Optimizing your company’s outsourced call center could save you money while delivering better customer experience outcomes. If you’re ready to do that, then making sure that you’re leveraging the right technology is a great place to start. Cloud-based software for outsourced call centers offers the most opportunity in this area.

This article highlights the advantages of cloud-based software for outsourced call centers while also offering some guidance for leveraging the tool to its full potential. Read on to learn more about how this technology could help take your call center to the next level.

What Is Cloud-Based Software for Call Centers?

Cloud-based software for call centers is software that facilitates remote communication among team members and customers. For example, a call center may use cloud software to act as a sort of communication hub, which processes inbound and outbound calls, emails, SMS messages and web-based customer data.

Outsourced call centers use general cloud software like project management platforms to do some of this. But they also need dedicated cloud solutions for some goals. For example, your outsourced call center may want to use an automatic call distributor or an interactive voice responder.

Solutions like these help you provide your customers with a better support experience while enabling your team to operate remotely. It can also bring some helpful benefits to you as the owner of the business, which we discuss more throughout the rest of this article.

The Benefits of Cloud Software in Outsourced Call Centers

Cloud software typically costs money to use. So if you’re thinking about investing, you first want to make sure that you’re going to get a solid ROI. We take a look at some of the key benefits you can expect to receive after making an investment in cloud software for your outsourced call center below.

Cost Savings

The first benefit you can expect to receive from an investment in cloud software for your call center is cost savings. These are enabled by reducing the number of workers you need to have in your outsourced location.

Instead, everyone will be able to work on their own devices from home. This reduces the size of the office space that you need to rent for your outsourced team. Plus, it means you won’t need to invest as much in technology like computers, phones, and headsets.

Flexibility and Scalability

Cloud-based software can also help you expand and contract your outsourced call center team easier. This is, once again, because it reduces the amount of office space you need to rent and the equipment you need to buy.

When you’re using outsourced software, you can scale up or down as your business needs change. You won’t have to try to get out of a lease or resell your pricey equipment only to need to buy it back again next year.

Plus, many cloud software subscription plans give you different plan options to choose from based on team size or call volume. You can take advantage of this to further reduce your costs as your outsourced team expands and contracts.

Remote Access

Another advantage of cloud software in outsourced call centers is the opportunity it provides for remote access. You and anyone on your in-house team will easily be able to log into the same platform that your outsourced workers use to engage with your customers.

This opens up new opportunities for collaboration and oversight that would’ve been difficult to achieve otherwise. You can take advantage of this to provide more targeted support and guidance to your outsourced team leaders and workers.

Simplified Integrations

Finally, cloud-based software also enables outsourced call centers to integrate their technology more efficiently. Most of these programs are designed to feed data back into other commonly-used cloud-based systems.

You can integrate your data feeds to get more up-to-date, accurate, and synergistic information shared between all of your teams and leaders. The net result could be more

informed decision-making and the opportunity to discover new cost-saving and customer-satisfaction-boosting benefits that help your business thrive.

Tips for Leveraging Cloud-Based Software in an Outsourced Call Center

Now that we’ve covered what cloud-based software is in outsourced call centers and some of the benefits it offers, let’s start looking at how you can get as much value out of it as possible. Here are five tips to get you started.

Use the Same Software Internally

The first tip we have for you is aligning the software that your outsourced and in-house teams use. You don’t have to keep everyone on the same server or project management board. But simply using the same software will ensure that the data both teams generate can be used easily in combination with one another.

When you use the same software internally as your outsourced team does externally, synergy improves considerably. That can open up new opportunities for growth and insight that you’re not even considering right now.

The corollary is that if you don’t use the same software as your outsourced team, you could be missing out on potential insights that could improve your company. So why risk it? You’re almost always going to be better off keeping it simple and using the same software across your entire organization.

Train Your Team

This may sound obvious, but it’s important enough to reiterate. Training your team effectively is a key step in unlocking the full potential of cloud-based software in an outsourced call center.

More specifically, you want to make sure that your outsourced workers understand how to get maximum value out of whatever cloud solutions you decide to use. If they struggle with your platforms, they’ll take longer to complete simple tasks and could make mistakes that disrupt your data.

Given how important this is, it’s best to think of training as an ongoing strategy rather than something you do once and then drop. It’s even more effective if you set up individual training plans for each worker or team and track their progress over time. This is the key to getting the full value out of whatever cloud-based software you decide to use.

Track Key Performance Indicators

Next up – make sure that you’re tracking key performance indicators while using cloud-based software. These will vary based on the metrics you’re tracking and the goals of your outsourced team.

For example, you might use an outsourced sales team to do cold calls. In that case, two key performance indicators would be the number of calls made per day and the percentage of conversions (whatever that means for you). Or, if for a customer service team, you might want to track customer satisfaction ratings based on a quick post-support survey.

The key here is understanding the metrics that tell you whether your outsourced team is being successful and tracking them. This will help you identify the amount of value your cloud software is bringing to your enterprise and identify your biggest opportunities for improvement moving forward.

Seek Feedback

It’s also important to listen as a leader when you’re trying to get an outsourced team up and running on a new cloud-based solution. You might not anticipate all of the various problems they encounter while learning the platform – especially since the outsourced team may be from another culture.

That’s why it’s a good idea to be proactive about seeking feedback. You can do this directly if you already communicate with your outsourced call center or enlist the help of an outsourced team leader. Either way, pay attention to the feedback you receive as doing so could be the difference between reaching your goals or not.

Be Willing to Adapt

Finally, make sure that you don’t get too stuck in your ways while using cloud-based software with an outsourced team. You may go into the process believing that you know what you need to do to achieve your objectives. But as the data rolls in and you receive feedback from your outsourced team, your metrics, growth goals, and most important next steps could all change.

This is 100% natural in the world of outsourcing. The only question is how quickly you can identify these changing tides and adapt when necessary. The sooner you do, the faster you can move past hurdles and continue making progress toward your overarching goals.

The Cattalyst Can Help Improve Your Outsourced Call Center with Cloud-Based Software

Learning cloud-based software can be tricky – especially when you’re working with an outsourced team that may not speak the same language you do. That’s why the Cattalyst is here to help.

We have decades of experience in helping companies maximize the potential of outsourced customer service. As part of this, we offer training support services that can help your outsourced team learn how to master whatever cloud-based software it’s currently using.

But don’t take our word for it. Let us show you. Sign up for a free consultation with us today and we’ll provide you with a personalized solution for growth. We hope to hear from you soon to get started.