For most businesses, the customer service function is something that evolves over time. When your business was just taking off, odds are that everyone was the customer care department. When a customer had a need, question, complaint, or suggestion, whoever got the call or email took care of it.
As you grew, your customer care team grew, too. Before you knew it, you were running a customer experience operation – and being compared with the customer service and experience performance of your competitors.
No matter how big your organization has grown, one thing has stayed the same: your inbound customer care function is central to your success. But the bigger you grow, the harder it is to run an in-house call center.
So, why are you still keeping it in-house?
Running customer care is a specialty. It is increasingly technology driven and extremely expertise-dependent. While it may have seemed like a great way to keep close to how your customers get treated – and keep costs down at the same time, it’s most likely that neither of those things are true.
Today, growing numbers of successful businesses are upgrading their customer care operation by outsourcing. Here’s why they’re making the move and what they’re discovering once they do.
1. No More Hidden or Unexpected Costs
You already know this: an in-house call center is costly. But a significant portion of those costs are tough to project and even tougher to contain. You might feel confident in your current technology. But next year, your competitors could have access to call center tech that simply outplays you. Then there are staffing costs. Planned staff expansions are a planned expense. You can recruit, onboard, and train an entire group of new hires. But every time you unexpectedly lose one employee, you’re recruiting, onboarding, and running the training for that single hire. Outsource call centers work with larger numbers of employees and have developed predictive models to smooth out the peaks and valleys of hiring. Once you make the move to outsource, you have one pre-determined expense.
2. Talent and Expertise
Outsourcing puts your customers’ experience in the hands of industry experts. This is all we do. Our supervisors specialize in hiring, training, coaching and rewarding agents. They hire enthusiastic, highly skilled people and provide them with the tools they need to treat your customers well. Our management team is deeply immersed in this industry and at the forefront of technology developments.
3. Better Data, Better Outcomes
An experienced call center doesn’t just handle calls. It collects, organizes, and provides critical metrics on those calls. When you transition from in-house to outsource, you have access to statistics, data, insights, and actionable information that allows you to make better decisions regarding product development, customer retention, and profitability.
by Bobby Matthews
Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Skybridge Americas
bmatthews@skybridgeamericas.com
Find out how Skybridge Americas can help you delight your customers and grow your business.
We seamlessly integrate our superior customer care skills with your brand messaging. For more information, contact us at 763-299-4570 or submit our contact form.
