Combat The Naysayers! Outsourcing Customer Service Is Still Key To Company Success

To outsource customer service or not to outsource?

That is the question.

Before we get down and dirty with the details, let us first define “customer service”.

Customer service is defined as “the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services.” Pretty straightforward, right? The coverage of customer service can range from the first contact between the buyer and the seller up to after-sales. The bottom line here is that customer service depends on the overall customer experience.

A January 2019 post on Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation, and Science website defines customer service experience as “things such as how you interact with your customer and how you resolve any issues that may arise.”

Sure, the business will exhaust time, money, and other important resources; but bear in mind that by establishing good customer service, it begets customer loyalty.

Here’s how.

Let us say Customer A has a complaint on a defective product he purchased. Because he is dissatisfied, he calls up the product’s manufacturer’s call center. The agent who received the call managed the situation carefully, thus reaching a favorable solution for Person A. Person A is now satisfied because not only was his complaint got heard, but he also felt like the company cares about him through the product he just bought. In his mind, he will say, “They take care of me. I’ll buy something from their store again soon.” This, my friend, is how we build customer loyalty.

Now, let us do the opposite. Customer B called the same contact center about the same complaint as Customer A had. However, the agent who received the call was having a bad day, and he did not handle the situation properly. The result? “I’m not going to go back to that store again!” thinks Customer B. So this is the best way we kill our business.

See the difference?

Long story short — success in business does not end at the cash register.  Success begins and ends with the customer.

 

What is a Customer Service Call Center?

Before we go further, let us first establish what a “call center” is. A “call center” is really a physical office or facility specially designed — and equipped with all the necessary resources and technologies — to receive, manage, and process volumes of customer requests, queries, or concerns over the telephone. Their tasks include both incoming and outgoing calls, covering marketing, sales, customer service, technical support, telemarketing, and more. The most common examples of call centers today usually provide assistance in technical matters, sales promotions, and marketing campaigns.

Call centers have certainly come a long way. The earliest call center on record belonged to the Birmingham Press and Mail in the UK in 1965. At that time, call centers were called “Private Automated Business Exchanges”. It was only in recent years that we call these facilities as “call center”.

In recent decades, technology has advanced at almost breakneck speeds, which in turn meant that the call center industry has evolved just as quickly. Today, call centers are more automated and their reach has also widened because, thanks to virtual centers, they can now set up satellite offices in different key cities in the world.

Previously, call centers only perform one function: to handle calls. Now, call centers have transformed into contact centers, which performs a variety of roles and responsibilities, such as forms of correspondence or communication, on top of telephone calls. Some call centers even offer dispatch and remote services.

The customary setup of call centers was assigning people on shifts or choosing only certain hours in a day to entertain calls. Thanks to the significant change in contact centers — which is that they now operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — customers can make their call at any time of the day or night.

 

Roles of a Customer Service Call Center

Now that we know what call centers usually do, let us take a more in-depth look at the roles or functions of call centers today.

The roles of a call center involve the following:

• Outgoing calls for the sale of products and services
• Outgoing calls for debt management (mainly collection)
• Inbound calls for assistance and inquiries regarding products and services
• Massive volumes of correspondence such as emails and live chat conversations
• Remote diagnostics activities
• Dispatching activities

By acting as the direct representative between business and the customers, the call center ultimately serves as the bridge between the two and actively cultivates a harmonious, productive, and profitable business-customer relationship. Again, customer satisfaction can directly affect customer loyalty and, naturally, retention.

 

Components of a Customer Service Call Center

Now that we have established what a call center is and how one works, let us focus on its components.

1. Specialized management

   Call center management shares many similarities to other business or organizational setups, but the workflow within the company calls for specialized forms and styles of management of people, processes, and resources.

2. Agents with specialized skills

   Call center agents would undergo through strict training before they can be certified to deliver quality service to clients. With certified professional call center agents, the level of trust that customers have in businesses that utilize their services increases.

3. Call Center automated processes and technologies

   Contact centers do not have to depend on their agents alone. These centers also make sure their people are equipped with the proper technology in order to optimize their functions and their workflow. There are no standardized technologies, however, they are made to be adaptable to different types of businesses, depending on the industry or field that the business’ operations fall under.

4. Support and integration

   This is the bread and butter of any call center. As defined earlier, customer service from call centers revolves around the efforts and activities that can cultivate relationships with customers. Meanwhile, technical support revolves around hardware or software support, especially in the face of increasing automation across many industries. Therefore, when these two components are integrated into the business operations, it maximizes results.

 

What is Customer Service Outsourcing?

So, even with automated processes, skilled and highly qualified manpower, and other components such as support and integration are in place, these will all be for nothing without quality leadership.

Now let us put “outsourcing” into perspective. When we mention outsourcing in customer service, we see an image of a ginormous call center, in a foreign country, crowded with people working in 12-hour shifts. Companies partner with these offshore centers to provide affordable customer service for their end customers. While these may be the norm, a new paradigm of customer service outsourcing is emerging. Customers are now coursing their own customer service problems to third-party companies.

So far, contacting companies with an issue or complaint has been time-consuming.  Customers have to go through complex phone menus, wait on hold, and explain their issue to agents several times. For example, an airline passenger wants to resolve a lost baggage claim, they may need to search around the web for the right contact information and call the contact center. If that fails, then they draft an email and process to follow. Sounds familiar, and quite frankly painful to bear, right?

These critical pain points have led to the creation of several companies which develop mobile apps that take care of service issues on behalf of the customer. Simply put, these apps have enabled people to outsource their issues and complaints to a third-party service — one that is specifically optimized for resolving customer service issues. Now, from a customer’s standpoint, it’s perfect. They now have a “personal concierge” that will take over and bombard the offending company until the issue has been resolved.

Call center leaders must brace themselves for the rise on popularity of this outsourced client complaint model. While it’s certainly beneficial for customers in terms of speed and convenience, it adds another aspect to an already complex contact center operation. They have to be proactive about this moving forward.

 

The Contact Center and the On-Demand Economy

The rise of outsourced customer complaints is a byproduct of the on-demand economy. By on-demand economy, we mean people like convenience. Today, people can get a ride with ease via a third-party app like Uber or have something shipped to their house by Amazon. We can even watch the latest episode of a popular TV series on demand via Netflix. As this new form of economy flourishes through our daily lives, it’s inevitable that customer service will be quick to follow suit.

In general, the on-demand economy has already changed the customer service game in many ways. Companies are trying to make their customer service centers more efficient through machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies.  Yet those alone, while extremely effective, still assume that a customer is reaching out with their issue or query.

See the picture now?

This is the fundamental, and extremely powerful, the value proposition of the on-demand economy. And if contact centers will not act swiftly, they are going to have serious consequences for neglecting it.

We have established the “Now” economy. Our contact center has the right components and the necessary roles are in place. The next question we will try to answer is:

 

Customer Service Contact Center: In-House or Outsourced?

Whether a company is service-oriented or product-based, customer satisfaction is priority one for those who seek success. A prompt, accurate, and professional response to customer queries not only helps to retain and return a happy customer but also instills confidence in the brand.

However, if the business is new or in a building-up mode, it is often difficult to provide immediate attention to customer calls. Employees of the said business are limited and it has a laundry list of tasks and goals to deliver first. While this scenario becomes damaging to the business’ image, it also results in frustration and loss of opportunity. If that is the case, then partnering with a call center will work wonders to help businesses maintain and expand their customer base. As per the 2013 Global Contact Center survey by Deloitte, around 77 percent of contact centers were planning to grow in size by 2014-15. They are driven by the need to improve customer interaction or service and improve business growth.

Call center outsourcing has become a trend that has caught on fast, and the business world has acknowledged that companies that outsource are often healthier when it comes to profit and brand establishment. Other reasons to outsource include being flexible, capable to run business operations on a global scale, ability to enter into new markets, acquiring new skills for the business, multilingual proficiency, and more.

However, to make an informed decision of whether having an in-house call center or partnering with a third-party company, it is important to understand the concept, processes, and risks involved with it.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of in-house and outsourced call center:

 

Outsourced Call Center Pros:

1. Cost-effectiveness

   One reason for outsourcing call center activities is the cost benefit. Businesses, as per recent studies, have saved up to 50 percent by outsourcing to offshore companies. Countries like India and the Philippines are preferred markets as the cost of labor and setting up a call center is relatively low.

2. Focus on productivity

   Outsourcing a call center allows a business to concentrate on primary activities such as sales, production, and distribution. Non-core activities can put on added responsibilities on the shoulders of employees, which not only hamper productivity but also make them lose their focus.

3. Scalability

   When a spike in business volume happens, the call center follows suit and increase its capacity to ensure that there will be no interruption in customer service. Outsourcing customer service to a leading contact center service provider will enable the business to scale up its customer care requirement with ease, without additional cost in talent and technology.

4. Reduced risk

   Partnering with a third-party BPO company implies both parties to engage in a mutual risk-sharing agreement. With this agreement, the contact center has security while offering support in any challenging situation.

5. Trained staff

   Call center outsourcing reduces the need to hire and train a competent team. An expert call center company will have a talented pool of professionals who have the capability to speak confidently as the voice of the brand and understand business objectives and customer expectations.

 

Outsourced Call Center Cons:

1. Language constraints

   It is imperative for call centers to establish that language proficiency must be compatible with the target customer segment to prevent miscommunication and brand dilution.

2. Less control

   Since the outsourced call center will not be located near the business, immediate and on-hand supervision will become difficult. That said, it is paramount that we identify a partner with the right credentials who provides transparency through their tools and metrics.

3. Confidentiality issues

   Businesses often have to share sensitive customer information with the outsourcing firm. This exposes the organization to high risk. So, businesses should regularly check their process, and make certain that their partner firms take care of the confidential data. Essentially, data security standards of both parties must be followed down to a tee.

In this next section, we will be tackling the pros and cons of having an in-house call center. In this model, the organization manages and operates the contact center.

 

In-house Call Center Pros:

1. Security

   The risk of exposing client information will not pose a problem since there will not be any third-party involvement. Also, customers are more confident because they will think that they are talking to the direct representatives of the brand or company.

2. Flexibility

   An in-house call center is under the direct supervision of the firm. When introducing a new business process or making any announcements, the company can easily implement them. It can also easily adapt any amendments without any major lag in implement time.

3. Personal touch

   Agents can be trained to become reliable brand ambassadors since it is done in-house. And since they are dealing exclusively with a single brand, chances of dedicating attention to every customer increase.

 

In-house Call Center Cons:

1. Cost

   Maintaining an in-house call center means the company will be responsible for all aspects of the contact center. To do that, the company must invest proper resources to maintain all of these. Also, it must put aside a huge contingency fund should there be any unforeseen challenges.

2. Compromised productivity

   Businesses that need to execute non-core tasks often lack in-house efficiency. So, they need extra resources to manage additional responsibility.

3. Lack of business continuity

   Having an in-house contact center may entail a risk of business interruption when unforeseen events happen on the either internal or external environment. Whenever the duration of this time lags, it could impact the quality of support delivered to customers in the long run.

4. Maintenance

   Establishing a contact center is not the endgame. Doing regular maintenance of all technology is imperative. This is to ensure that there are no disruptions, infrastructure is robust, and staff strength is maintained.

Businesses that opt for an in-house or outsourced call center ultimately depend on their vision and mission statements. Remember this adage: what is right for one might not be the case for the others. So, the decision should be based on proper scrutiny. For an outsourced call center, proper background checks should be made. Now for an in-house call center, it is mandatory to do feasibility checks. Either way, the bottom line of your company’s customer service platform is on customer satisfaction.

 

With that said, are customer service contact centers relevant now?

For the last half-century, customers call the contact center if they had a question or issue for a brand. Customers work their way through a lot of menu options, talk with agents, and are often put on hold until their problems get resolved. That’s the common practice. Although many brands are enhancing their traditional call center experience with bots, chats, and email responses, calls are still king.

Case in point: Microsoft, in its 2018 State of Global Customer Service report, asked respondents in key countries of the world what’s their primary go-to channel for customer service. Thirty-nine percent prefer talking to agents over the phone and/or VoIP, with email as the second go-to channel.

Data from the study was further broken down according to the country of origin and age. Across the board, people still consider the phone as the primary channel for customer service.

 

Contact Centers Will Still Take Calls

We can say that call centers will stay and do the same things they do today. As long as phones are still the go-to mode of communication, companies and brands must find ways to build customer relations via this channel. It is really about human interaction. Customers put their trust in people more than AI, bots, or machines. We still feel it is important to speak to a person who can understand a situation, especially when emotions are involved. Like the data mentioned in the Microsoft report, even with a spectrum of options — Omni-channels — 39 percent still contact customer service via phone. To many, it’s even worth waiting on hold or navigating through numerous menu options just to speak to a human.

 

Bottom line

Reinvent your customer service strategies, decide whether you go in-house or outsource your contact center, and proactively perform routine checks on the processes and technologies involved. Do that, and your company will reap success.

Would you like to give customer service outsourcing a try? Contact us!