Hiring the Right Type of Agent for Your Call Center Campaign

Not all Philippine call centers are the same. Outsourcing companies may handle accounts that are not another company’s niche. Before outsourcing to a BPO, you have to check if the call center employs specialist or generic agents.

Aside from being inbound and outbound call center employees, agents can also be classified as specialty and general services agents.

General Services / BPO Agents

General services agents, virtual assistants and call center representatives are agents who are able to handle several types of customers and support assistance. These employees can fill in tasks that could have been done by chat support representatives, tech support agents, customer service specialists and even sales.

BPO agents of this caliber are very good in time management, scheduling and organizing. They can take almost any type of calls and customers. Since transfer rates are so low with this type of setting, first call resolution rates are improved. Escalation calls are rarely needed since the agents can solve mostly everything themselves – so there is no need to transfer issues to another department. They can troubleshoot, help and even sell everything in one phone call.

Specialty Agents

Agents that specialize on specific accounts such as tech support, live chat services, telemarketing and sales require them to have special skills to deliver the job well. However, they have more knowledge than the generic services agent because they are experts on their accounts. More often than not, first stage calls are escalated to them when the need arises.

Specialists do not need as much training as the former since they are already familiar with the topics needed for the job. Therefore, eliminating excess costs.

Which of the two should I hire?

Both types of agents are efficient. The decision to hire all depends on what the business needs. In most cases, outsourcing providers hire both.