Outsourcing the customer support services is a strategic decision for companies that want to successfully manage the relationship with their customers, in order for them to be able to channel their resources on the other development processes.
Nowadays, the consumers have become more demanding than ever about the way they interact with companies, so many businesses outsource their call center services in order to ensure continuous communication and to be able to meet their customers’ expectations.
After selecting a service provider for the customer support services and after negotiating the collaboration terms and the contractual arrangements, there is a transition period between companies. During this time, the partners will establish next steps to be followed, how their collaboration will proceed and how they will outsource the customer support services. Resorting to external assistance for the call center services involves a lot of effort from both the external and the internal team. Here are five steps you need to take to outsource your customer support services successfully.
- Plan and establish the steps of outsourcing services together with your service provider
Having a good relationship with your service provider is a win for both partners. Establish from the beginning which is your customer support strategy and make an action plan based on your company’s needs and on the feedback received from your provider. This way, you will create the environment for an effective and transparent collaboration. Organize regular meetings together with the external team to agree on the timetable, the tasks and goals that you both want to achieve and to underline the expectations that exist on both sides.
- Assign a team leader for your customer support project
An efficient communication with your service provider is very important to ensure qualitative customer support services for your customers. Thus, it is advisable to appoint one of your existing employees to be responsible for this entire project. His role will be to ease the communication between the service provider and your company. He will manage the relationship with the external team, to keep both parties informed about the project’s steps and about the ongoing activities. At the same time, the team leader will be responsible for setting the project’s objectives, for monitoring compliance with procedures, the team’s performance and to keep an eye on the project’s progress.
- Create an internal project team dedicated for the outsourcing process
After outsourcing the customer support services, you will have to create a new team dedicated for this project or, if necessary, to reorganize the existing one. The team will be responsible for offering the necessary information to the new service provider and to help with tasks. To ensure an effective communication with your company’s customers, you need to make sure that your partner understands your company’s values and can meet the standards you have set for communicating with your customers. Thus, your team must deliver all internal documents to the supplier, such as:
- Customer Interaction Guidelines;
- Product/services manuals;
- Videos about the company and its services/products;
- Answers’ scripts for the most frequent questions asked.
- Organize training programs and keep your service provider up-to-date with the latest changes within your company
Outsourcing customer support services allows you to focus on your other priorities, but keep in mind that no one will know your company as well as you do. Continuously collaborate with your service provider and make sure that the outsourced team helps you maintain a high level of satisfaction for your customers. Also, it is important to organize regular trainings for the customer support agents to keep them informed about your procedures and about the latest changes of your products or services.
- Supervise the call center activity
Request real-time activity reports to help you be informed all the time about your customers’ requests and check the quality of your agents’ calls. Also, review the agent’s performance to make sure that they are doing a good job and they follow the company’s procedures.
In conclusion, the most successful partnerships are based on continuous communication. It is important to discuss about what is going well or what doesn’t work when collaborating with a service provider, to define new approaches, or to establish the most effective techniques or best tools for the project. Treat the supplier’s team as an extension of your own team to benefit from the advantages of outsourcing services.