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Learn if outsourcing customer service to a call center is right for your business.
Good customer service is critical to the success of your business, but what happens when you’re too busy to handle every communication channel? You can’t ignore customer service calls and messages, but you can’t sacrifice operations either. If you can’t hire in-house staff to handle all the key elements of customer service, consider outsourcing customer service as your business grows.
Businesses of all sizes outsource customer service, including prominent enterprises and small firms. We’ll look at the benefits and disadvantages of outsourcing customer service and share what you should know before hiring a call center.
Outsourced customer service is when management transfers customer-facing communication channels to a third-party service provider. Businesses typically outsource customer service through a call center, which maintains agents trained to handle an organization’s incoming calls.
Weighing whether you should reassign your customer service to a third party is complex and causes unease for many business owners. After all, you want to ensure your business continues providing quality customer service to meet consumer demand.
The ability to outsource customer service for small businesses can be highly beneficial. Here are some of the pros of outsourcing:
“Outsourcing helps you save resources and create better coverage,” noted Joe Wilson, senior career advisor at MintResume. “If your company operates on an international level, it would be easier to hire a local call center office instead of forcing an in-house team to learn a foreign language. The bigger the audience you cover, the bigger chance you have to satisfy your customers.”
While outsourcing customer service offers some excellent benefits, before choosing a provider, understand the cons and address them with the provider you’re considering.
There are highly recommended outsourced customer service companies in the U.S. The following eight companies are all based in the U.S. and can help your business with its outsourced customer service needs:
When evaluating your outsourcing partner, find out about their expertise, quality control, security and training. Consider the following questions:
The cost of outsourcing your customer service to a third party depend on the services you need. Basic answering services cost 70 cents to $1 per minute, while dedicated call center agents (i.e., professionals who work exclusively on behalf of your company) cost up to $25 per hour.
“Outsourced call center costs are made up of several items such as … employee training, IT infrastructure expenses, incoming info analytics, agents’ payments, maintaining administrative resources, office rent and technical needs, etc.,” Wilson explained.
The complexity and immediacy of your needs also play a role. “Cost[s] also depend on whether there is a team ready to take on a project right away or will it be created anew, according to specific requirements?” Wilson noted. “In the second case, an initial preparatory stage is needed, during which the suitable staff has to be recruited.”
You must also determine whether you need live answering and message-taking services. The more cost-effective option — shared agents — can handle those functions. The more expensive option — dedicated agents — is needed for advanced tasks, like outbound calling campaigns, complaint management and customer win-back services.
Outsourcing customer service to a third-party provider is a big decision with broad ramifications. However, it may be the right choice to help your business grow, maintain operations and provide quality customer service.
Choose a provider you’re comfortable with that can address your customers’ most pressing needs expertly and efficiently.
Jennifer Dublino contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.