Some customers do not even call or contact customer support center in their need as they think it will eat up a lot of time and end up at nothing. This is sad but true. Luckily, customer service outsourcing is changing the market gradually. The courtesy goes to the businesses who now consider the need of customer support and the companies who provide customer support as third-parties. The businesses tie up with the companies who have set up for providing customer support and they serve the customers in a collaborative manner.
The customer service outsourcing companies offers different types of communication platforms, and the service providers usually try to be available on all of them, so that the customers can choose their preferred one.
Live Chat
Among all types of customer service ways, live chat is so far the best way that one company can have in their arsenal. Why so? This one has the advantages of both email service and telephonic customer service. The customers get solutions of their issues in real-time and in the comfort of their couch. This one has other advantages also as it allows proactive customer service. It means you can help the customers before they can ask for. You can take initiatives to communicate with the customers and it will reduce their insight of the effort needed to accomplish something and improve engagement.
Pros
- More efficiency at a low cost
- Third-party app integration
- File Transfer
- Proactive customer service
- Supports several customer channels
- Save web chat conversation history
Live chat helps serve different customers and improve the business. The Live Chat is free and it starts chatting immediately. Live chat implementation is easy to use and affordable.
Chatbot
Chatbots are virtual assistants serving round-the-clock. They can give fitting and required answers to the customer queries, collect feedback, help in shopping, book appointments. From the consumer perspective, the most significant impact of the chatbot is availability of it 24/7. This kind of customer support is quite appealing to the millennials who need instant support for their requirement. Chatbots provide the fastest kind of customer interaction and it can access stored customer data and can process it for delivering a customized experience.
Chatbots can process bulk customer enquiries that are impossible to respond at the same time. According to popular source reports, chatbots can deal with 80% of routine questions. It helps the service team concentrate on the complex requests.
Chatbot pros
- Available 24/7
- Instant assistance
- Easy to install software
- Cost-effective
- Accumulate customer data
- Produce high-quality leads
- High ROI
- Better satisfaction rate
- Accuracy improves with time
- Option to transfer chats to human agents
Chatbots can cover any kind of interactions, from simple product or service recommendation to order updates. Virtual assistants cannot keep up with all the phone calls and emails they receive.
Contact Center (Phone)
In spite of the fast development of the digital customer service types, still use of phone for contacting the businesses is quite popular. When it is about solving complicated issues or interactions, such as payment issues, 40% of the customers rely on telephonic communication. They consider talking over the phone thinking it would resolve the issue better. So, do not think phone support is no longer relevant, it is still very much in picture. The traditional call centers are now changing their service type and now deal with customer requests through more than one channel such as text messaging, email, chat besides phone integration. They also use CRM or customer relationship management software and more.
During the pandemic, the contact centers have faced major interruptions. First, they have to arrange work from home facility with the reps quickly. Second, they had to face a surge in interaction. Interactions with the customers and dealing with their queries increased 57% in the pandemic. The companies who were already accustomed to cloud technology had an extra advantage. According to another popular research, the companies who already use cloud technology are 27% cheaper and have 35% less downtime than their competitors.
But there are disadvantages too. The biggest issue was long waiting periods. The callers usually cut the call off after five minutes, when they do not get respond from another side. Customers do not like to be stuck in an IVR or interactive voice response menu and it makes reaching to the human agents soon. This kind of customer support is hard to keep up with without regular customer service training and monitoring. One of the best ways to help the customer service team and train them dealing with the customers in the most complex scenarios.
Pros
- Better customer experience
- Accessible to different age groups
- Natural human-to-human interaction
- Easy to ask for more information
Email support was one of the first ways of customer support. This is still one of the most required customer service channels on which the businesses want to invest in. The primary investment area is updating and upgrading the communication technology as it lets different channels to work together smoothy. 54% of the customers use the email contact for customer support, even today. It helps to attach required documents and files and keep a record of it. A company providing email support should be responsive immediately and be prompt to reply within 24 hours.
Pros
- Well documented conversation history
- Easy to send files, links, etc.
- Canned responses for repetitive customer questions
- Customized email designs
- Professional email signatures
- Email automation to schedule and send follow-ups
- Convenient for clients in different time zones
Customer self-service
80% of the customers are happy with the self-service options before interacting with the representatives of the company. The trick is not limiting yourself to the FAQ and webpage only for collecting information but exploring different types of self-services, such as –
- Ebooks
- Chatbots
- Demos
- Knowledge base
- Video product tutorials
- Recorded webinars
Customers are now knowledgeable enough for trying and targeting basic problems provided that you have right information and updated. The goal of this customer service solution is ensuring customer success. There should be an escalation option when the customer problem is way much complicated and the agents are in need of help.
The support agents must know the problems that the customers face for making this customer service type successful. It will help the customers prepare and collect relevant information and keep them organized.
Self-service customer service outsourcing can save a fortune in maintenance costs and it enables one in twelve customers to solve own problems.
Pros
- Accessible 24/
- Responds to customer demand
- Combines several resources
- Can be multilingual
- Minimizes support time and costs
Social media customer service
Social media customer support is the latest one that the businesses are now considering. The customers get support from different social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and beyond. The biggest advantage of this customer service outsourcing is that you can reach wherever the customers are. In the social media channels, the customers can praise a brand for their service or product in open platforms. This platform or mode of customer support is not for the unhappy customers to vent out their frustrations about a brand.
Whatever the interaction is, the customer support service providers must respond soon than later. Most people expect to respond against their queries within one hour and they can wait for maximum 24 hours. Otherwise, it may lower the customer loyalty. If there is no dedicated staff for tackling customer enquiry on the social media platforms, you can integrate live chat with Facebook Messenger. Through this way, you will get direct messages send through the social media channels to the live chat inbox.
Social media customer service pros:
- Integration with live chat apps
- Little effort for customers
- Surges customer advocacy
- Offers custom experience
- Customer-to-customer help
Types of Customer Service to Choose from
When you decide on the interaction type you want to have with the customers, you have to take the different aspects of customer service outsourcing types into account. The decision you make must depend on the team size, buyer persona, current trends in customer service.
Buyer persona —Try different types of service and gauge customers’ preferences. Acknowledge the channels that work best with the customer base. Now you can build the customer service options around the channels.
Team size — Small businesses cannot afford to invest in the contact centers or in the expensive customer management options but can utilize the effective and free tools like email or live chat. They can expand the customer service options later with the growing customer base.
Current trends — Previously, customer service was only available during work hours on a convenient and easy to access channels for the company. The dynamics of the customer service have altered, say thanks to the upgraded technologies and you have to be present where your customers are.
You can hire a customer service outsourcing provider to make sure your customers are served well in their need. You can take baby steps towards implementing the customer service channels gradually and if you want you can implement all the possible communication ways. Keeping all ways open will help the customers reach you better.