Traditional Outsourcing’s Outdated Approach to CX

The world today is pretty amazing. We can buy most anything conveniently and customize it, too. Many jobs can now be done remotely, and flexible schedules are more common. We can dig up data on almost anything, and comparison shopping is almost trivial.

So why do traditional outsourcers – the call centers, the BPOs – still operate like they do? Why are they stuck in the past?

It’s like they haven’t received the memo.

Maybe they’re waiting for a fax?

Almost everything is on-demand these days: rides, meals, shopping. Powering these services are networks of people, not a scheduled, full-time staff.

Modern outsourcing similarly provisions networks of experts to CX projects. Results include faster scalability, greater agility, and industry-low shrinkage.

Traditional outsourcing simply replaced your full-time people with theirs. It still suffers from the same limitations.

Sure, some of us saw the value of remote work even before the pandemic. These days, everyone knows remote work is not merely viable – it’s a competitive advantage.

So why does traditional outsourcing cling to call centers?

Or why do they claim to be “remote” when they really just allow their local agents to work from home a few days a week? That’s the hub-and-spoke model. It isn’t truly remote.

Why risk another business continuity disaster or limit your potential talent pool when you don’t need to?

Modern outsourcing is truly distributed around the globe.

Yeah, we get it. Selling the exact same thing regardless of the customer makes it easy for traditional outsourcers. But it doesn’t help you, their client. You bump against limits that prevent you from seizing opportunities. You get saddled with services and costs you don’t need.

If you aren’t getting a customized solution, your outsourcer isn’t modern.

Ok, we can’t be sure they’re ignoring it. Maybe they see it and report on it.

But it’s tough to see how they are using it.

If your solution isn’t adapting to changes in coverage or business goals, you’re stuck with an outdated approach. Ongoing optimization is the modern way.

Technology should be transformative. Sure, it’s great to do the same old things faster and more efficiently, but why stop there? How can technology create better customer experiences and elevate community engagement?

But traditional outsourcers – call centers especially – have a horrible track record when it comes to tech. For years they tortured us with poorly implemented phone trees (if they worked at all). Today they’re eagerly replacing them with equally poor versions of chat “bots”.

That’s not innovation. And that’s definitely not the modern approach to CX.

Like a car salesman trying to keep you focused on the monthly payment, they try to keep you focused on their purported hourly rates.

Total cost of ownership? ROI? Terms that let you scale up and down? Don’t worry about that!

The modern approach doesn’t involve tricking clients into paying more or locking them into a deal. It’s about clear and transparent pricing with terms designed to keep you agile.

There are good reasons to stick with the old way of doing things. If things aren’t broke, maybe they don’t need to be fixed. And there’s nostalgia – looking back at the past and recalling fond memories. But traditional outsourcing has always been broken – there’s nothing worth being nostalgic about.

So, if you’re looking to spend less and get more, if you want control and transparency, agility and scalability, look for outsourcing with a modern approach.

If you want to learn more about our modern approach, give us a shout.