Published on 3rd April 2023 by Gemma Harding
Outsourced customer service solutions can save a business a lot of money. However, if outsourcing is a new concept for you and your business, the prospect of putting your trust in a third party can be a daunting one.
If your business is considering the switch from in-house to outsourced customer services, read on. In this guide, we explain exactly what outsourced customer services look like. We also aim to put your mind at ease with our top tips for a seamless outsourcing transition.
What is outsourced customer service?
Outsourced customer services simply refers to the process of subcontracting your customer support services to a third party specialist. This could involve subcontracting part of your customer service offering or all channels, from call centre solutions to instant messaging and email communications. Depending on the level of service you opt for, your customer services partner can deal with all queries, concerns, complaints and other communications from customers.
The main advantages of outsourced customer services include:
With hundreds of specialist third party partners to choose from, there are plenty of economies to be found when outsourcing. Depending on your chosen partner and the number of services you outsource, you can save money on things like overheads, office space and specialist training.
If your business grows rapidly, or an unexpected event increases the volume of customer interaction your business experiences, pressure can be placed on in-house customer service teams. However, if you’re dealing with a specialist third-party, you don’t have to worry about scaling up customer support operations alone. Your specialist partner will cope with the increased demand and manage the scaling up on your behalf.
These days, customers expect instant access to customer support services. Once again, this can put a lot of pressure on in-house customer support teams based in one country. By outsourcing customer support, your business can provide 24/7 customer service coverage in an affordable way. Similarly, outsourcing can allow you to provide a multilingual service. If your customer base is international, this can be a huge advantage.
Customer service outsourcing: 4 top tips
Despite the various advantages of outsourcing, when it comes to customer services, getting the implementation right is crucial. With this in mind, below we list our top four tips to help ensure the transition into outsourcing is as smooth as possible.
Set your goals
Before doing anything else, establishing clear goals and highlighting your customer service needs is essential. Without doing this, finding the best outsourcing partner can be difficult. At this stage, you need to be asking yourself what the business needs from a third-party customer services partner. To help you do this, below we take a look at some of the most common goals:
- Cost savings – In what area do we want to save money? Which aspects of customer support are costing us the most currently? By how much do we want to reduce costs? Is this realistic?
- Access to specialist skills – what specialist skills would benefit the business? (multilingual advisors, 24/7 coverage, incident management trained advisors, etc).
- Access to specialist technology – Can a third-party partner offer new services, such as live chat instant messengers and chatbots?
Once you have established a clear set of goals, needs and expectations, you will be in a much better position to choose the right outsourcing partner.
Choose the right partner
The most important factor in successfully outsourcing customer services is selecting the right partner. There are many options to choose from. For this reason, you need to do your homework to find the best third-party partner for your business. To do this, narrow down your search by looking at companies with:
- A good reputation – be sure to check out client testimonials and user reviews.
- Versatility – refer back to the goals you have set out for the project. By looking at the services offered by potential partners, and the prices they can offer, you can create a shortlist based on your needs.
- Capacity – you need to be sure the company has the resources and time available to take you on as a client.
Here at CALLCARE, we tick all of these boxes. We have 25 years’ experience of providing impeccable outsourced customer service solutions and positive client feedback to back it up. Check out our extensive range of services and client testimonials here.
Put an emphasis on training
Providing the right training is absolutely key to a successful transition into outsourcing. After all, you are placing the reputation of your business in the hands of a third party. In order to achieve the best results, an onboarding process and ongoing brand training is essential.
Before any customer service channel is outsourced, training sessions should be conducted with your new outsourcing partner. These training sessions should outline your business’ expectations when it comes to customer support. They should also be used to give all customer support agents working on the project a taste of your brand’s style and culture, as well as specific product/service training. Indeed, as extended members of your business, they need to fully understand and embrace your brand before interacting with customers on your behalf.
Although training will mostly be conducted at the start of the project, ongoing refresher sessions should take place throughout the lifespan of the partnership. This helps to ensure standards are continuously met.
Track success
Our final tip to managing the outsourcing transition is to monitor progress and track success at every stage. To do this you’ll need to ensure you set up certain key performance indicators (KPIs) at the start of the relationship. For example, you may want to improve customer satisfaction levels based on customer feedback surveys, or cut down customer service waiting times. Whatever KPIs you set, be sure to measure them regularly. This could be in the form of a daily report that is sent from your outsource partner, weekly meetings, or monthly progress reports. By using KPIs and tracking progress, you will be able to identify anything in the working relationship that can be improved and address it as soon as possible.
Posted by Gemma Harding
As Head of Client Services, Gemma is an expert in the customer service industry. With over 20 years of experience in the call handling process she will guide your organisation to an improved customer service strategy. Hobbies include all thing equestrian.
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