Offshore vs Nearshore – the big secret

Belize – the BPO call center industry’s best kept secret?

Offshoring your call center to earn higher profits is no secret. Over the last few decades, offshore call centers have grown to a global industry totaling hundreds of billions of dollars.

For example: The greater size of a telemarketing appointment setting project reduces the cost-per-appointment charge for the client company. This is in addition to the already less expensive costs of such projects since overhead expenses in offshore call centers are lower than onshore call center expenses.The key factor driving that growth is the lower cost of labor. Offshore labor costs can save you up to 80% or more over labor costs in North America.

Strong accents lead to lost business.

We’ve all experienced it. A telephone encounter with a call center agent with an accent so strong it is next to impossible to understand what they’re saying. Talk about frustration! If you’ve been telemarketed by someone you can’t understand, chances are you’ll simply say “sorry” and hang up. In the statistics it will show as a contact made and the prospect was not interested. However, in reality, they may have been very interested but a lack of communication prevented that interest from being turned into a positive outcome. This can be a waste of time and money if working with the wrong BPO company.

Dealing with a strong accent can be even more frustrating if you’re the one who initiated the calling. Maybe you have an issue with something you purchased, a simple technical question or a question about a warranty. For whatever reason, you just need a little help; A little hand holding. So you find the toll-free number and call customer service. However, much to your dismay, you can barely understand the person who answers the phone. What do you do? If you didn’t have to wait long to get through on the toll-free line, you can hang up, call back and hope you get to talk to someone you can understand. But if you had a long wait to get through, that time is wasted if you simply hang up. So you struggle and try to figure out what the person is saying. Eventually, you may have to give up and ask for a supervisor.

This is not the way to treat a customer or a potential customer. According to a recent study, 86% of those who had a bad customer service experience on the phone will not buy again. Making your customers struggle to understand what your customer service reps are saying. This can be a guaranteed way to lose future business.

How to enjoy the advantages of offshoring and avoid the accent problems.

There is a better way to offshore. Nearshoring works just like offshoring except that your business pairs with workers in similar time zones, which makes communication much more of a breeze. Even on site visits can happen faster and more frequently. Plus, compared to offshore outsourcing, nearshore still offers some cost savings.

There is a place where you can enjoy the low cost of offshoring without the disadvantages of a workforce that may speak with a strong accent. The best-kept secret referred to in the title, Belize, is a coastal Caribbean country that has many advantages to North American call center needs. You may ask, “What makes Belize so special?” Simple. Belize happens to be one of the few countries in the world where English is the official language. This makes it one of the best places in the world from which to service North America and other regions that speak English.

It’s also one of the best places in the world to service the 54 million Spanish-speaking Americans because over half of Belizeans are bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish.

Let’s not forget the hundreds of millions of Spanish-speaking people in Latin America. With English and Spanish so widely spoken in the western hemisphere, Belize offers a huge advantage in having tele-agents who can speak both fluently and with little or no accent.

In addition, large number of Belizeans are multilingual. This is another advantage of Belize since there are several languages and dialects spoken throughout Latin America. Having a more neutral Spanish language spoken can help to create instant rapport over the phone.

Plus, with English being the official language, all government documents, public education, and most media outlets use English. That makes doing business in Belize a lot easier than in most countries around the globe.

Belize has a well-educated workforce, strong government support for the BPO industry, a state of the art telecommunications infrastructure including highly redundant telecom connectivity, and it’s all about 2 hours from major US cities if a trip is ever needed. Belize is a great place to choose when you need BPO services.

Simply stated, it’s hard to name another country that offers the language advantages that Belize does for your nearshore BPO call center needs.

If you think that ProspectsDM can help you choose a BPO agency in Belize, call us Toll-Free: 877-285-7052 now, or use the form on the right to arrange a FREE call back consultation.