Pricing Options for Call Center Support
When you choose Blue Valley Marketing, your pricing is tailored to your needs. You may be wondering whether you should choose shared or dedicated agents, or whether a hybrid solution may be the best fit for your company. Read below to learn about each option, including the benefits connected with each model. To discuss your needs more in-depth, or for specific rates, contact us at any time.
What Are Your Options? Blue Valley Marketing provides four levels of support based on the type of agent services you select:
- Dedicated Team
- Shared Team
- Hybrid Team
- Pay-for-Performance
What Should You Consider? While every company has different needs, there are several considerations that should always be included in a call center support decision:
- Customer Support Requirements
- Hours of Operation
- Product Depth
- Call Volume
Is One Particular Pricing Model Ideal? While the Dedicated Team is a popular choice, followed by the Shared Team model, your best choice is truly dependent on your needs and budget.
Dedicated Team Model
If you have sufficient volume, the Dedicated Team is the most cost-effective option. They will provide specialized support and focus on handling both inbound and outbound calls. Some of the benefits associated with this model include:
Specialization: When you choose this option, the agents become experts in your company products, brand, and service, as well as your policies and systems. They are exclusively assigned to your customers and become a seamless extension of your team.
Expertise: A Dedicated Team not only works exclusively with your customers; they adopt your company knowledge and master it. Each customer interaction is conducted with ease and provides the most consistent and effective service to your customers.
Integrated Solution: This is an ideal choice, whether you use a Dedicated Team to supplement your in-house team or to handle your entire call volume. They become a cohesive part of your business, scheduled to meet your support needs with reliable service.
Dedicated Support Example: This choice is the right fit in any industry where extensive training is required to support a product or service. For instance, in the healthcare industry, agents may need to understand the intricacies of a health insurance plan or the billing practices of a healthcare provider. A Dedicated Team allows your company to offer excellent service and lower your cost per transaction.
Shared Team Model
The Shared Team option is another popular choice for outsourcing your call center with Blue Valley Marketing. Shared support offers you scalability, with agents available to make or accept calls on behalf of your company. Because the agents are shared among multiple clients, you are never paying for idle time. Shared support can be billed based on a flat hourly rate, or per minute rate. The benefits of this model include:
Flexibility: The Shared Team model offers you access to a pool of representatives, whose availability can be coordinated with your marketing goals. Blue Valley Marketing offers a variety of ways to supplement your in-house call center. You may want to route a percentage of calls waiting in your queue, or you may wish to have support during days or hours when your call center is closed.
Each agent is provided with your specific call script, providing consistent service to your customers.
Quick Turnaround: The Shared Team option is best utilized in situations with simpler, shorter calls. Agents can assist with taking your calls quickly, enabling a fast implementation if you have an immediate need of call center support assistance.
Agility: To reduce agent training time, Blue Valley Marketing houses telephony on their in-house platform. This allows agents to learn your specific business needs quickly when servicing multiple clients.
Shared Team Example: This option is a good fit for retail and eCommerce, as well as some nonprofit organizations. These organizations often require call center support for promotions or busy seasons. When a busy season has passed, agents are on-hand to assist with call overflow.
Hybrid Team Model
Also referred to in the industry as dedicated-core, flex or blended, the Hybrid Team option blends the best benefits of the Dedicated Team and Shared Team models. You will have a dedicated set of agents that comprise your core team, and additional agents may be added when you expect or experience a spike in volume.
Scalability: This is the most scalable option available, allowing you the services of a core team with the ability to add more agents as needed.
Flexibility: If your find that you are increasingly requiring shared agents to supplement the core team, Blue Valley Marketing can easily train more agents to support your call center requirements. If you find that your core team is too large, an adjustment can be made.
Expertise: You have a core team of agents that represents your brand as if they were a part of your internal team.
Hybrid Team Example: This model is ideal for retail, eCommerce and nonprofit organizations that would benefit from a core team, but also require additional support during certain seasons of the year or to handle a promotional event.
Pay-for-Performance Model
While this is the least-utilized model, it is offered as a way to connect your cost with a goal achieved. For instance, you may want to contract support for membership renewal or a promotion, but you would like your cost to be tied directly to your goals being achieved. This model is available for programs assessed by Blue Valley Marketing to be a good candidate. The benefits include:
Clear Results: The cost and success of the model is directly dependent on the program objectives and cost viability.
Customized: The costs depend on your campaign, price requirements, your specific offer to your customers and more.
Reporting: More than any other pricing model, Pay-for-Performance allows for straightforward reporting. While other models may struggle to quantify the return on investment for customer service, this model shows an exact connection between agent support and goals met.
Pay-for-Performance Example: This support model is a good fit for companies that do not typically utilize call center agents, but may require additional support for a promotion, special event or to encourage enrollment in a specific program. This model is also very common for lead generation campaigns.
Final Considerations
Before you choose a pricing model from Blue Valley Marketing, we strive to ensure that you understand all aspects of the contract. We offer high-quality support, which includes providing you with all costs and pricing so that you can make an informed decision for your call center needs:
Training: Agents will be fully trained to support your customers, and that training is billed at an hourly rate for all pricing models.
Implementation Fee: The startup fees for your programs and services will depend on the complexity of your program and your system and programming needs.
Reporting: There are no additional fees for reporting.
Choosing call center support is an important decision, because you are entrusting your provider with your valuable customers. Contact us to discuss your support needs and how Blue Valley Marketing can assist you in creating the ideal customer experience with your brand.