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Providing exceptional customer care is one strategy Chicago ventures use to differentiate themselves. They can more easily and affordably stand out from the competition by delivering round-the-clock support with the help of business process outsourcing (BPO).
This practice offers many benefits, allowing businesses to improve customer support operations and services while increasing cost savings.
If you want to learn how call centers in Chicago help local enterprises provide 24/7 support, this article is for you. It explores the importance of continuous customer service operations and why outsourcing is a practical approach to achieving it.
What Are the Benefits of Providing 24/7 Call Center Services in Chicago?
24/7 call center support helps your Chicago business improve customer satisfaction and retention and enhance brand visibility. It can also boost operational efficiency and productivity, increasing profitability and market share. These benefits are crucial to sustainable business growth, especially in Chicago.
The city of Big Shoulders has a robust and diverse business landscape, making it an attractive location for entrepreneurs and corporate giants alike. According to PR Newswire, the Chicago region celebrates its 10th consecutive year as the top metro area for business.
Several Fortune 500 companies call the city home, including Boeing, United Parcel Services (UPS), and Hyatt Hotels. With more enterprises of all kinds and sizes headquartered in Chicago, scaling becomes challenging.
So, how exactly can 24/7 customer care strategies help your Chicago business scale? Let us discuss each in detail.
1. Boosted Operational Efficiency and Productivity
One of the most prominent benefits of nonstop call center services is that they allow you to resolve consumer issues and concerns at any time. This capability enables companies to monitor customer interactions and identify problems early on.
By offering support around the clock, your Chicago business ensures customers can always access its products and services. It minimizes detrimental factors that affect your company’s growth, such as:
- Downtime
- Lost productivity
- Customer churn
- Operating costs
- Employee burnout
Streamlined workflows through increased efficiency can reduce burnout among in-house teams. They no longer have to work overtime when your business accomplishes additional tasks beyond business hours.
These working conditions improve employee satisfaction and engagement, creating a domino effect. When employees feel motivated and less stressed, your business can reduce turnover, improving overall productivity.
2. Improved Customer Satisfaction and Retention
Customer demands are constantly evolving. With the rise of mobile devices and digitalization, shoppers expect seamless connections and swift assistance at a click. The Wind City is no stranger to innovation and technological advancements.
Thus, providing round-the-clock customer care is an excellent strategy for businesses in Chicago. Using a mix of human agents and automated responders, you can maximize customer care by delivering constant service through the following channels:
- Phone calls
- Messaging apps
- Social media
- Live chat
- Self-service portals
- Chatbots
This support demonstrates a commitment to customers’ needs, making them feel valued and appreciated. When customers are happy with the services they receive and the journey they experience, they are most likely to continue transacting with you.
According to Forbes, retaining consumers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. Converting a mere lead into a customer requires more resources, from digital and offline marketing to cold calls and follow-ups.
3. Enhanced Brand Image and Reputation
Prompt responses, even in the wee hours of the day, lead to an exceptional buyer’s journey. A positive customer experience can significantly generate positive word-of-mouth advertising.
Satisfied consumers can become brand advocates, recommending your business to their friends and families. This organic marketing approach amplifies your brand’s reach and builds trust among existing and potential customers.
Additionally, 24/7 customer service empowers your Chicago business to quickly address inquiries on social media platforms. This active engagement builds stronger relationships with followers, fosters a positive online community, and increases your brand’s social media presence.
4. Expanded Market Share and Reach
Expansions brought by word-of-mouth marketing and brand awareness allow you to engage with a broader audience. It also supports your business in establishing itself as an industry leader.
Additionally, round-the-clock availability caters to customers with busy schedules and those in different time zones. Providing continuous services allows them to access support regardless of location, enabling your business to penetrate and expand its influence in global markets.
5. Increased Revenue and Profitability
The above benefits of nonstop customer care strategies positively impact your Chicago business’s sales and financial health. Let us detail how each advantage affects profitability:
- Efficient issue resolution. 24/7 services can improve customer loyalty and decrease the overall cost of handling inquiries with fewer escalations, returns, and refunds. They also reduce operating costs by optimizing workloads, reducing idle time, and reducing underutilized resources.
- Eliminated customer hesitations. This feature is especially beneficial for online shopping, where customers may have doubts and concerns about purchasing products. Continuous customer care can lead to more conversions and, therefore, sales.
- Diversified revenue streams. Expanding your reach via round-the-clock customer support provides you with other means of profit. By reducing reliance on a single market or channel, you can position your business for long-term success.
However, businesses must still consider operating costs, specialized expertise, and technological integration to ensure optimal cost efficiency. This is where outsourcing comes in.
Is Customer Care Outsourcing Workable for Chicago Ventures?
Implementing round-the-clock customer service through business process outsourcing offers many practical advantages. Customer care outsourcing gives Chicago businesses better access to qualified labor, advanced technology, and operational scalability and flexibility. It also improves focus on core competencies, global insight, and cost reduction.
To better understand its benefits, let us first answer the question: What is BPO? It is the business practice of delegating non-core tasks to an external service provider. These tasks cover the front and back offices, including call center services.
The many advantages of customer service BPO make it widespread among various businesses and industries. According to 350 Research Reports, the global contact and call center outsourcing market was valued at $75.4 billion in 2021.
So why consider outsourcing call center services? Below is a rundown of how this practice benefits your Chicago business.
Significant Cost Reductions
Outsourcing customer care is often less expensive than operating it in-house, making it an attractive strategy for Chicago businesses. Here are a few ways outsourcing helps you save on costs:
- Less expensive labor. This benefit is most prominent when partnering with a BPO provider that operates in countries with lower living expenses. For example, businesses that outsource to the Philippines report cutting labor costs by 70%.
- Minimized overhead. Outsourcing usually entails working with a virtual team. Remote workers allow you to save on office space rent, which is relatively expensive in the Wind City. Customer care outsourcing also reduces the need for equipment and utilities.
- Fewer infrastructure investments. Finding a provider with the modern technologies and devices your business requires lets you eliminate costly investments, purchases, subscriptions, and loans.
Better Access to Expertise
Finding qualified talent in the city of Big Shoulders may be challenging. With the area’s relatively low unemployment rate and inflating job growth rate, its labor market is tight.
Customer service outsourcing helps directly overcome this obstacle by letting you tap into a global talent pool. BPO teams are skilled and well-versed in communicating via different channels.
Third-party professionals are trained in customer care best practices, strategies, trends, and etiquette. They can quickly learn your Chicago business’s products, policies, and services. They also possess the following skills:
- Communication
- Problem-solving
- Empathy
- Organization
- Technical expertise
Guaranteed Leverage of Sophisticated Technology
BPO providers offer cutting-edge contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) solutions. This cloud-based platform enables customer service agents to interact with consumers anywhere, as long as they can connect to the Internet.
CCaaS provides several benefits that allow you to optimize your call center operations, including:
- Omnichannel capabilities. Omnichannel support via CCaaS is the secret to providing seamless, nonstop service. It lets consumers receive consistent assistance even if they switch from one channel to another, eliminating the need to repeat conversations.
- Artificial intelligence (AI). Developers use AI to mimic human language and interactions, enabling you to automate routine customer care tasks. With this technology, you can offer 24/7 virtual agents, chatbots, and integrated self-service solutions.
- Security and compliance. Outsourcing companies have a shared responsibility regarding data privacy. This accountability drives them to ensure their CCaaS solutions and other infrastructure are secure and compliant with adequate regulations.
Improved Scalability and Flexibility
Customer service outsourcing allows you to scale your operations up or down to accommodate fluctuating customer service needs. Thus, you need not worry about laying off and recalling internal staff. BPO teams are also readily available, letting you add or remove customer service representatives without incurring significant costs.
Providers typically spread out their agents to cover different shifts, providing your business with a round-the-clock team of experts. Unity Communications’ sales support case study perfectly demonstrates how outsourcing helps businesses achieve optimal scalability and flexibility.
Additionally, the technologies and talent you gain through outsourcing enable you to provide multilingual customer care. This strategy helps your Chicago business ensure clear and accurate interactions across languages and regions.
Enhanced Focus on Core Competencies
By delegating your call center operations to a BPO team, your internal staff can more easily attend to value-adding activities. You can also reallocate the capital you saved through outsourcing into core functions.
Refocusing on more strategic competencies that significantly impact your business’s growth is critical to staying ahead of the competition. Some of these projects include:
- Market research and expansion
- Product design and development
- Marketing and sales
- Partnerships and mergers
Increased Global Market Insights
Partnering with a BPO provider operating in multiple countries provides information and connections for improved market research. You can utilize its existing knowledge base and resources to collect and analyze data from untapped opportunities.
This step allows you to identify unmet needs, preferences, emerging trends, and expansion possibilities. With adequate information about other audiences from other regions, you can prioritize markets for entry, tailor goods accordingly, and maximize your chances for global success.
The Bottom Line
Providing round-the-clock call center services is vital to scaling businesses in Chicago. It improves efficiency and productivity, customer satisfaction and retention, brand image and reputation, and market share and reach. These benefits have a positive impact on sales and profitability.
By outsourcing customer care tasks, your local business can enjoy the advantages of 24/7 support without damaging its financial health. Let’s connect if you want to learn more about leveraging third-party customer care strategies for your Chicago business.
