Running a business today means juggling countless tasks, and honestly, not every company has the staff, technology, or skills to handle every customer interaction perfectly. I’ve seen bootstrap startups and small businesses struggle when customers’ expectations demand a response in 15 minutes or less. That’s where Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) becomes a game-changer.
A BPO call center is essentially a team of outsourced agents who manage your incoming calls and outgoing calls, allowing you to focus on what really matters—growing your business. Instead of hiring and training in-house staff, which can be costly and time-consuming, you get access to experienced professionals without the overheads.
Call center outsourcing means hiring a third-party service provider to handle your call center operations on your behalf. This approach lets companies refocus their time, efforts, and resources on other aspects of running or improving their business, like product development, sales, and marketing. Outsourced call center services are becoming increasingly popular as more businesses and organizations recognize the value they bring.
The Contact Center Outsourcing Market size jumped from USD 100.93 billion in 2023 and is expected to hit USD 132.92 billion by 2028, according to Mordor Intelligence. Whether you’re a start-up needing help with customer queries or an established SME looking to free up internal resources, an outsourced call centre offers a flexible, professional solution.
Understanding Different Service Models
When businesses talk about outsourcing, they often refer to different models: a dedicated team of call agents or shared agent services like virtual receptionists and virtual assistants. Both come with distinct advantages depending on your needs, budget, and the level of personalisation you expect.
A dedicated service gives you a full-time team of agents who work exclusively for your business—they act as a direct extension of your internal staff and are trained to know your company inside out. These agents only handle your calls and don’t switch between multiple companies during the day.
Bespoke shared agent services offer something between basic answering and full dedication. While agents handle calls for multiple businesses, your service is customised to reflect your processes, tone, and brand. It’s an ideal solution for growing businesses that want more than just message taking without the higher costs of a fully dedicated team.
On the other hand, standard shared services like virtual receptionists and virtual assistants are more flexible and cost-effective. Callers still receive a friendly, professional service, but the level of personalisation is typically lighter. These services are designed to offer efficient support for common tasks like answering calls, transferring calls, taking messages, scheduling appointments, and handling basic customer queries.
Types of Services You Can Outsource
Inbound Call Center Operations
An inbound call center is where staff respond to customer calls and messages as they come in. I’ve worked with businesses that sell complex products or plans and tend to receive a higher-than-average number of customer support inquiries. This work is often outsourced because the cost of labor is less when you partner with a BPO.
Answering support questions is just the beginning—inbound call center outsourcing services can involve answering customers’ questions about a company’s products or services, processing orders, scheduling appointments, providing customer support services, and technical support.
Some customers still prefer to place orders by phone, so you can hire a BPO to handle the entire process from order placement to delivery. This gives your team more time for high-level business processes like marketing and product development.
Dispatching is another area where outsourcing shines—dispatch agents handle incoming calls from customers requesting services, like a cab company agent receiving calls from clients asking to book a car and notifying a driver to fulfill the service. Rather than hire full-time agents, some companies outsource their dispatch call center services so they can pay for agents on an as-needed basis.
When you outsource inbound call center services, you literally outsource an entire customer service department to a BPO call center. For companies with lower support call volume or less international business, inbound call center software can help manage customer requests and deliver a top-tier CX without outsourcing. However, companies with a large global audience may find this limiting in terms of language and support availability.
Outbound Call Center Operations
While an inbound call center agent’s job is to answer the phone, outbound call center agents make the calls. Outbound call center services are often outsourced because they can be time-consuming and tedious.
Even with the most advanced outbound call center software, running high-volume outbound calling campaigns might be challenging, especially if we’re talking about cold calling. That’s why outsourcing call center outbound services—whether it’s outbound lead generation or telemarketing—is common practice for businesses.
Telemarketing is an effective strategy for generating new leads, but it can yield a low ROI if your agents aren’t experienced in the art of the cold call. BPO agents are trained to think quickly, charm consumers, and present your company’s mission statement in a way that resonates with customers, helping you increase the ROI of your telemarketing efforts.
Cold-calling leads through telesales focuses primarily on closing deals over the phone. These calls are an important aspect of driving revenue, but businesses may not have the capacity to promptly connect with potential customers.
By hiring a BPO team with a CRM in place, companies can reap the tool’s benefits without adding to their existing tech stack, saving money and time. Conducting market research is another valuable service—the data gained from over-the-phone market research can reveal valuable insights about what resonates with shoppers and their top pain points.
Market research calls tend to follow a set call center script, so you can easily outsource them to a BPO center. When you outsource outbound call center operations, a BPO call center will handle the lead generation, outbound sales, or proactive customer outreach on behalf of your company.
Leveraging outbound call center software can help meet customer service demand with existing support teams and resources, but partnering with a BPO means you can dedicate their agents to managing tedious tasks while your team focuses on building relationships.
Specialized Service Configurations
A dedicated team is ideal if you have a high call volume or your customers require detailed support. You need agents trained in specific processes or systems, and personalisation is critical to your customer experience. Because the team is dedicated to you, they can manage everything from technical support and order processing to appointment booking and customer service.
The Pros of a Dedicated Team include a high level of personalisation, consistency in customer interactions, full control over scripts, processes, and training, plus being scalable to support complex products or services.
However, a dedicated team is more expensive than shared services and will often require a minimum contract length to make it viable. As a result, this type of call centre service is better suited for medium to large businesses with ongoing demand.
Bespoke shared agent services bridge the gap—agents can handle more in-depth tasks such as following detailed call handling instructions, carrying out basic troubleshooting or order support, booking appointments using your CRM or phone system, collecting specific customer data, and managing multi-step call flows. These services are ideal when your enquiries are more varied than simple message taking and you need more tailored support but can’t justify a dedicated team.
The Pros of Bespoke Shared Services include greater personalisation than standard shared services, being a cost-effective alternative to dedicated agents, being scalable and adaptable to suit your business, plus improved caller experience and brand alignment.
Think of this as a hybrid option—giving you some personalisation of a dedicated team with the affordability and flexibility of a shared service. It’s particularly well suited for SMEs who are ready to level up their customer service without taking on the commitment of a full-time outsourced team.
In contrast, shared services are ideal if you have a lower or fluctuating call volume, don’t need full-time cover, want professional call handling without the high cost, and your focus is on first impressions and quick resolutions. The Pros of Shared Services are being highly cost-effective, quick to set up, flexible (you only pay for the calls answered), and great for start-ups and SMEs.
With a shared service, call agents may have less knowledge about your business, so the level of personalisation they can offer is more limited compared to a dedicated team. Shared call handling is not suitable for businesses where complex customer service or technical support is needed—if this is what you require, choose dedicated agents that can act as a true extension of your in-house team.
Knowing When to Make the Outsourcing Decision
Analyzing Your Current Situation
The question of when to outsource your customer service operations to a call center depends on factors like your industry, call center metrics such as response rates and satisfaction rates, and other unique indicators. Before deciding, it’s important to analyze your key performance indicators (KPIs) and see how your in-house customer service team handles current call volumes and compares against benchmarks from other firms in your industry. If you notice a performance gap between your call center metrics and the benchmarks you target, it might be time to outsource operations.
Outsourcing can be a strong option if you’re unable to meet demand during peak times or seasons, or if you can’t provide round-the-clock support or multilingual support that a growing customer base needs. If your current setup cannot deliver high-quality customer service at scale, your customer experience (CX) can significantly benefit from an inbound or outbound BPO call center.
For Example, say you have 20,000 monthly inbound support calls but only 12 reps on your team. You could spend weeks following up and still not connect with all the customers who need answers. With the help of a BPO call center, you can both answer and follow up on customer service requests in less time, which can help your company improve satisfaction and retention.
Key Questions to Guide Your Decision
How many calls do you receive each day? If it’s more than 100 per day, a dedicated team might make more sense. For under 50, a shared model may be sufficient. Do your callers need in-depth help or technical knowledge? If yes, a dedicated team will offer more consistency and expertise. Are you looking for 24/7 support?
Both models can offer round-the-clock service, but shared services tend to offer more flexible packages. Is brand consistency a priority? A dedicated team can be trained to reflect your brand tone and values in every call. While shared agents offer a professional service, they’ll work off predefined call scripts and processes.
What’s your budget? Dedicated teams are more of an investment and require a longer term commitment to make them viable. Shared services, on the other hand, offer an affordable way to manage calls without sacrificing professionalism. These questions help frame whether you need the deep involvement of a dedicated setup or the lighter touch of a shared arrangement that still maintains quality.
The Advantages of Outsourcing Your Call Center
Cost Efficiency and Accessibility
Accessibility is a huge plus—BPO call centers can help deliver customer service for businesses without the budget to hire dedicated in-house teams. They reduce labor costs, operational costs, and overhead expenses like facilities, equipment, and training resources.
Cost-efficiency is one of the primary call center outsourcing benefits, making it an attractive choice for businesses. Outsourcing your call center operations to offshore call centers located in areas with lower labor costs ultimately means you can significantly cut down on your overall operating costs.
The Philippines, India, South Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are some of the most popular destinations for contact center outsourcing that allow you to leverage call center services at a fraction of the cost involved in staffing and running an in-house call center. This is more cost-efficient than running an in-house call center while still maintaining service quality. For businesses operating globally, this enables you to provide global customer support 24/7.
Scalability and Flexibility Benefits
Scalability is another clear advantage—for businesses with inconsistent call volumes, BPOs can make it easier to scale operations up or down based on demand. Customers get access to 24/7 support without businesses needing to maintain multiple shifts internally—that’s also true during seasonal peaks that are easier to meet without permanent hiring. Outsourcing call center operations to third-party providers offers an unmatched level of flexibility and scalability that’s sometimes hard or nearly impossible to achieve in-house without burdening your budget or burning out your team.
In times of seasonal call volume spikes, you can quickly and easily scale your operations up without having to allocate more staff or upgrade your current subscription with your call center software provider to be able to handle an increased call volume. Outsourcing allows you to scale your operations up or down when needed almost effortlessly. You can benefit from increased flexibility and quick scalability that keeps your service level consistent regardless of fluctuations.
Access to Expertise and Advanced Technology
Infrastructure like technology and teams with adequate call center training are some of the steepest barriers to entry for businesses looking to ramp up their customer service operations. With a BPO center, companies get access to established tech and systems. Plus, a BPO can offer expertise and established best practices with extensive prior call center experience.
Another clear benefit is that outsourcing your call center operations can enable you to provide customer support across various locations, covering all time zones and multiple languages, which is an excellent option for businesses operating globally.
On top of that, it means you can offer your customers round-the-clock support, something that has become highly expected by today’s consumers. This could become a significant contributor to improved customer satisfaction and overall customer experience.
You can gain access to specialized skills and expertise because call centers offering outsourcing services typically have highly skilled agents specifically specialized in handling inbound or outbound communications and are experienced exactly in that.
It means you gain access to a diverse skill set and knowledge pool, so you don’t have to invest time, resources, and effort into hiring and training staff in-house.
In addition to highly skilled call center agents, BPO call centers invest heavily in cutting-edge call center technologies and infrastructure to meet the needs of their clients. These include VoIP call systems, auto dialer software for call center, advanced reporting and analytics tools, workforce management platforms, and AI-powered solutions.
Partnering with such providers means you can also benefit from the latest call center technologies without having to invest in upgrading your own call center tech stack. This is a win for smaller organizations that want enterprise-level capabilities without the capital expenditure.
Understanding the Challenges and Drawbacks
Quality Control Concerns
Quality control becomes trickier when you turn over call center operations to a third party—you give up some of your direct control over quality assurance (QA). You might also encounter inconsistent service from agent to agent based on varying experience levels with a BPO call center, meaning some customers will hang up feeling less satisfied than others. Despite all the benefits, outsourcing often comes with its disadvantages and challenges too.
There might be a lack of industry or product knowledge because BPO call centers rarely specialize in a specific industry as they often handle operations for clients across various industries. And even if they have deep expertise in your industry, agents would still be external workers, which means that even with training, they’ll naturally have less knowledge about your products, services, and your company in general than your internal staff. This knowledge gap can sometimes result in longer resolution times or less nuanced answers.
Hiring and Feedback Limitations
You won’t get control over the hiring process when you partner with a BPO call center—it’s up to them to decide who gets hired to handle your customer interactions, and you basically don’t have control over this process. You might discover that some agents aren’t perfectly suited for the role or aren’t a good cultural fit for your company, but you won’t have a say in that case. This can be frustrating when you’re used to building a team that embodies your values.
You also won’t be able to capture first-hand customer feedback in the same way. Many businesses rely on customer feedback to find out how they can improve their products, services, or processes in order to build better customer relationships and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and customer retention.
While your outsourcing partner might provide you with statistics, enabling you to track basic metrics and KPIs, you’ll most likely miss out on the opportunity to capture first-hand customer feedback and learn about your customers’ real needs, expectations, and pain points.
Security and Hidden Cost Issues
Security is another concern—customer data privacy is a top priority for the most successful support teams, and data handling and privacy concerns can surface when sharing customer information with a third-party call center. Regional regulations can cause compliance challenges and, in extreme cases, security vulnerabilities. You need to ensure that your BPO partner has robust security protocols in place and complies with all relevant data protection standards.
Hidden costs are often overlooked initially—BPO call centers are indeed a cost-efficient customer service solution for some businesses, but they can come with hidden costs like potential brand-specific training or any customer service QA investments.
What’s more, if the call center leads to poor service experiences, customers might churn, causing significant revenue losses. These indirect costs can sometimes offset the labor savings you initially anticipated, so it’s crucial to factor them into your decision making.
Best Practices for Successful Implementation
Setting Clear Metrics and Service Level Agreements
When opting for a BPO call center solution, measuring performance metrics is important to ensure the solution is positively impacting your CX. These metrics include average handle time (AHT), first call resolution (FCR), and customer satisfaction (CSAT).
The best way to measure them is with a customer experience analytics tool that can record and interpret customer data both historically and in real time to track performance trends. Establish clear metrics and SLAs so both you and your BPO partner know exactly what success looks like.
These benchmarks become your north star, helping you spot any issues before they escalate and ensuring accountability. Regular reviews of these metrics allow you to make data-driven adjustments and keep the partnership productive. Without clear SLAs, you risk ambiguity around expectations and deliverables, which can strain the relationship and impact service quality.
Developing Training and Quality Programs
Using a BPO requires diligence to ensure brand-specific requirements are being met. You should opt to develop training materials for a knowledge transfer phase at the beginning of your engagement with the BPO center. These can be video tutorials, interactive modules, and more—anything to give BPO agents context for handling customer requests. Develop robust training materials that capture your brand voice, common customer scenarios, and product specifics.
Create a quality assurance program as well. Just like a knowledge transfer process gives necessary information and context to BPO agents so they deliver consistent customer service, QA can help ensure that service is high-quality.
When you monitor agent interactions, you can spot opportunities for improvement—and if you use quality management software that integrates seamlessly with your call center solution, you can monitor 100 percent of interactions and flag any subpar conversations that might indicate more coaching is needed. This ongoing feedback loop is vital for maintaining standards over time.
Integration and Phased Rollout Strategy
Choose a system that’s easy to integrate—speaking of integration, any BPO center you partner with should be able to integrate easily with your existing business processes and systems. This means your CX tools and marketing or sales tools if the call center handles those operations too—anything from a CRM, computer telephony integration, ticketing system, or custom application should confidently and securely connect with your chosen call center solution. Seamless integration prevents data silos and ensures your agents have the context they need.
Phase in implementation over time to be sure the BPO center is a match for your customer service operations. Start with limited implementation—use a pilot program with a few agents handling a limited scope of calls, focusing on simple transactions or specific customer segments. As you run the pilot, gather detailed metrics and feedback from customers, agents, and internal teams to spot and resolve issues before scaling once the call center meets your predetermined criteria. This phased approach minimizes risk and allows for iterative improvements.
Choosing the Right Provider Location and Expertise
Choose between onshore, nearshore, or offshore providers—one of the key factors to consider is a provider’s location, as that will determine the cost of the outsourcing services. Hourly rates may significantly vary, from $22-$35/hour in the U.S. and Canada, $12-$25/hour in Eastern Europe, and $8-$18/hour in Latin America to $8-$14/hour in Asia, including the Philippines, and $5-$9/hour in India.
Nearshore and offshore providers would usually cost less than onshore ones. However, partnering with an offshore company could lead to communication issues due to a lower level of cultural and linguistic fluency (and you definitely don’t want that). So even despite a higher price, opting for a domestic provider might be a better option in some cases.
Opt for providers with expertise in your specific industry—when outsourcing operations to BPO call centers, you’d want your customers to feel as if they are interacting with your frontline employees, not outsourced agents who might lack industry knowledge.
That’s why, apparently, if you want to ensure your outsourcing provider delivers superior service and a consistent experience to your customers, ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction, look for a proven track record of expertise in your particular industry.
Look for advanced contact center technology capabilities—another critical factor to consider is how technologically advanced a provider is. Whether you’re looking to outsource your inbound customer care or outbound lead generation or sales, consider outsourcing companies that use advanced inbound and outbound call management, AI, and automation tools to handle interactions with your customers or prospects in the most efficient way.
Beyond that, of course, you should be opting for a provider that has high security standards in place to ensure clients’ data security and compliance with relevant regulations.
Elevating Your Customer Service Strategy
Your ability to deliver a positive customer service experience can make or break your business. Not every business has the resources or bandwidth to keep wait times short, resolve tickets quickly, or provide the IT expertise that customers expect. In those cases, the most reliable way to deliver that kind of service is to outsource it to experts in BPO customer service.
A BPO call center can help ensure that your customers receive high-quality support without taking time and resources away from other core functions like product development and marketing.
I’ve personally seen businesses transform their customer experience by strategically outsourcing their call center operations. The key is finding the right balance between cost, quality, and control. Whether you go with a dedicated team, bespoke shared services, or standard shared services, the decision should align with your business goals and customer expectations.
Remember that outstanding customer service experiences aren’t just about answering calls—they’re about building relationships and trust. An outsourced call centre can scale to meet your needs while you focus on strategic growth initiatives. The flexibility of modern BPO solutions means you can start small, test the waters, and expand as you see positive results. Businesses today need to be agile, and having the right call center partner gives you that agility without compromising on service quality.
Conclusion
Outsourcing Business Services through a BPO call center has become a transformative strategic move for companies seeking to enhance their customer service operations while controlling costs. Whether you choose inbound or outbound services, dedicated teams, or shared agent services, the core advantages remain compelling: reduced operational costs, access to specialized skills and advanced call center technologies, plus the flexibility to scale operations based on demand. The Contact Center Outsourcing Market reaching USD 132.92 billion by 2028 reflects how businesses increasingly recognize this value.
Success requires addressing challenges like quality control, security vulnerabilities, and potential lack of industry knowledge through robust training materials, clear metrics, and comprehensive QA programs. The decision of when to outsource depends on analyzing KPIs, call volumes, and whether your in-house team can deliver high-quality customer service at scale.
Best practices include establishing SLAs, phasing in implementation through pilot programs, ensuring seamless integration with your CRM, and choosing providers with proven track records in your industry. Ultimately, the right BPO partnership helps ensure customers receive exceptional support while your internal staff focuses on core functions like product development and marketing, directly improving customer satisfaction and retention.
