Updated in 07/28/2024
You’ve Been Tasked with Finding a Call Center in Brazil for Your Company, Now What? 😱
Don’t panic! I’m here to help you out!
In our recent article, we covered everything about how the call center market in Brazil looks like and the main foreign companies outsourcing this type of service in the country. I believe the article will help you better understand the market.
Now that you’ve decided to start looking for a call center in Brazil for your international company, there are some details you need to pay attention to.
That’s why we’ve created this guide with 10 simple steps on how to outsource call center services in Brazil. Let’s go!
Step 1: Know Exactly What You Need
First, before you start chasing down various companies, make sure that you and your company know exactly what you need. THIS MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE! Believe me!
After all, not every call center will be the best choice, and since it’s a process that involves many steps, the best thing is to define everything you need and will need.
For that, talk to your team, take notes, imagine scenarios (good and bad), and anticipate possible problems or requests that may arise. To help you, I’ve created a checklist:
Outsourcing call center in Brazil checklist:
Questions you should make, or you should answer.
- What type of service am I looking for from a Brazilian call center?
- Do I need a dedicated or shared team?
- How many agents will I need immediately?
- Who will manage these agents, my company or the Brazilian call center? What’s the cost for management?
- What are the shifts these agents will work? This can affect the price since companies in Brazil pay an additional fee for night shifts.
- How many languages do these agents need to speak? What’s the proficiency level? The more you ask, the more expensive it gets, usually…
- What qualifications do these agents need to have?
- How does the call center handle a sick or absent agent?
- What’s my budget?
- What tools does this call center need to know to provide the service?
- Will they use a tool we already use, or will a new one be necessary?
- Does this call center in Brazil provide a national phone number, toll-free? What’s the cost?
- Is it a call center where employees work remotely or in a physical space?
- Can I participate in the recruitment process for the service agents?
Write down all the questions on paper (you can use a computer too 😋) – what you need to know from the company you’re hiring and what you need to have ready for the hiring to work. This will save you hours of online meetings, asking questions, and forgetting others, and the problem is that later on, a simple unanswered question can cause a big problem.
Example: Here at BrazilDesk, most employees work remotely because it’s hard to find people who speak three languages, for example, Portuguese, Spanish, and English, in the city where we are (a small town in Rio de Janeiro). Some clients have contacted us and, despite this information about remote agents being on our website, they didn’t ask us about that. Close to signing the contract they asked for it and, upon learning that we hire remote agents, decided not to proceed with the contract. All of this could have been avoided by reading the information on our website or simply sending a list of questions.
Having a clear understanding of these requirements will help narrow down your options and find a call center that meets your specific needs. Don’t forget to consider the start date for when you want the services to begin and align that with the contracted call center. Also, consider the training time.
Step 2: Create or Update Your Training Program
It’s very common, and I say this from personal experience, for companies to look for employees first and then create training, or even have training ready but not updated. Please, don’t do that!
In developing the training for this outsourced team, you will know exactly what to ask for from the call center you are hiring in Brazil. Because everything can go wrong if you inform that you need X and when the operation starts, you need X,Y,Z and don’t know, and this will probably increase the price or cause problems. If you’re responsible for saving the company’s resources, this burden will fall on you.
Investing time in creating a revised training program for the outsourced call center team in Brazil will bring long-term benefits, ensuring the support team is well-prepared to handle customer interactions efficiently and effectively.
ALSO… 🚸 ATTENTION HERE: Know the exact length of the onboarding process.
Step 3: Establish an Implementation Schedule
When a process like this starts, you need to know that many people will be affected by any poorly planned decisions: your team, your customers, your superiors, yourself, the call center company in Brazil, the agents being hired, etc. So know how to work with dates, inform delays, demand agreed actions, and have time buffers to avoid any challenges and delays, as well as unforeseen events.
Step 4: Look for the Right Partner
We know that there are many call centers, and in Brazil, there are several, but when we talk about call centers dedicated to working with international companies, the search becomes a bit more complex.
It’s very common to find huge multilingual call center companies posing as Brazilian companies but they are not, so stay alert.
Here at BrazilDesk, for example, our focus is to work only with international clients who need to be in contact in English all the time with us and our agents, so the language issue can be a problem.
Use the questions you noted, search the internet for these companies, and try to extract some of the information you need before the first contact through the call center’s website. You might need a translator in your browser to translate the sites from Portuguese to English to understand better.
Shortlist the best companies and get in touch already with your list of questions.
Check if the company offers the services you’re looking for and if they have expertise in your market or similar markets.
If you’re looking for a telemarketing call center in Brazil, don’t contact a company dedicated only to customer support and not sales. You can find this out by checking the company’s information on their website and social media or getting in touch.
Step 5: Ask the Right Questions
After you have a shortlist of potential partners, it’s time to ask the right questions to ensure they are a good fit for your business. Ask about their costs, onboarding timelines, infrastructure, operations, how many clients they have, if they offer dedicated service, turnover rates, and all the questions you noted. Also, ask about how the contract works. DO ALL THIS BY EMAIL!
You can send the same email to all potential call centers in Brazil you found, no need to schedule long meetings when you can get the answer faster.
Also, pay attention to how quickly the company responds to your emails and answers your questions, and if they ask you some questions before giving any figures. Avoid companies that hide financial information!
Ask about their experience with compliance and data security, especially regarding Brazilian call center laws, which are very specific and detailed when it comes to call center services.
Step 6: Reach Out by Email and Start a Conversation
After visiting the companies’ websites and gathering initial information, the next step is to reach out by email. Draft a professional and well-detailed email that introduces your company, explains your needs, and describes what you’re looking for in a call center partner in Brazil.
Tip from a Brazilian call center: It’s very common for companies to contact BrazilDesk and inform us of their needs in two lines and ask for a quote or an estimate, and after many conversations, we see that the price we charge is very different, either cheaper or more expensive, and this disrupts the whole process. So, avoid a situation like this.
Step 7: Verify Compliance with Brazilian Laws and Documentation
Before finalizing any partnership, it’s crucial to ensure that the call center in the land of Samba complies with all relevant Brazilian laws and regulations. This includes data protection laws, labor laws, and any sector-specific regulations. Check how they hire their agents and ensure that they will not have employment ties with your company, and this should be clearly stated in the contract.
All Brazilian companies have a document called CNPJ (Cadastro Nacional da Pessoa Jurídica), whose number can be verified on the official government website. Also, check their social media and see if it’s a company following legislative and data security and protection standards.
This helps avoid misunderstandings or even future legal issues. Read this article to understand more about Brazilian call center law.
Step 8: Schedule a Meeting
If you’ve reached this stage (congrats!), I believe you are well aware of what this call center in Brazil can offer you, so schedule a meeting to get to know who’s in charge of the company.
This is a meeting for you to get to know the company better and align the details of the process initiation, explain the needs better, and answer the call center company’s questions.
Have an agenda on what will be discussed in the meeting and who will participate. Don’t hold a meeting without a beginning, middle, and end. If possible, ask to record the online call so you can make detailed notes of what was discussed later. The recorded call also serves as proof that both companies agreed on everything proposed so far and can be forwarded to other team members who couldn’t attend.
Step 9: Request a Trial Contract Period
If you need a very large team, the recommendation is to divide this hiring into two stages, after all, both companies will be aligning expectations and reality.
Ask the Brazilian call center company to provide an initial temporary contract, from one to three months, so your company can evaluate their services, starting with fewer agents if you need a large team. It may be that in the first few weeks, you can tell if it will be a successful contract or not.
Set clear expectations and goals for the trial period and provide regular feedback to help the call center better understand your requirements and what your company needs. This trial period serves as a risk mitigation strategy, allowing you to make adjustments as needed before signing a full contract.
Review the results at the end of the trial period and decide if you want to proceed with the partnership based on performance and outcomes.
Step 10: Review Everything Before Starting
Before officially starting the partnership, take some time to review all the details one more time. This includes contract terms, service level agreements, implementation schedule, and any other relevant agreements, especially day-to-day details, who will be responsible for what.
Ensure that both parties have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and expectations. Confirm that all necessary infrastructure and training are aligned and address any outstanding issues or concerns, note down all information, and avoid multiple disorganized messages. All this will help you complete this step without many problems.
This final review helps prevent any misunderstandings or communication failures and sets the stage for a successful and smooth partnership.
🚨 Remember: you were assigned to complete this task, and if something goes wrong, even if it’s not your fault, the responsibility to resolve and respond to the generated problems will fall on you. Problems generated can easily be resolved if you follow these tips.
Conclusion
FINALMENTE!
Outsourcing call center services to Brazil can be a strategic decision that offers numerous benefits, but like everything in life, it has its downsides. A rushed, unplanned search can lead to huge problems down the road.
I hope these 10 steps help you find the ideal partner in Brazil and that the whole process is smooth and fruitful for both parties.
And know that BrazilDesk is a Brazilian call center focused on helping international companies with needs in Brazil, offering customer service and BPO services.
We set up your team and become an extension of your company in the country. If you need something like this, contact us: hello@brazildesk.com or visit our home page to get to know us!
