Table Of Contents:
- What Does A BPO Call Centre Do?
- Why Businesses Use BPO Call Centres
- Is A BPO Call Centre Right For Your Business?
- In-House Support vs. BPO Call Centres: What’s The Difference?
- How BPO Call Centres Work In Practice
A BPO call centre is a third-party service provider that handles customer communications on behalf of another business. BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing, and in a call centre context, it typically covers inbound customer service, outbound lead generation, and back-office admin; often across voice, email, chat, and social media.
At Consumer Links, we deliver UK-managed BPO call centre services through our teams in South Africa and the UK, helping brands improve CX, reduce costs, and scale faster.
What Does A BPO Call Centre Do?
A BPO call centre supports businesses by taking over their customer communication and operational tasks. That can include:
- Inbound call handling: Resolving customer queries, complaints or account issues
- Outbound calling: Booking appointments, qualifying leads, or conducting surveys
- Back-office support: Processing refunds, managing data entry, or verifying documents
- Omnichannel support: Managing customer messages across phone, email, live chat, and social platforms
By outsourcing these tasks, businesses free up internal teams, improve efficiency, and give customers faster, more consistent support.
Why Businesses Use BPO Call Centres
Outsourcing your customer support to a BPO call centre offers real operational and commercial value. The most common benefits include:
Cost efficiency: Lower overheads compared to hiring and training in-house teams
Scalability: Flexibility to ramp support up or down as demand changes
Expertise: Access to trained agents, QA processes, and industry-standard tech
24/7 coverage: Round-the-clock support without the costs of night shifts or overtime
Multilingual support: For global brands, BPO providers often offer multilingual agents
BPO call centres are also faster to set up, especially when you partner with a provider who can handle recruitment, training, and performance management for you.
Is A BPO Call Centre Right For Your Business?
If you’re growing quickly, struggling to meet response times, or want to focus internal resources on strategy rather than support, outsourcing could be the right move.
We partner with businesses in:
Whether you need dedicated teams or shared agent models, we build flexible solutions aligned to your goals.
In-House Support vs. BPO Call Centres: What’s The Difference?
Handling support in-house gives you control, but it can come with higher costs, limited flexibility, and slower response times. A BPO outsourced call centre offers a faster, more cost-effective way to deliver high-quality customer support at scale.
Here’s how the two compare:
Cost
In-house teams mean fixed salaries, training, and infrastructure. BPO providers offer flexible pricing models that reduce overheads and unlock better margins.
Speed and scalability
Scaling an in-house team takes time. A BPO call centre can deploy and scale support teams quickly, especially during seasonal peaks or growth phases.
Expertise
Outsourcing gives you access to experienced agents trained in customer service best practice, compliance, and performance management.
Tech and infrastructure
With BPO, there’s no need to invest in expensive call systems or software. Providers like Consumer Links already have the tools, systems, and reporting in place.
How BPO Call Centres Work In Practice
At Consumer Links, every BPO call centre solution is built around your business goals. Here’s what the process typically looks like:
Discovery – We learn your business, brand tone, pain points and KPIs
Design – We build a tailored support model, including call scripts, SLAs, and agent training
Deployment – Your support goes live, with full QA, reporting and ongoing optimisation
Improvement – We work with you continuously to improve outcomes, CX and efficiency
We operate out of our own call centres in Durban and Manchester, giving you the benefits of low-cost delivery with high-touch, UK-led account management.
Ready To Unlock Smarter Customer Support?
As a UK-managed outsourcing company with high-performing delivery teams in South Africa, we give you the control, flexibility, and results in-house teams can’t match.
If you’re looking for a faster, more cost-effective way to support your customers, we’ll help you build a call centre operation that actually moves the needle. Speak to our team today.
