Customer support plays the role of the mouthpiece of a business. They are the first point of contact when a customer wants to reach a business for information, complaints, or feedback. Thus, how a customer support representative responds to a customer can make or break how the customer views the company.
According to Khoros, for 86% of customers, good customer service turns one-time clients into long-term brand champions. Thus, it is no wonder that companies would want to take the best bet on customer support services.
Stringent budgets and insufficient time can make it challenging to employ, train or sustain the best possible in-house customer support services. As a result, outsourcing customer support services may seem like an attractive option.
In this article, we will explore:
- What are customer support outsourcing services?
- What are the benefits of customer support outsourcing?
What are customer support outsourcing services?
Customer support outsourcing services are customer support services rendered by third parties on behalf of companies in exchange for a commission.
According to Hubspot Research, as high as 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies with excellent customer service and as high as 68% of customers are willing to pay higher for goods and services for brands that offer good customer support service experiences.
The numbers are undeniable; good customer support service wins every time. But not every company can afford the fees to train or retain in-house customer support service personnel to provide such services.
Thus, it becomes expedient to hire third parties to fill stop-gap or permanent roles in customer service.
Benefits of customer support outsourcing
Conservation of Resources
One of the main benefits of outsourcing customer support services is the conservation of resources.
Customer support services require time and personnel. By outsourcing your company’s customer support services, you avoid the cost in time and other resources related to the infrastructure, training, and management of customer support personnel within the company.
Therefore outsourcing allows you to conserve your resources and focus them on more crucial tasks.
Focusing on the task at hand
Customer service outsourcing allows you to remove the burden of monotonous and time-consuming tasks from the company’s in-house staff and enable them to focus on more critical tasks.
The external customer support service personnel will handle most of your day-to-day customer questions. Thus, You can save significant hours for your company.
Specialized workforce
By outsourcing customer support services, You allow the best of the best to do what they do best.
It is debatable if the craft of human relations is teachable as it seems that people may sometimes have an innate aptitude for customer relations beyond the training provided.
Therefore, going into the labor market to hire specialists in the field allows you to analyze the output of various companies objectively, reasonably predict their results and make the best pick.
Better risk management
Because you have the liberty of hiring experienced personnel, you run a lesser risk of running into operating snags.
Third-party customer support services are less likely to commit errors as they are less likely to encounter operational problems on a first-term basis. Having experience allows them to manage risk better, saving you cost and damage to your company’s reputation.
Risk is a vital measure with which investors appraise the stability of a company. Generally, hiring specialized workers shows better risk management, making your company a more attractive option to investors.
Increase customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a metric used to measure a company’s growth. This is because customer satisfaction affects referral and retention rates.
According to Qualtrics XM Institute, 20% of consumers will pardon a bad experience at a company whose customer service they rate as very poor, and nearly 80% will forgive a bad experience if they rate the customer service team as very good.
Therefore, this statistic further underlines the need to hire personnel that is most qualified to give your customers the required care and attention.
Conclusion
Customer support outsourcing is a business process that is becoming more commonplace in all industries.
Various statistics emphasize the importance of customer support service in the growth of companies.
Thus, where there is a need, organizations should not hesitate in hiring third-party service providers to occupy customer support roles either temporarily or otherwise.
