Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Customer Service Offshore

Are you considering outsourcing your contact center operations? Companies often outsource to maintain quality customer service, reduce costs, build a new client base, and more. Outsourcing talent also brings up its unique challenges. Here are some pros and cons of outsourcing your contact center.

Pros:

Focus on Your Core Business

Outsourcing your customer service allows you to focus on your core business. Whether that’s developing the latest app or providing insurance plans, you can put your internal resources to work on your company’s expertise. By outsourcing to a third-party contact center provider, you are allowing them to do what they do best – servicing customers!

Lower Cost

Contact Centers can be quite expensive to run from recruiting and training and employee salaries to technology costs. Companies can realize significant savings by outsourcing to a third-party contact center. Selecting an offshore or nearshore contact center can provide further savings due to reduced employee costs.

Simplify Recruiting and Training

Recruiting, training, and retaining contact center employees is a challenging task. With high turnover rates in these types of positions, this is a never-ending, expensive process for contact center managers. Instead of doing all the legwork in finding qualified employees, outsourcing centers can help. Once you define the profile of your ideal agents, the contact center will find a team that works best for your needs by cross-training current employees or hiring new employees.

This also rings true for training purposes. After finding the right team, you will train just one group of qualified individuals. When your company expands, and you need more agents, an outsourcing center will train additional employees with the training material and methodology you already put in place.

Handle Seasonality

Many businesses experience high and low call volumes throughout the year. If someone is selling a product, for instance, they may be flooded with inbound calls during a large sale or holiday season. Utilizing an outsourcing center for the ebbs and flows of your business helps make sure there are enough agents during high call volume seasons. It also allows you to reduce your agents when call volumes are lower without utilizing temporary workers or doing layoffs.

Ensure Redundancy & Contingency Plans

During times of change or emergency, outsourcing centers are specially equipped to handle large volume changes that may be happening within your company. With the appropriate technology and cross-training, qualified agents can and will ensure your customers receive any new information that needs to be relayed, assist with any additional requests, and answer questions professionally and courteously. Your essential customer service won’t be affected while you take care of your business.

Speak in Your Customers’ Language

In the U.S., people speak a variety of different languages, and their native tongue is usually the best way to exchange information. Outsourcing to a company that provides additional language support is a great way to service your customers in their preferred language. This is an excellent option if you are finding hiring bilingual agents a challenge, or you find that costs for bilingual agents are prohibitive to your business.

Cons:

Different Time Zones

Often, offshore outsourcing companies are in completely different time zones. There could be up to a ten or 12-hour time difference between where you live and the outsourcing services. This could lead to disruption of services, and not match with your open business hours. One solution many employers have found is choosing a nearshore outsourcing company as they are often within only an hour or two of the same time zones as many U.S. states. Nearshore contact centers allow you to reap the benefits of outsourcing while overcoming the time difference.

Lack of Control

Most outsourcing services provide quality service, but because it’s not in-house, it can lack control from leadership from the company hiring outward. With a little forethought and by putting processes in place, this can easily be overcome. Many outsourcing companies remedy this issue by sending QA reports of interactions with clients and customers. These reports include positive metrics and trouble spots that need improvement to help ensure that quality control is being met. This data allows brainstorming solutions for any patterns that emerge during customer interactions.

Negative In-House Company Culture

Sometimes in-house employees may feel like they’re being replaced when employers start looking for outsourcing opportunities. Employers may need to ensure their current workforce that this isn’t for replacement but is for additional support. Secure companies often use outsourcing for an expansion of the team that they have to ensure stability during times of change or growth.

How to Decide Between Offshore and Nearshore Support

Outsourcing provides a world of opportunities for employers looking to expand their businesses. It can also provide a safety net during times of turbulence, and an extra level of support during significant company-wide changes. The key is choosing the model that fits your customers, workflows, and management needs.

Offshore support can be attractive when the main goal is low labor cost for highly standardized work. Nearshore support is often a better fit when customer experience, bilingual English and Spanish service, U.S. time-zone alignment, quality control, and management access are just as important as savings.

Questions to Ask Before Choosing an Outsourcing Partner

• Will the team be available during the same hours as your customers?
• Can agents support customers in English and Spanish without translation delays?
• How will quality assurance, reporting, and coaching be shared with your internal team?
• What happens during seasonal spikes, emergencies, or unexpected volume surges?
• How easy is it for your leadership team to visit, train, and collaborate with the support team?

If you are considering outsourcing some or all of your contact center operations, we’d love to discuss if Centris is the right fit for your business. Learn more about nearshore vs offshore contact centers or contact us.