ANALYSIS
Outsourcing and
Customer Service
Author: CMX Solutions
once considered cost center, but
many organizations now realize that investment in customer
segments opens up new revenue
opportunities and those people
who directly support customers are most able to maximize
customer value. A good service
provider can help generate revenue by improving metrics such
as first-call resolution, average handle time, customer satisfaction (e.g. Net Promoter
Score) as well as the company’s upselling and cross-selling
results.
Outsourcing was not formally identified as a business strategy until 1989.
It started with the use of external suppliers for essential but ancillary services and it wasn’t until the 1990s – as
organizations began to focus more on
cost-saving measures – that support
services like customer care call centers began to be outsourced. Outsourced customer service has now
become an integral part of businesses
that emphasize customer service.
Though lowering costs has most
often been the initial driver for companies to outsource their call centers, the benefits of outsourcing are
many:
• Maintaining service level
while cutting costs – Leading
service providers have the expertise to maximize customer relationships while minimizing costs.
If customer interaction quality
and experience drop, customer
relationships can be damaged,
reducing loyalty and sales.
• Increasing revenue per customer – Customer service was
• Reducing customer churn
– Every customer interaction is
an opportunity to build a brand
and strengthen customer relationships. A customer service
provider’s core competency is
customer care services; the best
have been serving customers for
decades and have learned how
to maximize customer relationships using creative programs,
highly-trained agents and cutting
edge CRM techniques and technologies. By providing consistent
and accurate handling of customer
contacts and incorporating strong
tracking and reporting capabilities,
contact centers can help improve
brand loyalty and retain the most
profitable customers.
Outsourced
customer service
has now become
an integral part •
of businesses
that emphasize
customer service.
Increasing flexibility and scalability – Service providers have
the capacity to absorb dramatic
demand shifts through their
existing technology and human
resources, enabling quicker
ramp-ups and ramp-downs than
in-house call centers.
Outsourcing customer care is taking the pressure off the core business. allowing companies to focus
their internal resources on what
they do best. Today, more organizations outsource customer
care because it is so important
and want to have it done by someone whose core business is customer service.
Outsourcing customer care to a professional provider can also benefit
customers. The dedicated customer
service organizations are driven by a
passion and strategy to ensure excellent customer experiences and to
generate happy customers.
Continued on page 10
Fall 2015
Issue 47 9