Are you looking at cutting costs for your business? The cost for in-house servicing of clients can be a big expenditure. Not only do you have their hourly wage, there are also employment taxes, vacation, sick leave and holiday leave benefits, and the big cost of medical insurance, dental insurance and disability benefits. And by outsourcing you don’t have to babysit your employees or train them, that is done by the outsource company. You can try new sales and service approaches without the hassles of in house training. And if you need expertise, for instance like technology, you can find centers that focus on those areas and are trained just in that field. Outsourcing is a great advantage if you have a short time frame to add a large number of trained customer service representatives quickly.
Pros of Outsourcing Customer Service
Outsourcing customer service can have several benefits, including cost savings and increased focus on product development and distribution. But while there are many potential benefits, this approach also has its drawbacks, which you’ll need to consider before making the decision. By examining some of the pros and cons of outsourcing customer service, you can make an informed decision about whether or not this strategy is right for your company.
Cons of Outsourcing Customer Service
But there are definite disadvantages also. The loss of control for one. Granted, you can set certain standards you want, but you don’t have the advantage of walking through a call center and giving advice or ideas on way to do things better. You can also lose the culture of your business. The call center representatives do not know you. They may know your expectations that were passed along with their job description; however they don’t have the loyalty to you and the knowledge of your company that a full time employee would have. And there is the issue of confidentiality of your customers’ data; it’s hard to build the trust that that data is being handled securely. Does the call center support and relay the same perceptions you want for your company?
This is as big decision for any company. And you don’t want to base your decision just on saving money. Building a client base is easy; however they say keeping your client base is essential. If you do not believe an outsourcing company can provide the same excellent service that you can do and expect, it may not be worth the savings, as you may lose clients.
Emotional Labor
When you see a person face-to-face, your brain has evolved to respond with empathy. When you’re interacting with someone on a computer screen or over the phone, that instinct doesn’t kick in. To humanize your customer service experience—and to convey genuine empathy—it helps to know a little about your customers and their challenges before they call. This way, you can focus on helping them solve their problems rather than rattling off a list of FAQs.
You Save Money Outsourcing
You may have already heard that offshoring (that’s sending customer service jobs overseas) is a great way to cut costs. But it can also be an effective strategy for improving your bottom line. When you get customer service jobs done outside of your organization, you save money in a variety of ways: by decreasing expenses related to labor and space, cutting down on hiring costs and having access to resources that are even cheaper than those in your own country—like labor laws, electricity prices and much more.
You Can Outsource Specific Phases
While many companies outsource a significant portion of their customer service, not all companies do. Why? Because some tasks are critical to your customers’ experiences and you might want to keep these under your control. There’s no reason why you can’t outsource certain aspects of your customer service while keeping certain key activities in-house; ultimately, it’s about finding a balance that makes sense for your business.
Feedback And Training Are Easier
When you outsource your customer service, you’re offloading a lot of the daily operational tasks that go along with it. Your outsourced team can work remotely, so all of your communication will be through e-mail or chat software—no shouting over cubicle walls necessary.
Low Margins Require Efficient Processes
If you’re going to make a profit from customer service, it needs to be efficient and high quality. Even if your company has no physical products, it still handles products—customer relationships. But these products take time and energy to create (and maintain). If your margins are thin, you can’t afford for every contact with a customer to be overly time-consuming or costly in terms of monetary compensation or employee training.
Better Support For International Markets
It’s not easy to navigate various laws, currencies and languages. If you want to expand your customer base, consider outsourcing customer service to a team that knows how best to reach international customers. This frees up your time and money so you can focus on selling more products or services. Here are some other benefits of outsourcing
When Customers Aren’t Happy They Won’t Talk To Humans Anymore
The rise of social media and online review sites means people have a never-ending supply of human-free ways to get in touch with companies. The problem? People only use them when they are unhappy, and if your customers are unhappy then you’re losing business. So don’t leave it up to your customers to reach out—instead, focus on being proactive and responsive; call them when there is a problem before they need to reach out themselves.
New Technologies Reduce The Need For Human Interaction
With advanced call center technologies, such as live chat or self-service options on your website, you can now eliminate human interaction and service several more customers than previously possible. This not only reduces cost but also reduces wait times and makes customers happier because they’re served quicker.
Increased Use Of Bots in Customer Service
A recent study by Conductor, a provider of conversational interfaces and services to enterprise, found that bots will soon be a bigger part of customer service than humans. According to The State of Chatbot Report 2017 , 54% of businesses are using chatbots in their customer service strategy. While most chatbots are simple decision trees, others are starting to be more interactive and conversational
