How Outsourcing Customer Support Can Make You More Competitive

5 Ways Outsourcing Customer Support Can Make Your Business More Competitive

Now more than ever, customer experience can be a key competitive advantage when it comes to winning new customers and retaining existing customers. No matter the industry, customers are becoming savvier, and they know that their time is too valuable to put up with a lackluster support experience that leaves them frustrated.

According to Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer” report, 80 percent of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. On top of that, two-thirds of companies now compete on customer experience, up from just 36 percent in 2010 per a report from Gartner.

One of the most important parts of the overall customer experience is customer support and making sure your customers feel taken care of after they have purchased your product or solution. Executives have a lot of tough choices to make when choosing how to run their business, and one of the most critical decisions is whether they should outsource their customer support or keep it in-house.

With competition in customer experience at an all-time high, let’s take a look at five compelling reasons why outsourcing customer support can make your business more competitive.

1. Outsourcing Customer Support Is Cost-Effective

Many companies are struggling to staff in-house customer support teams. Customer service roles have a high attrition rate, ranging between 30 to 45 percent on average. Constantly needing to hire and train new agents can put a financial burden on your company. Depending on the size of the support team, these costs can add up to tens-of-thousands, if not millions of dollars a year.

Outsourced customer support vendors already have the necessary infrastructure to handle the support needs of a variety of clients, with trained agents ready to provide as much coverage as needed. By working with a third-party vendor, you get a well-equipped and fully trained team without the significant costs associated with the hiring and training process for in-house agents. This frees you up to invest elsewhere in your business.

2.  Outsourcing Can Increase Revenue

Businesses that neglect customer experience are lagging behind the competition. According to a report by Qualtrics, companies that lead in customer experience outperform their competitors by nearly 80 percent. What’s more, 84 percent of companies that improve their customer experience report an increase in their revenue.

Today, customers are just as concerned with how a company treats them as they are about the price and quality of the product or service. They are also willing to pay for a good experience. Choosing to partner with a vendor that can provide a high level of customer support can help your business increase customer satisfaction, leading to increased revenue.

3. You get a ready to deploy specialized workforce

To achieve the quality of support that customers expect, businesses need a highly trained, specialized support staff. When building an in-house support team, you’ll need to start from the ground up, which requires a massive investment of time, money and other resources.

A third-party customer support vendor can help avoid these growing pains by offering a specialized, fully staffed team that will require less training and up-front costs so you and your customers will see results faster.

4. Outsourcing Provides Scalability

With an in-house customer support team, it can be hard to balance the needs of your customers with the size of your support staff. Working with a third-party customer support vendor allows you to scale your operations according to your business needs.

An outsourced solution can help you avoid customer frustration by always ensuring that there are enough agents to handle your businesses’ call volume, even during your busiest seasons.

5. Better Customer Support Leads To Increased Customer Loyalty

Loyal customers are important to any successful business, and a consistently positive customer experience is one of the most important considerations when it comes to your customers sticking around. Nearly one-third of customers would stop doing business with a brand they loved after just one bad experience, per a report from PwC.

While businesses in every industry should be prioritizing customer experience, there are many other vital pieces to running a successful business. Partnering with customer support experts allows your business to focus on the core competencies that make you successful while ensuring that your customers feel well taken care of.

Working with the right outsourced customer support partner can help eliminate friction in customer interactions, improving the overall experience so your customers want to continue doing business with your company.

Winning With Customer Experience

Whether a business chooses to build a customer support team in-house or to outsource their customer support needs to a third-party vendor, offering the best possible customer experience is the result that matters most. Businesses in every industry are competing for their customers’ loyalty, and with many options available, customer expectations are higher than ever before. Working with the right customer support partner like Televerde can give your business a leg-up on competitors, which is a win for your company and your customers.