For most organizations, the stability of customer communication and the continuity of their services are what drive overall business success. For call centers that deal with a high volume of calls, sharp spikes in traffic, or a large customer base, this often means outsourcing to different geographic locations to safeguard day-to-day operations.
Enter geographic redundancy, or geo-redundancy, which equips organizations that rely on domestic or foreign call centers with a solution to protect the integrity of their day-to-day operations. Geo-redundancy is a vital component of call center outsourcing, as it provides consistent, positive customer engagements that build customer loyalty and retention.
Offshore locations like the Philippines have long been a top choice for companies looking for an affordable call center outsourcing strategy. But a growing number of companies are choosing to establish an additional call center presence or relocate altogether closer to home, as nearshore outsourcing in Central and South America provides similar cost savings and English fluency while adding customer-facing benefits that can’t be ignored.
See how creating geo-redundancy through nearshore outsourcing can elevate your organization — while offering the same features and benefits of the offshore market.
Benefits of Geo-redundancy with Nearshore Call Centers
“You must be no more than an arm’s length from your customers at all times.”
While this isn’t literal advice – customers do demand seamless, on-demand access to your business. That means a fail-proof connection between your customer and a customer service representative is a non-negotiable requirement.
Nearshore redundancy empowers customer relationships in a few key ways:
DISASTER RECOVERY:
Organizations can mitigate their risk of disaster and downtime with redundancy control as a rapid recovery solution in the case of local power outages, fires, facility degradation, or inclement weather conditions such as blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, flooding or other natural disasters.
Even momentary downtime comes at a high price for call centers, and major natural disasters can leave even heavily populated areas without power for days or even months. Spreading your call center footprint throughout the globe allows you to quickly shift your support operations to areas unaffected by these regional events.
Businesses must invest in a stable disaster relief solution to protect their customers and their ongoing customer service.
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Call center redundancy guarantees a continuity of service that can stand up to the stiffest challenges, including unanticipated call volume spikes or failover outages. Redundancy control allows you to offer stabilized and error-free customer engagement: making your most important asset – your customer – a top priority.
ADDITIONAL BUSINESS FOCUS:
When you don’t have to worry about redundancy fail-safes or the quality of customer service, you are free to devote attention to other business areas, identifying new opportunities for efficiency or improvement.
Benefits of nearshore outsourcing over Asian-Pacific call centers:
The main benefits of outsourcing to offshore locations like the Philippines and Asian-Pacific region is to dramatically lower costs while maintaining consistent customer service. But many organizations are seeing those same cost benefits achieved with nearshore outsourcing, often with improvements to the customer experience. Nearshore solutions can meet and exceed expectations across a few distinct areas:
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:
Whether positive or negative — customer experience remains a key factor in driving customer loyalty and retention. One dropped communication or one dissatisfied engagement as the result of the barriers that exist between domestic and offshore call centers can mean real harm to your bottom line.
The United States’ greater influence over the nearshore sphere means that agents not only share a time zone for more seamless customer interaction, but they are typically more culturally in tune with callers and offer more refined English-language skills for better communication.
ADDED PRODUCTIVITY:
It’s simpler to manage time-consuming operations within neighboring call center configurations. The ability for an organization to complete common tasks effectively, including on-site visits and real-time problem solving, becomes harder as the geographic divide widens. Shorter travel times and time zone consistency make overseeing your nearshore call centers considerably easier.
COST SAVINGS:
While offshore call centers typically provide larger initial cost savings, nearshore outsourcing offers competitive pricing paired with increased efficiency and optimized customer service.
Adding these benefits to your customer engagement can mean a greater return on your investment, as the lifetime value of customers is strengthened by positive customer experiences.
INDUSTRY-LEADING TRAINING:
A well-kept secret is the growing trend of community outreach and training within nearshore regions, which focus on accelerated English-learning and customer engagement. By offering training and high-touch skills that translate into good jobs, nearshore countries are invested in building call center agents that can thrive within a high-demand employee marketplace.
CONCLUSION
There are endless scenarios that could create the need for geo-redundancy. Predicting them is impossible, but planning for them is not only achievable but critical. Nearshore call centers support better customer experiences and a continuity of service that can be achieved at a comparable cost to offshore call centers.
Organization leaders that want the peace of mind of redundancy might consider how relocating from an Asian-Pacific market or adding additional support in the nearshore might be their best option.
Nearshore call centers continue to offer cost-effective redundancy control against operational downtime and disaster, with a geographic advantage for optimized customer engagement at scale.
