Major Difference between Call Centers and BPO Services

 

The smooth functioning of business requires one to pay equal attention to the core as well as non-core functions. However, managing both of them at equal lengths can be a tricky task. That is why outsourcing business becomes a mandatory aspect in the modern era where competition is up to the brim. To focus on the core functions of the business, outsourcing the non-core functions has become an essential step towards success. This leads every business on the doors of two major players in the outsourcing industry- BPO service provider  and call center services.

Usually, people believe that call center outsourcing and BPO are the same things. However, that is not true as there is a hairline difference between BPO outsourcing and call center. Though they both are connected, still are different and working aspects.

Let us discuss the difference between Call center and BPO services to clear the air once and for all.

What is BPO?

BPO, also known as business process outsourcing, refers to subcontracting thenon-core functions also known as secondary functions of the organization to vendors who hold expertise in doing the same. They are also known as third-party vendors and handle multiple business-related operations of large scale companies who find it difficult to manage primary as well as secondary functions simultaneously. Mostly BPO services are used to handle front office as well as back-office operations at seamless lengths. Back office operations include activities like:

·       Accounting

·       payment processing

·       human resource management

·       information technology services

·       complying with regulatory services

·       quality assurance

While back-office operations deal with the internal aspects of the business, front office operations are mostly customer related. They include activities like:

·       Technical Support

·       Sales

·       customer service Department

What is Call Centre?

Call centers are a part of BPO and are meant to handle telephone-based processes for their clients. They deal with customer satisfactionand query resolution by using telephonic methods. For instance, many internationally-based companies have set up their call center in India.

Call centers can be classified majorly into 2 parts:

·       inbound call center

·       outbound call center

Read more: 10 Reasons to Outsource Call Center to India

What is Inbound and Outbound Call Centre?

An inbound call center is meant to assist the customer in case of any hassle being faced by them. Their main job is to maintain Customer relationships by providing proper assistance and dealing with incoming customer calls.

Inbound call centers deal with incoming customer calls and provide proper assistance so that their clients don’t confront any hassle while maintaining customer relationships. In the contemporary era where customer satisfaction has become the major goal of every organization, maintaining a loyal base of customers has become the need of the hour. Establishing call centers helps one to acknowledge every call made by any customer at any time. Such call centers are in great demand as ignoring the customers is nothing but paving the way for success for your competitors. Which makes it a no brainer to provide utmost customer satisfaction via structured inbound call centers. Services of the inbound call centers include order taking, 24/7 helpdesk, customer support, etc.

 

While the job of inbound call center service is to assist the customers and listen to their queries, outbound call centers do the exact opposite. The job of an outbound call center service is to call the customers so that the firm can witness a potential rise in the sales graph.  To be precise, outbound call centers deal with sales-oriented tasks like lead generation, telemarketing, scheduling an appointment, verification of the third party, customer survey, etc. Just like the inbound call centers, outbound call centers have also witnessed high demand in recent times. Generating leads and keeping the customer's connected open dimensions of growth and development for every business organization striving hard towards success.

Advantages and disadvantages of business process outsourcing:

Business process outsourcing plays an important part in the smooth functioning of any large scale organization. However, every coin has 2 sides. Similarly, BPO also has its pros as well as cons.

The advantages of opting for a BPO include:

·       Handling of tasks by trained personnel

·       undivided focus on the core function

·       Economic benefit as it saves a lot of internal as well as external costs

·       reduces stress and helps to maintain mental peace

·       reduces errors and minimizes risks

The disadvantages of opting for a BPO include:

·       leads to divided control of operations

·       hidden costs of miscellaneous activities may arise

·       lack of coordination and cooperation may lead to hampered functioning of the business

Advantages and Disadvantages of Call Centre:

Just like BPO, call centers also, have there own set of pros and cons which every business organization must be aware of before joining hands with any such vendor.

The advantages of opting for a call center include:

·        customer service is provided at priority

·       availability of business will increase at extreme capacity

·       Escalated growth of sales

·       strong customer base

·       pro-line brand recognition

Disadvantages of opting for a call center include:

·       loss of control

·       issues arising due to leaking of  internal confidential information

In the contemporary era was joining hands with a third-party vendor to make your business success has become an important aspect, it is necessary to know the basic difference between a BPO and a call center. Though both of these may seem to be of the same category still hold a little bit of difference between them. Call center simply deals with telephonic conversations with the customers for query resolution and customer satisfaction, whereas, BPO is involved in all the front-end as well as back-end operations of the organization that is outsourced to it.

 

A call center may be known as the subset of a BPO. However, the contrast might not be true as sometimes BPOs deal with businesses that operate using websites without any call support.

 

Both BPO and call centers are known as the helping hands of organizations with a massive workload. Choosing one between a call center and a BPO depends upon the specifications of the jobs that one wishes to outsource.