My random thoughts come from the other side of the table -- my current gig is in a weird corner of the contact center outsourcing market, and we do some custome

My random thoughts come from the other side of the table -- my current gig is in a weird corner of the contact center outsourcing market, and we do some customer service for folks on a dedicated agent basis. 1) Be super clear internally with your goals for the outsourcing. Most customers end up with a split environment, as you are describing -- essentially duplicating pieces of the customer service management infrastructure between their internal team and the outsourced team. This adds complexity and cost, all things being equal, so you need to be clear on what the goals of the outsourcing are. This should include an analysis of what you are willing to pay for the outsourcing. 2) You're going to want to put quite a bit of effort into, and maintain control of, the training materials that you want the outsource vendor to use to train their employees. From your description, it sounds as though you MAY be trying to hand-wave that part of the problem away by supposing that any outsourced agents will be trained up to be subject matter experts on your product organically. Don't fall into that trap -- contact centers (even internal ones) are high turnover, and training needs to be clear, consistent, and quantifiable. 3) Have a plan in place that you can also share with your vendor as to how to perform quality-assurance on your outsourced agent based; ideally you would use the same criteria to objectively measure your internal staff as well, but I have yet to encounter a client who was willing/able to do that.. 4) Have a full understanding of all the infrastructure that the outsource vendor is going to need access to, and be able to give the vendor enough control over that infrastructure to manage their agent base effectively. Don't make them ask you for a new agent account when they hire someone, or to remove an account when someone leaves or is let go. Overall.. In my personal experience, the success or failure of these types of outsourcing endeavors come down to how objectively the client is willing to look at the entire scope of the problem, and whether they've clearly defined their goals. Clients who are just too busy to worry about customer service and are looking to just stop thinking about it and have the vendor "handle" it are usually unhappy. Clients who expect subject matter experts to be trained up on their product (and then continue to stay in the job for a long period of time) but who are looking to pay bottom dollar are typically unhappy. YMMV. Best of luck in your search!