Customer Service Outsourcing: How does outsourcing work?

What exactly is customer service outsourcing?

Outsourcing involves having all or part of a business process performed by an external party. Thus, customer service outsourcing means that all or part of the customer service is provided by a specialised company. With whole outsourcing, the organisation puts all customer service with an external company and they effectively no longer have their own customer service. Partial outsourcing might involve outsourcing the first line, at certain times or the overflow, for example. With this, the organisation does have its own customer service but partially uses an external agency. Outsourcing customer service has a number of advantages. You can read these here.

How does customer service outsourcing work?

The moment it is decided to (partially) outsource customer service, it usually follows a fairly established process.

1: Internal decision-making and planning: First, an internal look is taken at which processes will be (partially) invested in an external partner. With full outsourcing, this is different from partial outsourcing of customer service. Often, there is already a fairly clear picture of exactly what the need is and why outsourcing has added value, and therefore which processes. Then a planning for the entire outsourcing process needs to be made. Here, of course, other internal departments need to be involved. Think, for example, of ICT and administration.

2: Customer service partner selection: Once it is clear exactly what needs to be outsourced, the right partner needs to be found. There are many different providers that differ on their approach, rates, quality, capabilities, languages, channels and opening hours. Compare partners initially on these kinds of variables. With the partners that best match them, you then hold discussions. It is ultimately about a certain click that should make you feel that your customer service is in good hands with this party.

3: Establish contract and agreements: After choosing the right party, it is time to formalise the collaboration. Laying down the agreements and mutual expectations is an important phase that is sometimes underestimated. It is important to record matters so that no discussion or even disagreement can arise later. Clear agreements with fixed evaluation moments make it clear to both parties how the cooperation works. External planning for induction and training etc. is also done in this phase.

4: Breaking in and training: Once the provider is chosen, a training and knowledge transfer phase follows. The company shares relevant information about products, services, brand values and customer service procedures with the partner. The importance of training should not be underestimated either. The partner's employees not only have to familiarise themselves with the subject matter, they are also your organisation's calling card. For us, that training often goes a little further than explaining how the systems work. Employees need to get a feel for the company they represent. They need to understand the products and services and they need to understand the customers. That requires an investment that pays off handsomely.

5: ICT, etc.: This is more or less in sync with phase 4. Systems have to be linked and, depending on the situation, sometimes a fair amount has to be done. Properly secure access to systems, transferring telephony, creating user accounts, testing the connections and setting them up. We often see that this needs to be done partly before the training sessions because employees often also need access to certain systems during training.

6: Start live support: Once the training is over and the systems are all working, we can go live. We usually do this immediately after the training as part of the training. Generally, someone from the client is on standby or present to answer questions immediately. It is often exciting when real live customer service interactions are conducted for the first time. Now everything comes together and turns out and has to happen!

7. Monitoring and Reporting: It is very important to keep a finger on the pulse and see how it goes in practice. We see that in the beginning of support, for example, conversations are longer. This is normal; as the cooperation progresses, efficiency will increase. Qualitative and quantitative reports provide a picture of the support and also give direction on possible opportunities for improvement.

8. Improve, learn and optimise: A good customer service partner will be constantly looking for opportunities for improvement. On the one hand, to fully deal with more and more customer queries in one go, for instance by adding more knowledge so that fewer questions need to be passed on to a second line. On the other hand, a good external partner gives you input on what exactly your customers contact you about and how you can optimise your business processes to avoid those customer queries.

Pitfalls in outsourcing?

How customer service outsourcing works is now clear. We encounter a number of pitfalls in practice. In particular, unclear communication is a common problem. It is assumed that things are clear when that is not always the case. In practice, things sometimes turn out to be slightly different than expected, which requires flexibility and clear communication. We see this as the biggest pitfall in practice: clear, transparent communication. Even about things that should be clear or don't seem important!