Outsourcing your customer support is a viable option for a number of reasons. If your team is already overstaffed, outsourcing might be a more cost-effective solution. Budget cuts may also make this option attractive. However, knowing the true value of customer support will help you make a strong case for outsourcing. Ultimately, it is your customers’ opinions that will determine the effectiveness of the support services provided by an outside firm. So, how do you evaluate a company’s customer support?
Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Customer Service
Outsourcing customer service may save you money, improve efficiency and enhance your brand reputation, but it also has its share of drawbacks. Customer service is a key driver of brand loyalty. It attracts clients and retains them. Research shows that 78% of consumers have changed their perception of a company after interacting with a contact center. Read on to learn more about outsourcing customer service. This article outlines the Pros and Cons of outsourcing customer service.
In-house customer service teams are expensive and slow. In addition, hiring full-time employees is not a simple task. It can take weeks or months to recruit and train new employees. And, besides the high cost of salaries and employee benefits, in-house teams also require administrative expenses and employee benefits. However, outsourcing customer service can help you reduce technical expenses, as qualified partners can lower your total IT costs. Outsourcing customer service can improve your brand reputation and boost customer loyalty.
What is outsourced customer service?
When outsourcing your customer support to a third party, there are several factors to consider. An outsourced customer service team may not have the necessary experience or passion for your industry. You may need to train your team in the product or business you offer, or they may have no experience at all. Additionally, you may not have the budget to hire a dedicated team of customer service agents. In such cases, it would be best to look for other options.
Email support is the most secure form of outsourced customer service. While most consumers will not expect instant response times, the 24-hour industry standard is a better timeframe to respond. This provides ample time for research and a more effective solution. Additionally, email interaction eliminates the biggest complaint from consumers: lack of follow-up. Ultimately, outsourced customer service will help you increase your profitability. Aside from the cost savings, outsourcing your customer support will help you retain and increase staff productivity.
What is Customer Support as a Service?
Whether you offer a one-time service or provide ongoing support to current customers, delivering excellent customer experience is critical to meeting customer expectations and improving brand reputation. While traditional customer support is viewed as an unnecessary expense and a tax on success, progressive companies consider customer centricity a core value. In the last few years, customer support has undergone a paradigm shift, as putting the customer at the center of your business has become critical to the retention of customers and the creation of advocates.
Until recently, customer support was largely limited to face-to-face interactions, but with the invention of telephones and email, everything changed. Today, tech-driven helpdesk solutions are used to deliver personalized customer support to consumers. Brands are becoming increasingly customer-centric, offering more products and services to satisfy consumers. To keep up with expectations, companies need to provide proactive customer support to help them solve their issues.
Pros of Outsourcing Customer Service
Outsourcing your customer service is an excellent way to increase your customer support capacity without spending your precious time and money training staff. Having someone else handle this task will allow you to focus on running your business and improving your products and services. Outsourcing also helps you keep high standards for customer service. With 24/7 support and multi-language support, you’ll find your customers are happier than ever. Here are some of the pros and cons of outsourcing customer service:
Outsourced customer service is scalable. An outsourced operation can handle fluctuating call volumes. Outsourced customer service operations can handle all time zones. Since the customer service agents do not work for your business, they aren’t bound to the typical business hours. This enables them to be available for your customers at any time of the day. Another benefit of outsourcing customer service is that the costs involved are much lower than hiring a full-time employee to do the work for you.
Cons of Outsourcing Customer Service
Outsourcing customer service can be profitable, but there are also some disadvantages. Outsourced customer service representatives may not be as committed to your brand as employees. Outsourcing also increases the security risks involved in handling sensitive information. Outsourced representatives may not be subject to the same background checks as employees, making them security liabilities. In-house employees have a greater stake in the success of the business, but if the employees aren’t as attached to your brand, this could lead to apathy or even negligence.
Outsourcing customer service has several benefits, including lowering labour costs. It also provides top-quality customer service. But there are some cons to consider. Outsourced employees may not be fluent in your language, which can cause misunderstandings and lead to miscommunication. You might also be surprised to find that a large percentage of customers are not very happy with your product or service. You may find that your customer service agents are not the best at communication and may not be very professional.
