BPOs are great for businesses: they improve the customer experience, lower costs, and enhance employee productivity. But what exactly is a BPO? What do they do? Here are the 4 most frequently asked questions about BPOs and BPO services.

What is a BPO?

BPO is short for business process outsourcing — they are third-party companies with teams of expert agents who handle various operations and services on behalf of another company. Here’s an example: a law firm may outsource its collection process to a BPO specializing in collections, allowing the firm’s employees to focus on tasks that are critical to the firm.

What services and operations are handled by BPOs?

BPOs specialize in specific industries and services, so they perform a variety of tasks and functions. Most of these services are categorized as either inbound or outbound.

Inbound services usually involve responding to support calls or messages, but they also involve processing orders, running analytics, and dispatching services. Outsourcing these services saves companies money because they don’t need additional employees to handle call volumes or work outside traditional hours.

Outbound services include telemarketing and cold calling, closing deals and sales with leads, and conducting market research. Many of these services are time-consuming and tedious and require knowledge of sales and the company, so having a dedicated group of agents who already know the field and the company ensures more leads are reached and converted to customers, leading to more income for the company.

Are there different types of BPOs?

There are three categories of BPOs, based on their proximity to the partner company.

• Offshore BPOs operate in a different country than the partner company (which is beneficial for maintaining 24/7 service and support).
• Nearshore BPOs operate in a different, yet closer, country to the partner company.
• Onshore BPOs operate in the same country as the partner company.

Is there a connection between BPOs and contact centers?

BPOs often handle incoming and outgoing calls on behalf of other companies, and they accomplish this using contact center technology/software. These arrangements work in a variety of ways: some companies choose to give a BPO part of their services, such as having all their sales calls handled by a BPO while service calls remain in-house, while others route their overflow calls to a BPO, and others have their entire call volumes handled by a BPO. In this way, some BPOs operate similarly to contact centers.

Broadvoice CCaaS and BPOs

Regardless of the function/operation being outsourced, BPOs rely on technology and software solutions to execute and streamline their processes. Broadvoice CCaaS is a cloud based contact center platform designed for BPOs. Our platform allows BPOs to maximize agent efficiency, streamline operations, minimize IT costs, and drive the bottom line.

Want to learn more about our industry-leading CCaaS solution for BPOs? Check out our website.