Do your customers need quick, to-the-point answers to their questions or a more personal degree of outreach and communication from your company? The truth is they might need both forms of contact at different times. That’s why an effective business process outsourcing (BPO) partner can deliver results through both voice process and non-voice process communication channels.
Getting Into the Details: BPO Voice Process vs. Non-Voice Process
Having a clear understanding of what business process outsourcing is all about will illustrate how a partner can help you with voice services.
BPO allows growing companies to focus on their core strengths. With this type of business strategy, a third-party provider performs those non-core disciplines, even ones that need specialized training.
Those off-loaded responsibilities might include tech support, human resources, accounting and billing, data entry, payment and claims processing, customer service, and other non-core but vital activities.
With your BPO partner on the job at their call center, your people can concentrate on doing what they do best, whether it’s advanced manufacturing, precision engineering, sales and marketing, product development, or whatever else it is that makes your company stand out.
So, what is BPO voice process? What is BPO non-voice process? How do they benefit your company and its customers?
The terms are the various ways today’s technology enables your company representatives to communicate with your customers, prospects, and other audiences.
Voice process in BPO is communication by phone, whereas non-voice communications channels include all the other ways of connecting one-on-one with your customers, namely in “new media” written format, such as text, chat, email, and social media.
Both methods of modern-day connecting — verbal and written, or voice vs. non-voice — can be done via inbound or outbound means.
Much as it sounds, inbound calls come in from your customers. Outbound calls go in the other direction, from your company’s internal team or its BPO partner to your customers and potential customers.
When your company teams up with a BPO, the voice or non-voice process usually takes place in your partner’s call center.
But wherever the work occurs, and regardless of whether it’s verbal or in writing, your BPO partner communicates in your corporate voice. The representatives take on your company’s brand, tone, and cultural attributes. The BPO and its staff are, in short, an extension of your brand and workforce. As far as your customers are concerned, they’re talking to a representative of your company — and, in effect, they are.
The Operation Mechanism: Inbound vs. Outbound Calls
Your customers might wish to connect with your company for any number of reasons. These can range in complexity from product-specific queries and installation guidance to ongoing complaints, billing inquiries, or complicated tech problems. Or maybe they’re merely asking about your hours of operation.
Outbound calls work the other way. Your call staff or third-party partners might do the calling to generate new leads, sell or upsell to your existing customer base, conduct surveys, or update previous buyers on discounts, new products or services, or other pertinent news that might spur activity.
Whether it’s inbound or outbound communication support your business seeks, your BPO partner must skillfully train their people on your product or service line, daily operations, culture, and ways of doing business. That’s because, once again and of critical importance, your third-party partner represents your company, brand, and reputation, regardless of how they connect with your audiences. Your customers should feel confident that they are communicating with your company.
That’s the case whether that connection is through voice, non-voice, or even semi-voice process. (The BPO semi-voice process usually begins through non-voice process contact but involves a specialist who is also trained in voice process if that means of communication proves to be necessary or advantageous.)
The BPO call personnel must also have the specific hard skills and training that the call might require. For instance, if queries could be highly technical in nature, it will take the expertise of an IT pro on the other end of the line.
That’s where a highly specialized level of training comes into play between your company and partner. Before turning your valuable customer relationship over to a BPO team, make sure you feel fully confident they have a full comprehension of the subject matter.
Characteristics of Voice Process
How do your best salespeople sound over the phone? They probably have charisma, empathy, and the ability to think quickly and resolve issues to the satisfaction of the customer. Can they motivate sales prospects to action? Those are also the qualities you want to see from your voice process representative.
An inbound caller may have a quick question that can be easily and quickly answered or a recurring billing issue full of complexity and painful back history. The caller might be friendly, neutral, or frustrated and ready to do battle as soon as your representative picks up the call. Your voice process representative must have the personality, flexibility, and presence of mind to handle all types of callers under all circumstances.
In outbound call situations, your voice process rep must be able to quickly and smoothly establish rapport with someone who picked up or returned an unsolicited call. Perhaps the ultimate goal of your outbound caller is to generate a serious lead or sell a big-ticket product or service to an initially unmotivated customer.
The point is, your voice process representatives, whether they are company staffers or third-party professionals from a respected BPO organization, must be quick-witted and able to swiftly and successfully engage with your often wary customers to achieve mutually beneficial results. It’s not easy. It takes talented professionals.
The voice on the phone must come across as empathetic, energetic, intelligent, fully engaged, and responsive. Furthermore, language fluency is mandatory to avoid communication misunderstandings and frustration. Anyone responding to a customer on your behalf needs to be quick on their feet and empowered to make decisions that resolve issues with minimal hassle.
Distinguishing Features of Non-Voice Process
Sometimes your customers or prospects don’t want time-consuming interactions with a company representative. Sometimes they have a quick question or little time or desire for social protocols. In such cases, they might want to dash off a quick email or SMS text.
Your non-voice process call representative must be a skillful writer, because that’s the mode of communication in this channel. Can they write a structured communication that is easily understood by respondents at all education levels?
Your non-voice process rep generally has a little more time to respond to questions or issues than your voice process rep. As writers, these specialists don’t need strong verbal communication skills like voice process people, but they might have to be talented multitaskers. That’s because non-voice process reps might have to handle multiple customers at one time.
They should also know their way around the new media, since their channels of communication might be text, chat, email, or through various social media platforms. Engagement on these platforms is through a written form that is much less formal than traditional written communications.
More About BPO Partners
Outsourcing is not a new concept. Businesses have relied on third-party service providers to assume various responsibilities for a long time. But the rise of the Internet brought BPO to the forefront as a strategy to increase efficiency and allow a company to focus on its strengths. Now, clients and their BPO partners can hold a video conference at a moment’s notice and keep all files in the cloud. Collaboration has never been easier.
Companies find the relationship to be even more accessible if their partner is relatively close at hand, geographically. Known as “near sourcing” or nearshoring, this concept places BPO operations near American shores rather than halfway across the world, such as in Vietnam or India.
The advantage is that your nearshore partner might be in the same time zone as you or just one or two time zones away. No more making key personnel work in the middle of the night to collaborate with a third-party service provider in Asia.
Another feature that makes BPO partnerships smoother and more seamless is when the staff who will communicate with your customers or other valuable audiences is fluent in the English language. This reduces customer frustration and misunderstandings on complicated calls.
If your experienced and adept BPO partner is located nearshore and its people are fluently bilingual, you’re likely to have a strong team and a rewarding, long-term relationship.
Work With the Best BPO Call Center for Voice Processes
Not all BPO operations are the same. At Confie, one of our primary strengths is our nearshore location in Tijuana, Mexico, and a team that is fluently bilingual in Spanish and English.
Confie is a recognized leader at the forefront of BPO partnerships. Contact us online or give us a call at 800-684-2BPO (2276) to learn more about our BPO collaboration opportunities.
