Guide to Outsourcing
Introduction
Here's one way of looking at outsourcing. Suppose you want to build a house. You could go through the trouble of building it yourself: take on the planning, sourcing materials, recruiting personnel, overseeing the actual brick-laying, etc. We're not saying it can't be done, but maybe there's a more efficient way to occupy your time and focus.
Outsourcing is the equivalent of hiring an experienced contractor to take care of all that. While it's true that you could lay the bricks yourself, the outsourcing alternative means that the entire process gets taken care of for you, you just need to move in.
In this article, we'll try to provide you with an overview of all the factors that you might want to consider if you decide building the house yourself is not the best use of your time.
Let's begin by picturing what it would look like to be up and running with an outsourced Customer Service team, and then we'll ask some questions about the situations that might lead you to consider outsourcing.
What does it look like to have an outsourced Customer Service team?
Staffing becomes effortless.
You get a team of experienced professionals who are already pre-trained and ready to go. No need to worry about posting jobs, going through piles of resumes or interviewing (you can still choose if you want to). The people who will be handling your customer service come with industry-specific skillsets right out of the box, are already familiar with the software tools they will be using, and have been hand-picked for your specific needs.
Training is done for you.
One of the biggest challenges of hiring a new team is getting them up to speed. With an outsourced team, you don't have to worry about that. Our training team will get to know your product and your customers, create tailored training materials for you, and ensure your team is equipped to handle any situation that comes their way.
Management, analytics, and reporting are taken care of.
You don't have to worry about managing your team. We'll take care of that for you. We'll also provide you with regular reports on how your team is doing, and we'll work with you to make sure your team is always performing at its best.
Need to scale up or down? No problem.
If you need to scale up or down, you don't have to worry about hiring or firing. We can also help you with seasonal fluctuations or fast growth periods, so you don't have to worry about having too many or too few people on your team.
When should you consider outsourcing your Customer Service?
You're spending too much time on Customer Service.
Maybe you actually enjoy talking to your customers, but you're spending too much time on it. Your in-house team may actually have a handle on things, but you're spending too much time managing them. Or maybe you're spending too much time hiring and training new people. There are a myriad things that may be pulling you away from developing your core business, so it makes little business sense to try to take on everything yourself.
You want to offer 24/7 support.
One of the obvious challenges of offering 24/7 support is that you need to have people working around the clock. If you wanted to do this in-house, you would need to find, train, and manage additional people, and they would need to be willing to work nights and weekends. As an American company, finding local people to work the night shift can be a challenge. One way to go about this is to employ a team that is naturally awake when your customers are. Outsourcing can provide access to a global workforce that can cover all time zones.
You want to offer support in multiple languages.
You need a global team to provide support to your international customers. Finding people who speak the languages your customer base requires, at the appropriate fluency level, for a cost-effective rate, that's a challenge for sure: one that outsourcing is particularly well-suited to tackle. With access to a global workforce, finding the right people becomes much easier.
You want to offer omnichannel support.
Maybe you've already got a handle on email and live chat, but you want to offer phone support. Or maybe you want to offer support on social media. Or maybe you want to offer support on all of these channels but the costs associated with having the whole thing up and running keep pushing this item to the bottom of the priorities list. Outsourcing can provide you with the team and infrastructure to run support and maintain the highest standards across all channels.
You want to improve your customer service.
Customer Service can be so much more than just answering questions. It can be a powerful tool for customer retention and loyalty. It can provide you insights into your product and your customers. It can be a powerful sales tool. All of that, however, requires a dedicated, well-trained team lead by skilled, forward-looking management. Building such a team in-house, rewarding as it may be, will require a significant investment of time and resources, and will dilute your focus from your core business. By the way, this also applies to other areas of your business, such as bookkeeping. It is always a good idea to "pick your battles" and focus on the areas where you can provide the most value. This is why outsourcing is a great option for many businesses. You can focus on building a great product, and delegate secondary functions with the peace of mind that they will be run smoothly and efficiently.
How to gauge the competency of an outsourcing provider?
You've just been on a call with a BPO and they sound pretty good. They've got a great sales pitch, and they seem like a great choice in terms of cost and quality. But how do you know if they're actually any good? Here are a few things to consider:
References
Just as you would with a new hire, asking around about the company you're considering is always a good idea. If you're a part of the DTC community, you may already attend the various industry events organized by the community throughout the year. These are great opportunities to connect with other business owners and ask for recommendations. If you haven't been to one of these yet, you can find a list of upcoming events here. You may find these events to be a great source of opportunities of all kinds!
In a similar vein, you can look at reviews and testimonials. If the company has a good track record, you should be able to find some evidence of that online. For example, in our case, you can take a look at our YouTube channel to watch some of our clients talk about their experience with us.
Culture
What is life like for the people who will be doing the day-to-day work? Are they treated well by management? Their level of engagement and satisfaction will affect the quality of service they provide, which in turn will have a direct impact on your customers' satisfaction and brand perception. For companies with distributed teams, a visit to the large, traditional call center offices we are used to seeing in movies is not a possibility. Instead, there are a number of proxy metrics that can give you a sense of the level of care and attention that the company puts into its people. For example, you can ask about the company's turnover rate, or about the average tenure of their employees. You can also ask about the company's training and development programs, and about the company's commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Team
Meeting the management team and the people who will be working on your account is another necessary step towards ensuring you've made the right choice of BPO. You can ask about their experience, their training, and their approach to customer service. You can also ask about the company's approach to quality assurance, and about the company's approach to continuous improvement. You want to make sure you like and trust the people who will be representing your brand on a daily basis, and from whom you will be receiving regular reports and updates.
Conclusion
It is also important to make sure that expectations are clear from the beginning. You should have a clear understanding of what the company will be doing for you, and what you will be responsible for. Ambiguity can lead to misunderstandings and frustration down the line, so we want to make sure that expectations around responsibilities, timelines, and deliverables are clearly stated and agreed upon from the beginning.
We hope this guide has been helpful in providing you with a high-level overview of the factors to consider when deciding whether to outsource your Customer Service. If you have any questions, or if you would like to discuss your specific situation, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would be happy to help you think through your options and make the best decision for your business.