Nowadays, there are more companies that have realized the profits and benefits of operating a call centre for their business. But to set up a call centre, companies will need to allocate an office space to build the structure for the call centre’s operation.
The main advantage of running a call centre is that it can assist the customer service and the sales department to be more efficient. Having a call centre also helps to increase the satisfaction levels of their customers and allows the company to manage their employees in a more effective manner. The main concern before any business makes their decision to open a call centre is initial setup cost and the monthly maintenance fee to run the operation. Thus, this article will discuss this topic in details so that businesses can have a better understanding and ability to make their plans effectively and maximize their budget to set up a call centre.
Since the invention of the virtual call centre, companies have a choice to decide if they want to invest in an on-site or a cloud-based virtual call centre. For virtual call centres, it comes with a lesser upfront cost as the client do not need to invest in any hardware or equipment to run the call centre as they can rely on service providers to support them remotely and all the company need is the computer to run the operation. Not to mention that they can even save the rental of the office space if they employ call agents to work from their home remotely.
To set up a virtual call centre, a strong and reliable Internet service is an important cost to factor in as companies need to ensure that they have enough internet bandwidth to support the call centre daily operations without any disruption. Although this might also depend on the country’s internet infrastructure and how the service provider charges their clients on the internet service.
It is also common for most of the modern call centres to use the virtual call centre software which is a cloud-based call centre solution whereby the company can use the service provider’s software your entire call centre over the Internet by using a provider’s software and the charges will depend on the features required and how many call agents are using the software.
On-site call centre, on the other hand, is a bigger investment as the company will need to have to purchase equipment such as the computer, phone system, servers to maintain their client’s database and other related equipment to be installed in the call centre. Not to mention the office space required to house the hardware and the call centre employees and once the call centre is operational, the company will also need to pay for the monthly maintenance plus upgrading cost for the equipment and any new equipment that is necessary to operate the call centre in a more efficient manner.
For companies who have decided to set up a call centre in a rental office space, they will need to factor in startup costs for the basic office equipment, such as workstations, cubicles, desks, chairs, computers, phones and other essential office supplies needed by the employees.
Last but not least, companies need to factor in the labor cost which consists mainly of the employee’s salaries and their yearly bonus. While related costs may include employee’s benefit such as health care, dental care, annual leave, childcare leave, maternity leave and so on.
As mentioned in the article above, It is important to understand all the hidden costs to set up a call centre (virtual or on-site) in the business plan as any miscalculation will cause a great impact to the company’s budget and even hurt their profits in the long run. But on the positive side, these costs can be managed easily due to the fact that the management can monitor the operation directly to ensure that their customers are fully satisfied with their service provided by their call centre.