Every dollar counts when it comes to managing your company’s resources. This means looking for cost-effective options whenever possible, whether it’s for spending on office space rent, buying good enterprise-class equipment, or choosing the right utility providers.
Today, businesses even have the means to outsource services domestically or even overseas, an example of which is hiring call centers to handle customer inquiries and transactions. However, even outsourcing business processes like these can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses that don’t really need a full team of agents handling calls for them. For these companies, seat leasing could be a great alternative.
What is Seat Leasing?
Seat leasing works almost like regular outsourcing, but instead of letting a third-party company do the hiring, training, and paying of employees, you will take care of all employee relations yourself. Moreover, instead of paying for big service packages, you can lease individual seats for your own employees and pay on a monthly basis. You usually have to pay the first and last month rental up front, but everything else is pretty straightforward.
Advantages of Seat Leasing
Seat leasing offers a few key advantages that even hiring a call center can’t provide. Most of these benefits are perfect for small to medium-sized businesses, but seat leasing can also be advantageous for some large scale companies.
- You can start really small
Hiring a call center may cost less than establishing one yourself, but even that doesn’t compare to the affordability of seat leasing. You can start very small; even leasing one seat is possible. If you’re a startup company that relies greatly on handling calls, you can have a small team of well-trained agents in no time.
- It’s very flexible
Leasing a single seat is great if you’re just starting up, but as your business grows, so does the volume of calls that have to be handled. With seat leasing, you don’t have to worry about changing terms in the contract or paying extra for adding more people after getting a service package. You can simply lease (or let go) of more seats as you see fit. Scalability is handy especially if your business experiences “downtime seasons,” when having extra agents isn’t cost effective.
- You don’t need to invest in infrastructure
When you lease a seat, it comes complete with the right office furniture, internet connection designed to meet corporate standards, and all the hardware and software needed to handle calls from your customers. You don’t have to worry about having to invest in extra equipment that requires constant upgrading.
- You get IT support
Hardware and software issues may require hiring a third-party IT expert or buying the necessary tools in order to fix it. This isn’t the case with seat leasing since companies offering the service have their own team of experts to make sure things run smoothly.
- You know your team of agents
The biggest difference between seat leasing and hiring a call center is the people. With seat leasing, you get to decide who will handle the calls, unlike in call centers, where you have a pre-assembled team of agents who will then be trained by the call center company. This means you personally know who’s taking calls for you. Naturally, you will want people that are already familiar with your company, the kind of work you do, and the nuances of the products and services you offer.
Seat leasing offers excellent versatility and affordability, and businesses of all sizes are starting to realize its potential. Some companies even turn to seat leasing to complement hiring call centers for even more flexibility. It could likewise be the best option for your company, especially if you know how to make the most out of its benefits.
