Outsourcing your customer service has become a prevalent approach to save money and increase productivity in companies of all shapes and sizes. Still, if you aren’t careful, it can also lead to many problems. It’s important to know these potential issues before you take the plunge into outsourcing your customer service. This article will cover the top seven problems with outsourcing your customer service and what you can do to avoid them.
Outsourcing your customer service has become a prevalent approach to save money and increase productivity in companies of all shapes and sizes. Still, if you aren’t careful, it can also lead to many problems. It’s important to know these potential issues before you take the plunge into outsourcing your customer service. This article will cover the top seven problems with outsourcing your customer service and what you can do to avoid them.
If you’re outsourcing your customer service, it’s essential to have clear and concise instructions for each step in the process. Always have a clear set of steps, detailed explanations about what needs to happen at each, and management available to help solve more complex problems.
It’s essential to carefully research the outsourcing company before you sign on the dotted line. They may be able to handle your customer service needs, but they may not be able to offer what you need. For example, if you need 24/7 customer service and they only provide 12-hour support, it won’t work for your business. Some companies are shocked when their outsourcing vendor does not meet their expectations.
Ensure that the company you’re going to outsource your customer service is qualified and capable of doing the work professionally. If you don’t have a clear scope, it might be difficult for the outsourcing company to understand its responsibilities, which can lead to problems. Make sure you know what you want your outsourced customer service provider to do and ask them questions about their capabilities before signing a contract. Take extra time before signing on with them to avoid wasting time and the cost of onboarding.
Holding the outsourced company accountable for its actions can be difficult when you outsource your customer service. Without accountability systems, customer service agents may do a poor job helping clients. This results in unhappy customers who don’t feel fairly treated, which leads them to share their dissatisfaction on social media channels and other online sites, which can lead to negative reviews.
It’s essential to ensure that your outsourced provider has someone accountable for managing all of their teams. If they do not have this in place, you should consider bringing on an external person or contracting with a vendor who already has someone who can take on this role.
Outsourced customer service is a tricky business. The manager of the outsourced customer service department needs to communicate with various levels of management and company contacts to get work done. These managers might not always speak the same language, and their lack of cultural awareness can lead to misunderstandings. Another significant issue is that it’s difficult to know where your employees are, making it more challenging for you to supervise them.
Maintain direct lines of communication. You will be able to spot potential problems before they become significant issues. You should also take the time to provide meaningful feedback to your outsourced partner to inform them how they are doing and whether they need additional training or help. When outsourcing customer service for a company, it’s essential to set clear goals that everyone understands. If parts of your business require highly-trained staff, then you should maintain those in-house and use outsourcing to fill other needs.
Lack of understanding from the outsourced customer service team can lead to miscommunication with your customers, which may result in problems for your company. For example, if the outsourced company does not understand the customer’s complaint and cannot provide a solution, it will likely leave without any resolution. This could result in a customer being unhappy with your business and spreading negative word of mouth to other potential customers.
Work to hire from companies that have English-speaking representatives available on staff or look for ones that have agents who are fluent in your preferred languages. Certain countries like the Philippines have a higher population of English speakers (or other languages your customers may speak), so finding vendors from those locations can keep this from being an issue.
If you are not careful with the outsourced customer service company you select, delays in response times can harm your business. When a customer has an issue and needs to know what to do next, they must get an answer quickly. If your outsourced customer service provider takes too long to respond, there is a chance that your customers will leave because they think you don’t care about them, and that could lead to lost revenue from unhappy customers and bad reviews.
You can’t micromanage the situation to ensure a timely response – instead, make sure there is oversight to ensure delays don’t happen. Train that outsourced staff before they take on new responsibilities. Finally, establish clear guidelines for how long an outsourced employee should take to respond and which type of issues they should handle.
Outsourcing your customer service is a great way to save money and provide more personalized service. However, there are some risks involved with outsourcing. One of the main risks is security. When you outsource, you give someone else all of your data. If this person gets hacked or starts selling information, you have just given away information that is risky for identity theft or credit card fraud.
To avoid security issues, make sure you have your outsourcing partner sign legal documents (valid in both parties’ countries), provide oversight, and add extra levels of security. It is also essential to ensure that all contractors are using your company’s VPN before accessing any data or services remotely. For example, suppose a contractor doesn’t use the company VPN while accessing files on their laptop. In that case, they can inadvertently download malware that can compromise sensitive information stored on the hard drive without realizing it.
Outsourcing your customer service can be a great way to save time and resources, but it’s not without its disadvantages. You need to ensure you’re working with a reliable and responsive company, or the cost savings might come at a greater cost. If you’re considering outsourcing your customer service, be aware of these problems with outsourcing so that you know what pitfalls to avoid.
