Medellín, Colombia.- Imagine having a trusted person to whom you can leave practically all or part of your Business in charge. From the day you leave any process of your company to a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) you will begin to be more successful and you will no longer worry about customer service, sales, collection, complaints and claims, technical support, retention or customer loyalty, among other activities.

Entrepreneur in Spanish was invited by ProColombia to travel to Colombia to meet the BPOs in that country. The BPO ( Business Process Outsourcing ) is the outsourcing or outsourcing of different processes of your business. The size of your company or the sector does not matter, but rather understand that you can outsource any process to focus on the focus of your business.

“There are mature companies that have already outsourced 70 to 80% of their processes, even 100%,” says Marcela Bobadilla, commercial director of attentive in Colombia. “Customer service is another complete business within your company. For this reason, it is best to outsource and you only need to wait for results ”, says Josué Cárdenas, business unit manager at BPO Emergia .

The BPO in Colombia is a world-class sector that emerged 40 years ago with call centers (call centers), then evolved to contact centers (centers that manage all interactions with customers through traditional and digital channels). In the contact center, the service becomes much more complex, but also more complete because a client hires a contact center not only for phone calls, but to answer their emails, chats and text messages, as well as social networks.

The call center and contact center became BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), which allows companies and startups to access cutting-edge technology to offer better service and customer experience.

The million dollar question is: Do I do customer service myself or have someone else do it?

“That is the temptation. But the best decision is to hire a BPO because we are experts in designing customer service strategies ”, indicates Lelio Sotomonte, president of Atlantic International BPO .

If you want to take care of the service and the customer experience on your own, you must invest in technology, which is expensive, it also loses validity quickly and you have to be updating. For this reason, it is much cheaper to hire a BPO that has already invested in robotics, artificial intelligence, internet of things, virtual reality, machine learning, big data, deep analytics, cybersecurity, among other technological tools.

Why choose a BPO located in Colombia?

If you are thinking of leaving a business process in the hands of a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), you can consider Colombia because the costs are cheaper than in Mexico. Between 5 and 10% cheaper. Tatiana Beron, Vice President of Business Development LATAM at Webhelp , says that it acquired the BPO OneLink . On the other hand, companies around the world are choosing BPOs that operate in Colombia because of the economic and political stability of the country. In Colombia the government is pro-business.

Something that stands out strongly about Colombians is their warmth. The culture of customer service is deeply ingrained. For them it is natural to be kind and help others, it is as if they have a DNA of service that makes a complete difference. “They are tolerant. They do not answer annoyed, they listen. Which is ideal to serve services at an international level ”, says Marcela Bobadilla, commercial director of attentive in Colombia.

“They speak in a very pleasant way, which clients from any country like very much,” says Catalina Duque, Human Resources manager at I agree , a Nicaraguan BPO that just after realizing that Colombians have so much customer service, they decided to open operations in Colombia. “When we communicate, we naturally demonstrate a respect in communication that is very effective for BPOs,” says Edwin Sánchez, CEO and founder of Complarketing , a boutique BPO that caters to the high-tech niche.

In addition, in Colombia companies find highly qualified labor. Not only are they people with a lot of drive, but they are professionals with a good level of English. “Bilingualism is very strong in Colombia. We have a fairly clear and generally accepted neutral accent, ”says Carolina Cobos, country manager for Alorica Colombia. “Colombians understand any process very well and quickly and are very eager to grow and that drives them to be better,” explains Manuel Morales, OneLink ‘s vice president of operations.

Success stories: Sinerjoy before Financreditos

^{Alejandro Blanco, CEO / Image: Courtesy}

This Colombian BPO was born 30 years ago as an outsourcing to carry out collection processes. He started with a client: Of course , a telecommunications company. After the death of the founder, it was up to Alejandro Blanco to assume responsibility. At that time there were 10 collaborators and 4 clients. Today they generate 1,000 jobs, have 60 clients and a subsidiary in Spain, which is the natural market of Colombia, as well as the United States.

“I learned a lot from my father the technical part, but I have also had a commercial skill that led me to grow the company. I consider myself a good administrator ”, says Alejandro Blanco, CEO of Sinerjoy.

Your best advice to our reader? “An entrepreneur must first of all persevere because reaching the equilibrium point in a business sometimes becomes a medium-term task. To persevere, you have to be austere in the beginning and go into debt intelligently ”.

Success stories: Alorica

^{Carolina Cobos, country manager / Image: Courtesy}

Carolina is a success story because she started working in a BPO at age 18 “with zero expectations,” she says. “I had no studies, the only thing I knew how to do was speak English.” Today at 33 he leads Alorica in Cali, Colombia. Alorica is a North American BPO founded 22 years ago with a presence in Asia, the USA and Latin America. “I was the black sheep of the family, the one that nobody gave a peso for her. I was a single mother at 18 years old. I have three children. But someone believed in me and I had the great fortune of having very good leaders who were willing to teach me, ”says Carolina Cobos how Alorica changed her life when she was young, a woman and a mother.

Your two best tips? “1. As long as you are clear about why you do what you do, you will find different solutions. 2. A 15 minute coaching session can change someone’s life ”.

Start a BPO

If you would like to create a Customer Experience and BPO company; You have to seek to woo people and brands by giving them attention through traditional and digital channels. You must become an expert in designing customer service strategies.

“The most important thing to start a BPO is to form a team that understands how the industry works, knows what specific technology you need and have the right advice. This is a good market because there is a growing demand for outsourcing processes, ”says Manuel Morales, vice president of operations at OneLink .

There are too many clients with many needs, so if you do your job well, clients will always come to you. But to be successful in your Bpo Business it is essential to invest in your collaborators. “It is the best bet. It pays us handsomely to seek the well-being of our people, ”says Manuel Morales.

The way a BPO generates income is diverse. It is charged per person or work station, productive hour, sales made, scheduled appointments, per campaign or seasonal sales, per transaction, etc.

Ana Karina Quessep, executive president of the Colombian Association of BPO , points out that the Business Process Outsourcing sector has been characterized by serving telecommunications companies first, banking and financial services second, then health and government. Also logistics and e-commerce have seen an opportunity in the BPO.

If you have specific knowledge, the advice is to start a niche BPO. Well, customers prefer people who know certain processes very well. You can scale your business when you are able to control the same process from A to Z, but in a greater scope. On the other hand, you should think about how to offer a much deeper service. For example: if you’ve already made the sale, lead the customer to consume more and offer to handle customer service or another process.

Conclusion: The success of any business is the people. Therefore, you have to have a genuine interest in people; and become a specialist in customer and employee experience management.