It’s only logical that the outsourcing of customer service generates doubts: ‘Will my customers receive the same level of service?’ ‘Will they be helped and be addressed in the same way?’ ‘Does a service provider know enough about our products?’ ‘Am I still in control?’ All very reasonable questions. Read here how ecommerce customer care service provider Salesupply makes sure that your customers are taken care of at least as well as before, without them even realising that they are dealing with an external service provider.
Am I still in control?
One of the most common concerns when it comes to outsourcing customer service is the feeling that you are losing control and insight. After all, you are handing over all, or part, of your contact with customers. What happens if a customer asks for a special solution to something? How do the agents deal with questions that they do not automatically know the answer to? Are calls being answered within the agreed time? How quickly are tickets dealt with?
Real-time insight
For Salesupply, it is crucial that our clients feel they are ‘in control.’ It is only then that the cooperation can be truly successful. That is why we have developed an extensive dashboard application where you have an overview in real time. You can use this application every minute of the day to see what is happening, who is answering the telephone, how many events (calls, mails, etc.) there are, and how long the oldest, unanswered mail has been waiting for a response. You also have access to our CMS system where you can find all events and listen back to telephone conversations.
Consultation
We schedule weekly or monthly calls where you and our project team discuss what went on that week, what the volume has been, how the agents have been performing, how quickly answers have been given, whether the SLA was achieved whether any issues have occurred, etc. In addition, you will receive weekly or monthly reports in which you can find the SLA reports and events per category, so you can maintain oversight and deal with bottlenecks. That way you gain constant real-time insight and retain full control over everything that takes place.
Does an external service provider address my customers the way they are used to?
The customer service experience is inextricably linked to your brand. You do everything you can to position your brand as strongly as possible. This, of course, includes the specific way in which you communicate with customers. This is a spearhead for Salesupply when setting up the partnership. Which is why, as a client, you have full say in the customer care process.
During the set-up process, the preferred customer care experience is discussed in detail. The target group, branding, tone of voice, procedures & guidelines are all explicitly described, and thereby form an important part of the training module for our agents. This gives you full control over how our agents deal with your customers, and your customers will never get the impression that they have been helped by an external service provider.
An external service provider doesn’t really know our products and our organisation, do they?
The agents of an external service provider are, of course, not always familiar with your brand, services, products, tone of voice, and policies during the introduction phase. This can lead you to feel that the agents may lack knowledge of your organisation and products/services to be able to properly serve your consumers.
Intensive training
Salesupply has developed a proven training method that enables agents to become fully acquainted with the ins & outs of a company within a short period of time. By using a ‘wiki’ set up together with the client and a product training course provided by the client, our agents are transformed into remote colleagues within no time.
Even after the training, we continue to inform and train our agents weekly on any updates and new developments. For the exceptional cases where a customer asks a question that has not been covered in any of the training courses and updates, we will establish clear contact procedures in advance. This enables us to switch back and forth quickly in such cases in order to serve the customer as well as possible.
Without direct customer contact, am I missing out on any important signals?
Customer service has always been important in signalling bottlenecks and issues. Customer service is often at the source of major changes in products as well as organisational processes. Outsourcing customer service can give you the feeling that you might be missing out on important customer signals.
Recognising customer signals
Salesupply has developed a methodology for recognising these customer signals and sharing them with the client. All customer events are linked to a (in consultation) pre-defined category. As a client, you gain direct insight into these categories via our real-time dashboard and you will also periodically receive an extensive report. In addition, Salesupply passes on these signals proactively to the client when a particular bottleneck frequently crops up. As a result, many of our clients have been able to improve their organisational processes and even their products, all thanks to signals from our agents.
It is only natural that you have doubts about outsourcing your customer service. If you have the above-mentioned or any other concerns, then please get in touch with us. We’re more than happy to take you through our processes.