BENEFIT # 1
Cost Savings
One of the most obvious benefits of outsourcing your omnichannel support is cost savings.
The average salary of an entry-level Customer Service Agent in the US is $14. With an outsource partner in the Philippines for example, you can slash costs by up to 50%.
Now you might think that less cost means less quality. But that just isn’t the case.
Because the cost of living is lower offshore, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies can afford to pay their staff very well.
Experienced Agents
That means for a fraction of the cost of an onshore resource, you’ll be able to hire college grads with years of customer service under their belt.
These tenured agents speak fluent English. They have live experience in various situations dealing with customers and clients.
They’re also quite tech savvy. They’ll have a high comfort level with omnichannel systems, contact center software, CRMs and agent productivity tools.
Infrastructure
BPOs invest in infrastructure built solely around producing stellar customer support. When you outsource, you’ll be able to build on top of this framework with no extra cost. This includes HR, Training and IT. Most BPOs support remote work, but will also have onsite or hybrid workspaces ready for you to use.
As for technology, you’ll be able to use the omnichannel, contact center and productivity tools that they already have in place.
Because of their existing ties with vendors, you’ll enjoy friendly rates on these tools. In fact, these tools will often be built-in to your agent’s per hour rate.
Best Practices
Last but not least, they have decades of best practices already built into their business model. This means you’ll save money avoiding mistakes you’ll likely make when doing this on your own.
BENEFIT # 2
Leverage Off BPO Expertise
Another major plus of outsourcing your omnichannel support is you get to draw from your BPO partner’s expertise.
A good BPO partner will be able to design a robust Customer Service solution that can scale with your business.
At the start, they’ll assess the following:
- customer profile
- support channels
- coverage
- inflow volume
- peak hours
- required tools
Hiring Process
Another area where a BPO’s expertise will shine is in the hiring process. If you were to hire your own in-house, offshore CS team, you’d be limited to the talent you’re able to find on Online Job and Freelance Marketplaces like Upwork and Indeed.
BPOs however, know exactly where to find the best talent. Their Recruitment Teams are always in the thick of job fairs, running caravans and training new recruits. They’ll have a process in place to make sure only the very best recruits make it through.
Good BPOs may even have a stable of talent on standby, ready to go for you at a moment’s notice. This will increase your speed to market.
Speed to Market
Speed to market refers to how quickly you can get your CS up and running.
Once you find the right team, your BPO partner will have a process in place to train and deploy your team in the least amount of time.
They’ll also be quick to the draw in setting up tools for…
- communication
- productivity
- knowledge management
- business intelligence
Business Intelligence
Maybe the most underrated expertise a BPO can provide is in the realm of business intelligence. Most small businesses, and even some larger ones don’t know where to start with this.
I once worked as a Vendor Manager with a company who ran their CS team with very little reporting. One of the first things we did was to partner with a BPO.
Together with that partner, we set up our key metrics. We then correlated data from those metrics with customer feedback to produce meaningful insights. This led to an increase in subscriptions and sales.
More importantly, it gave the customer’s voice a presence in the business.Because we were now hearing their voice, we were able to give input on the brands and the variety of products that were brought on board.
In the months to follow, baseline performance, speed, quality and cost metrics all began to soar.
BENEFIT # 3
Focus on Your Core Business
When you outsource your omnichannel support, you are able to place your entire focus on your core business. This is by far the greatest benefit you’ll get from outsourcing.
Avoid Mistakes that Will Cost You Customers
We’ve already discussed the vast expertise BPOs have. When you build your CS in-house, you’ll have to gain all this knowledge on your own.
You’d need to answer questions such as:
- Where do I find quality CS agents?
- How many agents do I need?
- How do I train and manage them?
- What technology do I need?
- What tools do I use?
And you’d have to figure this out, all while avoiding major mistakes that could cost you customers.
Don't Build Unrelated Infrastructure
To support your CS team, you’d also have to build infrastructure that includes:
- HR
- Training
- IT
- onsite facilities
To ensure consistent performance as your team grows larger, you’ll have to hire:
- Team Leaders,
- Quality Assurance Specialists
- Operations Managers
Avoid Dealing with Erratic Workforce Needs
Customer service volume is not static. It fluctuates over time.
BPOs are equipped to deal with this rapidly changing demand for support.
They can spot trends, and forecast volume spikes or permanent growth, and are ready to adapt to these changes. If needed, they can ramp up your team by the hundreds in a matter of months.
When operating an in-house CS department, you’ll have to deal with all the HR headaches of hiring, transferring or letting go of staff.
Don't Complicate Your Business Model
Building a CS department is really like creating a new business within your business.
You end up spending precious time and money building up expertise and infrastructure in areas totally unrelated to your core.
This creates complexities that are completely unnecessary.
When you outsource with the right partner, all this complexity disappears. Your BPO partner will be responsible for all of it.
Your job is to hold them accountable for reaching the benchmarks you set together at the start of the engagement.
This frees you up to grow your workforce, knowledge and infrastructure all around the business domain in which you actually compete.