DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BPO AND CALL CENTER BPO AND CALL CENTER BPO AND CALL CENTER
A Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company is a business entity that outsources its operations and responsibilities to a third-party service provider.
WHAT IS BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
BPO, which stands for Business Process Outsourcing, involves hiring an external service provider to handle a specific work process or task.
These services may include data recording, telemarketing, social media marketing, payroll management, accounting and customer support among others.
Generally speaking, BPO is used to fulfill supplementary business functions rather than core ones and could involve technical or non-technical services.
Businesses of every size, ranging from small startups to colossal Fortune 500 companies, have been outsourcing processes.
The demand for outsourcing continues to escalate as new and innovative services are introduced, and businesses strive to gain an edge over their competition.
BPO can serve as an alternative to labor migration, enabling the workforce to remain in their home country while still utilizing their skills for overseas assignments.
BPO services are typically categorized into two types: back-office and front-office. Internal business processes like billing or purchasing fall under the former, while the latter type includes services that concern a company's customers, such as marketing and tech support. These services can be integrated to work in tandem instead of in silos. The BPO industry is also divided into three categories based on vendors' locations. A company can achieve full process optimization by incorporating all three categories into their operations.
Offshore BPO vendors BPO vendors BPO vendors
Offshore BPO vendors are located in countries other than the company’s country of origin. For instance, a US-based company may opt to utilize the services of an offshore BPO vendor based in the Philippines.
Nearshore BPO vendors BPO vendors BPO vendors
Nearshore BPO vendors are situated in countries adjacent to the company’s country of operation. For instance, a BPO vendor located in Mexico is considered a nearshore vendor for a company operating in the United States.
Onshore BPO vendors BPO vendors BPO vendors
Onshore vendors provide outsourcing services within the same country as the contracting company, although they may operate from a different state or city.
WHAT IS CALL CENTER?
A call centre (Commonwealth) or call center (American) is a centralized office that handles a high volume of inquiries made over the telephone.
An inbound call center serves as a point of contact for customers to receive product support, service, or information from the company. On the other hand, outbound call centers are responsible for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political donations, debt collection, market research and emergency notifications such as blood banks catering to urgent/critical needs.
A contact center is an extension of call centers that provides centralized handling of various communication channels, including letters, faxes, live support software, social media platforms, instant messages and emails. A call center, also known as a contact center, is a group or department that specializes in answering incoming calls from both prospective and current customers seeking solutions to their problems or answers to their queries.
In previous years, call centers were also tasked with telemarketing and conducting market research.
A call center is the heart of customer service for many businesses, where customers call in for help and reps call out for sales. It’s referred to as a “call center” because traditional models of customer service are based on phone support as the main method of contact between customers and companies. A modern call center is often referred to as a contact center.
Detailed differences between BPO AND CALL CENTER
GENERAL TERMS
A Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company is a business entity that outsources its operations and responsibilities to a third-party service provider.
The range of BPO services can vary widely, from manufacturing products to providing back-office workforce, or customer service support for companies. Essentially, a BPO company handles various tasks regardless of size and complexity based on the specific needs of its clients. Therefore, there are no limitations on the kind of work that can be outsourced to a BPO company.
A Call Center is a component of a BPO that specializes in phone-based processes and often employs auto-dialing. The call center is a central office that receives/sends high volumes of calls through telephones, according to its definition. Although BPOs can be utilized by virtually all businesses for their processes and back-office activities, call centers are primarily focused on supporting companies through outbound calling, addressing inquiries, and handling customer requests sent via phone or email.
The Difference In Functionality
BPO services revolve around finance and accounting, sourcing and procurement, knowledge-based services, human resource outsourcing, customer management services, online reputation management services, and some other processes as well. The call centers handle the front office processes only. The basic function of a call center is to keep the existing customers happy and persuade the potential ones through calling.
On the other hand, BPOs manage your relationship with the customers and also your core back-end business functions.
The Difference In Work Divisions
BPO services are mainly handled by two kinds of processes that are back-end processes and front office processes. The back-end process includes data entry, management, payments, surveys, accounts & finance, etc.
On the other hand, the front office processes include customer management services through social media, phone, email, live chat, AI-based chatbot, etc. It includes telemarketing,
appointment setting, customer support, inbound & outbound sales, market researching, technical support, and help desk services. All the BPOs don’t provide both processes. Most of the BPOs provide front-office processes as well as call center outsourcing options.
Call center outsourcing service providers to handle just the front office processes that are limited to calls – inbound and outbound. The call that the customers make is inbound calls, so they receive the calls to resolve the issue customer is facing or to answer his inquisition. Moreover, the calls made by the agents to persuade the potential customer to buy the product or service of your company are outbound calls.
Employee's Perspective
While “BPO” and “Call Center” may sound similar, there are important distinctions between the two. When you work for a BPO company, you become an integral part of the client’s team as their extension.
BPO companies typically offer specialized roles that require specific skills to meet clients’ unique requirements. These outsourcing services can include Virtual Assistants, Lead Generators, Social Media Executives, Appointment Setters, Account Managers, Website Developers and more.
From the training process up to contributing input and being part of the decision-making process, employees in BPO companies will be involved in the company’s projects. On the other hand, working in a Call Center will only require having excellent communication and negotiation skills and you do not have any input into developing the company.
Call Centers work on volume phone calls using auto-dialing and it’s none stop. Employees in Call Center are tasked to interact with customers, answer their queries and assist them with their needs through phone conversation.
THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
Automation is set to play a crucial role in the future of BPO, much like many other industries. According to experts, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will be the primary driver for change in BPO. While tasks like data entry and image recognition can be easily automated, there are certain functions that may resist automation such as handwritten data and telemarketing.
Like other industries, BPO is also expected to utilize emerging technologies such as cloud services, social media, and machine learning for reducing costs and achieving faster growth. A business model known as ‘productized service’ is gaining popularity, which involves bundling software with an outsourced staff member. For instance, a package could combine advanced accounting software and accounting services provided by the third-party vendor with billing on a monthly basis. The startups are increasingly dependent on such productized services that involve mutual dependence with BPOs.
The development and support of social media management tools are predicted to be an ongoing trend. Similarly, investments in cloud computing will continue as it emerges as a mature platform. BPOs are expected to diversify their workforce by investing in new talent with unique skillsets. To remain competitive, BPOs may shift towards lower-cost alternatives such as software automation and AI technologies. Concerns about the potential for job loss due to AI and automation have prompted governments and business leaders to focus on educating workers for newer, highly skilled positions in the industry.
THE FUTURE OF CALL CENTER
In the past, call centers were primarily responsible for managing phone calls. However, with advances in technology and changing consumer communication preferences, this has shifted significantly. Nowadays, there are numerous ways for customers to contact businesses, leading many call centers to handle a wide range of customer interactions. In addition to phone calls, these contact centers now also manage emails, social media messages, webchat conversations and more. As a result of these expanded responsibilities, they are now known as “contact centers.
As contact centers face mounting challenges such as rising call volumes, remote work, limited analytics insights and employee burnout, they will have to adapt further in the future. By 2022, virtual coaching is expected to become an increasingly popular solution for contact center managers. Invoca for Sales provides support for virtual coaching by giving managers access to each agent’s call recordings and transcriptions. Managers can then provide feedback on specific moments from each call within the Invoca platform and tag the relevant agents in real-time. This allows agents to make adjustments on-the-fly rather than waiting for their next one-on-one meeting with their manager.
