Outsourcing of business processes is not a secret these days. There are almost all multinational companies do outsource their business processes. This helps them reduce the workload and focus on other important aspects to boost the business.
BPO is the short form of Business Process Outsourcing. A BPO company deals with the outsourced business processes of a company. But, as I have heard many times that people are very confused to differentiate a BPO and a Call Center, therefore I wrote this article to let everyone know what is the difference between BPO and Call Center.
Understanding that a BPO and a call center are the same thing is a mistake. Even at some point in time, I also made this mistake but then someone told me what actually the difference between a BPO and a call center is. I also got to know about KPO which stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing. So, let’s know the difference between BPO, call center, and KPO.
What’s the Difference Between BPO and Call Center?
As I already told you that a BPO is a company that deals with the outsourced jobs provided by multinational companies and that’s why it’s called Business Process Outsourcing. A BPO may provide different services including marketing, human resources, call center, etc.
So, it should now be very clear that the call center is just a subset or sub-unit of BPO. One of the main reasons to establish call centers is to provide customers with instant support for their technical and non-technical queries.
The call center is a type of BPO where only inbound and outbound services are handled through making or receiving phone calls whereas BPO is a place where any type of outsourcing work is done.
Generally, a call center can be considered a BPO that handles business over the telephone but a BPO cannot be called a call center because there’re many kinds of business processes handled in a BPO.
So, till now if you were also thinking that BPO means call center, forget that. Even for instance a call center can be called BPO but calling BPO a call center is incorrect.
Another big difference between a BPO and a call center is that in BPO, they outsource the business processes for the company but in a call center, they work directly for the clients.
What’s the Difference Between BPO and KPO?
Just like a call center, KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) is also a subset of BPO. The processes which are outsourced to KPOs are generally more specialized and knowledge-based as compared to BPOs.
KPO provides high-end services like legal services, business, market research, etc. which require in-depth knowledge and expertise in these areas. Whereas BPO provides low-end services like a call center, human resources, telemarketing, and sales.
Those who would like to work in BPO should have good communication skills and basic computer knowledge but for getting a job in KPO, one must have specialized knowledge about the areas of work.
That’s all for now. I used some basic and easy-to-understand points to differentiate a BPO, call center, and KPO. So, from the above points, we came to the conclusion that we cannot say a BPO is a call center because a call center is one of the services provided by a BPO and KPO is an extended version of BPO where complex and knowledge-based processes are outsourced.
