“Customers remember the service a lot longer than they remember the price.”
~ Lauren Freedman, retail veteran and author
Alluring customers through low prices and attractive offers is one thing. What will ultimately benefit you is treating them in a manner that makes them trust and remain loyal to you.
According to Hubspot Research, 93% of customers are very likely to buy from brands again if the brands provide really good customer service.
Customer service is the #1 factor that influences a customer’s trust in a company. This paves the way for a boost in retention, a better user experience, loyalty, and long-term gain. Hence, customer service should be your key focus to succeed and outdo your competitors.
outsourcing customer support service
It is the backbone of a lasting relationship you have with your customers. As such, listening to them and resolving their queries should be your utmost priority.
With businesses focusing on expanding their offerings and clientele, managing their customer queries in-house often gets difficult. Further, various tasks and duties that a team of in-house professionals are supposed to do can be challenging to handle alone.
That is where customer support outsourcing comes into play! Outsourcing customer support to a trusted partner can ensure you give customers the desired experience and keep them connected and loyal to you. And that’s not it. There are several other advantages you can reap with outsourcing customer support services.
Benefits of outsourcing customer support services
Here’s how outsourcing customer support can benefit your business:
1. Enhanced Resource Management
No matter how many managers you hire, they will never be enough to handle all of the customer service issues. But most reputed outsourcing companies have a vast team with enough members to handle numerous responsibilities.
When outsourcing customer service, you can ensure they will manage and support minor challenges and complex situations. This helps your managers concentrate on other things, so you can better use your employees.
2. Saves You Money
Every business wishes to benefit from reduced operational costs. Luckily, one of the most significant advantages of outsourcing customer support is cost savings. When you hire an in-house team of skilled professionals, you need to pay them a salary and all the perks of a permanent employee. Plus, you will have to get them all the required equipment and digital tools for their work.
However, when you outsource support services, you won’t have to spend much money on any set-up. You’ll give great service to your customers, but you’ll only have to pay a small portion of what you used to spend on employee salaries and benefits.
3. Improved Customer Service
Outsourcing customer service enables you to choose the experts in the field. Along with having adequate resources to accommodate all your customer queries, they will be catered to well. Hence, you can be assured that your customers will receive better support services.
More employees mean more availability for the customers. This will positively impact your customers, building their trust and reliability in you.
4. Customised Solutions
Reputed outsourcing support companies employ skilled professionals and train them to cater to all kinds of customers’ needs. Hence, they are able to give personalised solutions to the customers as per their needs. By offering personalised customer service, you’ll have no problem keeping your customers happy and loyal to your brand.
5. Better Data Collection & Analysis
Another important reason to outsource customer support is the chance to collect and analyse valuable data. These companies can learn a lot about your customers, which helps you understand what they need. The knowledge gained from this data can be used to improve your brand in many ways.
5 pro tips to consider when outsourcing customer support
The decision to outsourcing customer support is crucial and can greatly impact your business and its overall growth. As such, you must be careful when dealing with customer support companies. Here are some critical considerations about outsourcing customer support:
1. Overall Cost Involved
As said, outsourcing support is much more cost-effective than hiring an in-house team. However, the cost of third-party is just one thing. As a business, you should keep an ROI-oriented approach and understand how customer service affects your profits. This will help you to assess which provider can provide long-term value for your company.
2. Flexibility
This is an important aspect of outsourcing customer support because your current requirements may differ from what they were at the time of signing the deal. As such, if the service provider isn’t willing to scale with you based on your current requirements, it could be an all-loss deal.
When finalising a deal, ask them if they will adjust to the new requirements that may arise with the business expansion. It’s also important to consider the terms and conditions of the agreement in case it needs to be cancelled before it’s supposed to end.
Remember, a great service provider will always be willing to serve your varying requirements. Hence, choose wisely.
3. Brand Image and Reputation
Brands must know that hiring a poorly organised team of professionals can end up costing more. This cost can arise as a gap between the customer and the brand. So, if the company you’re outsourcing to can align their services with your brand’s image, your brand will definitely achieve greater success soon.
4. Goals and Budget
While outsourcing helps you save costs, you are still investing in a service that will help you reach your business goals.
That’s why it’s easier to set aside money for a partner outside your organisation when they share your values and goals. Further, they are dedicated to giving and managing training, gathering information, coming up with new ideas, and overseeing the overall management of your project.
Collaborating with your external partner to establish clear goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs) also ensures that the budget is fair, transparent, and handled in line with the goals.
5. Risk Involved
You should always think about the risks that come with outsourcing customer support services. These risks can be different depending on the specific task or job. However, it’s really important to remember that you should never give control of the most important parts of your business to someone else. If you do, you won’t have much power or influence over the main things that make your organisation what it is.
The Takeaway
When you are outsourcing customer support and service, it’s like forming a new partnership. Even if saving money is your prime goal, you should consider everything necessary to make the partnership successful for you, the company hiring the service, the service provider, and most importantly, your customers who will benefit from this relationship.
To form a strong, lasting partnership, you should research, develop a good relationship, and ensure you and your customer service partner are on the same page.
