Good customer service should never be an afterthought. Instead, winning brands must make it a priority to consistently deliver a great service before, during, and after sales.
Offering great customer service pays off. Customer service outsourcing is the best choice a business can make. According to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Consumer report, 71 percent of customers have made a purchase decision based on the quality of customer service they have received. And 91 percent indicate that a positive customer service experience improves the likelihood that they will make another purchase in the future.
On the other hand, bad customer service is a surefire way to drive away customers-and cause a heavy blow to the bottom line. A survey from Netomi found that over three-quarters of U.S. consumers have stopped doing business with at least one company based on poor customer service. And per research cited in a Salesforce article, $62 billion is lost each year due to poor customer service.
Customer service expectations are rising, and brands must adapt to the changing needs and exceed them.
Customers have high expectations when it comes to customer service. And during past few years, their standards have gotten even higher. The same report by Salesforce cited earlier tells us that 50% of customers admit that the last year crisis has raised their standard of customer service. The pressure is on for brands to deliver best-in-class customer service- every single time. By providing consistently good customer service at scale needs a whole lot of time, resources, and attention.
In the present day, a growing number of brands decides to outsource customer service so they can easily scale and optimize this critical function.
Read on to learn what customer service outsourcing is, along with some of the key reasons customer-centric brands are taking this clever approach.
Outsourcing defined:
Before we discuss the multiple benefits of customer service outsourcing, let’s take a step back and observe what outsourcing is.
As its name suggests, customer service outsourcing is the practice of hiring a third-party vendor, or an external service provider — such as a business process outsourcing company (BPO company) or call center services— to handle customer service operations. Representatives from these third parties are well-equipped to handle a brand’s customer service requirements via a variety of channels, including telephone, email, live chat, reviews, and Q&A, just to name a few.
Top reasons to outsource customer service:
Many brands are now moving away from managing customer service in-house-and instead outsource this essential function to a BPO company-obviously for good and beneficial reasons. When it is done the right way, outsourcing is a profitable way to offer great service at scale-while freeing up internal resources to solely focus on other important activities and initiatives.
Below mentioned are 6 of the many reasons winning brands are choosing to outsource their customer support services:
Cost-Savings
At the very first glance, outsourcing customer service can seem like just another expenditure. But the real case is, it’s actually a lot less expensive than recruiting and training your own full-time customer service employees.
According to data from Mercer, customer service has an average voluntary turnover rate of 17 percent, not including retirements and involuntary terminations. And per a Gallup article, the cost of replacing a single staff ranges from one-half to two times the employee’s salary!
Recruiting and training new customer service agents is expensive — especially when the rate of turnover is so high. Outsourcing is a great way to avoid these expenses.
Focus on your brand’s expertise
It is a very tempting attempt to handle all business operations in-house. But the reality is, it is far better to do fewer things with utmost perfections than to manage a lot of things poorly.
If you outsource customer service duties, you are freeing up your staff to focus on the things they do well, including creating great products and marketing it to the appropriate audience.
Easy access to customer service experts
BPO companies and call centers are experts in offering great customer service, leveraging best practices and proven procedures to consistently deliver great service. Many of these companies are also active members of SOCAP International, that is a member-driven association focused on advancing customer care and customer engagement. SOCAP offers tools, resources, networking opportunities, and events that help these organizations meet the ever-evolving customer expectations.
What’s more, the agents at outsourcing companies and call centers are specialists in their respective field. They’re always equipped with the latest tools and ongoing training they require to solve problems and make customers happy.
When you choose to outsource customer service, you can tap into this expertise — without having to hire and train people yourself.
Greater time-coverage
Customer in the modern days expects to be able to reach out to their preferred brands and get the desired help, whenever they need. Oftentimes, the need can arise outside of the standard business hours of 9.00 to 5.00.
It is essential to offer a greater range of time in which customers can get help (ideally, 24/7)-especially when you are global business. But if you manage customer service internally, that is impractical and expensive. If you outsource customer service, it becomes a lot easier to expand the hours that your brand provides customer service. That way, customers can get they help they need, regardless of location.
Multi-lingual support
A survey from CSA Research discovered that 75% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand repeatedly if the customer care communication is in their language. Clearly, it’s essential to deliver service in your customers’ languages — especially if you are a global brand.
But it’s not always easy to offer multilingual customer care, especially if you handle customer service in-house. It’s cost-prohibitive to hire internal customer service representative that speak every language your customers do!
However, many BPO companies and call centers offer multilingual customer service, which makes sure that your customers get the help they need regardless of language.
Better CX
All of the advantages we’ve explored throughout this blog contribute to the biggest benefit of all: better CX. Great customer service leads to happy and satisfied customers. And these happy faces are more likely to be loyal to your brand and tell their friends and family about their great experiences with you.
Conclusion
Scale Customer Service with Outsourcing
Consistently delivering outstanding customer service has never been more important. Just one wrong step can result in a lost customer.
Customer service outsourcing can help your brand deliver superior service at scale. And by doing so, you will be well-positioned to win and retain more loyal customers.
