GrowBPO
The advantages of outsourcing customer service go beyond saving money; they include the ability to grow your organisation while still providing exceptional customer service.
Companies started looking for methods to enhance the consumer experience even before the COVID-19 lockdowns. Customers are renowned for complaining frequently about slow response times or a lack of personal contact, which results in adverse reviews about customer interactions over social media and elsewhere. These criticisms hurt companies' reputations and cost them business. In a time when funds were(and now remain) tight, COVID-19 only served to exacerbate customer service concerns and negatively affect the bottom line.
Businesses have outsourced their customer service divisions to specialists which can provide outstanding client experiences as one of the main strategies for addressing this crisis in customer satisfaction.
In this article, we'll discuss the advantages of outsourcing customer service as well as how to choose the company that will best serve your business’s needs.
Customer Service Outsourcing (CSO) entails outsourcing all or a part of your customer service department to a third-party service provider which has the expertise, capabilities, and technology to provide excellent customer service.
High-growth businesses, particularly those in the SaaS and e-commerce sectors, regularly face the problem of needing to provide increasingly complicated customer support, as their customer bases expand rapidly and the need to offer broader coverage increases.
For example, a lot of the revenue for subscription-based businesses comes from upselling and renewals from current clients. Although marketing and sales have a critical function, retaining- and maximising the benefit of- current clients has the most influence on income and whether or not it will recur in future.
No matter how good your service or product offerings are in principle, they must still have a noticeable, favourable effect on your clients. Customers can easily terminate subscription models if they don't see results and, therefore, a business must focus on following up more frequently in order to maintain customer satisfaction.
Recruitment, onboarding, and training costs can be expensive. These expenses also increase whenever there is employee turnover and since many of these costs are transferred to your customers, outsourcing customer service can often provide better value to clients. Your CSO partner is focused on reducing your resources’ cost to company, giving you the ability to scale faster and create the ideal team at a fraction of the cost of hiring locally.
A quick response time is one of the most important steps in providing first-rate customer service, as it demonstrates the respect you have for your client's time. Outsourcing enables you to positively reduce your response times without dividing the attention of the resources you currently have on hand.
Additionally, you can be sure that the employees chosen for you will be highly skilled because CSOs can attract the right customer service experts. They'll have fundamental abilities and skills, such as active listening, empathy, and offering workable ideas, which will assist clients in precisely and speedily solving their issues.
Your particular business requirements, financial situation, and clientele will largely determine whether you select live support, automated support, or a combination.
Then, you can choose between a multichannel strategy, in which you provide assistance across a variety of channels or the omnichannel route, where support interactions flow within a single channel only. The choice will depend on the size of your organisation and the frequency of support requests.
In terms of location, offshore teams are typically based further away than onshore providers, which are situated near to- or in- the country where your business is headquartered.
If working with service provider’s during regular business hours is important, you may want to cooperate with onshore partners. In comparison, offshore providers can typically offer cost savings and additional language options.
Offshore providers who are in the same, or similar time zones, can often deliver the best of both worlds.
No matter what services you choose to outsource, these pointers can help you:
Utilising customer support outsourcing involves more than just lowering costs, reducing staff workloads, or finding a quick cure for problems with the customer experience. It's a practical approach to scale your business and finish tasks your company isn't equipped to do while keeping your customers happy. If this speaks to you, then consider outsourcing, otherwise consult an expert to help you reach the right decision.
Before jumping in and taking over your service function, it's essential to choose a partner who will take the time to work with you and learn about your organisation.
Work with the employees of the outsourcing firm to ensure that they are aware of what your brand stands for and how it fits into your expected customer experience. Participate actively in the training of the contracted outsourced associates, and make sure brand guidelines are covered.
Think about how they choose employees, how long it will take to assemble a team, how much input your business will have in choosing team members, and how simple it would be to expand again in the future.
Can you pick the degree of managerial control you want? Think over whether or not the firm has CSMs with experience working with businesses similar to yours —and preferably, businesses based in your nation.
The most affordable provider isn't necessarily the best option. Check to see if the provider's charges are fair for the level of service they offer, if there are any unforeseen costs, and if the service will remain financially viable should you need to increase your CSO resources.
-Top quality customer service is essential for the growth and maintenance of your business.
-Implementing CSO can help you benefit from improved response times and cost savings.
-Be sure to ask your potential CSO provider all of the right questions to ensure that there is a good fit with your company in all respects.