Outsourcing originated in the United States with Kodak in 1989 as an evolution beyond Porter’s value chain model of the 1980s. What was the idea? Not to develop internally within the company those activities that other companies can perform more efficiently for us — because otherwise we would be wasting a competitive advantage and sacrificing part of our profits.
Nexia Solutions specializes in outsourcing Contact Center services — or Call Centers, in the English term — which in Spanish we would refer to as Contact Centers, Customer Relationship Centers, or Customer Service Centers. These can be defined as centers that manage bidirectional contacts, both outbound and inbound, through different channels: voice calls, email, fax, chat, social media… for any sector and purpose.
We will explore these in more depth later, but the advantages of outsourcing are evident at first glance: flexibility of the model and cost reduction or cost variability.
Although we all have some story or bad experience to share about a call center — and we can find many articles about outsourcing failures, hidden costs, and other apocalyptic downsides — outsourcing is clearly a growing sector, both in the European and Spanish markets.
According to sector market research firm DBK, outsourcing services in Spain have multiplied their industry turnover by seven over the past ten years.
So, what are the keys? Undoubtedly, the challenge lies in finding the right balance between cost and quality. Here, we will analyze the most common mistakes in outsourcing a Customer Relationship Center and share recommendations based on nearly twenty years of experience — both as a client and as a provider — regarding the decision-making process: whether to outsource or not, how to do it, and where to do it.
