Benefits of Outsourcing Quality Control & Quality Assurance

February 12, 2021

Benefits of Outsourcing Quality Control & Quality Assurance

When you are looking at the possibility of outsourced Quality Control, you may wonder if it is wise or not. Of course, the obvious answer that we are going to give you is yes. We could leave this article here.

However, it is not going to help you. Therefore, we will tell you why it is.

As you have seen in our numerous QC articles, there is a lot of work that goes into controlling your call center’s quality.

Whether you have a dedicated team to do your QC or try to do it with existing managers, however, it will still give your team an extra workload. Extra workload will mean that your usual work will be less productive, and other areas of your business may suffer.

We could tell you that outsourced quality control is going to be better than in-house QC. However, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of each:

In-House Quality Control

In-house quality control is using your company employees to monitor your quality. Although you may think that this has only to provide benefits at first glance, you should take a look at some of the facts.

In-House Benefits

The main reason that you will want to conduct in-house quality control is because of its benefits:

• Possible lower cost. – The lower price will be the main driving force in your decision that in-house quality control is better for your company. The use of the staff that you already employ is an enticing reason to go for this option. However, there are downsides to this, as we will tell you soon.
• Easier control of your processes. – You may also be thinking that you are in a better position to keep control of your operations and make adjustments when necessary.
• Availability of specific training. – You are in a position that you can specify training requirements for your team and ensure that all of your accreditations are up to date.

You may have read the benefits of in-house quality control and thought, “that’s it; I will get a team together straight away.”

However, before you do that, perhaps you should take a look through some of the downfalls it too.

In-House Downfalls

As with everything that has its benefits, in-house quality control will also have its downfalls too:

• Increased workload. – If you are looking at using current employees as your quality control team, you will undoubtedly increase their workload. It is improbable that any business has people sitting around doing nothing at the disposal of whatever work you throw at them.
• Higher initial training outlay. – When you are first setting up your QC team, you are even more unlikely to have QC-trained staff at your disposal. This can only mean that you will have to teach them before you have a team ready to work.
• The ability for cover-ups. – This ability is possibly the most daunting possible downfall of having your in-house QC team. While you have to trust your workforce, there is still the possibility that things can get covered up by people who work together all of the time.
• Difficult expansion. – It is not always going to be easy to expand your business. Therefore, adding a department into the mix can only lead to the harder development of your business.

In-House QC Outcome

Although the lists above are only small, they are some of the more prominent pros and cons of in-house QC. You may look through the lists and decide that you are better off having your in-house team.

However, here at Call Criteria, we think that this is the wrong philosophy. Before we get into why they are our thoughts, let’s look at what we think the pros and cons of outsourcing are.

Outsourcing Quality Control

Outsourcing your quality control is as easy as getting someone else to do the job for you.

Of course, we are going to tell you that outsourcing is the way to go. But why? As with everything, there will be pros and cons, so let’s take a look at what they are.

Outsourcing Benefits

• No additional staff is required. – As you are outsourcing, there is no requirement to employ extra staff.
• No increase in workload. – Because you are outsourcing the work to another company, there is no fear of an increased workload for your staff. `
• Full accountability. – When you give the work to a dedicated company solely for that single job, it means that you also pass over the full accountability of that job.
• No bias. – As the full accountability bullet point has shown, when there is a company dedicated to a single job, there becomes a requirement for them to do that job to a satisfactory standard. Therefore, there is no room for bias towards individual employees, etc.
• No training is required. – All of our staff are kept up to date in training that is specific to the tasks. This training includes the most up-to-date technology and equipment. This constant improvement of our staff only builds on their already extensive expertise.
• Easily scalable. – You already have plans for the expansion of your business. However, when you have to add in a new department, things can get tricky. However, when you outsource, there is no need to worry about the QC expansion. We do that for you.
• Lower initial cost. – As there is no setup requirement of a QC department, you will only have to pay a monthly charge.

As you can already see, there are many benefits to outsourcing your QC. However, it would be extremely unfair of us not to talk to you about the downsides.

Outsourcing Downfalls

Of course, as with everything, there are going to be some downsides to outsourcing. We have been wracking our brains to think of the honest issues you may find with outsourcing. Here is what we have come up with:

• Distance. – Sometimes, having more than a walking distance between departments can be an off-putting idea to some people.
• Less control of staff. – As you are not employing the team yourself, there can be some times that you may think that this is a downfall.

As you can see, there are very few downfalls that you may encounter with outsourcing.

Outsourced Quality Control – Should you Outsource? – Conclusion

As we have already said, there are pros and cons to everything. The decision between your own in-house QC team or outsourcing the work will boil down to individual preference.

However, our personal opinion is that you have a choice of the following:

Spend more money to have your own team, which, in turn, will increase your workload.
Or
Spend less money on outsourcing to a company dedicated to that specific task.

Companies worldwide outsource components of their business to other, more suited companies. Therefore, it would make sense that, even in call centers, there are aspects better suited to outsourcing.

We believe that quality assurance and quality control are one of the single, most fundamental improvements you can make to a call center business.

Here at Call Criteria, we have made it our mission to be the people that help you reach the goals that you set.
Contact us to find out how we can help you.