The Scope of Working in a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company

The BPO industry has been a front for every customer-centric company ever since its advent. Customers are the consumers of our products and services so it is paramount to tend to their requirements and concerns at every point. Therefore, it calls for strong, skillful dedicated team members working on the customer's requirements. The BPO industry has opened a large employment window for entry-level jobs all over the world.

Our society can’t thank enough BPO industry for providing promising career opportunities and employment to aspiring candidates all over the world. Yes, today we are going to discuss the aspects of working in call center services. We are going to take word-of-mouth from employees who had or had been working in the BPO industry. Plus, we will investigate the ways in which the BPO industry contributed to the growth and welfare of these people.

First, let us see the different job positions that exist in a typical BPO company. Here are brief descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of some common job positions in a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company:

Customer Service Representative

Most of us are quite aware of the most discussed entry-level job there - customer service representative, customer care executive, process associate, support executive, etc., they go by many names. This role involves providing support to customers via phone, email, or chat, resolving their inquiries and complaints in a professional manner. They act as the face and voice of the client organizations.

Technical Support Specialist

Becoming a technical support specialist generally requires the candidate to have basic knowledge of the product’s technicalities or comprehensiveness towards the functions and features of the products at least. This role involves providing technical assistance to customers and troubleshooting technical issues related to the product or service offered by the BPO company.

Sales Representative

Any person who wants to achieve something big in their career and in need of a headstart can try working as a sales representative as it requires a dynamic skillset. This role involves promoting and selling products or services to customers and achieving sales targets. It may sound quite simple to you but as you began to progress in the business development field, you have the chance of becoming an affluent entrepreneur too.

Read More: The Impact of 5G on BPO Industry

Telemarketing Executive

Being a telemarketing executive has its own reward. If you are someone who is having trouble with self-perception and not being able to identify your core skill set, you can begin your career as a telemarketing executive. It depends on you how you explore yourself and your career choices. This role involves making outbound calls to customers, promoting products or services, and collecting customer information.

Quality Assurance Analyst

When a candidate becomes a little proficient in communication skills and handling tasks with a good level of precision, they can then promote themselves to a more responsible position that requires a meticulous approach. You may have to work very adroitly in the beginning as the role involves monitoring and evaluating the quality of customer service and ensuring that it meets company standards.

Data Entry Operator

People trying an entry-level job that requires precision and agility at the same time should opt for a Data Entry Operator position in a BPO company. It will help them to improve their multi-tasking skills, agility, analytical skill, and documentation speed. This role involves inputting and updating customer information into databases and verifying the accuracy of the data. You become a cunning executive through these skills.

Process Trainer

In order to become a process trainer, you must attain excellency in the call center process that you have worked on previously. Whether you had been working in customer support, as a data-entry operator, telemarketing executive, sales, or quality analyst; you must be a top performer because training new employees on the processes, systems, and procedures of the BPO company requires a profound skillset.

Team Leader/Manager

Once you have gained enough experience in all the entry-level jobs mentioned in the previous sections, you are now ready to venture into a managerial-level job that requires supervision of the team and its performance. This role involves supervising a team of customer service representatives, ensuring that they meet performance standards, and providing feedback and coaching.

Human Resources Coordinator

The talent-acquisition department is an intrinsic part of every organization regardless of the belonging industry. Human resources can be quite subtle and hectic at the same time. You must prepare yourself for all types of work when you are in Human Resources. This role involves managing personnel-related functions, such as recruitment, employee relations, benefits administration, and payroll management.

Operations Manager

By the time you have spent a significant amount of time in the BPO industry, you will accumulate tons and knowledge and wisdom about the industry. Once you are aware of most of the aspects of the BPO industry, you are ready to handle the entire BPO operations. This role involves overseeing the day-to-day operations of the BPO company, managing staff, and ensuring that processes are running efficiently and effectively.

Accounts Receivable/Payable Specialist

For becoming an accounts executive or manager you must have a good amount of knowledge in finance and accountancy; also it requires a specific skill set that covers the maneuvers like tallying, collating, contemplating, and analyzing the financial data. This role involves managing accounts receivable and payable, processing invoices, reconciling accounts, and preparing financial reports.

On the Whole: You can navigate through different levels and positions that are present in a typical BPO company. Aspiring candidates can begin their career by choosing any of the entry-level jobs in the BPO job hierarchy and progress at their own pace depending on their skillset, vision, ambition, and sheer willingness to perform great.

We are living in a quite competitive world and BPO companies give us not only a chance for employment but also to nurture our skillset to the best of our abilities. Our blog journey doesn’t end here as we are going to explore the reason why call center jobs can be relevant and more prolific in the current job ecosystem.

The Worthiness of Working in the BPO Industry

Working in customer service is a valuable and rewarding career. Despite its reputation as a "fallback" option, customer support positions can be taken on by individuals with diverse experiences and backgrounds. As a customer service representative, you play a crucial role in the success of a company by impacting the bottom line and forming meaningful relationships with customers and team members.

In fact, according to Microsoft, the quality of customer service is a deciding factor for 90% of consumers when choosing to do business with a company. As a customer support representative, your actions have a direct effect on the revenue generated from repeat customers. Despite negative perceptions of customer support from personal experiences, a career in customer service can lead to a successful future in various business functions.

• The BPO industry’s growth has been skyrocketing in the last decade and shaping the future of work. With advancements in technology and automation, BPO companies are able to provide more efficient and cost-effective services around the world.
• The adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning is allowing BPOs to handle complex processes, freeing up human employees to focus on higher-level tasks. Allowing human employees to focus on more creative tasks.
• Additionally, the rise of remote work has made it possible for BPOs to tap into a global talent pool, expanding their reach and offering services to clients in multiple time zones; making job opportunities more accessible everywhere.
• Another trend in the BPO industry is a shift towards a customer-centric approach, with companies placing a greater emphasis on customer experience. The growth of call center services has never seen such a major upshift in the growth before.
• This is driving the adoption of omnichannel support, enabling BPOs to engage with customers through multiple channels, including voice, chat, email, and social media.

In conclusion, the future of the BPO industry is promising, with a growing demand for efficient, technology-driven, and customer-centric services. Companies that embrace these trends and invest in their employees, technology, and processes will be best positioned for success in the years to come.

Interesting Blog: BPO-Enabled Customer Support Trends That Will Continue to Exist in 2023

Employees’ Growth Rate in the BPO Industry

The growth of employees in the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry worldwide has been significant in recent years. With advancements in technology and increasing globalization, BPO has become an essential part of many organizations. The industry has grown rapidly, with a large number of companies outsourcing various non-core business processes to BPO service providers.

As a result, the BPO industry has created numerous job opportunities and has become a significant contributor to many countries' economies. The industry is expected to continue its growth trend in the coming years, providing even more employment opportunities and contributing to the growth of the global economy. The perception of the BPO industry in people’s minds has changed a lot in the past couple of years.

Contrarily, people all over the world used to have negative opinions about the scope of working in a BPO company because it was a very basic entry-level job that didn’t require special skills or technical knowledge. However, the world is basically governed by business models and for the success of any business, the front-end operations like sales, marketing, and PR play a critical role and are usually outsourced on a large scale these days.

Top Reasons for Choosing Customer Support Profile

Surprisingly, the scope of working in a call center service still remains skeptical and most people think it is an off-putting career choice, but things are not like that. You need to widen your gaze as we are going to share some undeniable reasons that would motivate any young professional to work in an affiliated and affluent call center service. So, without no further ado, let us simply dive into the compelling reasons for working in call center service.

Sharpen your Emotional Intelligence

Working in a customer-facing role offers opportunities to develop valuable people skills. Despite the challenges of handling customer inquiries over the phone, the benefits of improving your empathy, social skills, and self-regulation far outweigh them.

• By assisting customers with a range of problems, you can have a significant impact on their lives. Your ability to establish a rapport and gather information effectively is crucial.
• When dealing with difficult customers, your self-regulation skills come in handy to defuse tensions and provide better support.
• On tough days, relying on motivation and self-awareness helps you stay positive and focused.

Research has shown that these interpersonal skills are a key factor in workplace success, particularly in management. Starting your career in customer support positions you well to build and enhance these skills, which also benefit interpersonal relationships and teamwork.

Strengthen Your Product and Service Knowledge

To excel in customer support, it's essential to have a thorough understanding of the product or service you represent. This allows you to promptly answer customer queries and resolve issues to their satisfaction.

• But this knowledge also benefits you as you advance in your career. By acquiring an in-depth understanding of your product or service, you become a subject matter expert with numerous career growth opportunities.
• For instance, you can specialize in training and onboarding new support team members by demonstrating how to use the product or service.
• If you enjoy writing, you can create knowledge base articles or blog posts for your organization, or use your creativity to make instructional videos for your customers and establish an online presence.

Having an extensive understanding of your product or service enhances your reputation as an expert within your team, organization, and industry.

Develop the Basic Transferrable Skills

Having a deep understanding of your product or service not only enhances your career growth within customer support but also opens the door to other opportunities.

Sales: Working with customers provides insight into how they use your company's product or service to meet their needs. This can be useful if you choose to pursue a sales role. By sharing success stories with prospects, you demonstrate the effectiveness of your product or service, making it easier to close deals.

Marketing: Your product knowledge and communication skills can be valuable assets for the marketing team. Whether you're writing for the blog, conducting market research, or managing social media, your expertise can help you secure a marketing role.

Product Development: If you have a thorough understanding of your product, you can use it to transition into product development, including software engineering, outreach, or vendor management. With this knowledge, you can work behind the scenes to improve the product you're supporting.

Become an Expert in Educating Clients and Customers

One of the highlights of customer service is the ability to educate customers about the product, without having to make a sale. For instance, some companies offer a range of products with varying subscriptions and levels.

• On some occasions, the best solution involved using a product the customer didn't have, giving us two options: highlight the benefits of purchasing the additional product or find a non-conventional solution.
• The first option allowed me to utilize my sales skills in a less pressured setting, as I would just need to transfer the case to a sales representative for further follow-up. The second option required creativity on my part.

As the product expert, the customer agent is the one the customer relied on to find a solution, whether it was using the product in a new way or coming up with a unique alternative. The agent has to work around the problem to get a solution and that puts them into the shoes of a legitimate problem solver, which is not an easy skill to develop.

Dedicate your Focus on Side Projects Too

Working on side projects and other initiatives while taking time away from the call queue can be extremely beneficial for customer support reps. This not only allows them to take breaks, attend meetings, and engage in other activities, but it also provides an opportunity for them to use the insights they've gained from interacting with customers to bring value to the organization and themselves.

For instance, at Cyfuture, a customer support rep who specialized in social media started a Twitter channel for rapid customer support, using the insights gained on the phone to conduct research and create a valuable initiative.

Keeping track of customer insights and dedicating them to a side project or initiative can also bring a lot of value to both the organization and the individual, as having a good understanding of the customer's voice can be a valuable asset for team and career advancement discussions with the manager. It is always best to have spare time that can be used in increasing agility, bringing innovation and overall development of the process.

Become A Good Problem-Solver

At the core, customer support involves proactively assisting customers and resolving their issues. Every customer issue demands creative problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and expertise to be resolved, be it a simple fix or a multi-step process. It is not necessary to create one solution for a problem and rest at last. A problem can have various types of solutions and you must be an expert enough to look through different possibilities.

The ability to provide various options as solutions drastically improves the customer satisfaction rate. Quick, efficient, and tactful problem-solving is a vital skill for any job, not just customer support. These skills form the foundation for effectively prioritizing, managing projects, and resolving conflicts, making them necessary for advancing in your career, leading a team, and using your knowledge and influence to reach your objectives.

Mastering Effective Communications Through All Channels

Having the ability to communicate through different communication channels is not easy and it takes years of experience and vigilance. Working as a customer care executive, you might be required to communicate with clients through different channels such as calls, email, chat, SMS, or social media. Communicating on a particular channel is not the same as the other. Every communication medium requires a different style and approach.

Client relationship management is critical for overall business development as it comprises a lot of business aspects. You can tailor a good client relationship management strategy but that will essentially depend on your ability to communicate effectively with clients in the best possible ways, no matter through which medium you are going to communicate. Being a CCE provides access to get a good grasp of these skills.

Get Introduced to a Diverse Team of Professionals

Have you ever wondered why we emphasize working in a team? That’s because working together with a group of professionals towards a common goal allows us to know and learn a lot of things. Exchanging perspectives is critical for self-learning and development. Your customer support team might not all be tech-oriented, some of the team members may have different educational and experience backgrounds.

When you tag along with your team members, you will learn different methods and techniques. You will come across an array of solutions for a common problem, and you might have been completely oblivious to these approaches and strategies. There is always room for learning whenever you are working with a team. Working in a customer support team will always expose you to new perspectives and possibilities in your profession and life.

Also Check: Growth of the BPO Industry in Parallel to the Growth of Technology in 2023

Wrap-Up:

The BPO industry is prevailing for 2 decades now and through all this time we figured that the BPO industry is going to sustain itself pretty well in the future too. Let alone the technological advancements, the need for customer care executives is a dire necessity for every business because a business is fundamentally customer-oriented. There was and will always be a dire requirement for a team dedicated to resolving customer concerns.

Customer service is often viewed as a starting point in a career, but it offers many opportunities beyond entry-level roles. Both recent college graduates and individuals seeking a career change can find a range of interesting and fulfilling positions within customer service teams. These positions offer opportunities for growth and personal development, in addition to various benefits.