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Your business is growing and you have more and more customers reaching out for help. It’s gotten to the point where you need to bring in a team to help with the increasing number of support inquiries you’re receiving.
Or maybe you have a small support team that’s stretched thin. They’re approaching burnout and you need more help, but your budget is limiting you from hiring more folks internally.
Outsourcing customer support is a great option for businesses that want to focus on their core operations or need a little extra help dealing with customers.
An external support team used to have a negative connotation, but the industry has changed. Many outsourced customer support companies are embedding themselves in businesses and providing seamless world-class customer service.
Outsourcing customer support is when a company engages a third-party organization to respond to customer inquiries and support customers needing assistance with the company’s products or services.
In this article, we will look at some of the best companies to outsource customer support to, and what to look for when searching for an external team to handle your customer support operations.
The “best” customer support outsourcing company for your company depends on what kind of support your business needs. Some Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies focus on specific types of support or industry verticals.
For example, many BPOs will focus on general customer service support, while others will focus on technical support, providing highly technical engineers to troubleshoot complex problems involving web development and engineering.
Some BPOs will focus on cost-effectiveness first, striving to be the most affordable option on the market. Others focus on offering the highest quality of support rather than the lowest cost.
For companies with lower volume seeking high-quality support from well-trained teams, companies like PartnerHero, SupportNinja, Peak Support, and Boldr will offer a variety of solutions to address their customer service needs.
For higher volume, targeting cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the marketplace is more crowded. Companies pursuing this path are best advised to look into large global operations like TTech, StarTek, Alorica, and TaskUs.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the top support outsourcing companies.
PartnerHero offers customer support services that will transform your customer experience. We offer personalized and scalable solutions that will take your business to the next level by providing you with a world-class customer support operation.
PartnerHero can help businesses of all sizes—whether you are an early-age startup or a leading business with a rich history, we can help you reach your customer support goals.
PartnerHero works with a wide range of industries from e-commerce, SaaS, health and wellness, FinTech, and EdTech. Our people-first philosophy gives you access to exceptional talent from all over the globe, and our leadership team comes from decades of combined experience growing and leading support teams of all types and sizes.
Key services:
For more information, visit our website.
SupportNinja is a dynamic and forward-thinking company renowned for its customer support solutions. At its core, SupportNinja specializes in providing comprehensive customer support solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses across various industries.
Leveraging cutting-edge technology and a team of highly skilled professionals, SupportNinja offers a wide array of services designed to streamline customer interactions and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Overall, SupportNinja is a company that focuses on helping your company and your people grow. By recognizing the importance of their people, they have a strong foundation to build impactful solutions for the businesses they work with.
Key services:
Learn more about their services on their website.
Peak Support is a leading provider of outsourcing solutions specializing in customer service and business process outsourcing (BPO).
Founded with a vision to empower businesses with scalable and cost-effective support solutions, Peak Support has emerged as a trusted company for businesses that want to enhance their customer experience and streamline their operations.
Their strong focus on culture and keeping their employees happy has allowed them to become an outsourcing company that delivers beyond their customer’s expectations.
Key services:
Learn more about their services on their website
Boldr is a dynamic and innovative company specializing in outsourcing solutions designed to empower businesses and drive growth.
With a focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences and operational excellence, Boldr has established itself as a trusted partner for organizations seeking to streamline their operations and enhance their competitive edge.
Boldr understands that they need to have something to stand out from competitors, so they’ve turned their focus to what they call the “Three C’s”. This model allows them to keep their Clients, Communities, and their employees’ Careers the top priority, which results in a high level of satisfaction across the board.
Key services:
Learn more about their services on their website
TTech is a leading global provider of technology-enabled business process outsourcing (BPO) services, specializing in customer experience solutions.
With a focus on delivering innovative, personalized, and scalable services, TTech helps organizations across various industries optimize their customer support operations, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive sustainable growth.
TTech has defined 4 core pillars throughout 40 years of experience in customer service: Talent, Technology, Empathy, and Connected. Their insight-driven focus makes them a great fit for companies in need of experienced teams powered by human and digital solutions.
Key services:
Learn more about their services on their website
Startek offers a comprehensive suite of customer experience solutions designed to elevate businesses to new heights. With a focus on delivering exceptional service, Startek specializes in providing innovative solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each client.
Its dedicated team of professionals is committed to ensuring that each interaction with a customer is seamless and memorable. From customer support and technical assistance to sales and retention services, Startek leverages cutting-edge technology and industry best practices to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Their strategic approach integrates the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, CX data, and personalization. Startek's customizable solutions are designed to exceed the expectations of any businesses looking to scale their operations, improve efficiency, or enhance brand loyalty.
Key services:
Learn more about their services on their website
Alorica is all about making customer experiences unforgettable. They strive to create solutions that speak directly to their customers’ goals.
Whether it’s helping out with customer support, technical solutions, boosting sales, or spreading awareness of your brand, they have what it takes to bring extra horsepower to your business.
Their company values—Passion, Performance, and Possibilities—drive Alorica’s culture forward. They recognize that every business has unique customer service needs, and they provide custom solutions that improve retention and customer satisfaction.
At Alorica, they understand that building relationships with customers is the best way to win. They combine the latest technology with a big dose of human touch to create experiences that their customers truly value.
Key services:
Learn more about their services on their website
TaskUs presents itself as the premier solution to streamline and enhance your business operations with a big focus on efficiency. Imagine a dynamic team of professionals, dedicated to alleviating the burdens of your workload and infusing it with innovation and sophistication—that’s TaskUs.
TaskUs embodies reliability and ingenuity, ready to tackle any challenge with expertise and determination. Not just about outsourcing, they’re committed to elevating your business to unprecedented heights.
TaskUs redefines the standards of excellence in business solutions. Their approach combines meticulous attention to detail with a refreshing sense of camaraderie, fostering an environment where collaboration thrives and positive results flourish.
Key services
Learn more about their services on their website
Many companies will claim they offer techn-enabled solutions, but that generally just means basic reporting and performance tracking via a web-based portal or another third-party software solution.
Look for organizations that can deploy impactful generative AI solutions paired with automated quality analysis, voice of the customer (VOC) data analysis, and particularly trend detection aligned with forecasting and related recommendations. These solutions will drive scalability for your organization.
Having a dedicated and fine-tuned management resource within the BPO is a game-changer for companies that want to emphasize high-quality customer support and scalability.
This frees up your internal resources for strategic planning and leadership tasks while ensuring you have high-touch, focused resources within the BPO who are driving the team toward your specific customer service goals.
Sharing sensitive data is inevitable when it comes to outsourcing customer service. Having a company that will give you assurance and confidence about their data security is critical because you don’t want the stress or worry of a data breach.
Before hiring an outsourcing company, ask them about their data security and privacy protocols. We suggest bringing in someone from your IT department to assist you with this part of the procurement process, as a data breach can have a significantly negative impact on your company.
Every company that offers customer support services should follow quality assurance processes to make sure that their service will satisfy not only you but your customers as well.
Businesses looking to outsource customer support should ensure the team they bring on is quality-focused and equipped to measure the quality of support. They should enable you to track quality over time through clear and accessible metrics.
Quality in support is often directly correlated to customer satisfaction scores and vice versa, so when you outsource customer support, it’s important that the support company also measures customer satisfaction, customer effort score, and net promoter score.
Businesses today must be more accessible than ever. With so many touch points consumers have with brands, it’s important to offer high-quality support through multiple channels.
Being able to support customers through multiple channels means you can meet them where they are, and provide a seamless and personalized customer service experience any time.
Today's most common customer support channels are Live chat, Email, Phone, SMS, and Social media.
Figuring out which customer support company is right for your business takes time. It starts with defining the primary goal for your business.
The best way to ensure you are outsourcing the right way is to start with your goal of outsourcing. Every business has different goals related to customer support. What are you looking to accomplish by hiring an outsourcing company?
You might be considering outsourcing for scalability. Or maybe you simply want to leverage the existing knowledge and tools of a company dedicated to delivering the best support possible.
Or, maybe you’re focused on reducing costs and working with a strict budget. No matter your goal, there are going to be trade-offs.
It’s important to align internally on your goals and then discuss those desired outcomes with the support outsourcing company so that you’re both on the same page and that you have confidence in the company you choose.
Choosing to outsource customer support to an external company shouldn’t be taken lightly. It will take some time to choose an outsourcing company you feel good about.
In addition to making sure the outsourcing company offers the services you need, it’s important to make sure there is a culture and values match. You don’t want to partner with a company that ends up being difficult to work with or doesn’t believe in the goals you have.
Dig deep into the company and have a few conversations with various folks before you make a decision. Ask for references so you can get feedback from another company using the outsourcing services.
Switching vendors is time-consuming and costly. Just like you wouldn’t randomly pick a help desk tool without much research, you shouldn’t move forward with a customer support outsourcing company before doing the proper due diligence.
Once you’ve selected the customer service outsourcing company you will partner with, it’s time to embed them in your company, and that starts with onboarding.
It’s a common misconception that great outsourcing companies have fully-trained teams standing by to tackle customer problems and pick up your company’s processes at a moment’s notice. In reality, the best teams take time to hire, train, and ramp up to hit high-level targets.
The outsourcing company will also need to collaborate with your business to learn your customer demographics and their expectations. You will need to work with them over several months to help them become experts on your product and processes, and develop systems to manage escalations.
Many companies seek outsourcing as a short-term solution when they are already in a triage situation - but without the proper lead time, even the best BPO will be hard-pressed to hit lofty goals and deliver strong value. It’s important to plan ahead.
Know your seasonality and/or sales cycles and communicate these to the support outsourcing company. Prepare to bring the support team on board during the off-cycle, and invest in resourcing the team to the maximum level possible at launch. This will set your team up to be as successful as they possibly can be.
As your relationship with the outsourcing company evolves, there are several things you should be looking for them to fulfill.
Companies often come to BPOs with a long list of hopeful goals, and not all of them will be able to be accomplished quickly. Some goals may not be realistic due to various factors (budget, technology limitations, launch and training timelines, and so on).
A good BPO will create a clear picture of reasonable expectations. They will communicate stretch goals and targets, and provide clarification around training timelines and performance management processes.
Clear and frequent communication will ensure both organizations stay aligned throughout the relationship. This is especially important in the early stages of the relationship and can make the difference between a successful, multi-year operation and a short-term, disappointing partnership.
A tech-enabled BPO will leverage the right tools and systems to find more efficient workflows and enhance value for both your company and your customers.
Adopting and implementing the technology is only half of the job though. The outsourcing company should be ready to provide timely support and training for the tools they bring in to ensure your team and the outsourced support team can use those tools effectively.
Budget is a common reason for seeking out a customer service outsourcing company as many companies don’t have the funds to hire dedicated associates to own and manage customer support.
BPO companies add value by providing cost-effective and high-quality customer service solutions.
You might have irregular support volume due to various factors like seasonality or product/service launches. If that’s the case, you’ll want to have the option to scale up and down as needed.
This flexibility adds even more value to an outsourcing company as it ensures you’ll always have the right amount of agents available to handle customer inquiries.
If you have customers all around the world, you’ll be receiving support inquiries at any time of the day, even after working hours at the company’s headquarters.
Offering 24/7 support is a great value proposition for businesses. The ability to answer support tickets at any time of day promptly gives companies a competitive advantage.
Building an internal support team can be costly. It requires resources that could otherwise go directly into product development and evolving the company.
Meanwhile, working with a quality-focused support outsourcing company will provide deep expertise and a team that is prepared to assist your customers, and leverage economies of scale to bring technical solutions (AI, quality automation, team health insights, and more) at a lower cost.
Startups and younger companies can benefit greatly from outsourcing customer support. Finding a BPO that is ready to dive in and then scale your support operation for long-term success can take a lot of burden off a growing business.
By outsourcing early on, founders and startup leaders can develop deep partnerships that are focused on scaling these processes and delivering immediate value.
Deciding to outsource customer support can be a difficult decision. Customer service outsourcing companies bring a wide range of benefits to the businesses they partner with.
From cost-savings to scalability and a wealth of experience and expertise in support operations, a BPO can be a great option for many companies who need to improve their customer service offerings or build them from the ground up.
Finding the best customer support outsourcing company for your business requires a lot of research and investigation. Subjective and objective criteria must be met and that varies from company to company.
PartnerHero is a great customer service outsourcing company for businesses seeking creative strategies for their customer service goals.
