Most Asked BPO Interview Questions
Following is the list of most asked BPO interview questions for fresher and experienced candidates to get their dream job.
1) What do you know about BPO and how it works?
BPO is an abbreviation that stands for Business Process Outsourcing. It consists of front-office customer services such as tech support and back-office business functions like billing. When a company has a big work load, and they want their non-core work to be done by an expert at cheaper costs, then they easily outsource their work to another cheap country that has a large work force at a cheaper cost. This process is called Business Process Outsourcing.
In a BPO, the entire business is handled by a third party. An external service provider transfers the project to a third party on a contract basis. The third-party has the responsibility to improve the service provider’s customer experience and provide excellent customer service.
2) Why do you want to join a BPO?
This is a very obvious question that you can face in a BPO interview. You have to answer this question in the following way:
Sir, I am a fresh graduate and as a fresher, I can see that the technology is evolving day by day. In the modern IT industry, the outsourcing market is growing enormously. Hence, the BPO companies are getting exposed to new work opportunities and projects. So, there is a very high demand in BPO/IT industry now and one can easily boost their skills and learn a lot of things to be more productive in the long run. Moreover, BPO is a fast growing industry for multiple big business brands today. So, as a fresher it is not a bad choice to join now and boost our careers.
3) What are the biggest BPO sectors for outsourcing?
Following is the list of main BPO sectors for outsourcing:
- Information Technology
- Communication
- Medical and health services
- Insurance
- Finance
- Law and Jurisdiction etc.
4) What are the major types of outsourcing?
There are several types of outsourcing, such as the following:
- Onshore outsourcing
- Offshore outsourcing
- Near-shoring outsourcing
- Professional outsourcing
- IT outsourcing etc.
Here, professional and IT outsourcing are the most profitable form of outsourcing.
5) What is the difference between onshore and offshore outsourcing?
The interviewer asks this question to check your basic understanding of the BPO sector. Here, you have to explain that any project or task allotted outside the country (Generally to an overseas country that is not nearby) is referred to as offshore outsourcing. On the other hand, a project or task allotted outside the country (Generally outsourced to a nearby country) is onshore outsourcing.
6) What do you know about professional outsourcing?
The term professional outsourcing is used to refer to some specialized professional services such as accounting, legal advisory, purchasing, information technology (IT), administrative support, education etc. These are the most common form of outsourcing as a service. Professional outsourcing is used to reduce overhead costs because the core businesses only need to pay for services provided while accessing high-quality resources.
7) What do you understand by IT outsourcing?
IT outsourcing is a type of professional outsourcing. If you see the past few decades’ trends, you will observe that IT outsourcing has become the most common services. The big IT companies seek technology-related resources outside the organization from overseas countries where resources are cheap. They use IT outsourcing for functions such as infrastructure and software development, maintenance and support.
8) Why working in night shifts is important for BPO and IT sector?
Night shift is very important in the BPO and IT industry because of the following reason:
- The BPOs and IT industries operating in India have projects mostly from developed countries such as the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand etc., so they have to match these foreign countries’ working hours.
- The overall production cost may reduce as they have to rent the offices only for the night shift, and other companies can use these offices for day timing.
- In the night shift, the BPO can produce more volume and meet the demand of the market.
9) What is the difference between inbound and outbound call centers?
The major difference between the inbound call centers and the outbound call centers is that the inbound call centers receive calls only, while the outbound call centers make calls. Generally, the inbound call centers act as the company’s service department, while the outbound call centers deal in the business department where they sell products or services.
10) What is multi outsourcing?
Multi outsourcing or multi-sourcing is commonly used when referring to IT outsourcing and IT services. It was introduced by a market technology research firm in 2005 and is most frequently used by large enterprises. IT operations and technology infrastructure are contracted out to multiple vendors, usually combined with some internally provided elements of information technology.
11) What is manufacturer outsourcing?
Manufacturer outsourcing is a common outsourcing service where companies that deal in the production of goods hire people outside of the company to assemble parts of or build an entire product. This is done by the companies which lack funds to establish heavy machinery. This is the best way to compete with larger enterprises.
12) What do you understand by process-specific outsourcing?
As the name suggests, in process-specific outsourcing, the company outsources a specific operation-related to other companies or units that have specialization in that field.
For example, Amazon can outsource a package to a courier delivery company such as BlueDart or Ekart. This comes with details like delivery timelines, customer contacts and costs. This reduces the unwanted stress for the company, and they can focus on their core field.
13) What do you understand by offshoring?
Offshoring is a process of outsourcing business functions to another country, which is considerably cheaper. This is a very good strategic way to reduce the labor costs and enter a new market where you can get cheap talent, which was not possible domestically.
14) What are the major advantages of a BPO?
Following are the main advantages of a BPO:
- Flexibility: Companies choose to outsource non-core activities to a BPO, and that makes them more flexible. It also enhances the flexibility in resource management of the client company.
- Improve Productivity: It improves productivity and human resource of the company because BPO can easily cope with the changing demand of the customers.
- Cost-Effective: It enables call center owners to utilize the latest technology at a lower cost. The company does not have to invest in additionally fixed assets and can convert them to variable costs.
- Speed: This is one of the biggest advantages of BPOs as they increase the speed of the business processes outsourced to them. They have a very good response time, and the client company can focus on the core activities.
- Skilled Manpower: When a company outsources a business activity to a BPO, the company is insured for great services provided by the BPO’s skilled labor.
15) What are the major disadvantages of a BPO?
Following are the main advantages of a BPO:
- Communication Problems: There may appear a communication gap between customers and companies, creating further problems.
- Different Time Zones: This is a very real problem because the different time zones between the client and the vendor companies create a calling problem.
- Loss of Control: In this service, the customer care department is generally controlled by another company, so the customer may sometimes feel a loss of control in customer service.
16) What do you understand by a horizontal BPO?
A BPO can be categorized in mainly two types:
- Horizontal BPO
- Vertical BPO
Horizontal BPO mainly focuses on function centric outsourcing. In this BPO, the outsourcing partner or vendor specializes in specific functions across industry domains. It includes procurement, payroll processing, HR, facilities management and ERP software maintenance etc.
17) What do you understand by a vertical BPO?
A vertical BPO mainly focuses on services within core industry domains. It includes healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and retail etc.
18) Which types of services fall under voice support?
The services that need executives to explain to the customers by speaking up are called voice support services. The following types of services fall under voice support:
- BPO services
- Call Center Services
- Inbound Service
- Outbound Service
- Telemarketing Services
- Customer Service Outsourcing
- Healthcare BPO Services
- Legal Process Outsourcing
- Technical Support Services
19) Which types of services fall under non-voice support?
The services that don’t require the executives to explain to the customers by speaking up are called non-voice support services. The following types of services fall under voice support:
- Data Entry Services
- Chat Support Services
- Email Support Services
20) What do you understand by a call center?
Call centers are voice-based BPOs used for customer service, sales and support activities on behalf of other vendor companies.
There are generally two types of call centers:
- Inbound call centers
- Outbound call centers
21) What are some examples of inbound call center services?
Some examples of inbound call center services are:
- Customer Service / Support
- Inbound Sales
- Help Desk Services
- Technical Support Services
- Order Booking / Order Processing
22) What are some examples of outbound call center services?
Some examples of outbound call center services are:
- Customer Survey
- Lead Generation
- Customer Retention
- Services on the Phone
23) What is the difference between KPO and BPO?
Following is the list of some key differences between KPO and BPO:
KPO | BPO |
---|---|
KPO is an acronym that stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing. | BPO is an acronym that stands for Business Process Outsourcing. |
In this process, you have to a basic understanding of the business. Specialization in any subject is mandatory in this process. | In this process, you require basic computer and communication skills and knowledge. |
This process includes the services such as legal services, market, and business research, etc. | This process includes the services such as technical support, customer care, sales, telemarketing, etc. |
The executives don’t require much involvement with the client, so the client’s interference is low. | In this process, the client’s involvement is very high as the executives regularly talk to the clients. |
24) What are the reasons behind companies outsourcing?
The main reason behind the companies’ outsourcing is that it is cost-saving, and the company can focus on core activities, which lead ahead to get quality work done by the experts in that domain.
25) Is it easy for you to handle customers on the phone?
If you want to select in the interview, you have to say yes. There is no other option. It is predefined that you are already very phone-friendly if you are in the BPO or call center interview. It is a very important thing for interviewers to know about your ability to handle the customers on call because the main task involves managing the customers and resolving their queries.
26) What is the full form of BPM?
The full form of BPM is Business Process Management. It is a management approach that focuses on optimizing organization operations to increase client satisfaction.
27) What is the scope of BPO in the current market?
If we see the current market, the new companies are growing day by day. They need a vendor company or a BPO to provide support to them. So, the future of BPOs is bright. We have seen that the situation was not good in the economic crisis, and many companies failed to survive in the market. At that time, the BPO has achieved a milestone. So, the BPOs can help to reduce the unemployment rate marginally in developing countries like India.
28) What do you understand by RPO?
The full form of RPO is Recruitment Process Outsourcing. In this process, a company transfers all or part of its permanent recruitment to an external service provider who does all the recruitments for their client company. The RPO provider acts as an extension of a company’s HR or Resourcing function, sitting on-site with the client providing a hiring solution.
29) What are the different types of RPO in the industry?
Following is the list of some different types of RPO:
- On-demand RPO: The on-demand RPO is used to support the recruitment cycle of a business.
- Short term RPO: The short term RPO is generally used when the company wants to increase the team’s size when needed.
- Point of service RPO: The point of service RPO is an implementation of the recruiting process.
- Full Cycle RPO: The full cycle RPO is used to perform the recruiting cycle within a selected business area.
- Long term RPO: The long term RPO is the management of end to end recruitment process.
30) What computer skills are required for a BPO job?
Usually, for a BPO job, the candidates are mainly asked for good communication skills. The interviewer also asks for basic computer skills. Still, if the job demands more computer work, they will specify the minimum computer skills required and do a practical test to check your computer skills.
31) What are the important documents required to get the response from the vendor before outsourcing?
Following are some important documents required to get the response from a vendor after outsourcing:
- Request for information
- Request for a quote
- Request for tender etc.
32) What are the basic qualities that are required to get success in the BPO industry?
Nowadays, the BPO industry is very competitive. If you want to succeed and precede your career at a higher level, you must be hard-working, persistent, and have good communication skills. If you have all these qualities, you can easily get many opportunities to grow in this field. You can also get an on-site opportunity and earn a lot of foreign exchange.
Along with these above qualities, you must also be flexible to work in shifts, keep learning as a team, have a positive attitude towards all learning new processes and satisfy all the outsourcing clients.
33) Which one is better in the non-voice BPO and the voice BPO in the term of career opportunities?
If you want to make a long-term career in a BPO, the non-voice processes would be better than a voice processes BPO. In non-voice BPO, you require a minimum knowledge in performing tasks, such as basic command of software programs to do certain tasks like data entry and bookkeeping. Here, you would not have to face the psychological stress in dealing with a client through oral communications. It can be very stressful dealing with hot heads every day in the voice process BPOs. But, we can say that the opportunities are the same in both types of BPOs, and it depends on an individual’s interest and personality. In both types of BPOs, you can quickly head toward the management or support side when you gain enough experience in work.
34) What are the roles and responsibilities involved in a non-voice process?
Generally, the non-voice processes in the BPO industry include chat process, data entry or working on a CRM where you need to provide support to a project which is already built. For example, suppose you are working in the non-voice BPO of an online product selling website. In that case, you have to provide assistance to customers through texting on chat software provided by the company or answer and resolve their queries. Some companies provide excel data entry work also for the non-voice process. So, it depends on the company to a company that what you asked to do. It also depends on the job profile, and the roles and responsibilities would differ based on what position you are hired in the company. In short, you are responsible for in time deliverables of good quality.
35) What do you understand by Insourcing?
Insourcing is the project’s assignment to a person or department within an organization rather than to a third party. In this process, the work is assigned within the organization instead of outsourcing various works to vendors. Insourcing is the opposite term of outsourcing.
36) How can you handle customers in an inbound or an outbound BPO process?
- Inbound BPO process: In the inbound BPO process, the executive’s main motive should make the customer feel comfortable with a calm conversation tone. In this process, we have to resolve the issues of the customers.
- Outbound BPO process: The outbound process requires a more convincing and advertising pitch to grab the client’s attention. In this process, we have to sell products or services to the customers.
37) Do you have any other skills that can be helpful to BPO’s?
In a BPO, the more languages you know, the more benefits you get. Here, the interviewer asks this question to check if you know any other language apart from English. A person who wants to work in BPO can learn any other foreign language such as French or Spanish. It always gives you more chances of securing jobs in BPOs.
38) What do you understand by ISO: 9000 standards?
The ISO: 9000 is defined as a set of international standards provided to the companies for quality management and quality assurance. This standard is not specified for any one industry, and it can be applied to organizations of any size. Most BPO companies have accepted ISO: 9000 standards as the benchmark for the quality of their services.
39) Explain what you understand by an outsourcer?
In the BPO environment, the companies that outsource their works to another company (generally an overseas company) is called the outsourcer.
40) What is reshoring in the context of BPO?
Reshoring can be defined as a process of returning the production and manufacturing of goods to the company’s original country. Reshoring is also known as onshoring, inshoring, or back shoring.
41) What is the difference between back-office outsourcing and front office outsourcing?
- Back-office outsourcing: When an organization decides to outsource the internal process of its working to another company, it is called back-office outsourcing. For Example, suppose a company has assigned all the responsibilities to manage its finances to a third party accounts firm. It would be called back-office outsourcing.
- Front office outsourcing: When an organization decides to outsource the customer handling department, services and BPO call centers to another company, it is called front-office outsourcing. In this outsourcing, the vendor firm has to deal with and manage all the customer relationships and provide a contact point for customers of the company to address their grievances.
42) What do you understand by Procurement Business Process Outsourcing?
Procurement Business Process Outsourcing or Procurement BPO is a new and growing service offered by large consultancies. Procurement BPO is the provision of the business functions of the processing or purchasing department of one large company by another company. There are currently very few large companies that have dared to outsource their entire procurement activities as procurement BPO is an expensive option.
43) What is the difference between offshore, nearshore, and onshore outsourcing?
Following is the main differences between offshore, nearshore, and onshore outsourcing:
Offshore outsourcing: If a company outsources its project to a third-party organization to carry out a certain process outside their own country (generally to overseas countries), this process is called offshore outsourcing. In other words, you can say that “Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external company to do some business functions in a country other than where the products or services are actually developed or manufactured.”
For Example, many multinational companies with headquarters in the USA outsource their projects to an Indian company.
Nearshore outsourcing: When a company outsources its project to a third-party organization to carry out a certain process for them, but the contract is given to an enterprise of a neighboring country (opposite to overseas countries in offshore outsourcing) is known as nearshore outsourcing.
For Example, when an American company outsources its project to a Mexican company, it would be called nearshore outsourcing.
Onshore outsourcing: When a company outsources its project to a third-party organization to carry out a certain process for them, and the company that accepts the assignment is also in the same country, then this is known as onshore outsourcing.
44) What are the main activities involved in a call center or a BPO?
In a call center or a BPO, the main activities required are to handle the client’s queries effectively and provide them a satisfactory solution. It also includes convincing the customers to buy your products or services and coordinate with a team to offer a good service to the client.
45) What are the major risks associated with the BPO?
The biggest risk associated with BPO is that it can breach the confidentiality of the customers. There is a big chance that the company can leak the personal information of the customers.
46) How can you improve customer satisfaction?
There are several ways to improve customer services and satisfaction:
- Listen to the customers carefully. You have to know the customer’s query well to give them what they want.
- Be proactive and offer proactive services for the customers.
- Don’t worry about complaints or happy with compliments. Always do your best to serve the client.
- Practice honesty and manage expectations in marketing.
- Encourage your customers to provide them some special services from time to time.
47) What is the full form of LPO?
The full form of LPO is Legal Process Outsourcing. In this outsourcing, an organization outsources their every legal work to other legal organizations.
48) What do you understand by the webchat process?
The webchat process is a communication method used to interact with the customer in the call center via chat heads on the website.