This is a guest post from Richard Moy.
Over the last three decades, traditional outsourcing has earned a reputation for being a low-quality, cost-cutting measure. In that time, business leaders have discovered that any potential savings from outsourcing can evaporate instantly thanks to a poor customer experience. One defamation case in 2012 argued that the company lost out on revenue worth upwards of $750,000 thanks to just a few negative reviews online. While this is an extreme (and admittedly, rare) example, a study by KPMG found that there’s a clear correlation between a negative customer experience and lost revenue.
In response, we’ve seen many organizations dismiss traditional outsourcing as a viable option to scale their support operations. But in recent years, a handful of new vendors have entered the marketplace, all of which offer a more compelling suite of products known as Support-as-a-Service. Much like Software-as-a-Service, Support-as-a-Service offers on-demand customer support teams that can be scaled up or down as needed.
Although this might sound very similar to traditional outsourcing, some key differences make Support-as-a-Service a much more appealing option. Here are a few ways that Support-as-a-Service vendors are working to change the perception of outsourcing.
Creating Shared Goals and KPIs With Clients
Marketing expert Neil Patel once wrote that outsourcing should help you achieve at least three of the following five goals: hire new employees, increase profit, improve employee healthcare, grow revenue, or increase cash flow. You’d be hard-pressed to find an executive who isn’t interested in improving in these areas. But when it comes to outsourcing, each company has unique needs and goals, which is why Support-as-a-Service vendors work really hard to create shared KPIs with their clients.
For example, Boldr collaborates with customers to understand their requirements and create mutually agreed upon KPIs to ensure success. In a case study, Boldr’s Majorie Yoro wrote that the team analyzed one client’s previous Valentine’s Day volume to determine how to measure success for the same holiday in 2018.
Why do Support-as-a-Service vendors consider this such a critical component of their model? Danielle Poleski of Klipfolio explains that KPIs keep objectives at the forefront of decision making for an organization. Michael Scrage of MIT’s Sloan Review adds that KPI alignment ultimately leads to better corporate performance. “Organizations should not invest in smarter and more predictive KPI dashboards only to have them ignored,” says Schrage. “To the contrary, KPI dashboards should ensure that everyone focuses on key performance. Everyone!”
When you partner with a Support-as-a-Service vendor, your offshore teams don’t operate in a silo. They work hard to integrate with your current systems—and KPI alignment across teams enables them to do so more seamlessly.
Constant Communication and Process Optimization
One of the biggest attractions of traditional outsourcing was that you didn’t have to think about it too much. You’d sign a contract, determine how much bandwidth you needed the offshore call centers to add, and that was about it. If an outsourcing vendor helped a client hit some overall business goals, it was deemed a worthwhile investment. Of course, this came at the expense of the customer. Not only was the customer experience often negative, but organizations didn’t understand why their outsourced support team was delivering such a poor experience.
Many Support-as-a-Service vendors feel that this problem can be solved with open communication about the performance of offshore call centers. Building communication into the plan from the beginning can help keeps that dialogue front and center.
- Involve more than one person in the management of teams. For example, while your customer service manager might handle the day-to-day workload of your external customer service team, the VP or Operations should be involved in setting the direction of the overall program.
- Consider time zones. If you don’t have a big enough overlap with your key contact, you might struggle to communicate important information. Having at least one liaison based in your time zone can help maintain a closer relationship.
- Work from the same systems. By integrating your systems together, you can speak the same language. For example, Influx has built integrations with major helpdesks to provide every client with specific reporting to show exactly how the customer experience is changing.
For the customer support team at Koala, this two-way relationship with Influx has proven to be critical in hitting its business goals. “I’ve worked with subcontractors in the past at other companies, and there was always this sense of difference – the mothership vs the subcontractor,” says Ben Cadenal, Koala’s Customer Service Manager. “While working with Influx, I don’t get that feeling. There’s always a two-way conversation. We’re working together.”
Leveraging International Expertise to Support Customers
According to Nataly Kelly of the Harvard Business Review, some of the world’s largest organizations do upwards of 60% of their business internationally. As a growing number of companies seek to serve a global audience, they often discover that it’s a bigger challenge than anticipated. Not only does an international customer base require 24-hour customer support, but it also demands localized call centers. “Localization doesn’t just entail adapting a product to suit a new market. It is also a fundamental pillar of customer service,” writes Pauline Farris of Customer Service Manager Magazine. “Businesses need to consider how they can support customers with questions or problems relating to their services.”
Just how important are localization and translation? Ellice Soliven, Content Marketing Manager at Dreamhost, explains that nearly half of all Internet users are from non-English speaking countries—and that you could lose a significant number of leads and ultimately revenue without a localized website. Citing a study by W3 Techs, Soliven adds, “It turns out that not even 5 percent of sites provide Spanish as a language option, while Chinese is available on less than 2 percent of sites. This means that literally billions of internet users are forced to use websites in a non-native language or are left out of a large portion of the web altogether.”
In response, Support-as-a-Service vendors like Partner Hero offer localization services to supplement their offshore call centers. Leveraging a team of translation experts, Partner Hero localizes its clients’ existing support materials and website copy to engage their customers in each of the regions they serve. When considering an outsourcing partner, consider what skills you’ll need as your company grows. Whether it’s language, technical or customer service skills, the right vendor can provide this expertise for you.
Final Thoughts
Support-as-a-Service is a fairly new concept, and at first blush, it doesn’t seem that different than traditional outsourcing to many new customers. But thanks to highly qualified agents and thoughtful planning processes, some of the world’s most recognized brands have begun leveraging on-demand support teams when they need to grow rapidly. Although the perception of outsourcing might continue to linger, Support-as-a-Service vendors are constantly learning, iterating, and optimizing their services. Not only does this benefit the clients they serve, but it also puts those clients in a stronger position to provide a best-in-class customer experience.
About the author: Rich is a writer, editor, and stay-at-home dad based in New York. Previously, he was a content marketer at Stack Overflow, where he covered the latest in technology, advertising, and hiring. His work can also be found in publications such as Fast Company, Business Insider, and Inc., among others.