The Smart Way to Outsource Customer Support Without Sacrificing Quality

Outsourcing customer service helps reduce costs and free up internal resources. But how do you ensure it improves, not harms, your customer experience? 

This article shares the most solid strategies for outsourcing customer service, from defining the objectives to choosing the right partner to lead you to success. Read below to learn more about how to outsource customer service correctly.

How to outsource customer service the right way

Correctly outsourcing customer service is essential for enhancing customer satisfaction and efficiency. For example, choosing a reliable and experienced business process outsourcing (BPO) provider ensures professional interactions, minimizes miscommunication, and protects a company’s reputation. Meanwhile, poorly managed outsourcing can lead to miscommunication, low customer satisfaction, and reputational damage.

But what is BPO? BPO providers offer skilled professionals, advanced technology, and scalable solutions. They handle customer interactions across multiple channels, use data analytics for improvement, and provide 24/7 support. 

The right firm can reduce operating costs, strengthen customer relationships, and boost your competitive edge, especially when you know how to outsource customer service. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Define business goals and customer service needs

Clearly defining business goals and customer service needs is a crucial first step in outsourcing customer support. Start by identifying the primary objectives, whether improving customer satisfaction, reducing response times, or expanding support availability. Clear goals help select the right BPO provider and set measurable performance benchmarks.

Assess customer service needs by analyzing customer expectations, preferred communication channels, and common pain points. They help you determine whether the BPO team can handle inquiries efficiently and align with the company’s service standards.

Well-defined objectives have far-reaching benefits. A 2022 Remote Work Association study revealed that they made 73% of workers feel more productive. Setting clear expectations and structured goals for third-party teams can maximize efficiency and improve service quality.

However, to track alignment and success, complement your goals with key performance indicators (KPIs), such as resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores, and response times. Then, use the insights to enhance the customer experience and drive business growth.

2. Create brand voice and tone guidelines

A consistent brand voice across multiple touchpoints builds trust and helps deliver a seamless customer experience. How can you help a customer service outsourcing team adapt to this? 

Another way to correctly outsource customer service is to develop branding guidelines that cover tone, phrasing, key messaging, sensitive topic management, and escalations for different customer care channels.

Furthermore:

• Provide training on de-escalation techniques, empathy, and problem-solving skills to educate third-party teams on handling challenging customers.
• Offer ongoing training and feedback to help BPO agents adapt to customer expectations, product updates, and company policies.
• Use technology to achieve consistency, such as AI-driven scripts, chatbots, and customer relationship management (CRM)-integrated knowledge bases that provide instant access to approved responses and guidelines.
• Develop a quality assurance (QA) process by regularly monitoring customer interactions, analyzing performance metrics, and conducting audits to align BPO teams with brand standards.
  
  
• Foster a culture of collaboration by integrating third-party teams into company-wide meetings, sharing insights from in-house teams, and encouraging open communication to create a unified customer service experience.

Consistent multichannel customer support requires a structured approach that focuses on helping BPO agents understand and embody the company’s communication style, tone, and values.

3. Be wary of legal and security risks

Working with BPO providers means sharing confidential information, which increases the risk of data breaches and requires strict cybersecurity measures.

Before granting third-party providers access to your information, thoroughly analyze your internal security measures to know whether you comply with data privacy regulations. Assess your cybersecurity infrastructure, encryption protocols, access controls, and employee security training to identify vulnerabilities that bad actors could exploit.

Then:

• Segregate which customer information is sensitive, such as credit card numbers and medical records, and limit access to only authorized personnel.
• Before finalizing agreements, have your contracts and documents reviewed by your legal team to confirm that all confidentiality clauses, data protection policies, and liability terms are in place. 
• Consider including service-level agreements (SLAs) that outline security expectations, breach response protocols, and consequences for non-compliance. 
• Develop a data breach response plan with your outsourcing partner to resolve a security incident swiftly.

By taking these precautions, you can confidently learn how to outsource customer service while maintaining robust data security and regulatory compliance.

4. Find the right outsourcing partner

Not all BPO companies are the same. Some can better manage high call volumes and basic questions and concerns, while others specialize in more complex situations. The right choice depends on your needs, industry, and customer expectations.

One tip for outsourcing customer service is to prioritize quality over cost savings. Others include the following:

• Primary language. Language barriers can frustrate customers, increase the rep’s stress, and hurt their call metrics. Hire a multilingual BPO team if you serve global customers or conduct a test call to determine whether they can communicate effectively despite language differences.
• Testimonials and reviews. Search online forums or blogs for client feedback to better understand the company’s service quality.
• Incentives. Re-energize and motivate the customer support team to reach their targets and metrics. Some contact centers offer hierarchical bonuses, where agents earn more per hour or when they surpass a specific goal. Others allow employees to exchange their accumulated points for prizes.
• Call and employee monitoring. Call monitoring helps measure the agent’s performance, and its data can support feedback. Recording calls is helpful during escalations or for legal purposes. Lastly, the reps are more likely to perform best when they know someone is recording their conversations.
• Test calls. Before you commit to a BPO partner, know some of their clients and call them as a potential customer. This test can tell you how the company handles clients’ calls and whether you can entrust your customer support to them.
• Scalability and flexibility. Your customer service needs can change due to seasonal demand, business growth, or unexpected surges in inquiries. Choose an outsourcing firm that can quickly scale operations without compromising service quality or using more resources.
• Technology and security measures. The best BPO companies enhance efficiency through advanced customer support technology, such as CRM integrations, AI-powered chatbots, and cloud-based call management systems. They also follow strict security protocols to protect sensitive information.

Choosing the right provider is essential to maintaining high-quality customer service, protecting your brand reputation, and ensuring smooth business operations. Because the BPO company will be part of your team, evaluate their capabilities, reliability, and alignment with your customer service goals.

5. Draft BPO contracts and SLAs

Another strategy to outsource customer service without hiccups is signing contracts and SLAs to define expectations, responsibilities, and performance metrics. 

Use the following steps as your guide:

• Identify your business requirements, such as the scope of support, operating hours, and service quality desired. 
• Outline key details, including pricing structures, termination clauses, data security protocols, and compliance with industry regulations. 
• To monitor accountability and service quality, specify measurable performance indicators in your SLA, such as average response time, first-call resolution rate, and customer satisfaction scores. 
• Include escalation procedures during service disruptions or non-compliance.
• Detail communication protocols to maintain transparency. 
• Add clauses to manage other risks, such as confidentiality, intellectual property protection, and contingency plans for service failures. 
• Include schedules for periodic reviews and renegotiation terms to adapt to business growth. 

With a clear contract and SLA, you have laid the foundation for a strong, accountable partnership. Now, it’s time to ensure that your outsourced team integrates seamlessly with your operations.

6. Integrate BPO customer service with business operations

Integrating outsourced customer service with business operations and internal teams is crucial for maintaining consistency and a seamless customer experience. The first step is to align your BPO strategies with business goals, values, and brand voice. This requires clear communication of objectives, customer service policies, and expectations. 

The BPO team should receive comprehensive training on company products, services, and customer handling procedures to remove the knowledge gap and unify the service approach. 

Enable data sharing between internal and external teams through access to CRM systems, ticketing platforms, and knowledge bases. Encourage continuous improvement, feedback, and upskilling by scheduling regular meetings and performance reviews. 

Consistent engagement and support, quality monitoring, and performance benchmarking help third-party firms collaborate well with your in-house team. Knowing how to outsource customer service enhances efficiency, reduces operational burden, and improves customer experience.

7. Assign a manager

Since you need to maintain open communication with your BPO team, consider appointing a liaison to facilitate it. This person’s role includes: 

• Consistently updating both parties about changes in the operations
• Communicating on behalf of other stakeholders
• Preventing potential misunderstandings and miscommunications regarding performance, expectations, and procedures
• Overseeing performance tracking and feedback, ensuring that concerns are addressed promptly and improvements are implemented effectively
• Acting as problem solvers, mediating any issues to reduce delays and miscommunications
• Reinforcing company culture and values through regular training sessions, team building activities, and participation in goal-setting

Assigning a dedicated manager helps bridge the gap between your in-house and outsourced teams. This ensures ongoing alignment, accountability, and a unified focus on achieving your customer service goals.

8. Share knowledge

Companies that provide continuous learning opportunities to their outsourced workforce report a 23% increase in overall project quality, emphasizing the importance of ongoing education and readily available resources.

One way to outsource customer service and support, and encourage continuous learning, is to create a communal knowledge base. The portal can include training videos, product manuals, answers to FAQs, escalation protocols, troubleshooting steps, and customer interaction guides.

The knowledge base is accessible, updated, and centralized using cloud-based platforms or CRM systems. It features search functionality and categories to simplify navigation.

Some related tools, such as employee monitoring software, might be complex, so provide adequate training to your BPO team to shorten their learning curve and maximize their use of the knowledge base.

9. Establish a performance review system

Reports show that 58% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer service, making it essential to ensure that your third-party team delivers high-quality support.

Although BPO decreases the internal team’s workload to help them focus on other profitable activities, knowing whether their services translate to desirable results is still crucial. Do they improve your return on investment or cash flow? Did the BPO company help increase the customer retention rate? 

Setting up a performance review system tracks their performance and provides valuable insights for future BPO decisions. The process might include conducting periodic test calls to get firsthand experience of their customer service.

You can also measure relevant performance indicators and routinely review the data to identify and address growing issues before they harm the bottom line, such as dropped calls and repeat call rates.

When not to outsource: Avoiding common missteps 

Customer service representative outsourcing offers many benefits for various industries, but sometimes, it is not the ideal solution. Avoid doing it for the following reasons: 

1. Don’t outsource just to cut costs

Customer service outsourcing can help you save up to 70% on labor costs, but it becomes an even costlier mistake when done poorly. Choosing the most affordable BPO company might only result in low service quality and limited services. For example, they might handle only essential customer support.

The right way to outsource customer service is to balance quality and cost savings. Choose a BPO company with well-trained agents, solid performance metrics, and efficient processes while ensuring affordability through smart contract negotiations and scalable solutions.

2. Don’t use BPO to avoid responsibility

Outsourcing transfers some of your internal team’s responsibilities and risks to a third-party company. However, it is limited to the services you have chosen. 

Most of all, outsourcing is not a strategy to avoid customer support responsibilities. Otherwise, you might lose control over your business, customers, and data management.

Customer service tasks that require deep product knowledge, brand voice consistency, and direct customer relationship management should remain with the internal team. These include handling: 

• High-value or VIP clients
• Complex technical support
• Brand-sensitive interactions
• Crisis management
• Strategic customer feedback analysis to drive continuous improvement

Collaboration also matters for the success of the partnership. Constantly communicate and develop shared goals, expectations, and performance benchmarks for alignment and accountability. Pursue continuous improvement together by exchanging reports and lessons learned. 

Avoid leaving your outsourced customer service team without adequate support. Otherwise, they could disengage from your brand and deliver poor service quality. Dedicate enough time to onboarding, training, and coaching. 

3. Don’t expect a quick fix

Customer service agents are industry experts, but cannot address all customer-related problems overnight. Effective customer service takes time, strategic planning, and continuous improvement or training. It improves by learning from others and adapting to trends, industry regulations, and customer feedback.

However, you can learn how to outsource customer service properly by helping them adapt fast. Invest significantly in onboarding, product knowledge training, and customer interaction coaching to align outsourced agents with your company’s service standards. This includes hands-on training sessions, real-time call monitoring, and feedback loops to help them improve.

The bottom line

Customer service outsourcing has challenges, but the benefits significantly outweigh the risks. It can help you reduce operating costs, enhance customer experience, provide 24/7 support, and accelerate growth.

When you know how to outsource customer service properly, BPO becomes a valuable asset in increasing profitability and customer satisfaction.

Ready to scale your support team? Let’s connect and explore the right outsourcing strategy for your business.