08.29.2023 Jonathan Kirkland
In today’s marketplace, companies must be increasingly customer-driven. Personalization, quick responses, self-service, proactive support and multiple contact options are just a few of the many expectations that today’s customers have from the brands they do business with.
With customers more demanding than ever before, combined with today’s hyper-competitive business environment, most businesses are competing on their customer service offering alone.
Organizations have moved away from purely competing on product and price, with customer service and the customer experience (CX) the primary battleground.
In fact, according to Gartner, when it comes to making a purchase, 64 percent of people find customer experience more important than price. Meanwhile, Salesforce Research found that 89 percent of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience.
For businesses who implement world-class customer service strategies, this new way of competing for customers offers them new opportunities to improve customer satisfaction, drive up engagement levels and build loyal customer relationships.
With that in mind, many organizations are now looking to capitalize on customer service expertise and innovative call center technologies by outsourcing their customer service programs to a contact center. Here’s why:
Why businesses today are outsourcing their customer service program to contact centers
Companies who outsource their customer service program to an outsourced call center will realize a wide range of benefits, including improved customer experiences and saved money.
That’s because building a customer service program is complex and expensive. It requires internal investment into highly-skilled customer service agents, experience in building successful customer service journeys, as well as investment into a range of customer-facing and back-end technologies that deliver better customer service results.
For most organizations, it’s simply not feasible to invest this much into a customer service program - and even if it is feasible, it’s not cost-effective.
That’s why modern businesses are turning to customer service outsourcing. World-class contact centers already have the expertise, processes, trained customer service representatives and technology in place to seamlessly integrate into your brand.
Are you searching for an outsourced contact center to deliver your company’s customer service program? Make sure they design your program with technologies, people and analytics at the very heart of each strategic decision.
The factors that determine outsourced contact center success
#1 - Call center technologies that deliver superior customer experiences
In today’s highly-connected world, incredible technologies are emerging that are completely changing the dynamic of customer service. Innovative call center technologies are now one of the leading forces in world-class customer experiences.
Technologies such as contact center artificial intelligence (AI) and omnichannel customer service tools can transform customer-facing interactions, while technologies such as live call guidance and operational intelligence can deliver real-time feedback to agents that enhances their performance and delivers improved customer outcomes.
#2 - Highly-skilled customer service agents who deliver customer service excellence
Customer service agents are the backbone of any outsourced customer service program. They are the frontline of your customer service strategy, talking to customers and resolving their queries on a constant basis.
To blow your competitors out the water with a world-class customer experience, your brand needs customer service agents who are not only highly-trained and skilled in the queries that are relevant to your business, but who are also passionate about the success of your brand. These aren’t easy to find, or retain, when hired in-house.
#3 - Reporting and analytics that underpin your entire customer service strategy
Knowledge is power. To provide customers with customer service excellence your outsourced call center needs to know exactly what customers are looking for, how your call center is currently performing and where program improvements can be made.
According to a study from American Express, 62 percent of consumers claim that service insight and knowledge is key to a good customer experience. Back-end technologies use reporting and analytics to find what really matters to your customers, and then leverages that data to better prepare customer service agents with the knowledge they need to delight customers.
Take speech analytics technology for example. This innovative tool can be used to analyze all customer interactions and provide outsourced contact centers with information on the most common requests that customers are actively asking your business.
The result? You can use these insights to make strategic improvements that enable your business to proactively deliver on customer expectations.
Here at Advantage Communications, innovative technologies, highly-skilled customer service agents and insightful analytics are at the very foundation of the customer service programs we build for our clients.
Want to learn more about how we use this triangle of expertise to deliver superior customer service results? Contact us today. Our team of highly-experienced customer service experts would love to answer your questions.
