There is a popular notion that organizations resort to outsourcing to cut their costs, but there is also another side of the coin. When a company engages in e-commerce customer support outsourcing, it aims to provide the best possible level of service when it comes to addressing the needs of customers.

What is customer support outsourcing?

When organizations outsource some aspect of their customer support operations to a third party vendor, it is referred to as customer service outsourcing. A BPO company is a team of outsourced agents who learn your services, products, and brand voice to fix customer requests across diverse channels on your behalf. The agents engage in inbound/outbound calls and interact with customers in a precise fashion.

What are the 6 types of outsourcing?

Given below are the six types of outsourcing that most organizations embrace:

  1. Professional outsourcing: This outsourcing type involves legal, accounting, purchasing, information technology, or administrative support among other specialized services. Since the potential for cost savings is high in this case, it is one of the most popular forms of outsourcing. Here, the organization pays only for services that are provided while having access to excellent quality resources.
  2. IT outsourcing: It is one of the most common types of outsourcing in recent times. IT outsourcing is all about subcontracting a third party to take care of a firm’s IT needs. This may range from software development to support and maintenance. Nowadays, every ecommerce service has some form of IT needs as technological evolution is prevalent in every sector.
  3. Manufacturer outsourcing: These outsourcing services are generally industry-specific. Manufacturer outsourcing will lead to significant cost reductions and quicker assembly times. However, there is one risk associated with this type of outsourcing in the form of quality issues. It will cause interruption down the production line. According to experts, manufacturer outsourcing is crucial for small and medium-sized businesses to thrive in today’s competitive market environment.
  4. Process-specific outsourcing: In recent times, it’s very common to outsource business operations to third-party vendors that master a specific service. The contract relating to process-specific outsourcing will involve information on delivery timelines, costs, and customer contacts. This will allow every company to focus on its strength and enhance customer service while minimizing costs and time.
  5. Project outsourcing: Times may arise when organizations face difficulties in managing certain projects. Under such circumstances, organizations resort to outsourcing measures. They outsource some of their support projects to third parties so that the companies have enough time in hand to manage the difficult ones. Also, it will cost more to finish the project in-house than to outsource to another qualified firm.
  6. Operational outsourcing: When organizations outsource certain aspects of their business operations, it is known as operational outsourcing. Large businesses don’t have time in hand to manage their non-core functions, as they are increasingly focused on the main ones. By conducting operational outsourcing, organizations can relieve themselves from the extra workload.

What are the pros and cons of outsourcing customer service?

There are both benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing customer service. Let’s have a look at the benefits first:

Pros

  • The workload is minimized: Small business owners have to perform several tasks at a time. They don’t have any other option due to few employees. If they remain busy responding to customer phone calls and emails, who will take charge of the more profitable activities? This is where outsourcing comes in handy. By outsourcing your ecommerce customer service operations, you and your employees will get enough free time in hand to focus on larger sales drivers as you won’t have to focus on after-sales operations.
  • Cost savings: One significant benefit of hiring contract workers is that you don’t have to pay them a fixed salary at the end of the month. Moreover, you don’t need to embellish computer service reps with equipment that can help you save money.
  • After-hours coverage: Most consumers are likely to reach organizations’ customer service departments during odd hours. So, the call center staffs have to be available 24*7 as the customers expect this very thing from your business.
  • Multilingual services: If your customer base speaks in a language other than your native language, by utilizing customer service outsourcing, you can have access to reps who speak these languages. This will make your customers feel more confident when it comes to doing business with your organization. If the customers feel that their answers are addressed properly, there will be no communication barrier.
  • Access to better technology and resources: If you choose to outsource customer service functions, you can get access to the latest technology in the form of enterprise software, VPNs, computer programs, modern computing terminals, and networking hardware. You may not have all these accessories within your office space.

Cons

  • Lower customer satisfaction rate: Substandard call centers don’t handle the queries of customers efficiently. For this reason, many business owners think that they will lose customers if they decide to go with customer support outsource
  • Outsourced employees may not be as knowledgeable as your in-house team: Chances are there the outsourced team may not be as knowledgeable as your in-house team. If you want to overcome this concern, clear and consistent communication with your outsourced customer service team is important. To make them knowledgeable, you can update them on new product launches, policies, price changes, and more.
  • They may not consider your business as a top priority: A call center has several clients. You are not the only one. So, they may not consider your business a top priority. Naturally, you will want the outsourced firm to be passionate about your organization and will make your customer calls a priority. But the harsh truth is that it may not be the case all the time. To combat this issue, you may want to hire more expensive and dedicated customer service outsourcing agents but you have to pay a price for that.
  • Security concerns: It is very common for businesses to exchange credit card numbers, names, and addresses. All these are sensitive information and need to be kept secured. So, you should interview the call center about their security measures and practices. Yes, some call centers have layers of protection to ensure your private information is safe and private.

In reality, there are no ideal business practices. Outsourcing your customer service operations highlights this aspect in more ways than one. However, the procedure of customer support outsourcing is a versatile one. Even if you think that operating with a remote team isn’t going well with you, a modified system might be your call. Yes, customer service outsourcing also has its disadvantages. But in most instances, the pros outweigh the cons. All that you need is to assess the organizational requirements and start saving by picking a smart customer service team.

Are you looking for a reliable e-commerce customer support outsourcing company? If you feel so, the experts at https://bpocenters.com/ will serve as the best option. They have years of experience in customer service and can handle any customer’s queries with utmost efficiency. Their proactive support measures to fix customer issues even before they arise will put your brand in the positive light.