BPO and Customer Service: How would they be the same and differ?

When you say working in a BPO company and working in a customer service, are they the same, or is there a difference between the two? The answer is both.

Business Process Outsourcing or BPO and Call Centers are always associated with each other and interchangeably used. They are the same, however different in some aspects. Business Processing Outsourcing began in the 1980s but became well-known and extensively used in the 1990s until the 2000s. It is a business strategy where companies were allowed to outsource customer service and various business-related processes to the outsourcing partners. Originally, it applied exclusively to manufacturing institutions. But as time goes by and the Internet world continues to progress, BPO applies to different outsourcing services.

There are two categories in outsourcing— the back office and the front office operations. Back office services include accounting, payment processing, IT services, human resources and administrative tasks, content management, social media marketing, and many other business operations. These services are transferred to outsourcing companies that provide professionals and experts to ensure that the business will run smoothly. Front office services refer to outsource customer service technical support, sales, and telemarketing.

Meanwhile, a call center is a division under Business Process Outsourcing, and it mainly focuses on phone-based processes. It receives and sends large volumes of calls through telephone and is known as inbound (receives) and outbound (sends) calls. It is where outsourcing customer support falls because it focuses on receiving calls from customers for their questions, problems, and issues (inbound calls.) In outsourcing customer service, customer service agents make calls for possible clients and offer new products and services. They introduce their products to the customers, and it is called outbound calls.

Call Centers provide services, such as billing and collections, lead generation like survey generation, appointment setting, and order takers; customer service, that handles customer care to resolve problems and issues, and email support; and technical support composed of system engineers and network engineers.

Remember that BPOs and Customer Service require different skills. Because BPO offers a variety of job services, they require higher qualifications like excellent communication skills, advanced computer literacy, and higher educational attainment. Companies want people who will handle these services to have a degree or specialization in a specific field. However, sometimes two years in college is enough if the positions require only talent and skills. In Call Centers, the basic skill requirements are excellent communication skills, good interpersonal relationships, patience, can handle pressure, and flexibility. Outsourcing customer service, particularly phone calls, doesn’t require a high educational background.

Business Process Outsourcing and Call Centers are the results of continuous progress and evolution of the modern business world and technology. Though they have similarities and differences, in reality, they are interconnected and work simultaneously for the development of companies, especially in serving valued customers. They help all types of businesses to keep afloat and stay strong despite some economic challenges.

In the Philippines, the BPO industry is one of the helping factors why the country’s economy is surviving despite the pandemic brought by the COVID-19. And the call center shares the largest part of the BPO. It only means how Filipinos are loved by many companies to handle their customer service.

Outsource your customer service in the Philippines now to achieve customer retention and acquisition.