There comes a time in your business evolution when you may find yourself ready to expand. In other words, you decide to set up a new call center business overseas so you can win more potential customers.
There are multiple benefits of entering new global markets, including opportunities for growth and sales. But it doesn’t happen overnight. It usually comes with many risks and challenges for your business.
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Some of them you have already encountered in working on the domestic market, but a few challenges may be new to you. We’ve collected and offered solutions to the five fundamental problems that many companies are struggling with when expanding their call centers abroad for the first time.
5 Things to Consider When Starting a Call Center Business Abroad
1. Language Barrier
When entering a specific new market with your call center business, the first thing you should consider is language. Although English is a universal language, you want to win the locals’ hearts and build a strong local presence. Therefore, you should stick to the most commonly used language in that country.
The best option is having multiple teams of agents split by languages depending on the target country. Thanks to modern call center technologies like the Web-Based Auto Dialer, you can easily manage and monitor your teams. You can then divide them into groups and assign leads to the right agents according to their language or other predefined criteria you set.
2. Cultural Challenges
Even if you don’t see the language barrier as a problem for you, the cultural barrier may still get in the way of your customer engagement. When your agents and customers live on different continents, there could easily be vast differences in mentality and culture. What’s more, things that happen commonly in one culture might come across as rude for another culture.
So, how can we deal with these kinds of problems? You should craft guidelines for business conduct and behavioral scripts for your call center agents.
A phone system that has an integration with your CRM will play a significant role, too. Your agents will always have all the information about the potential customers. In short, they’ll know customers’ country, language, and other crucial points within a click.
That information will help them stay prepared for the conversation and behave appropriately. Besides, it will help you cope with different time zones, and help you reach your clients at the right time of the day automatically.
3. Customer Experience
Excellent customer experience is the thing that converts potential customers into sales. But reaching your new potential customers might be hard if your call center is located miles away, and you use your local phone numbers for international calls.
Most people tend to ignore unknown numbers, especially those with different area codes. When going global, you should remember to buy VoIP numbers for every country you are targeting. These local numbers will help you give the feeling that you are close to your customers and will improve your answer rate.
4. Technology and Automation
Technology and automation are tools that can help your call center business stay afloat when entering new markets. A good foundation for this includes a reliable phone system. Choose a cloud PBX, a dialer, or a combination of the two, depending on your business’s needs.
Equipped with these powerful tools, you can relax and focus on what’s important. All the working processes will go on autopilot, and you will save both time and money. Plus, you’ll reach more clients faster and more easily.
It can also help to choose cloud-based technology. Then, the chances that your agents will go offline because of unavoidable powers of nature and economic crises will be much lower.
5. Work Processes and Control
Playing on the global market is a challenge not only for your business but also for your team as well. Your staff is the backbone of your business. That’s why ensuring a healthy working environment, smooth working processes, and adequate supervision is a must.
Today’s advanced phone systems have everything to make the workflow worry-free for your staff. All the work stages can be monitored easily in real time. You’ll just need an online dashboard, smart reporting, and analytics features.
Managers can stay on top of their agents’ work, monitor their performance, guide, and correct them. However, some upfront staff training might be required if you want to reach maximum productivity, especially if there is some new technology involved.
Take These Points into Account When Expanding Your Call Center Business
These are just some points you’ll need to take into account when going out into the global market with your call center business. However, if you make sure to follow a clear plan and acquire the right tools beforehand, your business will be more successful in the long run.