The Customer Relationship Centre is a specialised platform. It is made up of a team of operators whose task it is to prospect for or inform consumers. François Pichault, professor at the University of Liège and holder of a PHD in sociology, defines this service in the following way: « in addition to traditional telemarketing services, the call-centre supports an important part of the usual relationship between any company (here called « the customer ») and its own clients (called « end consumers »). It, therefore, acts as an intermediary ». It should be noted that in many cases, these customer relationship centres are located in a different country from the country where the businesses that use them operate. This is referred to as an offshore Customer Relationship centre.

The main activities of a Customer Relationship centre

Broadly speaking, a Customer Relationship centre is an organisation that is specialised in telemarketing operations. With the collaborations of operators, it does not only issue or receive telephone calls. Today, its activities can be divided into four categories:

Issue phone calls: essential for businesses, call issuance is one of the pillars of revenue, thanks, in particular, to CRM (Customer relationship management).

This may involve:

• Collecting information (file qualifications, surveys, studies),
• Conducting prospecting activities (acquiring clients, selling, scheduling appointments),
• Advertising (project detection, traffic creation),
• Providing after-sales services and
• Follow-up of clients and recovery activities.

 Receiving phone calls: this service is the company’s ambassador. It is thanks to this that the company will encourage its customers to purchase. It will also help increase loyalty. It includes:

• The technical service. This is generally divided into three levels, from 1 to 3 according to the size of the problem to be solved.
• After-sales service is there to clarify misunderstandings or to respond to operational problems following a purchase.
• Retention operations, which is essential in the context of the customer relationship, since it is a question of customer loyalty, regardless of whether they wish to delete, cancel or return an order or a contract for instance.

Emailing: the telephone has a bright future ahead, but now, it must cope with the advent of new technologies. Thus, emailing has come to federate the reception and the emission of telephone calls, because it allows, for example, to cater to customers who want to save on their telephone bill or who need quick answers without time constraints. Emailing is a perfect channel that does not require manual intervention. There are even some tools that enable the automation of this service.

The chat: Last but not least, the chat allows agents to assist and reassure a customer throughout the entire process, from pre-sale to after-sales! This tool is now sufficiently developed to function autonomously to answer general questions, to provide information and, in some cases, to act as a Managed Services tool.

Zoom in on the offshore Customer Relationship Centre

Previously used to define oil platforms that are surrounded by water, now the term offshore also applies to customer relationship centres that are located outside the country in which client companies are located.

Among the leading countries in the world in terms of offshore customer relationship centres are Madagascar, Mauritius, in particular, in the Indian Ocean, without forgetting to mention some Maghreb countries.

By choosing offshore customer relationship Centres in, for example, Mauritius, companies benefit from professional, specialised and modern services with operators who trained and closely monitored. The whole process takes place in a secure environment where the confidentiality of data is strictly respected. Over time, Mauritius has become a popular destination with high-flying offers.

The advantages of an offshore Customer Relationship Centre

Many companies have decided to delegate one or several services to an offshore Customer Relationship Centre. Why?

• Quality is guaranteed thanks to efficient and experienced employees who are constantly being trained.
• Flexible schedules: it is possible to offer a 24/7 customer service.
• Labour laws in host countries are often more flexible. At the same time, costs are more advantageous.
• Offshore customer relationship centres have a sufficient number of management staff, which guarantees a qualitative and quantitative service. This is supported by statistics.
• In the long term, offshore customer relationship centres allows you to save time and money: wages are lower, wage costs are much lower and all this without reducing the quality of the work done.

Useful information: offshore does not mean offshoring-complete relocation

Offshore is when a company has decided to transfer one or more services abroad, as opposed to offshoring, which consists of transferring the whole activity, including associated jobs, to another country.

In conclusion

Outsourcing your company’s Customer Relationship Centre is a strategic choice. Above all, it generates, maintains and nurtures a feeling of closeness to your customers. It can become a major asset to the company’s brand image, on the condition that this step is carefully planned. The offshore aspect is a guarantee for the company to make substantial savings without reducing the quality of its service since tele-operators are now professionals who are trained and supervised.

If this choice may seem risky at first, the provider is in fact a partner which will allow your company to grow and to focus on its core business without having to worry about essential additional task which are time consuming and without added value.

The offshore Customer Relationship Centre is an easily accessible option which requires a certain organisation and planning but whose profits are sufficiently numerous to lead your company to success and a positive turnover which tends to increase. The leading countries in this field, such as Mauritius, prove it every day!

Telemarketing is a traditional marketing method, especially in the B2B sector but it has evolved over the years. Today, there are no cold callers reciting their texts like robots. Instead, we the trend is targeted marketing, which involves personalized content and is compatible with various channels. It can be said that modern telemarketing is not a redundant, boring sales technique but rather an innovative one. Why? It is able to attract the attention of potential customers, but more importantly, to incite them to buy your products and services. To take this approach even further, by being strategic, telemarketing can be outsourced and it can become a particularly effective tool to promote awareness, loyalty and establish a relationship with existing and potential and customers.

A development that leaves one wondering

There is the impression that everything has already been said about telemarketing. Negative opinions are everywhere on the internet. Many advance that it is unnecessary and time-consuming for respondents. How is this possible, when companies, at least the very large ones, spend, sometimes, substantial funds to fine-tune their communication? Some of them have not yet had the idea to apply the latest and most effective practices, especially since telemarketing has expanded and evolved significantly when compared to other digital and social marketing channels.

If your company is ready to approach telemarketing from a new perspective that is free from its worn-out feature, if you have all the relevant data from your company, outsourcing this service can become an asset; it will involve cost reduction or maximized return on investment in contrast to other marketing channels.

By giving this mission to a company specialised in outsourcing, you will be able to rely on trained professionals and forget about mechanical texts that tend to drive potential customers away.

5 good reasons to outsource your telemarketing activities and campaigns

For effective telemarketing to take place, every company must take the time necessary to define its strategy and to plan to the nearest millimetre. Outsourcing is the perfect solution, because it offers several advantages, as you’ll discover below.

Save money and become profitable

How does outsourcing a telemarketing service allow your company to save money and be profitable if you want to generate a large volume of prospective customers? It allows you to operate on an hourly basis or on Bi-Monthly, Semi-Annual or annual contracts. This can be customised according to your business objectives and the size of your company!

In addition, by delegating its service, your company will save, in particular on the various tax and salary contributions linked to the hiring of an employee and on the training time that will be required, etc.

Trained and experienced telemarketers

It is appropriate to consider sales and telemarketing as skill sets because it is not just a matter of making or receiving calls. By entrusting your telemarketing service to a specialized company, you are guaranteed to be taken care of by an expert team, trained and able to adapt in a very short time, regardless of the sector, including telemarketing. These professionals are competent in communicating via phone calls, but also in sales techniques. Thanks to their personalized, human speeches, they actively participate in the constant increase of your conversion rate.

Time-saving

In contrast to what one might think, telemarketing requires some experience, as it is not just about making calls to a list of prospects or about selling products. Telemarketing is an effective tool to launch a marketing campaign and to reach a wide audience quickly. With outsourcing, this service remains timeless, allowing for example, your sales department to focus much more on lead generation and sales strategies, tracking, after-sales calls, impromptu calls, etc., on shipping new products, closing transactions, looking for new leads, which are essential to the company’s development and prosperity.

In addition, by choosing a qualified service provider, your telemarketing strategies will attract new customers, retain existing ones and bring back older ones, while attracting everyone’s attention without you having to intervene at any time whatsoever.

Flexibility and versatility

To sum up, with an outsourced telemarketing service, your company will benefit from great flexibility and versatility. Moreover, outsourcing is the perfect solution if your company has to conduct a particular campaign at a specific time of the year.

Flexibility: this is one of the main advantages of outsourcing. If you do not need a full-time person for this service, if your needs are prompt or fluctuating during specific periods, outsourcing is the immediate solution for your company.

Service providers are aware of the needs of businesses, and the vast majority of them are able to propose solutions that are customised and customisable according to the needs of their clients. Moreover, you should not hesitate to compare providers, especially if you choose one located in, for example, the Indian Ocean.

Maximized return on investment

Over time, companies have come to realise that outsourcing a telemarketing service is actually synonymous with maximum return on investment. The reason behind this is simple: for the company, hiring one or more people to conduct telemarketing is costly while the provider naturally works on a contractual basis. Moreover, the resources used to hire a person will limit your resources and the exercise takes up a lot of time and energy.

Savings, visible profitability, time saving, flexibility, versatility, exponential ROI, today the outsourcing of your telemarketing service will provide you with several advantages. Start implementing this step by thinking clearly about your strategy, by setting out your needs and expectations and above all by choosing a provider who listens to you and understands you. If well conducted, this operation will allow your company to grow and increase its customer base!

A secretarial service is not just making phone calls and scheduling appointments. As a company manager, you need to be able to rely on an organised, trained and professional person who will take charge of all tasks with low added value but that are much more strategic than they appear. However, if your company does not have the possibility or the means to create a position, including in-house, here is how outsourcing can cater favourably to your needs.

Outsourcing your secretarial project

Several scenarios may justify the decision to outsource the secretarial service of your company. Some of them are:

• You are just beginning your business operations,
• Your employees are overworked,
• You suffer from the lack of a secretary or you need an additional secretary.

In any of these cases, your schedule is sufficiently overloaded and you need to delegate certain administrative low-added value tasks that are repetitive and particularly time-consuming such as managing calls, attendance, emails, etc., to others.

On the other hand, you don’t have the time or the budget to hire another employee, or even someone in-house. The same applies regarding the training of this person… Among the solutions offered to you, let’s talk about outsourcing.

Remote secretarial services offers several benefits

• This option allows the company to save considerable funds on hiring processes (social security contributions, training hours, retirement plans, etc..),
• The supplier provides all the equipment, all the supplies necessary for the execution of the mission that you entrust him with,
• Remote secretaries can work per hour, on a timely basis, or according to units of creation
• This operation is not regulated by legal requirements, so you can ask your provider to offer you a 24/7 service.

An outsourced secretarial service: explanations

By choosing to outsource its secretarial services, the company manager will delegate certain tasks to a third company, whose employees are trained to handle a wide range of tasks that are flexible and compliant to the needs of an applicant. These may be:

• A telephone hotline (dealing with outgoing calls, screening incoming calls, taking messages, etc.),
• Managing appointments,
• Transcription of proceedings,
• Preparation and the follow-up of estimates and invoices,
• Recovery of unpaid debts,
• E-mail management (sorting, processing, filing, Editing)),
• Database Maintenance,
• Personnel attendance management, etc.

Outsourcing secretarial services, also known as remote secretarial services, generally involves leveraging the services of a specialized company located outside the country. This allows the manager or business-owner to assign tasks that he cannot deal with or complete to one or more persons. This would depend on the volume of his work. In return, he can benefit from a high-grade service that is supported by dedicated tools or standards.

Many companies have taken the leap!

Many companies have taken the leap and have entrusted their secretarial services to a third company located abroad, such as in Mauritius, because this option is beneficial for both the company and for its employees. :

• Outsourcing companies already have all the human and material resources required to take over the tasks entrusted to them. There is no need for the customer to intervene,
• The client company will have the ability to focus on its core business,
• No more work overload spectrum for employees,
• There is no need to carry our recruitment operations, for instance for temporary positions, to complete the workload
• Offshore outsourcing allows the company to save a considerable amount of funds on expenses

Outsource your current secretarial service to save money

The day-to-day tasks of a secretarial service are undeniably time-consuming!  They take up the time that the company can completely devote to its own development, which is essential for its sustenance and for it to rival with competitors. When you outsource the tasks you consider having no added value, the administrative section of your company is able to continue to function while you can devote the necessary budget and resources to your development and expansion projects, among others.

Remote secretary services are the most popular solutions among companies that wish to be able to continue operating while being completely efficient.

Choosing the right provider

When outsourcing of your secretarial service, it is essential that you take the time necessary to choose the right provider. Selecting the right company to cater to your needs is an important part of the outsourcing process.

The perfect provider must be able:

To offer you tailor-made formulas that are suitable for your needs and that can be customised according to the workload.

To listen to you and advise you while acclimatising itself so that it can seamlessly shift from being a provider to being a real partner of your firm on a daily basis. Its role is to collaborate with your company so that your employees can focus on their primary mission: to develop and expand the company.

To demonstrate the ability to be constantly available. It should be noted that a secretarial service never really take any break. In an emergency, the provider, or rather the partner, must be able to assist you “at a moment’s notice”, regardless of what time it is.

To provide you with competitive rates while at the same time being able to deliver a high-quality service which meets your needs and your expectations. Moreover, offshore outsourcing allows companies to make 30-50% savings, if its implementation is well thought out and organized.

To provide you with service guarantees that respect your specifications, in particular with regards to the tools used, the number of human resources, processing times, the quality of the equipment, the competence level of stakeholders, etc.

A remote secretarial service is a year-round tool that can be customised according to the needs of the company. This solution, while it may raise concerns and reservations at the beginning, allows any company that turns to it to win on many fronts, human and material and financial. There are enough evidences that prove this!

The outsourcing of services, which consists of the transfer of an autonomous activity to a specialized service provider, is addressed to all types of enterprises, both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and, naturally, to large enterprises. By entrusting some of the least profitable and most time-consuming services to an external service provider, these companies accumulate the good points: savings in terms of time and flexibility, increased competitiveness and productivity, to name but a few.

According to an annual study carried out by the EY firm for the SP2C, the French customer relationship outsourcing market grew an additional 4% between 2016 and 2017, thus weighing € 2.46 billion. Moreover, in 2015, 82% of French companies subcontracted one or more services (payroll, IT, archiving, catering, security, cleaning, etc.) to a specialized company. To this end, they have prepared their outsourcing by identifying and analysing several factors.

Defining your business’ needs

It is good to note that certain satellite activities, although essential for the proper functioning of such an organization, can obstruct its commercial evolution. So the right questions need to be asked: What are your company’s resources, results and core business? What activities are demanding in terms of staff and time, too far from the core business and are not profitable?

These answers are essential and will help you understand how your business works. By pointing them out clearly and analysing them, you will be able, for example, through a requirements specification, to target tasks that needlessly drain your organization’s time, energy and budget.

By proceeding methodically during this step, you will be able to precisely communicate your expectations and the ideal operating mode to the outsourcing company. For example, if you are a micro-enterprise (MSE), a small and medium enterprise (SME), this will allow you to effectively outsource your billings, pay service, telephone reception, appointment scheduling, etc.

Choosing an outsourcing company

As companies, you and your provider need to trust each other and share a transparent relationship from the start. To achieve this:

• The client company must be able to determine and formulate its requirements in terms of quality of work,
• The specialist provider must be able to clearly say whether he will be able to respond to and commit to these requirements

As you will have understood, outsourcing is not only a matter of price, but a set of factors that must be discussed before signing any contract.

To be sure about making the right choice, do not hesitate also to approach the clients of the selected provider.

Adapting your business operations to outsourcing

Of course, outsourcing will change the landscape and habits of your organization, so you will have to make sure that every employee adapts and finds his place in such a context. To this end, communication will have to be secure, fluid, transparent and regular, notably by telephone, but also through an online communication or production tool.

Make full use of the saved time

Yes, outsourcing allows you to save money without affecting quality, but it is important to remember that your company will also save time. How will your company make use of this time now that the most time-consuming and less profitable services have been outsourced?

Indeed, to make the most of it financially and commercially, you will be able to use the time gained for your development: employee training, production, communication, marketing, etc.

The 3 main stages of outsourcing

Many companies have successfully outsourced by patiently preparing and applying this step. To this end, they have strictly adhered to the three main phases of the process:

• Pre-outsourcing,
• Outsourcing and staff,
• Post-outsourcing.

Pre-outsourcing: an unavoidable step, the duration of which will depend on the maturity of the services dedicated to outsourcing. It is during this phase that the company will have to take stock of its needs and objectives, the scope and the method of outsourcing (home providers, offshore ones, mutualized ones, etc.). It will also need to take stock of the relevance of its existing procedures, as well as the expertise of the people currently in charge of these services. Last but not least, the company will have to consider and adopt the customer’s point of view!

Outsourcing: humanly, the outsourcing of certain services is not a trivial matter, so it is essential to prepare and support your employees during this transition. Communications, reclassification, motivation, membership, loyalty, these elements also contribute to the success of outsourcing, since it is about the association of its employees.

Post-outsourcing: now that some of the company’s services have been outsourced, it is essential to closely follow this new collaboration, though external, to ensure that the quality is being respected. For example, the service provider should be asked to report regularly on the objectives achieved, but also on any difficulties encountered. Over time, you can decide whether outsourcing is a solution that is relevant to your needs.

In any case, according to the figures published by the CEGOS observatory in September 2017, companies that have chosen to outsource some of their services have achieved 33% of savings on their operating costs. To achieve this in turn, consider outsourcing as a decisive step, if your company is determined to go through with it, but also as a retractable one.

In the meantime, the benefits in terms of productivity, but also in terms of human resources, must be given priority so that the process goes smoothly. Outsourcing is not an insignificant process, because it requires the intervention of several actors in transparency, good communication (through tools such as Skype, Slack, Google Drive, Trello, etc.), but above all, a solid and lasting trust between your organization and your provider.

To take stock of the possibilities, it is necessary to approach a company specialized in outsourcing which will be able to answer all your questions clearly.