Most businesses start with a Request for Proposal (RFP) to find the right vendor to solve their call center needs. The person tasked with RFP responsibilities usually leans hard into RFP templates to save time and reduce workload.
The problem is that most RFP templates are generic, outdated, and rigid. Used “as is” they usually result in receiving proposals filled with boilerplate responses that don’t provide the information you need.
The better approach is to consider an RFP template as a starting point, then customize it and make it your own. Set specific guidelines and expectations for vendors to follow, focus only on the criteria most important to your project and needs, and ask targeted questions. When you do, your RFP process will deliver better results.
Here’s What to Do Before You Start
Putting together an effective RFP starts long before you even look at a template.
The first step is to put together a cross-departmental team to assess needs. Different departments have different needs, and you want to make sure to get input from them all. Working together, you can collaboratively identify your call center’s priorities and needs, along with larger business needs that must be considered.
Then, it’s time to gather available documents. Looking at past RFPs your company sent out will help you identify potential questions to ask (or avoid) in your next RFP. Analytics reports and other data can help define pain points you need to solve. Collecting a few call center RFP templates from external sources will give you a jump start on formatting and organizing your own RFP.
Finally, do research on vendors in the call center space. Avoid the temptation to do a basic Google search and send out your RFP to every company that appears in the search results. Take the time to curate a meaningful list of prospective service providers up front. This will reduce the number of irrelevant RFPs you receive later on.
Step 1: Set Strict Call Center RFP Guidelines
The biggest pitfall of most RFPs is failing to make key requirements clear from the start. Save yourself and your vendors time by spelling these things out in your RFP.
- Mission-critical requirements: These are the things that a vendor must deliver for the project’s success. Clearly set forth these three to five top-level items early in the RFP. Make it clear that they are deal-breakers. If a vendor’s call center software cannot provide one or more of them, they should self-select out early on.
- Submission requirements: Lay out the timeline for the entire RFP process, including key dates for vendor responses and how they will participate. If you’re operating on a rapid timeline, vendors need to know that. Same with processes that will take longer. The key is to ensure the vendors taking time to respond are aligned with your expectations.
- Technical requirements: It’s unlikely your current call center is operating without an existing tech stack. It is essential that vendors understand your integration needs and can provide solutions that work with it. If they can, you can later follow up with detailed questions about any costs associated with the integrations.
- Compliance requirements: If your business is bound by HIPAA, GDPR, or other regulatory constraints, any vendor you work with must also be able to comply. It’s the same with certification requirements. Make sure your RFP spells out any and all of these requirements at the very beginning of the document.
- Experience requirements: Seek out vendors who have worked with other companies like yours. Be clear on what similar looks like to you. Is it the same industry? Same growth stage as your business? Clarify all of this at the start to avoid wasting time with vendors that don’t make the cut. Later in the document you can ask for customer references from those vendors.
If you don’t set strict and specific guidelines up front, vendors will send in proposals haphazardly. They will simply copy/paste boilerplate responses that highlight their generic strengths while ignoring whether they meet your requirements or can address your unique needs.
Step 2: Get Granular With Your Call Center RFP
Don’t fall victim to the generic call center RFP. Now is the time to focus on the details. Any vendor can copy/paste answers to broad, generic questions—and they often do. So don’t ask them.
You need to dive deep and ask the questions that speak to the unique needs of your own call center. You want the vendor responses to give you the information you need to make an informed decision, whether you’re looking for VoIP services, call center security solutions, or something else. There is no room for ambiguity that elicits canned responses.
- Pricing questions: Don’t just ask for baseline pricing—dig deeper. Ask about additional fees (hidden or otherwise) for things like upgrades, new features, add-ons, and the like. Also ask about what happens cost-wise when your needs ramp up or scale down based on business volume.
- Compliance questions: If you’re governed by any compliance regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, or PIPEDA, you want to know how well the vendor meets those requirements. Don’t settle for one word answers to a vendor’s compliance abilities. Ask for a detailed explanation of the vendor’s adherence to the requirements involved. Tell them you’d like to see practical examples of how they’ve managed adherence to these compliance requirements in the past, then seek out contact information for other customers you can speak to about their experiences.
- Security protocols: Protecting customer information is paramount to running a successful call center. You want details on the types of cybersecurity protections a vendor has in place, what kind of data loss prevention coverage they offer, and how they specifically safeguard your customer information. Generic answers won’t cut it here. The more in the weeds you ask them to go, the better.
- Technology: Dig in and find out what kind of technology the vendor has in place behind the scenes. Don’t just ask for their tech stack; find out how they use it. Then dig deeper and find out how they train their team on using the technology. This kind of granular approach will yield better results than simply getting a list of software solutions.
- Integrations: It’s important to know how the vendor’s technology will mesh with your own. No matter the scope of your RFP, a vendor’s solution will at some point have to integrate with your own tech stack. But don’t just find out what the integrations are; be sure to get answers to how much these integrations will cost, too.
- Agent Qualifications: If you’re outsourcing part or all of your call center, it’s important to know how a vendor recruits, trains, and retains their agents. These people will be the face of your company to customers, so you want to ensure they are appropriately vetted and knowledgeable. Go deep with follow-up questions about agent monitoring and evaluation to get a sense for how the vendor measures agent performance. Don’t forget to ask how quickly the vendor can ramp up or scale back their workforce to meet your needs.
Step 3: Ask Better Call Center RFP Questions
Of course you’ll have some standard questions on your call center RFP. You still need to know the basics from each vendor, like company size.
But don’t be afraid to skip the less relevant ones in favor of questions that will require the vendor to pause and think before crafting a reply. Here are some examples of call center RFP questions you can consider.
“How does your product integrate with the tools our team is already using, including (insert your relevant tech stack here)? What are the fees for these integrations?”
“Describe the AI functionality within your solution. How does it work in practice? Explain how pricing works for it.”
“How do you manage GDPR requirements? Who from your client roster can we speak to about their experiences using your services in this regard?”
“What is your call recording and retention policy? How do you store this data? What security measures are in place to protect this information?”
“Describe the steps you take to scale your workforce up or down to meet unexpected volume shifts.”
You get the idea.
Step 4: Set Appropriate Expectations
Make sure everyone is on the same page during the RFP process. This isn’t just a courtesy—it’s essential. Once you have your RFP guidelines and questions completed, be sure to include a separate timeline that explains the entire process, plus key deadlines.
The idea is that both you and the vendors understand all deliverables and deadlines. Put this information up front in your RFP, so vendors can quickly determine whether they can comply.
Your timeline should include all key milestones plus relevant dates for each.
- RFP Issued (date)
- Intent to Reply Deadline (date)
- Vendor Questions Deadline (date)
- Answers Provided to Vendor (date)
- Proposal Submission Due (date)
- Review Process Completed (date)
- Finalists Contacted (date)
- Presentations/Site Visit of Shortlisted Vendors (date)
- Final Vendor Selected (date)
Examples of RFP Template Questions That Tell You Nothing
Don’t waste RFP space asking questions that won’t yield helpful responses. The goal is to make your RFP as concise as possible, while still getting all the information you need to make an informed decision.
Questions like these might have been relevant in the past, but don’t have a place in a modern call center RFP.
“Where are your offices/call centers located?”
To be blunt, it really doesn’t matter. Technology makes geography a secondary consideration, if a consideration at all. As long as a vendor can provide the service you need when you need it and is available to answer questions or resolve problems in real-time, location shouldn’t make a difference.
Asking for this information clogs up your RFP and nets you information that won’t usually sway the needle when making a decision.
“What differentiates you from your competitors?”
Ask this question and you are virtually guaranteed to get a boilerplate response. In fact, the vendor’s marketing team exists to craft responses to questions like this. You can also probably find some variation of this question already answered on the vendor’s website.
It’s far more effective to ask how they’ve evolved their offerings in the last six months to one year. When you ask them to share their innovation stories, you’ll get insights into why they are special…or not.
“Who are your three largest clients?”
The problem with this question is twofold. First, biggest by what standard? Revenue? Headcount? Some other measure? Second, a list of clients isn’t going to tell you anything about their working relationship with those clients.
Instead, ask about the clients they’ve worked with the longest and how long the relationships lasted. Inquire about how they grew along with these clients. You’ll have more of a feel for how responsive the vendor is to growth and maintaining client satisfaction with questions like this.
Any question that’s too broad or generic should be rewritten with a specific focus in mind. If that can’t be done, the question probably doesn’t add much value and doesn’t need to be on the RFP at all.
Should You Ever Use RFP Templates (and When)?
Sure, they make a great starting point and save you time. After all, why reinvent the wheel each time you need to prepare an RFP? Templates provide valuable frameworks and structure for you to follow. One caveat though—you want to use templates that reflect today’s modern call center standards, technologies, and requirements.
But…RFP templates should be only a starting point, not the end of the journey.
You have to carefully scrutinize the questions included on the template. Get rid of the outdated ones or the ones that are unlikely to yield informative answers. Then craft compelling questions that speak to your specific pain points that also require the vendor to prepare a well-crafted response.
How Long Should Your RFP Take?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Different projects call for different timelines. The process can take weeks, months, or even years.
There are three general phases to the RFP process, with average timeframes to complete each noted. Your mileage may vary.
- Creation: This is where cross-departmental teams are built, stakeholders are identified, and issues are clarified. Average time in this phase is one to three weeks.
- Administration: This is where a list of possible RFP vendors is created, the RFP is sent out, vendor questions are fielded, and final proposals are received. Average time spent in this phase can be anywhere from one to two months.
- Evaluation: Proposals are scored, the vendor shortlist is created, finalist vendors do presentations or submit proof of concept work, the winning proposal is selected, and contract negotiations are completed. Average time to complete this phase is one to four weeks.
Obviously, there are many speed bumps you might encounter along the way. Stakeholders might be unavailable, requirements may change, or poor administration may cause unnecessary delays.
There are ways to speed the process up, though.
- Provide as much background information as possible about your company and needs. This reduces the amount of vendor questions you’ll get.
- Keep your RFPs short and to the point. Don’t ask irrelevant questions or ask for hundreds of data points reviewers will have to comb through.
- Don’t send the RFP to every vendor that turns up on a Google search. Take the time to curate an original list of 10 or so vendors who best meet your initial selection criteria, then send the RFP only to them.
- Use RFP management software to streamline the process. When used correctly, this can keep administrative tasks on track, avoiding confusion and delays along the way.
Free Call Center RFP Checklist
Use this handy checklist to stay on track with your next call center RFP.
- Recognize there is a call center issue that must be resolved
- Build a cross-departmental team that works together to identify primary pain points that must be addressed
- Gather relevant documentation and RFP templates to use as a starting framework
- Research vendors in the call center space and curate a meaningful list of the best vendors to include on your RFP submission request list
- Set strict call center guidance requirements
- Design detailed questions that are directly tied to your business needs and pain points identified by the cross-departmental team
- Create a comprehensive timeline that specifies expectations and deadlines for each task
- Receive proposal submissions and score/evaluate them
- Reduce your vendor list to the top candidates, then invite them to present or submit a proof of concept
- Choose the winning proposal
- Negotiate and execute the contract
- Close the RFP process and notify vendors on the shortlist that were not selected
Pro Tips to Ensure a Seamless RFP Process
Sending out your well-crafted RFP is just the beginning of the process. The fun really begins when vendors submit their proposals.
If you send out your RFP to a huge list of vendors, you’ll end up with a huge number of proposals to weed through. This is why care should be put into curating that original list of vendors.
Don’t be lazy and blast the RFP out to every vendor that turned up in a Google search. Instead, do some initial research to see which ones best meet your preliminary needs, then include only those vendors on your RFP list.
Score the Proposals
Once proposals are in, enlist the cross-departmental team to help score each proposal independently. A scorecard is essential here.
Use your RFP as a guideline to create a scoring template that matches the RFP, if not line-by-line, at least for each category on the RFP. Some scores will be a simple yes or no while others will be more subjective.
For example, asking if a vendor offers chat functionality in their solution is a basic yes/no question, while determining if the vendor provided a detailed and personalized response to a different question is more subjective.
The ultimate goal of the scorecard system is to rank the proposals and streamline the selection process.
Compare the Proposals
Reconvene that cross-departmental team and go through the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal based on their scorecard rankings. Some proposals, like those that scored low, will likely be discarded right away.
Other proposals might require debate and further scrutiny to determine how closely responses align with your needs and criteria. The end goal is to arrive at a shortlist of vendors, say the top three, who you want to continue the process with.
Presentations/Proof of Concept/Site Visits
Once you have your shortlist and depending on your business needs, you may ask for one, two, or all three options. Each is standard in most RFP processes.
This step lets you see the solution in action, based on your specific criteria. It’s a helpful way to see how the solution will work in real life. You also get to know the vendor in more detail at this stage.
Choose a Winner
Based on all the information collected, it’s time to choose the best proposal and award the RFP to one vendor. Usually this is a decision made with input from all stakeholders, but sometimes the procurement manager has the final say.
Negotiate the Final Contract
This is the last step before implementing the chosen solution. Details are ironed out, lawyers are usually involved, and all the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted.
Close the RFP Process
Notify any vendors not selected, and wrap up any final paperwork. Be sure to save your customized RFP for use in the future.