Cost cutting is not the sole intention of companies anymore when they decide on outsourcing call centers to India. They are looking ahead of lucrative deals that call centers have been providing over the years. The clients are more willing to select call centers who can deliver them favorable business outcomes. Call centers have also included various value added services for their clients such as multi channel management, customer analytics and customer retention. These services are becoming very popular among the clients. The economy in the US has been in growth mode for the last couple of years and the companies are looking to invest in ways which would cater a differentiating experience for their customers. The clients are expecting that this difference will be sprinkled by the outsourced call centers in India they have chosen.

Are Call Centers making a Comeback?

The call center outsourcing in India hit an all time low in the year 2009 but the hiring has picked up ever since. The call center services market back in the US had grown at 7-8% in 2012, i.e. $65-70 billion. The global market in the same year was worth a sum of $300-350 billion. The customers were realizing the opportunities that customer interaction brought. They were realizing the ways in which customer interaction could drive company growth. Though the companies were still conscious about the way they spend money, but at the same time they realized the need of things they had to offer to their customers. One such experience led to multichannel support. The companies realized that their support had to be present no matter what channel the customers used such as – online chats, social media, mobile apps or toll free numbers. The presence of brands in all these channels would create a positive experience for the customers.

The present trend in the market calls for a different approach from any outsourced call center in India. Clients will no longer outsource processes by channels; they want a complete package of service that would suit their products or geography. The call centers on their part have to position and re-structure their services likewise. They should be able to cater high quality support across all the channels. Voice is still the dominant customer support channel, but other non-voice channels have rapidly grown. In the last year itself the non-voice channels have grown by 35-50%. There was an astounding rise in social media management services. The clients are looking for this service from the call center service providers. The clients are no longer awed by technology, what they want is to shape customer behavior with that technology. For example one call center had built an innovation lab to transition social media monitoring to social media response system.

The Widening Scopes of Outsourced Call Centers in India Contracts

In the last two or three years the scopes mentioned in a call center work contract have broadened significantly. The market condition and needs have changed. Taking this into consideration the call centers are more willing to offer end to end service for clients. They are not limited to the specific customer touch points, the services are rather targeted at meeting needs of the industry. Clients are more interested in reading the minds of their customers with the analytics services, so the basic reporting will just not do. Predictive reporting helps the clients build long term relations with their customers. Good customer relations helps the businesses attain desired business outcomes. The clients are also willing to invest in creating customer relations.

The call center outsourcing industry has also seen a drastic change in the pricing models. There has been a decline in the fixed fee, headcount based or transaction based pricing. Hybrid pricing is the latest model on the rise. This model is a combination of various pricing model and takes all essential factors into account. Customers who are penning new contracts also want multilingual support from their outsourcing partners so that a better geographic support model can be achieved.

Call center outsourcing in India companies have to take into account the changing mindset of their clients. This will lead to further growth of the industry.