According to IDC research, 30% of customer retention is due to low prices, while 70% is due to good or great customer service. Therefore, it goes without saying that good support can help drive sales and reduce attrition (customers leaving). Many eCommerce companies choose to outsource their customer support. Overseas customer support is a cost-saving option for outsourcing, but is it the best one for your brand? Let’s examine the pros and cons.
Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Support
Outsourced support providers can ramp quickly and carry a lower total cost of ownership than hiring internally. There are many other benefits to partnering with another company for your customer service needs. These benefits include:
- You can focus on business-critical tasks because you have a team handling support.
- You can increase your customer base by offering good support to new customers.
- Your existing customers are more likely to buy again and recommend your services or products to their friends and family after receiving good support.
- Support can scale up or down as needed without having to hire and train (in times of abundance) or lay off (in times of scarcity) your own support team members.
Outsourcing Support Overseas
One consideration when choosing to outsource customer support is whether to use an Onshore (American) provider or to look overseas. Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of working with an overseas provider will help inform your decision of whether to keep support onshore or look to a foreign provider.
Benefits
Leveraging an overseas customer support provider can have meaningful benefits for your business. Some of the benefits of outsourcing customer support to an overseas provider include:
- Lower cost per ticket/contact
- Greater availability to customers
- Easier scalability/ability to scale up or down quickly
- Ability to grow support over time as needed
Drawbacks
The benefits of using an overseas provider are clear but the drawbacks may make it more challenging than working with a partner in your own country. Listed here are some issues you should consider before choosing to outsource customer service internationally:
- Language Proficiency – You want people who can both explain your product well and follow up with customers after the support interaction. If English is not a first language of the contact center personnel, this can become an issue.
- Time Zone – Time zone differences mean that there may be certain hours when no one is available to handle the work you need done. This might require someone on your team to be on standby.
- Cross-functional Communication – Often customer service is part of a larger company so if integration with other functions isn’t already in place, it may come with some overhead costs.
- Training and Management – Overseas customer support partners tend to experience more employee churn. This means that the “best” support rep today may be gone tomorrow.
While there are great companies in countries like India, Mexico, and the Philippines, there are also many companies that are not as well equipped to manage quality and retention.
The Best of All Worlds
In some cases, a lower-cost support option found overseas may be the best choice for your eCommerce company. However, if you view support as a profit driver and not a cost center, then working with an onshore support provider can offer the best business outcomes. Support is not a “necessary” function but rather the opportunity to grow relationships in a positive way.
Our team at wrrk delivers scalability and quick on-boarding without sacrificing quality. Our mission is to help growing eCommerce brands reach their full potential. If you are feeling the pain of trying to operate your business while also providing customer support, we want to speak to you. Click here to get in touch with our team.
