Customer service is the most important part of your business operations. If you aren’t committed to providing a full customer experience, you’re undercutting your ability to succeed in your industry, even if your products are superior to those of your competitors.
Business owners are now beginning to realize the significance of customer service operations, but it wasn’t always top-of-mind. For years, leaders offshored their customer service needs to overseas call centers Such offshoring negatively stigmatized outsourcing as a way for companies to ”get rid of” their customer service responsibilities. In other words, outsourcing was perceived as offshoring, which in turn was perceived as an easy way out.
Customer service operations were cheaper in foreign countries, so offshoring such operations was a way to cut costs. Business owners didn’t care that offshoring cheapened and depersonalized their customer service functions and performance. If offshoring was cheaper, it was the better option.
Thankfully, that’s beginning to change. Companies are starting to realize that their customer service operations are directly tied to their growth and sustainability. Outsourcing is now a strategic initiative, rather than just a quick ”out” to save a little money. In short, outsourcing no longer means offshoring. While outsourcing remains prevalent and desirable, offshoring is becoming less attractive as companies realize that domestic operations can improve their customer service functions.
More American businesses are shifting their customer service needs to third-party call centers located in the United States. U.S.-based call centers employ highly trained individuals who perform customer service communications effectively and professionally. Domestic call centers are affordable, but they also service your customers in ways that will retain them as customers.
If you’re considering partnering with a call center to handle your customer service, below are a few reasons why you should take that step.
Call centers improve your operations’ efficiency
If you run a small to medium-sized business, you know that every minute of the day matters to you and your employees. Partnering with third-party call centers to support your customer service needs will remove a time-consuming from your team’s shoulders and enable everyone to focus on their core competencies. And providing efficient customer service is even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as more and more customers are reaching out to businesses with requests, inquiries, and concerns.
Utilizing a domestic call center to handle your customer service needs will free up your time to focus on the big-picture aspects of your business, as well as your employees’ time to focus on growing your company..
Call centers provide your customers with on-demand access to your representatives
We live in an on-demand economy. When people want service, they expect to receive it immediately. That is why streaming services and delivery apps are so popular with today’s consumers. You may not have thought about it, but the same holds true for customer service.
Your customers don’t want to navigate complex phone menus or to wait on hold for long periods of time in order to speak with your customer service representatives. They also don’t want to have to talk to multiple people about the same issue before it gets resolved. Employing call centers eliminates these pain points for your customers. Handling customer inquiries is a call center employee’s fulltime job, for which he or she has trained extensively. Such employees can answer calls and respond to questions much faster and more effectively than a smaller in-house team. When customer service is more efficient and convenient, the entire customer experience is better.
Call centers gain valuable insight into your customers
To succeed as a company, your organization needs to know its audience. Your business can gather information about its customers from various departments, but your customer service department can glean more customer-based information than any other.
Call centers collect valuable insight into your customers that will grow your company. They gain a better understanding of your customers’ specific needs, which will inform and improve your marketing strategy. You can’t really give your customers what they want unless and until you fully know their needs.
Partnering with a domestic call center to perform your customer service functions could be the best business decision you ever make. We manage a network of top-rated U.S.-based call centers that will improve your customer service performance and grow your business. Please read more about our call center solutions here and contact us today!