Outsourcer selection meets science
One of the reasons for founding Contact Centre Panel was our many conversations with people working at major brands who admitted honestly that they didn’t know how to find the Contact Centres to best meet their needs.
For example, Phill Connell is a consultant who works closely with The Contact Centre Panel now. In a previous life, he was given responsibility for outsourcing a major Lead Generation programme for a large energy company. With a background in business-to-business marketing, Phill’s area of expertise didn’t include choosing the best Contact Centres. At the time, CCP didn’t exist, so he had to learn very quickly!
Phill explains: “When I was selecting a Contact Centre to fix sales appointments with major energy users for our corporate sales force, I had to draw up a brief, then interview potential outsourced Contact Centres myself. Although I took it very seriously, there was a genuine risk that the brief I gave to potential suppliers wasn’t complete, or that a lack of experience would result in a bad choice.
“I like to think that my hard work paid off and we selected Contact Centres who gave us a good service, leading to three years of solid appointment-setting from our small group of outsourcers. However, I’ve absolutely no doubt that there was an element of good luck too! I strongly believe that we missed out on potentially great business partners simply because we didn’t know who the most suitable potential suppliers were. Although we knew what we needed, we had no real idea who could meet our needs until we found Contact Centres and asked them directly.
“If CCP had existed when I was looking for the best people to fix appointments for my company, I’ve no doubt that I would have used them. Removing that huge element of risk would have been an invaluable way to avoid the uncertainty we faced.”
We’re sure that many buyers of Contact Centre services can identify with this uncertainty. Whether it’s for Customer Service, Lead Generation or Outbound sales, how can buyers be expected to know which Contact Centres are a good match for their needs? That’s one of the reasons The Contact Centre Panel exists: to use our knowledge of the market to find the best Contact Centres for our Clients’ needs. One size does NOT fit all!
How does Contact Centre Panel find the right Contact Centre for your needs?
CCP work with over 110 Contact Centres, based across the UK, offshore and nearshore. This gives us unrivalled access to a huge variety of sizes, skills and suitability, enabling us to confidently identify and select the right Contact Centres to meet the exacting demands of our Clients.
Although our performance speaks for itself – over 88% of our clients extend their contractual relationships beyond the initial agreed period – here at CCP we’re constantly striving to improve the way we do business. With this in mind we’ve introduced a scientific, objective, impartial scoring method to demonstrate our requirement-led approach to helping Clients select the perfect Contact Centres for their requirements.
For a brief introduction, our short video is a great way to see what we do.
How do CCP assess potential Contact Centres?
First of all, CCP’s experts talk to the Client to establish their needs. Our extensive experience of the outsourcing sector then enables us to identify a shortlist of up to 8 potential partners, based on our in-depth knowledge of their relevant experience and skills. A detailed RFP is prepared and prospective partners are invited to respond.
Once a shortlist of interested parties has been drawn up, our CCP Scoring Matrix is employed. We engage with a number of industry experts to objectively assess each potential partner against consistent, relevant criteria to result in a scientific comparison of the different companies.
The criteria assessed are extensive, and can be grouped into six headings:
1. Alignment and solution
2. Location
3. People
4. Technology
5. Compliance and quality
6. Culture
Each heading has several questions, and each of the criteria is weighted in agreement with the Client to reflect their own preferred mix of strengths.
Why do we do this?
We apply the CCP Scoring Matrix to give clients a transparent view of the assurance that they are choosing from a small selection of Contact Centres who can meet their exacting needs and deliver a professional, compliant service. Using the CCP Scoring Matrix ensures a scientific approach to partner selection.
Although we are completely confident in our network of Contact Centre providers, every member of our network has different strengths, capabilities and relevant experience in different sectors. This scientific approach to partner selection works in the interests of both the Client and the Contact Centres and results in business relationships that deliver better results for everybody concerned.
If you would like to know more about this approach to selecting the right Contact Centre for your needs, just contact CCP today.
How can Contact Centre Panel help you?
At Contact Centre Panel, it’s our role to find the perfect match between a Client’s needs and a Contact Centre’s strengths. Ultimately all negotiations about commercial agreements are between the Client and the outsourcer, but we are able to help in a number of ways.
We’re profiling all of our Network Members to establish which of our 110+ partners can satisfy a wide-ranging series of client requirements, from commercial models to compliance, from lead generation to excellent customer service.
It is important to us that our clients are able to compare potential partners fairly. We carefully prepare our briefs to ensure that apples are compared to apples, that fair comparators are included in our brief so that results are expressed properly.
Following receipt of responses to the brief, CCP collates all potential solutions in a comparative matrix, allowing the client to compare like for like. Within this stage of the process, CCP will point out any obvious anomalies. This gives our clients the best possible information to choose their preferred Contact Centre partner, to meet their own specific needs. One size does not fit all!
If you’re not sure whether your Contact Centre is meeting your needs, talk to us here at The Contact Centre Panel for an unbiased review of your current status – just contact us by email or call 0114 209 6120 to talk about your needs. We won’t push: we will only help if you need it.
Keep In Touch
Follow CCP on LinkedIn for regular industry news and updates. It’s not all about us! Just look at our website’s News & Publications page for many more helpful articles.
To find out more about working with the perfect partner for your business, give us a call here at Contact Centre Panel on 0114 209 6120 or contact us using the form on our website.
