If you’re considering outsourcing customer service pros and cons, this guide will help you weigh both sides and decide what’s best for your business. Whether you want to improve the quality of your customer service experience or save on labor costs, there are many benefits to outsourcing your customer support needs. There may be some drawbacks, however, which often depend on the quality of your outsourcing partner. We will examine all this and more in this article.

What Is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is when a business hires a third party to perform tasks and handle operations. Customer service outsourcing involves hiring a third-party company to provide customer service staffing and services from a remote location. Outsourcing is a popular business model that helps companies grow and scale while saving costs and improving efficiency.

Many small and medium businesses outsource parts of their workflow to save on labor costs and improve performance. According to Zippia research, 66% of businesses in the U.S. outsource at least one department, 59% of businesses cite cost as the biggest reason for outsourcing, and 24% of small businesses outsource to increase efficiency.

Outsourcing companies specialize in providing virtual workers to fulfill a variety of business needs. Bolt Business Solutions is an example of an outsourcing provider. We offer customer support services and virtual administrative assistants from our location in Mexico, providing excellent, bilingual customer support personnel at a fraction of the cost of U.S. labor.

Outsourcing Customer Service Pros and Cons

There are many outsourcing customer service pros and cons. If you hire the right outsourcing company, the pros can easily outweigh the cons. Outsourcing helps cut costs, streamline business processes, and aids with scaling your business to a higher level.

Here are some of the benefits of outsourcing your customer support needs:

Pros

• Save on costs. When you outsource customer support, you save on office and supply costs as well as labor. A remote staff of customer service reps is usually more cost-effective than recruiting, hiring, and training local employees. In addition, you won’t have to pay for additional office space and supplies since your support staff is working remotely. Bolt Business Solutions is based in Mexico, allowing us to provide top-notch bilingual support staff at a budget-friendly cost for U.S. businesses. Our mission is to offer the highest quality outsourcing services to companies across the U.S. with the most committed and qualified team workforce, helping create better employment opportunities in Mexico.

• Improved performance. Partnering with a qualified outsourcing company gives you access to the latest tools and technology to track work performance. You’ll be able to monitor your remote staff and offer feedback and help to improve performance. This translates to better quality customer service for your clients and more repeat business.

• Improved customer loyalty is another benefit of outsourcing your customer support needs. Your customers can enjoy more attentive, prompt customer service with a dedicated team of support specialists, and this will boost your customer satisfaction and retention rate. Happy customers are also more likely to refer friends and family, growing your client base.

• More lead conversion. Outsourcing customer support can also increase your lead conversion rate. By offering more extensive and personalized customer support with a dedicated team, your business will be able to handle more potential customer inquiries and help them convert to sales.

• Predictable costs. Instead of having the fluctuations of hiring and filling open positions, employee turnover costs, and local office and supply expenses, you can pay a set, regular fee for your outsourced support staff. Your outsourcing costs are predictable, making it easier to budget for your small business.

• Flexibility. Outsourcing allows your business to adapt to meet the demands of a quickly changing market landscape. With outsourcing, you won’t have to worry about in-office staffing complications if the hours and demands of the job fluctuate.

• Scalability. Grow your business more quickly and efficiently by outsourcing customer support. Outsourcing allows you to gain access to a virtually unlimited team of support staff without accompanying office and supply costs. This makes it easier to scale your business while keeping costs within your budget.

Cons

There may be some drawbacks when you weigh outsourcing customer service pros and cons. These are a few of the potential disadvantages of outsourcing customer support:

• Off-site collaboration challenges such as communication issues may arise. The best way to prevent collaboration issues is to carefully choose an experienced, proven outsourcing company for your partner. Ask any questions you have and make sure you have ongoing access to support if issues arise at any point in the outsourcing process.

• Language barriers can come up in some outsourcing situations. Since you will be hiring an outsourcing company for customer support, make sure the company you choose is fluent in English and the support staff is as well. At Bolt Business Solutions, we have a skilled staff of bilingual customer support assistants who can do live call answering, offer chat support, and email support in English and Spanish as needed.

• Disconnection from the brand. Some outsourcing situations can result in a remote staff who is not connected to the main brand. This is a preventable situation with the right training and virtual orientation for your workers. For more tips on hiring and training remote assistants, see our article on Hiring a Virtual Assistant.

How to Outsource Your Customer Service Needs

If you’re ready to take the next step and outsource your customer support, find a reputable, experienced outsourcing company. Some qualities to look for in a potential outsourcing partner include:

• Excellent customer service
• Proven track record of doing business
• Specializing in customer support
• Excellent English skills

Bolt Business Solutions specializes in customer support services and offers excellent service with skilled bilingual customer service agents who speak English and Spanish fluently. Contact us today to get started setting up your dedicated team of customer service support specialists.