Customer Service Outsourcing: What Is It and Why Is It Important?
Fast Growth Significantly Affects Your Ability to Deliver Superior Customer Service
Editorial Team
5 Min Read
In today’s highly competitive business climate, customers demand a seamless buying experience and fast response times when they need support. Since an operation’s success depends on customer experience (CX), providing customers with the service levels they expect is vital. One of the most critical decisions a company can make as it grows is determining how to boost the customer experience.
When deciding how to staff a customer service team, managers must understand the dynamics of superior CX and what it takes for implementation. In many cases, outsourcing customer support to an experienced service provider offers many advantages over hiring an internal team. Learn more about CX and how outsourcing customer service can be beneficial.
Why Customer Experience Is Important
CX is a customer’s impression of a brand throughout the entire buying journey. Two primary factors influencing customer experience are the people representing a company and the quality of the product or service.
A positive customer experience is critical because happy customers have the highest loyalty. A customer promoting a company’s brand by word of mouth is a valuable marketing tool. Consumers have more options than ever when buying a product, so companies must deliver the highest CX levels to persuade them to return for future transactions.
CX involves the entire life cycle of a customer’s engagement with a brand, from conducting research before buying to potentially making another purchase from the company at some point down the road.
How Customer Experience Management Works
Customer experience management — also called CEM or CXM — often consists of tailor-made marketing strategies focusing on customer satisfaction, engagement, and experience. CXM aims to establish long-lasting relationships with customers, making their needs and expectations the highest company priority. CX management tracks, measures, and organizes each interaction between a consumer and a business to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
What Is CX Outsourcing?
Customer experience outsourcing involves a business using a third-party service provider to help manage customer communication instead of handling the interactions internally. Because CX management spans every part of a customer’s purchasing journey, companies often use an established service provider to manage their help desk operations as part of the solution.
Outstanding help desk support is critical to delivering an exceptional customer experience when it counts the most. When a company masters the help desk customer experience, it can better serve customers while increasing loyalty. Enhancing service desk capabilities improves the overall customer experience by prioritizing customer requests, seeking customer feedback, and eliminating recurring problems.
Reasons a Company Should Consider Outsourcing Customer Service
Fast growth can significantly affect a company’s ability to deliver superior customer service. When a business expands or offers new products or services, its CX capabilities may suffer. While these issues may not appear severe initially, they can quickly gain momentum and affect a company’s performance.
Some of the reasons a business might consider outsourcing customer service include:
- Customers not receiving support when needed: Fast growth imposes extra stress upon a customer service team. Failure to handle a growth stage effectively could jeopardize future expansion opportunities. It’s vital for companies to deliver exceptional customer service during these phases.
- An ineffective current strategy: Failure to address bottlenecks and everyday problems in customer service can diminish a company’s reputation and stifle its growth. An expert service provider can help develop a new strategy to improve the customer experience and increase repeat business.
- Limited resources for training: Hiring and training a qualified customer service team takes time and money. Fast-growing companies often lack the resources to quickly bring new hires up to speed as needed. Outsourcing customer service means experienced professionals are available immediately.
- A need for flexibility: Because many companies deal with seasonal surges or experience fluctuations in growth, hiring and training new employees is often impractical. Using an outsourced service provider allows a business to scale up or down as needed.
Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Service
Beyond seeing significant savings in hiring and training costs, companies that partner with an outsourced customer service provider can benefit from:
- Increased efficiency: Outsourced customer service providers minimize the time, space, tools, and materials needed for internal employees, resulting in decreased overhead costs. CX providers also help companies achieve their goals faster by reducing average handling times and increasing first-call resolution.
- Superior expertise: If a company needs an expert for a specialized product or service, CX outsourcing can provide access to professionals with the required knowledge and skill levels.
- 24/7 availability: Most of today’s businesses must offer customer service around the clock to stay on pace with the competition, regardless of their size. CX outsourcing enables companies to provide support 24/7 at a fraction of the cost of staffing a team internally.
- Enhanced analytics: Access to advanced insights and analytics enables outsourced CX providers to offer brands a better understanding of their existing and target audiences. Modern tools make it easier to collect information throughout each stage of the customer journey. Outsourced CX providers typically record, review, and store all interactions for continuous improvement.
- Advanced technology: CX outsourcing service providers offer high-end, proven solutions ready for immediate implementation. Integration times are minimal when partnering with a reputable provider. Access to this technology enables companies to save money compared to the cost of purchasing and implementing these tools themselves, particularly when factoring in training costs for an internal team.
How GDC Can Help
If your organization is interested in learning more about how an outsourced service provider can boost your CX capabilities, the professionals at GDC can help. We offer tailor-made IT help desk solutions that deliver world-class customer support while improving your company’s performance. Our services utilize modern technology to streamline your operation’s efficiency, allowing your IT professionals to focus on the core tasks that matter most to your business.
Connect with us online today to request more information.
