Nearly 80% of consumers consider a company’s customer service when deciding whether to do future business with it. That makes it extremely important to get customer support right at your company. But doing this yourself can be challenging and expensive. Many companies are starting to use offshore customer support solutions for many reasons, why should you?
Overseas customer support solutions, offer a variety of benefits to both your business and its customers. We’ll explore those below while also highlighting some of the challenges offshore solutions present to help you decide whether they could be a fit for your company.
What is an offshore customer support solution?
An offshore customer support solution is a third-party business that takes over the customer support operations of your company. For example, instead of hiring 10 customer service agents to engage with customers, you could partner with an offshore company that handles everything for you.
The word “offshore” also indicates that this team you’re hiring is based out of another country. However, as you read this article, just keep in mind that you can also absolutely find similar services that exist within the same countries you operate in.
Offshore customer support benefits
Now that we know what an offshore customer support solution is, let’s look at some of the benefits that your company can receive by partnering with one. Here are a few to consider.
Cost efficiencies
One of the key advantages of using an offshore team for customer service is the cost efficiencies that can arise when you do so. For starters, wages in other countries tend to be lower than they are in the United States and in similar countries. This can make it possible to get the full customer support coverage you want without having to expand your budget to do so.
Offshore support teams are also built from the ground up to provide the best support support at the lowest prices possible. This can lead to a variety of cost reductions and efficiency-boosting practices that help your business get more out of its limited resources for customer service.
Flexible hours
Another huge advantage of using an offshore team for customer service is the way that doing so can open up your customer support availability.
When you hire an internal team, their hours are going to be largely consistent with the rest of your business since they’re located in the same country and time zone. But when you hire an offshore team, you can pick from a variety of locations across the world. This makes it easier to offer customer service from real humans at hours your competitors don’t.
You may even want to consider supplementing an internal team with an after-hours offshore solution. Doing so can be an excellent way to expand your coverage without having to put new team members on salary and benefits to do so.
Scalability
Next up – we have the scalability of offshore solutions. You can typically add or subtract customer service agents from your offshore team on an as-needed basis. This differs dramatically from internal workers who you can’t fire and rehire as your sales go up or down.
There are several reasons why this scalability is worth pursuing.
First, it enables your business to quickly expand its customer service team as you grow. Instead of having to conduct interviews and train new hires, you’ll have access to more skilled agents as quickly as you need them.
It’s also advantageous to be able to scale down when you need to. For example, if you have an off-season, you could shrink your offshore support team until business picks up again. This can help you save a potentially considerable amount of money in a way that just wouldn’t be possible if you were using a full internal customer service team.
Access to specialized expertise
It can also make sense to consider offshore solutions to customer service if your company operates in a specialized niche. For example, if you sell software, you’re going to need customer service agents who are technical enough to help your customers troubleshoot it.
This is another key advantage of offshore customer service. Through it, you can search for expert teams from around the globe that specialize in the industry your company operates in. This gives you access to the experienced support personnel you need faster than you would get it if you had to track down individual employees with the required knowledge on your own.
Reduced training and infrastructure costs
Some metrics say it costs an average of $1,250 to train a single new employee. That’s a lot for a small company trying to make it, and it can quickly multiply as your customer service needs expand and you need to hire more people.
Offshore solutions can help you save essentially all of this. They handle training for you so you don’t have to pay wages for hours that don’t offer any immediate benefits to your business.
The same is true for infrastructure costs. To run a successful customer service team, you need phones, computers, software, and various types of hardware as well. These costs can add up quickly.
Offshore teams already have all of the equipment they need to do their jobs at a high level. This can save you a significant amount of money if you’re trying to build a new customer service team from the ground up.
More time in your schedule
Finally, offshore customer service teams can free up time in your schedule. You won’t have an in-house service team that you need to constantly watch over. You can rely on your offshore supervisors to do that job for you.
This frees up time in your schedule, which you can allocate to activities that bring the most value back to your company. It’s another way that your business can benefit from going with an offshore support solution.
Potential drawbacks of using offshore customer support solutions
Up until now, we’ve painted a pretty rosy picture of offshore customer support solutions. But there are some potential drawbacks to using these services that you should be aware of, too. Here are a few to consider.
Communication challenges
One of the key difficulties in dealing with any offshore team is communication. These issues start with the fact that offshore teams tend to live in areas with different time zones from your own. You may end up needing to communicate with them at odd hours.
There are also language issues to consider. If you hire a team from another country, they’ll likely speak English (unless you’re looking for something else). But there can always be language gaps between native and non-native speakers, which can potentially lead to problems.
Data security
There’s also the issue of data security to keep in mind. When you hire an offshore team to provide customer service, you typically need to give employees access to your databases if you want them to be as effective as possible. That opens up new data security and customer privacy concerns that need to be addressed.
Quality control concerns
When you use an offshore team, you don’t have the insight into their daily operations you would have if you were using internal customer support agents. That presents quality control considerations that could impact how consistently you provide the level of support you want to give to customers.
Finding the right team
Finding the right team can help you enjoy the benefits of offshore customer support without experiencing as many of the drawbacks. But that can be really difficult to do. It’s tough to evaluate teams in other countries that you have no previous relationship with.
This can lead to your business hiring an offshore team that’s not actually the right fit for it. That’s why many companies that are interested in offshore hiring go through a trusted partner to find the right fit. These companies have existing relationships with offshore teams so they can evaluate them more effectively and help your company find the right fit faster.
The bottom line: should you use an offshore customer support solutions?
Offshore support solutions can be a great fit for many businesses. They help you save money, reduce your management workload, and open up new possibilities for scaling to improve company-wide efficiency.
However, you can only enjoy these benefits if you find a team that you trust to perform at a high level consistently. That’s tough to do if you’re just getting started with your search.
That’s where The Cattalyst comes in. We have decades of offshore support experience and existing relationships with the top firms across the globe. We’ll listen to your goals and help your company find an ideal fit for its needs. That way, you can enjoy the benefits of these services without worrying as much about the downside risks.
So why wait? Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help.
