Things to Consider Before You Outsource Customer Service Many companies have been known to regularly outsource customer service ever since they have seen the benefits of outsourcing during the early 1990s. Cost reduction on operational and human resources is one of the major benefits of outsourcing. It is a known fact that setting up and operating an in-house information system can be costly and time-consuming because you need to maintain your telecommunication networks and other technical resources. Entrusting these to third party service providers will definitely reduce the amount of time and money spent on in-house equipment. However, there’s more to outsourcing than financial savings - when you outsource customer service, you are also maximizing the efficiency of your business in handling customer queries, problems, and requests. Customers are the lifeblood of a business, so it is a must to offer excellent customer support. After all, every business wants customers to keep coming back for their products and/or services. How can you ensure that the outsourcing service provider will be effective in handling customer support processes? Here are some of the things you need to consider:

1. Competency Companies outsource customer support work in the first place because they want to get access to highly skilled people who can deliver the work efficiently and cut costs in the process. Critical elements that need to be highly considered when getting someone to do the customer service tasks are skills in verbal communication as well as sales and/or marketing.

2. Technical Aspects

Does the third party outsourcing company have sufficient equipment and technology to handle customer service tasks? Check if the IT setup has advanced technology features such as CRM, computer-telephony integration, and call recording systems.

3. Key Performance Indicator

Sending and receiving calls are not the only things that matter in customer service. The quality of handling customer calls should also be considered. Setting up metrics will help define work performance of customer support representatives.

The Philippines is one of the countries where you can outsource customer service. Companies can go for offshore staffing in Manila, Philippines which enables them to establish an offshore team of customer service representatives. A lot of Western countries find Filipino workers to have excellent English communication skills. What’s more, they can save up to 70 percent in labor and overhead costs. MicroSourcing is an offshore outsourcing solutions provider based in Manila, Philippines. The company offers a wide range of delivery models: project outsourcing, offshore staff leasing, and virtual captives.