come with additional benefits. This pathway boosts engagement and motivation among agents.
5. Remote Work Opportunities
Vodafone recently introduced remote roles for outsourced agents, which makes sense. By allowing agents to work from anywhere, they can tap into a broader talent pool, regardless of office location. Plus, since everything in CS is measurable, like contacts/hour and AHT performance can be tracked effectively, even remotely.
Closing Thoughts
This model strikes a great balance between cost-effectiveness and control, ensuring that customer service teams deliver outstanding results while maintaining high engagement levels.
If you’re considering scaling your support operations, ask yourself: how much control do you need to ensure exceptional CX? Because outsourcing doesn’t have to mean losing visibility or quality. With the right setup, you can have the best of both worlds, cost savings and performance excellence.
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