By Tanhaz Kamaly – Partnership Executive, UK, Dialpad UK

Imagine this: your small business is booming, and you’re dealing with an increasing number of queries with every passing day. You don’t want to turn away customers who want to know more about your brand, but you’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume of questions you’re getting. Multiple orders, queries, and complaints are routine for any growing business, but the real difference comes with how they’re handled.

So many people opt for a cloud-based PBX system and use in-house employees to answer calls and reach out to consumers. It might seem like an obvious solution until you realise that your staff hasn’t been specially trained in customer support services. You want to meet all of your consumers’ needs, but your current employees might cost you precious leads if they continue to handle the phones, so to speak. 

The only way to create a smooth customer service experience for your consumers is to hire a specialised customer service company. These customer service professionals can ensure that your brand is represented accurately and you don’t lose out on any business. Furthermore, a quality customer service experience will boost your customer retention rate, resulting in long-term consistent growth and an increase in revenue.

It is no wonder then, that worldwide budgets allocated to outsourcing are expected to reach $731 billion by 2023, according to a Deloitte report. Outsourcing to a specialised firm can bring in new business, strengthen relationships with customers and provide elegant solutions to complicated problems. 

A specialised customer service company can provide convenient options like hosted contact centre solutions that you wouldn’t be able to set up alone. 

The Importance of Outsourcing your Customer Service

Let’s take a deeper look at why you should outsource your customer service to a specialised service provider:

1. Easy on the pocket

Numerous business owners have found that outsourcing customer service operations save them more money than they spend on it. It makes sense because outsourcing a service means you don’t have to pay for expensive acquisitions like infrastructure or rigs. The service provider already has the necessary call centre, either cloud or offline, to handle large amounts of queries.

You’ll also save a pretty penny on training and retraining staff. It’s imperative that customer service workers display the utmost professionalism required for a successful business-customer relationship. Customer service providers have contact centre workforce management that ensures all their employees are highly skilled and trained. You can be sure you’ll get your money’s worth when you outsource to a third-party firm.

2. Improved customer relations

People contact businesses for a myriad of reasons. Some are interested in purchasing from them, while others want to inquire about discount codes or final prices. There’s another segment of consumers who need a brand’s contact info so they can ask specific questions related to after-sales service.

Picture this: you sell vintage Polaroid cameras that require some learning curve before someone can use them. Your customer service providers should be ready for all kinds of questions, including queries about prices to customers asking how they can develop film at home. In-house employees might get tired of answering continuous queries, whereas customer service professionals can take care of them with no fuss. 

It goes a long way in cementing your relationship with your consumers, ensuring they remain loyal and place their trust in the brand. Good relationships with brands also mean free brand ambassadors as loyal customers become free mouthpieces for your products or services.

3. Eliminate opportunity cost

As a business owner, you’re probably always thinking of how to grow your business. Every business person has different ideas and a distinct strategy. Some focus on content creation, while others take a more technical approach to attract customers to their business. The one thing all of them can agree on is that they’d rather spend time figuring out how to increase revenue than struggle with logistical operations.  

Outsourcing customer service doesn’t just save you money. It also saves you a lot of precious time. You can slough off excess pressure to maintain customer relations by handing over the task to a specialised firm. It leaves you free to focus on core aspects of your business, such as marketing and sales. You can even find time to retrain yourself and learn new skills, like an enterprise big data certification or a social media workshop.

Whichever way you cut it, outsourcing customer relations can be a big load off your shoulders when it comes to saving time and growing your business.

4. Engage consumers in new ways

One of the most valuable advantages of outsourcing customer service is the scale. You can hire a firm to give you as many customer service reps as you need, meaning your consumers will never have to wait long to talk to someone. Scalability is exciting because it gives you the opportunity to engage more consumers in meaningful ways.

Efficient engagement allows you to collect vital feedback from consumers that can help you grow your business. Think of this like A/B or QA automation testing: you can have consumers answer quick surveys about their shopping experience or reward them with discount coupons. Once you routinely test your business practices, you will be able to increase the efficacy of your marketing and sales strategies while ironing out any kinks you encounter during the process. 

5. Unlimited channels 

Keep in mind that when you outsource your customer service, you’ll have a variety of touchpoints to choose from. You can choose to connect with consumers over calls, texts, emails, live chat, digital platforms, and more. With omnichannel customer service, your choice of touchpoints depends on your larger strategy.

The common denominator here is response time. When you outsource your customer services, you’ll achieve high response rates across all the channels you’ve picked. It means happy customers since they won’t have to wait endless hours to get a callback. Engaging customers across touchpoints gives you a bulletproof strategy to keep in touch and build brand equity with time. 

Combining your channels under a consistent narrative also decreases your risk of failure. Imagine if you gave different channels to different employees. They might make mistakes or talk to customers in ways that go against your brand identity. The right customer service firm will ensure that your risks are minimal and will have planned for any contingency situation.

6. Big business means more languages

Let’s say you run a massive business with branches in various countries. It wouldn’t make much sense to set up local call centres in each country. It would be expensive and inefficient. Outsourcing would take care of all of these problems. Specialised customer service firms employ people who speak a plethora of languages.

You won’t have to worry about alienating local audiences because the customer service company will talk to each customer in the language they prefer. Asides from being personalised, this will enable more customers to interact with your brand since they’ll be able to communicate their needs openly and effectively in whichever language they prefer.

That being said, make sure you keep corporate compliance in mind. Test your customer service reps on your own to ensure they’re not offending any local sensibilities or pushing consumers away. They should know your brand identity and be able to give responses that reflect it instead of inaccurate statements that might harm your company.

7. Access new tech

If you set out to handle customer service in-house, you’ll have to keep looking up new technology in the industry. You’ll also have to learn to use new mediums yourself and eventually train your employees to do it too. This process requires a lot of time and effort that could be spent elsewhere improving the business.

When you outsource your customer service needs, you’ll automatically have access to industry-first technology. You’ll know all about using an all-in-one crm with cloud-based PBX systems and VoIP services through your third-party hire. The best part is that customers love advanced technology and will react positively to a brand that uses it.

Optimise Your Resources and Enjoy a High ROI 

When you outsource your customer service team, you free up essential resources whose talents could be used elsewhere to boost your business. Resource optimization will allow you to expand your business however and whenever you want. You’ll also enjoy a high ROI as your customers engage with your brand in meaningful ways. They’ll have a positive image of your brand and will make repeat purchases, increasing your revenue.