Customers are the major contributor of any business, without their help a business can never survive. Generally, we tend to focus more on the sales of the product or services and spend a lot on marketing and advertising, but what about customer service? It takes a lot of effort to build a strong customer base and even more effort to maintain it. Companies these days are outsourcing customer care services to voice process call centers to get maximum benefits.
Companies these days are inclining towards hiring a BPO for customer Service Outsourcing as it comes with a lot of benefits. But with every process, there are both merits and demerits associated. So before considering hiring a BPO voice process you need to have a good idea of their services.
BPO stands for business process outsourcing that is they work as a third-party vendor to operate one or more non-core processes of an organization. Generally, customer service, IT, Marketing, HR operations, finance are the popular processes that are generally outsourced. In the case of customer service, both the voice process and non-voice processes are being used widely.
Call centers again are divided into two outbound call centers and inbound call centers. Both have their own challenges but the outbound process is tougher than inbound. Inbound agents need to receive the calls of the customer and need to be able to solve all the issues whereas outbound agents need to call a customer and convince him or her about new plans or products. It’s more sales-oriented but in both cases, an agent needs to have excellent oratory skills.
Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing Customer Service
Customer service is one of the most outsourced processes. Let us discuss some of its positive aspects.
24*7 support for 365 days: Customer is the backbone of any business, so customer satisfaction should be one of the key roles. While outsourcing your customer service department, the best thing you can get is continuous support. These BPO services work on different shifts throughout the day so your customer is able to connect at any time of need. Even these call centers work on holidays and Sundays too which enables them to maintain continuous contact with the consumers. Prolonged support to the customer helps your brand to gain trust which helps you in the long run.
Cost-saving: Why outsource customer service rather than setting up an in-house team? To answer this, let’s have a look at what are the disadvantages of setting up an in-house team. Recruitment is a long process and involves a lot of costs. Even after recruitment, it takes substantial time to give them proper training to go onboard which also involves a lot of cost and time. Whereas an outsourcing company is already equipped with a skilled workforce at a much lower cost who are ready to give you quality services in a limited time.
Multiple support process: A BPO company uses several tools and techniques to make a consumer feel comfortable while communicating. Apart from voice calls, they also offer email support, live chat support, and even phone Answering Services to make a consumer feel comfortable. So if a customer is comfortable in chat then he or she can opt for that process easier.
Multiple language options: A voice process BPO also offers several languages and accent options so that a customer from any language background can confidently speak with them.
Hassle-free quality service: Outsourcing an entire department helps you to focus better on sales and other core processes. Moreover, reputed BPO services are already experts in providing excellent customer support, thus a hassle-free quality service is what you can expect.
Now let’s have a look at some of the limitations of outsourcing your customer service department.
Less brand awareness: While outsourcing a company you should keep in mind that a third party is going to represent your brand to the direct consumers, thus they must know and utilize the USPs of any company. Any deviation in this will cause a lot of damage to your brand value. So proper communication with an outsourced team is very important before signing a contract!
Complex contract process: Some BPO services have a very complex contract process with hidden charges associated. So, one needs to be very careful while appointing one and need to go through with the contract well form and other legal processes.
Whether you want to outsource customer service or not that is your take but the above-mentioned fact will give you good guidance on what to do or what not while outsourcing.
Final Wrap
Just like any other process, outsourcing too has its own limitations and benefits. The cons can be successfully converted into advantages by selecting the right partner for your organization. So before you decide your move, a thorough market research is necessary!
