With shifting customer needs and huge economic changes over the last few years, delivering quality customer service is paramount. Financial services call centers manage the customer experience, support regulatory and data protection compliance, and protect your organization against security threats.
More than a faceless third-party vendor, a financial services call center outsourcer provides your company with a ton of benefits. Not only can you continue to deliver top-quality service, you can even improve it by expanding your reach and elevating CX. With outsourcing, your business can reach new heights—and this article will show you how.
Organizations are constantly looking for new ways to streamline processes and deliver outstanding customer service. And the biggest reasons for this are ever-evolving customer expectations and the increasing complexity of business operations.
Outsourcing work has become more prevalent now than ever, especially for financial services providers that are facing more demand than they can manage.
So, what makes outsourcing such a smart move? Let's dive into the key advantages.
Now that we understand the benefits of outsourcing, the next challenge is selecting the right outsourcing partner. The quality of your service depends heavily on the partner you choose, so it's crucial to make an informed decision. Let’s go over some key steps in picking the right vendor for your needs.
Before making any decisions, you should research different outsourcing vendors. Find ones that align with your business needs, and offer all the services that you need to provide to your customers. You should also look into their business operations, any specializations they have, and how they handle their clientele.
While you’d always want to go with a more experienced vendor, working with finances requires a different skill set that not all vendors can offer. Look for contact center outsourcing partners with extensive financial services experience and knowledge of how the industry operates. Finance is wildly different from other sectors, making that experience and expertise incredibly valuable.
Your chosen vendor should have all the tools to support you and your customers. This includes modern communication systems, backup systems, data security measures, and dedicated call center quality assurance tools. Additionally, they should be well-equipped to grow with your business so they can continue to meet the demands of your company down the line.
Client testimonials provide crucial insight into the practical aspects of the outsourcing company's services and can help you evaluate their credibility. Check if they have maintained successful long-term relationships with their clients and if they have consistently met expectations in delivering excellent outsourcing services.
Data security and privacy are essential for financial businesses and come with complex and rigid regulations. It’s vital that you choose a partner that understands and complies with these regulations and has clear protocols in place for handling sensitive information. Ensure they follow ISO 27001 or similar standards for data privacy and security.
Choosing the right outsourcing partner is just one part of the puzzle—ensuring an effective transition period is also incredibly important to delivering a positive customer experience.
Making the leap from potential to real benefits requires a concrete plan, so we’re going to show you six of the most important steps to a smooth transition for financial services call center outsourcing.
Establishing a solid baseline is key to future success, so you’ll need to lay out clear processes and protocols for your outsourcing relationship. This means setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to track quality, volume of customers served, first call resolution rates, and more.
Additionally, you’ll want to establish how your business will communicate with your outsourcing vendor and the call center—will you be on a direct line, scheduled meetings, or more?
Call center training and onboarding won’t directly be your concern, but you’ll have to establish what agents need to know about your business and your customers to support them properly. This includes the software they’ll be using and company practices and processes.
They’ll also need to be appropriately trained for data security compliance and industry regulations to prevent data leaks and perform regular audits.
Fitting a new piece into your already complex workflows can be a hassle, so you’ll want to ensure your chosen outsourcing vendor can integrate with your current infrastructure. This means a seamless integration with your CRM and any other software you may already use.
You’ll also want to ensure that all data handled by your outsourced agents is synchronized and accurate to your own database. Otherwise, you may impact the customer experience by giving agents incorrect information.
Compatibility and functionality are also key here. You’ll want to thoroughly test all these integrations and new services to ensure they comply with data privacy regulations and there are no hiccups for your teams or vendors.
Once they’re integrated into your business, you’ll want to ensure they can maintain or elevate the quality of your customer service. This means setting up quality control software to track metrics, creating custom agent scorecards, personalized dashboards for you and your vendor, and conversational analytics to monitor quality.
Additionally, you’ll want to regularly review their performance and create feedback loops to deliver top-quality service.
You should also establish guidelines for supporting your customers, from common daily interactions to escalation protocols and logging of customer complaints. This is where you’ll want to collaborate with your chosen vendor to establish workflows and a baseline for improvement in the future.
The financial sector is filled with regulations, and for good reason—you’re dealing with incredibly sensitive data. Establishing clear guidelines for complying with these regulations is key to preventing data leaks and making your customers feel protected. This means that data protection and privacy are paramount, and processes must be put in place to adhere to them.
Risk is another factor that affects financial services differently. Setting up detailed contingency plans in case of emergencies (such as service outages or natural disasters) is critical, as you’ll want to be prepared for any emergency. A downtime plan should be set in place, too, to ensure there’s an alternative for power outages and other potential downtime.
Keeping tabs on the performance of your vendor partner is crucial to maintaining service level agreements. In addition to the protocols and KPIs you established in the beginning, you should also continue to monitor the performance of your outsourced agents to ensure they’re meeting your standards.
Utilizing real-time monitoring tools can help paint a picture of the day-to-day operations of your outsourced call center. And by pairing them with performance metrics and KPIs, you’ll be able to have a comprehensive look at their performance and your customer interactions.
Ideally, your outsource partner should also be equipped to deliver comprehensive reports so your teams can make informed, data-driven decisions.
As your business grows, so should your support team. Working with a vendor that understands changing business needs and seasonal spikes is essential to delivering quality customer service. You’ll need to have plans in place to scale up with customer demands and peak seasons, or to downsize during slow periods when needed.
While you don’t directly affect your outsourcing vendor’s staffing, having clear expectations can help ensure a smooth transition to busier seasons without impacting the quality of your customer service.
Financial services call center outsourcing is becoming increasingly common as businesses evolve to meet new market demands and shifting customer expectations. Outsourcing your call center offers a plethora of benefits beyond cutting costs. It can increase the global reach of your brand, expand the services your business offers, connect your customers to highly-trained agents, and more.
By taking the time to lay down a solid foundation of protocols, ensuring smooth integrations, establishing quality assurance monitoring, and more, you can dramatically improve your customer service experience. And by pairing your call center with Scorebuddy, you can raise your standards even higher.
Scorebuddy helps monitor and boost the quality of your calls, thanks to scalable QA software. It helps you stay up-to-date with the ins and outs of your call center and gives you clear, actionable information. With automated workflows, detailed analytics, and real-time insights, Scorebuddy helps you elevate your customer service experience.
Want to see how? Start your free Scorebuddy trial today.
