It’s no secret that customer service is key to the growth and success of any company. This applies to small business and big corporations, where that one-on-one connection with your customers and solving their queries quickly is vital to maintain a loyal relationship.
It might be easy for a small business owner to find feedback related to their product and establish a fluent communication with its customers, but as the business grows this gets a little harder. Any kind of business development and growth needs careful strategy and planning, and listening to customers about how to better suit their needs is the easiest way to grow. In large businesses you can find entire departments devoted to evaluating and communicating with clients, because even when you are prepared it can become overwhelming overnight, so it is a good practice to have all the options ready to make sure you can access and support your customers properly.
There are great benefits in developing an in-house customer service department, but if you are starting the department or the company is growing at a fast rate the better option is definitely to outsource. It is a cost effective route and it makes it easier to begin working on solving your clients queries as needed.
There is no risk of seeking help from a respected outsourcing company, and no matter the size of the business, you have everything to gain. You will find this affordable solution helps you stay focused on the company’s growth and gives your clients fast and reliable support and access.
Step 1: Have Clear goals
When thinking about outsourcing, the first step is to establish goals. You need to have a clear view of what the company needs and wants, these goals need to be set by the top management so the entire company is aligned.
If your goal is lower costs, you need to set how much you are looking to save before you start any negotiation. If you are interested in quality of service, make sure to search for trained and professional agents.
When establishing goals, always remember to consult with your legal department of any probable legal or security issue related to outsourcing your services.
Step 2: The Customer Goes First
You are the one who knows your customers best, their needs and ways to interact. Knowing their contact preferences and favorite channels is valuable information when thinking about outsourcing customer service.
This will help you decide the best way to communicate with them, by call, email, phone, for example.
Knowing your customers profile and the previous experience you had with them will give you guidelines to make the best decision on what services to contract and who can be the best partner.
The outsourcing company you choose must have a clear perspective of how you communicate with your clients in order to provide the best customer experience at any time.
Step 3: Look for the best
Start your research and always aim for the best. Connecting with clients is crucial, so having a good alliance with people you can trust and feel comfortable with is the way to go. BPO companies are always trying to keep up with changes, so they will have trained agents and advanced software to keep your data safe even when working remotely.
- Look for Customer Service Agents with the right skills (language, knowledge of your culture, etc)
- Determine the capacity to scale or handle the desired volume of daily queries
- Examine your possible partners talking to other past or current clients
- It is best if you choose a service provider that can contact your customers through different approaches, like via phone calls, online chat or email
Always focus on the quality of the service because this is what will retain your customers and through recommendations, acquire a new customer base.
Step 4: Quality Control
One of the key reasons to outsource customer service is to guarantee customer service quality for your clients, no matter if the queries increase, they will always have someone ready to solve their problem or listen to their needs in a proper tone.
Outsourcing service companies already have highly trained customer support agents with experience, which will make it easier to set customer communications standards to assure your service provider will communicate your culture and values to your customers.
It is always important to set key indicators, such as ticket volume, average response time, average resolution time, for example, to measure the quality of the service and your clients satisfaction.
Even if you are outsourcing , never forget about customer service; you need to continuously evaluate the team’s performance to assure they are on the right path.
For any partnership to succeed there has to be excellent communication, both ways. This means discussing and acknowledging the things that are working, what must be improved, areas to re-enforced, continuous training and feedback from the customers.
The outsourced team should act as an extension of your company. Your customers judge your service, and that is why it is important to listen constantly and work to ensure their satisfaction and the correct response to their queries. Ultimately, you could say a product is only as good as the satisfaction it brings to its consumer, and a healthy customer experience will get you half-way there.
