How to Find the Right Customer Support Outsourcing Partner

When you upgrade your help desk you kick your business up a notch. You make your customers and team happier and this translates into better sales. But what if you can’t afford to run a 24/7 support team? An outsourcer can stop the gaps. 

 

But you need to choose that company carefully. You’ll have to ask the right questions and perform your research. In this post, we’ll help you sort through candidates to outsource your customer support operations team to. 

Understand What Your Business Needs

Where is your company at at this moment? Can you handle the current call or query volume? Do you need help with specific channels or all of them? Are you facing an increasing number of queries overall, or do you have spikes in support requests? 

 

Next you need to think about your goals in outsourcing. Do you want to:

• Reduce costs
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Gain expertise
• Improve scalability
• Provide specialist or multilingual support

 

When you understand what it is that you’re looking for, you’ll be able to find the right candidates. 

Research and Shortlist Your Potential Partners

Have a look at the companies out there and start narrowing down your choices. You can look: 

• Online
• At industry directories
• At asking for referrals

 

Look for companies with a traceable track record, preferably with experience in your industry. Don’t rely on the testimonials on their site. Those will always be great. You should look at Google reviews or Yelp for a more balanced picture. If you’re in the B2B space, choosing a partner with expertise in a business to business call center can make a significant difference in handling client interactions efficiently.

 

Analyze the Negative Reviews

Here’s what to look for: 

• How many bad reviews are there? A few are natural. You can’t please all your customers all the time and some clients are difficult to please. 
• Did the company address them? They need to respond to all their reviews, even the positive ones. Look at how they dealt with dreadful comments. 
• How long ago were the bad comments? Has the company structure or processes changed since then? Have they grown and improved? Bad reviews from five years ago don’t count for as much as great ones in the last few weeks. 

 

 Check their reviews on third-party sites like Yelp. You’re going to look for negative posts and see how they respond to them. 

 

Avoid companies with overwhelmingly negative reviews. It’s also a good idea to steer away from businesses who ignore those comments. If they’re not interested in protecting their reputation online, will they bother in person? 

Evaluate Their Expertise and Capabilities

Now you should have a few candidates, so it’s time to work out what they can offer you:

• Do they provide the services you need? 
• Can they handle a company of your size and stature? 
• What technology do they use? 
• Will they be a good fit for your processes and standards? 

Assess Cultural and Operational Fit

By now you’ve probably reached out to the companies and started discussing your needs. Do they seem to be a good cultural fit for your company? If they’re in a different time zone, can they work around this issue? How responsive are they to queries? 

If it feels like they’re doing you a favor just by talking to you, run. 

Consider Security and Compliance

You’ll need to make sure that the company safeguards your data in the same way you would. They’ll have to comply with the privacy regulations in your country and their own. Ask them:

• How they encrypt data. 
• What they do to vet potential employees.
• How they prevent unauthorised access to their offices. 

 

You need to know that they’re thinking about security from all angles. For example, say someone drops a USB drive at the front desk, saying they found it. What will the receptionist do? The natural reaction is to plug it in and see if there’s any identifying data. 

 

And that’s just what a bad actor wants you to do. They may load these devices up with malware and “lose” them on purpose. 

Conduct Your Due Diligence

You should meet with a few different companies to get an idea of the typical pricing structures. Ask them for detailed proposals and references. 

Monitor and Evaluate the Partnership

You need to keep track on how your new team performs. They should give you access to a range of reports to help in this. They should also allow you to listen in on calls at random. You should also monitor their performance to see if you need to upscale your team. 

Conclusion

Outsourcing customer support is a smart strategy when you want to improve satisfaction. But you can’t rush into this arrangement, you need to do your due diligence. 

 

It takes time to find the best team, but it’s worth it. Think of it this way, your customers will see the outsourcer as a rep for your company. If that team makes a mistake, it reflects badly on you. 

 

 

 

 

How to Find the Right Customer Support Outsourcing Partner

When you upgrade your help desk you kick your business up a notch. You make your customers and team happier and this translates into better sales. But what if you can’t afford to run a 24/7 support team? An outsourcer can stop the gaps. 

 

But you need to choose that company carefully. You’ll have to ask the right questions and perform your research. In this post, we’ll help you sort through candidates to outsource your customer support operations team to. 

Understand What Your Business Needs

Where is your company at at this moment? Can you handle the current call or query volume? Do you need help with specific channels or all of them? Are you facing an increasing number of queries overall, or do you have spikes in support requests? 

 

Next you need to think about your goals in outsourcing. Do you want to:

• Reduce costs
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Gain expertise
• Improve scalability
• Provide specialist or multilingual support

 

When you understand what it is that you’re looking for, you’ll be able to find the right candidates. 

Research and Shortlist Your Potential Partners

Have a look at the companies out there and start narrowing down your choices. You can look: 

• Online
• At industry directories
• At asking for referrals

 

Look for companies with a traceable track record, preferably with experience in your industry. Don’t rely on the testimonials on their site. Those will always be great. You should look at Google reviews or Yelp for a more balanced picture. If you’re in the B2B space, choosing a partner with expertise in a business to business call center can make a significant difference in handling client interactions efficiently.

 

Analyze the Negative Reviews

Here’s what to look for: 

• How many bad reviews are there? A few are natural. You can’t please all your customers all the time and some clients are difficult to please. 
• Did the company address them? They need to respond to all their reviews, even the positive ones. Look at how they dealt with dreadful comments. 
• How long ago were the bad comments? Has the company structure or processes changed since then? Have they grown and improved? Bad reviews from five years ago don’t count for as much as great ones in the last few weeks. 

 

 Check their reviews on third-party sites like Yelp. You’re going to look for negative posts and see how they respond to them. 

 

Avoid companies with overwhelmingly negative reviews. It’s also a good idea to steer away from businesses who ignore those comments. If they’re not interested in protecting their reputation online, will they bother in person? 

Evaluate Their Expertise and Capabilities

Now you should have a few candidates, so it’s time to work out what they can offer you:

• Do they provide the services you need? 
• Can they handle a company of your size and stature? 
• What technology do they use? 
• Will they be a good fit for your processes and standards? 

Assess Cultural and Operational Fit

By now you’ve probably reached out to the companies and started discussing your needs. Do they seem to be a good cultural fit for your company? If they’re in a different time zone, can they work around this issue? How responsive are they to queries? 

If it feels like they’re doing you a favor just by talking to you, run. 

Consider Security and Compliance

You’ll need to make sure that the company safeguards your data in the same way you would. They’ll have to comply with the privacy regulations in your country and their own. Ask them:

• How they encrypt data. 
• What they do to vet potential employees.
• How they prevent unauthorised access to their offices. 

 

You need to know that they’re thinking about security from all angles. For example, say someone drops a USB drive at the front desk, saying they found it. What will the receptionist do? The natural reaction is to plug it in and see if there’s any identifying data. 

 

And that’s just what a bad actor wants you to do. They may load these devices up with malware and “lose” them on purpose. 

Conduct Your Due Diligence

You should meet with a few different companies to get an idea of the typical pricing structures. Ask them for detailed proposals and references. 

Monitor and Evaluate the Partnership

You need to keep track on how your new team performs. They should give you access to a range of reports to help in this. They should also allow you to listen in on calls at random. You should also monitor their performance to see if you need to upscale your team. 

Conclusion

Outsourcing customer support is a smart strategy when you want to improve satisfaction. But you can’t rush into this arrangement, you need to do your due diligence. 

 

It takes time to find the best team, but it’s worth it. Think of it this way, your customers will see the outsourcer as a rep for your company. If that team makes a mistake, it reflects badly on you.