Good customer support is important for the success of every business, irrespective of the size. When it was small, you may have known each customer and interacted personally. This personal touch has surely helped the business grow.
However, as the business grows, it will become increasingly more difficult for you to offer the same level of customer service. You must focus on procurement, sales, finance, and so many other areas.
Customer service cannot be ignored. You have to handle each communication, whether it is a phone call, email, or online chat.
This is where outsourcing the customer support operations of the business can help you. It will help you scale up. It will help you focus on other important areas of the business, without ignoring the concerns and the requirements of the customers.
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What Is Customer Support Outsourcing?
Outsourcing the customer support operations refers to transferring the customer-facing communication operations to a third party. Traditionally, the third-party service provider used to be a call center that handled incoming calls.
But these days, the service providers can do so much more – they can handle all email interactions, offer live chat support, and even communicate with customers on WhatsApp, SMS, and social media. The outsourced service can, of course, also receive and make phone calls.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Support for Tech Companies:
At some point, even a small business will have to delegate. Every type of business will benefit from customer support outsourcing, especially those in the tech field, which must focus on innovation that demands out-of-the-box thinking and extensive time investment by the management to develop new and innovative solutions.
Here are some of the benefits –
Access to contemporary processes and technologies – A tech business will want to use the latest processes and technologies that fully meet the expectations of the customers. As a tech business, you can surely develop them, but, that is probably not your core business.
A third party will already have the expertise, which can be related to reducing the average waiting time for the callers, online chat robots, 24-hour email correspondence and even during the weekend, and tools to carry out data analysis.
Why reinvent the wheel when an expert third party already has everything needed to offer great customer support?
You can reduce the workload – As the owner, you surely have many responsibilities. Even the staff will have a busy schedule. You want them to focus on more productive operations that will help your tech company to come out with innovative products and solutions. Asking them also to offer customer support means, they probably won’t be at their productive best. So, reduce the workload and let them focus on their best activities.
You can save money – When you outsource, you don’t have to maintain an in-house team. This means, your monthly salary outflow will be lower.
Also, you don’t have to purchase more computers and other customer support equipment. Plus, you will need fewer desks and chairs, which means, your required office space will also be smaller. All this will save you money.
Offer after-hours coverage – Many third parties can offer round-the-clock service and even during the weekend. So, when you outsource, all customer communications can get addressed quickly, even during your after-hours.
Multilingual service – Some of your customers could be more comfortable in another language. The outsourced customer service team may have reps speaking many languages.
A customer feels more comfortable if the rep speaks the same language. The customer will feel that the questions are going to be answered properly. There won’t be any communication barrier.
The 3 Types of Customer Service Outsourcing
Outsourced customer service has three main models. It is a good idea to know about them before looking for a solution.
1. Third-party agency – This is an independent customer support business that hires agents for you, trains them, and manages the support-giving operations.
Good companies will only hire agents who have past experience in offering support for tech companies – people who will know the most common questions and concerns of the customers. They will be better prepared to offer the right solutions.
2. Individual agents – These are individuals whom you hire and train. But the person is not a full-time employee. By hiring individual agents, you may have more direct control over the person and the quality of service offered.
However, you have to go through the hiring and training processes. It will also be difficult to guarantee 24/7 coverage.
3. “Pay-per-ticket” services – Here, you will only have to pay for the actual number of raised tickets instead of paying for a pre-determined number of hours. This model seems attractive but there are often steep minimums, which can raise the cost.
Conclusion:
We live in a world of subject-matter experts, meaning the experts with experience are always best placed to offer exceptional service. Tech businesses can better focus on their expertise when they outsource customer service activities.
It can help them scale up and become more efficient in a competitive market. Outsourcing can also save them money but this should never be the main interest. There are so many other valid reasons. Customer support outsourcing can be a game-changer for tech companies.
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