For companies, outsourcing can be a great way of performing tasks efficiently. As the company grows, more and more responsibilities are being take cared of, which is why some opt to outsource some of its roles.
Although outsourcing can mean additional costs, another person or team's time and expertise are worth the investment, as your time and effort can be spent elsewhere, especially in growth opportunities.
Understanding customer support
One of the things that most companies outsource is customer service. Giving good customer service is crucial because it enables the company to stand out from its competitors, maintain a positive reputation within its community and the industry, draw future customers and encourage existing customers to do business with them again.
A customer support agent's role is more about improving the customer’s experience with the business’ product or services. Customer support involves documentation, product feedback, technical problem-solving and troubleshooting. The most popular support channels include phone calls, email, social media, live chat, video, forums and self-service knowledge bases.
By outsourcing customer support services, the management of customer-facing communication channels is transferred to a third-party service provide—usually a call center service. This ensures your business continues to provide quality inbound customer support services to meet your customers' demands and further improve your customer engagement.
Benefits of outsourced customer service and customer support service
Outsourcing customer services have many benefits. These include:
- Cost reduction: Unlike hiring in-house employees to do customer service work for you, outsourcing means not furnishing them with the necessary equipment and office supplies nor paying them fixed salaries and benefits, including overtime. All of these will be taken care of by your third-party provider. Aside from the reduced operating cost and potential increase of revenue, outsourcing customer support also saves time from hiring, training and managing the customer support team, as well as the day-to-day operations of the communication channel.
- Multilingual service: One of the benefits of having an online presence is that you get to draw in potential customers from other countries. With outsourcing customer services tasks, you can utilize agents who speak languages other than English. This gives you an advantage against your competitors and assures your customers that their needs are being addressed in a language that they can be easily understood.
- Tap a large talent pool worldwide: Being multilingual is good, but you also want your outsourced team to be more than just a group of employees who can offer support in different languages. As you open your search to third-party providers, you can choose to hire skilled workers made better with experience and not limit yourself in your home turf. There are several countries where outsourcing is one of the biggest employment opportunities. You can try looking for companies in such locations as you’re guaranteed to find agents who have a deeper understanding of customer support.
4 Common mistakes in outsourcing customer support services tasks
Keep in mind, though, that there are cons when it comes to outsourcing customer support services. Below are some of the most common outsourcing mistakes businesses make and how your company can avoid committing these.
1. Outsourcing to the cheapest third-party company
Everyone loves a bargain, but not when it comes to your business. Don’t choose a company that offers the lowest prices just to cut cost, or you risk your business's quality. Do your research. Check for reviews from other businesses or ask for referrals from them. One of the most expensive mistakes a business can make is investing in companies that offer sub-par services only to regret it later, and then pay another provider that could’ve helped you from the start.
2. Not having an in-house liaison manager
Because you and the members of your outsourced customer support team come from different areas, misunderstandings and miscommunications will eventually come up, which is why it is essential to have a middle man onboard. An in-house liaison manager is someone who manages your outsourced customer support team. Hire or appoint someone who can handle the team and coordinate the workflow for you but can also help you understand the work culture of the country of your outsourced team and vice versa.
3. Letting others tell you what to do instead of sharing your vision
A business processing outsourcing (BPO) company or agency should be treated as a long-term relationship because a quality company listens to its clients and creates a solution based on their needs. As an extension of your brand, the outsourcing provider should act as a guide and suggest ways to address other issues that your company didn’t realize would come up rather than forcing your company to use technology that you are not familiar with or get into practices that would otherwise have a negative effect with your customers. Always remember that although you hired a provider for their expertise in certain fields, they aren’t an expert when it comes to your company.
4. Outsourcing everything
Yes, many company roles can be outsourced, and outsourcing can grant you significant benefits, but for your company to survive, you need to retain core processes and tasks in-house. Don’t outsource everything just to lower costs and avoid thinking or doing particular tasks. Smart and responsible outsourcing mean spending more time on the business and recognizing that only some jobs can be outsourced to strengthen that part of your company.
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Adrian Agawin
Adrian works as the Marketing Manager for Asia Premier One Source. He has the creative mind to plan and implement multiple strategies for businesses. He expanded the company's social media presence using digital marketing.
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