Struggling to keep your head above water when it comes to customer support? Outsourcing some, most, or all of your company’s customer support may be the right option. But if you don’t have sole decision-making power at your company, you may need to present the case for outsourcing to your CEO or other C-suite executives.
How can you push past common objections, show the benefits of working with a partner, and convince your executive team that outsourced customer support is a good idea? We listed five ways below.
1. Prepare A Comprehensive Business Case
Before you even think about discussing outsourced customer support with your CEO or other executives, you need to prepare a comprehensive business case. You’ll need data, market research, and other information that helps you show the benefits of outsourced customer support. This could include:
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) assessment
Cost-benefit analyses
Current performance metrics
Competitor research
Measure twice, cut once! By taking the time to do your own research about the specific benefits of outsourced customer support for your company, you'll maximize your chances of convincing your leadership team.
2 . Highlight The Benefits Of Outsourced Customer Support
In your business case, you’ll want to make sure that you present an overview of the benefits of outsourced customer support. Typically, these include:
Cost savings – Typically, outsourced customer support is cheaper than an in-house customer service department. Among other things, hiring outsourced support saves you money on recruiting, hiring, training, benefits, and salaries.
Scalability – Outsourced customer support allows more agility and flexibility. If your customer support needs change, it’s easier to scale up – or down – and make sure you have the support resources your customers need.
Expertise – When you work with an outsourced customer support firm, your reps are guaranteed to have a certain amount of expertise and call center training, which makes them more effective.
Quality improvement – Switching to outsourced customer support can definitely improve the overall quality of the customer experience. For example, if you currently have a couple of employees doing “double duty” as customer service reps along with their other duties, they may not be able to fully focus and provide a great customer experience.
Accountability – Today’s outsourced customer support companies are highly accountable. With monthly meetings and performance reviews, executives can easily measure their success, look for areas of improvement, and work to provide a better customer experience.
3. Align Outsourced Support With Your Company’s Strategic Goals & Culture
By understanding the benefits of outsourced customer support, you’ll also be able to show how the switch aligns with the strategic goals and culture of your company. This allows you to overcome quite a few of the most common objections related to outsourced customer support.
Along with the cultural fit, it’s important to address other technical concerns such as how outsourced support will fit into existing workflows, compatibility with your existing technological platforms, and data security and integrity.
4. Show Real-World Results With Case Studies, Testimonials, And Client Reviews
Of course, your C-suite doesn’t just have to take your word for it that outsourced customer support is effective. If you already have a provider in mind, such as Incept Results, you can also present resources like case studies, testimonials from past clients, and reviews from real clients.
These resources allow your CEO or other executives to dive a little bit more deeply into the details and see the benefits that other firms have enjoyed when choosing an outsourced customer support partner.
5. Propose A Pilot Program To Test The Waters Before Diving In
Switching to a fully outsourced customer support strategy is a big leap. So in most cases, it’s best to suggest a pilot program where only part of your customer support is handled by an outside partner.
This gives you and your company’s leadership team a chance to get a “sneak peek” of what they can expect if they switch to a fully outsourced model – and ensure that it’s a good fit before making a long-term commitment.
Interested In Outsourced Customer Support? Get In Touch Today!
At Incept, we offer a full suite of outsourced customer support services. From phone support to SMS, email, live chat, and social media, we do it all. Interested in partnering with us? Give us a call at (330) 649-8000 or schedule a consultation online to learn more about our portfolio of outsourced CX solutions.