Outsourcing, in general, can be a great collaborative effort to not only help alleviate deficiencies in a particular area of your business but it can also help with growth and expansion.

Customer experience outsourcing is a viable option for anyone lacking the staffing or resources to properly tend to the customer’s satisfaction. This article will explain what customer experience outsourcing is and the pros and cons of enlisting an agency’s help, the pricing, and understanding of when to elicit support.

What Is Customer Experience Outsourcing?

Outsourcing customer experience happens when the management of customer-facing communication channels is entrusted to be carried out by a third-party provider. This usually means that a company’s customer experience is outsourced to a call center, and these centers have agents at their disposal trained to handle a business’s incoming calls.

The goal is to make every step of the journey pleasant for the customer, including promptly and adequately dealing with the customer’s questions, problems, and complaints.

When to Use Customer Experience Outsourcing?

Here are some of the most prominent ways to recognize that it might be time for you to consider outsourcing your customer experience responsibilities.

Do You Trust Your Knowledge of Customer Experience?

The best customer experience comes from companies knowledgeable about the latest and best practices in customer acquisition, growth, success, growth, and trust. They’re even knowledgeable about safety services that keep your customers and your communities satisfied. If you are not confident in your knowledge of customer experience, then you should consider hiring professionals.

Labor Shortage

Suppose your company is struggling to fulfill customer experience due to labor shortage, or you simply don’t have the resources. In that case, you should consider outsourcing your customer experience.

Outsourcing your customer experience will grant you the freedom to work on the core demands of your business. Spreading yourself too thinly only results in the reduction of your business’s quality in some way, shape, or form.

Do You Have a Call Center?

If you do not have space or resources to house a competent call center to handle your customers’ day-to-day concerns, hiring a company that comes with space and resources may be the answer for you.

Can You Afford the Costs?

If you cannot reasonably pass the cost of providing a quality customer experience onto the customer, outsourcing is a viable option. This method is a lot cheaper than providing your own, and it won’t significantly impact your products’ cost.

Pros of Customer Experience Outsourcing

Outsourcing your customer experience has many benefits. Let’s take a look at a few of the ways this can be helpful for your business:

Cost and Savings

Hiring call center employees to provide your customer experience does not require paying them a fixed salary or providing them with employee benefits. Furthermore, there is no need to furnish your customer service with equipment which only serves to save you even more money.

Decreased Workload

Small business owners usually have the burden of wearing many hats, which means that they have to channel their efforts into the most profitable activities. Outsourcing customer experience will give you more time to focus your efforts on more crucial business operations.

Multilingual Services & After-Hour Services

Customers expect to be able to reach companies during off-hours, and outsourcing to a call center grants you the ability to do so. And they come with multilingual agents who can service your customers no matter the language that they speak.

Cons of Customer Experience Outsourcing

Though there are many benefits of outsourcing customer service, there are a few things you may want to consider before doing so:

Lack of Knowledge Concerning Your Company

Since call centers are not always dealing with your company’s day-to-day operations, they may not always be equipped to adequately address every inquiry that your customers may have.

You Risk Lower Customer Satisfaction

This is always a risk when you entrust your company to someone else. In the last few years, 40 percent of US Customers stopped doing business with a company because of poor customer service. That’s why we recommend that you vet the company’s success rate before hiring them.

Security Concerns

Since the nature of business requires the exchange of personal information, you have to be on the lookout for anyone who could possibly engage in fraudulent behaviors. Again vet your company about their safety protocols.

Your Business May Not Be Top Priority

Call centers juggle demand from many different businesses all at once. As such, a call center employee could be spread thinly and unable to give your business their best foot forward.

Pricing Models for Customer Experience Outsourcing

Pricing models for customer experience outsourcing can vary for a myriad of different reasons. Call centers consider many factors during price negotiations.

For starters, doing business in one’s native language requires a higher pay rate for the employee at the call center who’s providing the service. For example, a native English-speaking rep speaking English to English-speaking customers will require anywhere from $20-$30 per hour.

Furthermore, it would be best if you considered the volume of work as well. Businesses who negotiate a large number of work hours generally receive a discount of upwards of 30 percent.

The direction of the calls matter as well. A call center that receives calls on behalf of the client will be 15 to 20 percent cheaper than outgoing cold calls that have to be made on behalf of the client.

Finally, the duration of the calls is considered, with longer calls costing more. Additionally, the country of origin matters as well, with different countries having different pay rates for their employees. An outsourcing company stationed in South America will charge less than ones stationed in America because they have a lower living cost.

How to Choose a Service Provider

To choose a service provider, it’s best to have clear goals, define an exact score of work, and avoid making vague demands to your outsourcing company. No one knows your business better than you, so don’t expect the provider to understand what you need. Outline what your company needs; propose an actionable solution for the problem.

Take five potential providers and make expertise essential for the hiring process.

Here are some things to be considered:

  • Do they have access to the latest technology?
  • The company should possess skill sets and technical expertise.
  • Make sure they are passionate about your project.
  • Ensure that they have experience in solving complex challenges.
  • Consider the company’s market reputation: Are they prone to missing deadlines? Search on the internet to see reviews of the services that they have provided in the past
  • Choose a company with a stellar reputation.
  • Finally, determine how much money you’re willing to spend: Higher quality of service will almost always require more money, so choose what you’re ready to pay beforehand.

 

If you’re ready for a company that can fulfill all of the above, IntelligentBee is the way to go. With email and chat support, 24/7 guidance, and flexible pricing models, you’re hiring a team you can trust to know your customer’s needs as well as you do.