Entrusting customer support to a specialized workforce through outsourcing can bolster your business by allowing you to focus on core competencies. However, for customers, the source of support matters less than the quality of service received. They attribute the support quality to your business, regardless of whether it’s handled in-house or through outsourcing.
Amid rising customer expectations, can you maintain control over operations while outsourcing customer service and still meet these expectations? The answer is affirmative. How to achieve this is a nuanced discussion, which we delve into below.
Can the structure of your customer service team impact the quality of support?
While some companies opt to maintain an in-house setup regardless of their size, larger companies often explore customer support outsourcing to supplement or replace internal teams, especially to manage fluctuations in demand. This can manifest in various ways:
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Complete Outsourcing to BPOs: This involves entrusting all customer support functions to third-party outsourcing firms, with no in-house support team.
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Outsourcing Specific Support Tiers: Some companies outsource tier 1 support while retaining escalation specialists internally. Conversely, others outsource tier 2 support and retain frontline agents in-house.
In either scenario, quality assurance specialists may operate either in-house or on-site. While having an in-house QA specialist might seem advantageous, especially for companies outsourcing across multiple vendors or regions, this isn’t always the case.
The success of any support setup with BPOs hinges on effective processes and communication channels to ensure quality service. Ultimately, it’s not the structure itself but the chosen vendor that determines support quality.
Given the substantial investment—financially, temporally, and in trust—it’s imperative that your BPO partner demonstrates their capability to uphold and enhance this investment.
Customer service outsourcing vs customer service quality
Irrespective of how your customer support team is organized, it’s essential to evaluate the quality of customer interactions.
Traditionally, customer service quality has been gauged using metrics such as Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) or Customer Effort Score (CES). While these metrics aid in setting KPIs and establishing benchmarks, they only offer a quantitative perspective.
For companies that outsource their customer support, qualitative data gathered through conversation reviews becomes indispensable. Unlike numerical metrics alone, reviews provide insights into trends, agent knowledge gaps, and overall performance, offering a more nuanced understanding for improvement.
Effective quality assurance software serves as a bridge between companies and their customers, irrespective of the support structure in place. It facilitates the collection and analysis of valuable feedback, ensuring a continuous improvement loop for enhanced customer service quality.
How to keep quality high in outsourced customer service teams
Ensuring high-quality customer service in outsourced teams requires addressing common challenges head-on. However, if your current vendor fails to align with your quality priorities, it may be necessary to seek out a more compatible customer service BPO provider to avoid exacerbating internal issues.
Issue #1: Elevated employee attrition rates
Employee turnover serves as a key indicator of workforce satisfaction and organizational health.
Retention remains a widespread challenge in the customer service sector, with employee tenure often shorter than anticipated, influenced by industry dynamics and demographic factors.
For instance, support agents aged 20 to 34 typically maintain an average tenure of 2.2 years.
According to Nice’s 2022 attrition report, BPO agents tend to exhibit higher turnover rates compared to their in-house counterparts, particularly within larger organizations.
However, heightened attrition negatively impacts customer service quality. The recruitment and onboarding processes for new hires are resource-intensive and time-consuming. Additionally, experienced agents typically possess deeper product knowledge and familiarity with company communication standards.
Many teams leverage their seasoned staff to bolster their quality assurance efforts:
Rentman delegates review responsibilities to its senior members. At Sky Betting & Gaming, a specialized advisory team, comprising the most knowledgeable staff, collaborates via a dedicated Slack channel to address complex issues and enrich the organization’s knowledge repository.
Tactics to address employee attrition in outsourced customer support teams
- Assess the Value Placed on Employees by the Outsourcing Company:
Evaluate the investment in employee training and development initiatives. Encourage career advancement opportunities within your organization by promoting high-performing agents to roles in quality assessment or training.
- Ensure Competitive Compensation:
Acknowledge the significance of frontline customer service representatives by ensuring they receive fair compensation. Advocate for appropriate salary levels and consider implementing a system of raises to reward employee performance directly.
- Diversify Outsourcing Partnerships:
Recognize that larger outsourcing companies often experience higher attrition rates. To mitigate this, consider engaging with multiple smaller providers rather than relying solely on one large vendor.
In the words of Carole Riault from Supercell: “We try to track the main causes of attrition. Companies report what they want to report, but we try to work with partners who are as transparent as possible. We make sure that customer support agents are paid competitively on the market and we also check how people get promoted, as in some cases attrition is because of a lack of career progression.”
Issue #2: Addressing the Additional Degree of Separation:
When outsourcing customer service, delegating agent management is essential, but it shouldn’t result in a “silo effect,” where communication breaks down and information isn’t shared across departments and teams.
To prevent this, focus on two key factors: training and communication.
How to get involved in agent training in outsourced customer service companies
We talked to Theo Panaritis, a customer service training specialist, about how businesses should get involved in how BPOs train employees:
Continuous training should be at the core of the quality maintenance efforts. Not only product training, but also power skills training – focusing on communication and agility.
What is also important here is to set clear communal processes. Just because customer support is outsourced, it doesn’t mean that the goals are different! What is important here is to blend the outsourced team with the in-house related departments and teams.
The outsourced customer support team shouldn’t feel like an outsider and should be involved in the company updates. Blending teams in a collaborative environment is not an easy task, but it’s something that we have all been preparing for in the last two years where remote and hybrid work have left their mark.
Furthermore, the outsourced customer service provider needs continuous feedback throughout the hiring and training process. Fearless feedback is the force behind constructive and honest discussions.
Workforce allocation is handled by the customer service outsourcing company, but having input from the client is very important for a healthy relationship.
Problem #3: Consistency & calibration
Consistency is currently a major focus in customer service.
With various communication channels like chat, email, calls, social networks, bots, and video emerging, customers expect consistency across all touchpoints. Therefore, it’s crucial for companies to maintain a uniform voice across different platforms and representatives.
Introducing outsourcing into this equation complicates matters.
As we’ve previously discussed about setting goals, it remains relevant here. If BPOs are aware of and aligned with company goals, it provides a benchmark for success. This alignment serves as a reference point, akin to something you might post on the fridge for easy reference.
The 3 ways to maintain consistency in customer service operations
1. Knowledge base
A centralized knowledge base providing all agents access to these procedures serves as an effective means to ensure consistency.
2. Structured onboarding
The adage “start as you mean to go on” rings true in this context. Providing all agents with a standardized onboarding process ensures consistency regardless of their location or work environment.
A robust onboarding program includes:
- Introduction to customer personas and target users
- Familiarization with company values and communication guidelines
- Training on product knowledge
- Exposure to common user scenarios
- Orientation on tools and procedures
We endorse and operate a “buddy” system to facilitate collaborative learning and informal guidance, which also contributes to fostering company culture and employee well-being.
3. QA Calibration sessions
To ensure consistency among your agents, it’s crucial to establish alignment in your review process. This begins with selecting the right reviewers. Misaligned or biased reviews can result in inconsistent grading and distorted quality metrics.
During QA calibration sessions, reviewers can:
(a) Evaluate conversations blindly and then discuss grades afterward.
(b) Collaboratively review conversations to foster discussion.
(c) Review conversations alongside agents to promote transparency.
If you have outsourced your quality management in addition to your support team, it’s best to set up a process where you perform some spot-checks on the quality reviews. This is where you review the grade given by the reviewer to ensure that they are following your own quality standards.
Adding spot checks alongside your regular calibration sessions means that you can still be in control of the quality standards of your (outsourced) support team!
Customer service outsourcing without losing quality — checklist
- Select the appropriate partner.
- Define transparent, shared procedures.
- Develop a comprehensive knowledge repository.
- Provide opportunities for career advancement and incentives.
- Explore smaller customer service vendors.
- Implement structured onboarding programs.
- Deliver ongoing feedback.
- Conduct frequent calibration sessions.
Originally published in November 2022; last updated in December 2023.
