12th Annual Small-Business Guide

It’s not uncommon for businesses today to outsource a number of functions. Many companies outsource their IT needs, for example, or hire recruiters to help with human resources. But can a company outsource customer service? Sales and marketing? Even the receptionist?

Of course. More and more businesses, both large and small, are contracting with call centers to handle one or more of their customer-relations needs. Some use the centers only as after-hours answering services; others entrust entire segments of their marketing plans to a call center. However they use the services, they are generally able to save money and, in some cases, even generate more revenue.

“That’s the business we’re in,” says Bruce Volkart, the principal and CEO of Plymouth-based Volkart May & Associates, which offers call-center services. “We help companies grow their revenue faster and more cost effectively.”

Call centers are staffed by representatives who either answer incoming calls on a company’s behalf or make targeted outgoing calls in their name. And although they gained notoriety when American businesses, including Dell Computer Corporation, began working with call centers in India, they are also quite common in the United States and are in fact doing a significant amount of business right here in Minnesota.

Much of that business is with large corporations. But a growing number of small companies are also taking advantage of the services, often to avoid the cost of adding employees or integrating expensive technology. Outsourcing such tasks allows small-business owners to focus on what they do best while at the same time maintaining contact with customers.

“We can handle the very simple functions and save our clients time and money,” says Derek Zaugg, owner of Customer Contact Services, a call-center company in Eden Prairie. “We’re really in the business of enhancing their customer relationships. It can be a huge benefit to small businesses.”

At their most basic, call centers could be considered live answering services. Doctors offices, funeral homes, plumbers, lawyers, and other service providers can hire a call service to answer calls (after-hours or all day) for them, screen them for the degree of urgency, and then pass them on to the appropriate person. “Before we pull someone out of bed at 2 a.m. to go fix someone’s cable, we try to separate the wheat from the chaff,” Zaugg says. “We qualify and route the request where it needs to go.”

Getting those calls is crucial to small businesses. “For one-man shops and small businesses, one missed phone call or one call not handled properly can have a direct impact on their business,” Zaugg says. “All those calls are critical calls, and they have to be handled the right way.”

The right way, he adds, is with a live person on the other end of the line. Despite the proliferation of voice mail and auto-attendants, making contact with a live human being still carries significant weight with callers. “It’s impressive to call a business and get a live voice,” Zaugg says. “People feel like they’re being taken care of when they get to talk to a live person.”

That live person can take care of any number of requests, depending on the program set up for that specific company. Call centers can train representatives to answer customer service calls, to take orders for goods or services, or to take messages and transfer calls to the appropriate people. Some, like Volkart May, can even assist your sales team by qualifying inquiries, generating new leads, setting appointments, or for some clients, closing sales.