Outsourcing customer service can feel more daunting than outsourcing other business functions. After all, we are talking about your customers, here. Should you let go of their care and handling? Will the benefits outweigh the costs? You need to protect and grow your bottom line as well as your reputation, but outsourcing customer service can actually help you do both.
Here are three of the biggest financial benefits of putting your customer service in the hands of outsource experts.
Direct and Indirect Savings
Think about all the hidden (and not-so-hidden) costs of managing your own customer service call center. There are direct operations and overhead costs, including valuable facility space, equipment and systems, software, personnel to operate and manage the systems, and the list goes on. Indirect (or not so indirect) costs include costs associated with management, training, and other HR issues. And then there is the very high cost of dealing with a call center that does not run well and may provide poor service to your customers.
By selecting and outsourcing to the right partner, you can get out of the personnel business and out of the call center management business. You can eliminate or repurpose the physical space that now houses your call center, telephony software, phone switch, etc., and put it to better use. You can also eliminate the phones, desks, and employees required to operate your call center, provide training, monitor QA, and handle related administrative tasks. The focus goes back onto your core business.
Better Results Without the Headaches and Frustration
An inability to recruit quality personnel for your call center will likely lead to high attrition, and before they attrit, they will care little about your brand, and no doubt that will be conveyed to your customers. Your reputation will suffer. In addition, a revolving door of agents is a tremendous HR expense, and the result is a poor quality product. Your customer service cannot be good because people turn over faster than they can learn your brand.
Call center professionals have the inside track on hiring the best people, and often they have ways to incubate personnel in house before assigning them to your team. Professional training and incubation will make a big difference. Often professional call centers invest more effort in developing the kind of pleasant, positive work environment that inspires retention and results in more knowledgeable and experienced agents. The bottom line on that is a better experience for your customers.
Behind The Technology Curve
Ensuring calls get handled in a proper and timely fashion also takes a boat load of technology. Phone systems, ACD’s, Workforce Management Software, voice analytics, and more. This is just the beginning of the list of technology necessities to have a professional operation that manages call flow properly. You can’t risk endless hold times, or missing calls all together. So if you want your customer support function in house, prepare to become an expert on call center technology and invest heavily in repeated upgrades and the newest bells and whistles.
Your outsourcing partner will bring all those key technologies to the table. And a good partner will keep up on the latest and greatest, cutting-edge technologies, and know when to advise you that it’s time to integrate new options with your multi-channel access modes. And your customers, and in turn, your business, will be the beneficiaries.
Outsourcing customer service relieves you of massive operational, technological, and administrative burdens. You can recoup time and money and effectively increase customer satisfaction. That makes outsourcing a smart, strategic decision that can deliver positive bottom-line results.