Delivering exceptional customer service is a necessity in today’s competitive business landscape. But what if you don’t have the resources to staff a full-fledged customer service team? That’s where outsourcing customer service comes in.
Outsourcing allows you to leverage the expertise of a third-party provider, giving you access to a trained team of professionals without the burden of recruitment, training, and ongoing management. This can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes, but it’s particularly advantageous for startups and growing companies.
Here’s a glimpse into why outsourcing customer service can be a winning strategy for your business:
- Cost Savings: Outsourcing providers often operate in locations with lower labor costs, leading to significant financial savings compared to building an in-house team.
- Focus on Core Business: By offloading customer service tasks, you and your internal staff can dedicate your time and energy to core business functions that directly drive growth and innovation.
- Expertise: Reputable outsourcing providers employ qualified professionals with experience handling diverse customer inquiries.
Of course, there are factors to consider before outsourcing, but for many businesses, it can be a powerful tool to elevate customer service, optimize costs, and achieve long-term success.
What is Customer Service Outsourcing?
Customer service outsourcing is a business strategy that utilizes a third-party company to help you manage a wide range of customer-related services. Services include voice assistant technology in customer support services and non-voice operations such as answering emails and live chats.
One of the advantages of customer service outsourcing is that it allows you to adapt to your customers’ changing needs and demands quickly. Personalization technologies for better engagement with customers are often utilized in this process. Another advantage is the understanding and leveraging the IoT for personalized customer experiences. You won’t have to worry about the fluctuating volumes of incoming inquiries in your hotline or maintaining your customer service response time because there are also customer feedback tools powered by AI for business.
When you work with a dependable and experienced customer service outsourcing company, you can be confident that your business can consistently provide high-quality customer service across all your contact channels.
Have you been thinking about outsourcing your customer service? Outsourcing is the most common way of maximizing resources and ensuring your company meets customer demands. For many businesses, it’s also a practical way of providing top-notch 24/7 customer service without making a significant financial investment.
Customer service is one of the commonly outsourced business processes worldwide — and for a good reason. It’s one of the most accessible business processes to outsource. So, if your business is struggling with customer support and you’re looking for ways to manage it, it may be time to consider a BPO service.
Here are some reasons outsourcing your customer service is your best strategy for success.
Cost
Around 70% of the time, cost reduction has been the primary reason for companies to outsource customer service.
Instead of hiring full-time employees for customer support and investing in equipment, the more cost-effective option would be to outsource your customer support. Building your customer support team can incur costs on training, equipment, and a like – third-party providers would take care of that for you..
Coverage
Providing 24/7 customer service is not an easy task. Even if you are a large firm, round-the-clock customer support may be impossible to maintain. Fortunately, this is something that many call center companies provide. Regardless of time zones, BPOs ensure you have a team available for customer support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Are you providing services for people across the globe? You could also work with a multi-lingual team so your customers could have the option to use the language they’re most comfortable with.
Resources
Similar to cost, saving company resources is important for many businesses looking to outsource their customer service.
Building and maintaining your own contact center can be costly. It could easily take up your significant resources, such as infrastructure, human capital, labor, and training.
When you outsource your customer support, you instantly gain access to resources you otherwise won’t have access to. This includes a trained team, ready-to-use equipment, and the best CRM software for improving customer experience, — all at a fraction of the cost. Also, you won’t have to worry about training employees, as most BPO services would train their staff with your guidance and direction.
You can also be confident that you have the support you need to handle both minor and major customer issues without taking up your resources. As a result, your business could be more efficient with an outsourced team than an in-house team of customer support agents.
Flexibility
Uncertain economic landscapes and frequently changing customer needs require many businesses to be agile and flexible when providing customer support.
One of the challenges of having your own customer support team is flexibility. You may be hiring additional customer support agents because of the high volume of inquiries and issues you’re getting. What happens when this volume decreases, or you don’t need 24/7 customer service anymore?
When you work with a call center company, you get the flexibility you need to adapt to your current business situation immediately. Let them know your workforce requirements for a specific period, and the right company should be able to help you out.
Staffing
Employee management takes time and effort. Regardless of your customer support team size, it is always best to consider working with a BPO service. This way, you won’t have to think about staffing concerns, such as training, shifting schedules, and timekeeping. Moving this responsibility to a service provider means you can focus your efforts and resources on other significant aspects of your business.
Technology
Technology trends shape future customer experience, but investing in the latest technology for your customer support may not always be practical. For one, it’s costly. Second, you can’t always be sure how you could make the most of it.
When outsourcing your customer service, you gain access to the latest technology you need to improve your customer support and boost efficiency. The best part? You can have it without investing in any costly hardware or cloud services.
Satisfaction
There are different ways to improve customer satisfaction. Outsourcing customer support helps you provide the following:
- Faster response time — In a world where everyone wants to have information as quickly as they can, a quick response time from your company won’t go unnoticed by your customers.
- Shorter wait time — No one likes waiting in queue to have someone help them with their concerns. When you let your customers wait for a long time on your hotline or live chat, it tells them you don’t respect their time — and their business.
- Multi-channel support — Do you only have a single point of contact for all your customers? Having multi-channel support allows your customers to choose the point of contact that is most convenient for them. In addition, it helps reduce your hotline’s call volume.
When you can meet your clientele’s needs, customer satisfaction is bound to improve.
With a BPO service, you can rest assured that you have a team of experts taking care of your customers and their needs.
Learn more: Customer Satisfaction Case Study by Inspiro
Are you ready to work with a customer service outsourcing company? Be sure you know what to expect and how to integrate it into your existing customer service strategy.
Here’s how to succeed in using a BPO service for your business.
6 Easy steps on how to Outsource Customer Service in 2024?
- Know your goals: Before outsourcing, decide why you’re doing it (e.g. cost reduction) and what features you need (e.g. 24/7 support). This helps you find the right provider.
- Look for partners: Choose a provider who acts as a partner, understanding your business and working with you to achieve your goals.
- Be involved in training: While the provider trains agents, actively participate especially if your business is complex.
- Consider onshore vs. offshore: Given that different regions offer different rates, decide if location (onshore vs. offshore) is important based on cost, fluency, and regulations.
- Track and improve: Measure your customer service using metrics like response time and resolution rate. Use this data to improve your strategy and keep your outsourced team on track.
- Communicate regularly: Hold meetings with your provider to discuss successes, challenges, and upcoming changes that might affect customer support.
Customer service is essential to any business. It has evolved from resolving issues as quickly as possible to providing a responsive and personalized service to your clientele. Especially with recently concluded pandemic, there has also been an increasing urgency for organizations to adjust their operations to ensure their business process continuity. With the right team, you won’t only be improving customer satisfaction. You will also be increasing customer loyalty and enhancing the customer experience.
Related: The Philippines At The Heart Of CX Business Continuity
Get in touch with us for more details on how outsourcing your customer service can help your business succeed; Inspiro is ready to work with you.
