How to Create a Successful CX Outsourcing Transition Plan
When it comes to creating a successful customer experience (CX), companies know they need to do whatever they can to make sure their customers are happy, within reason, and within budget.
One way to ensure a great customer experience is by outsourcing your customer service to a provider who builds CX solutions for a living. However, making the transition from an in-house customer service team to an outsourced team can be tricky. Fortunately, with a little preparation and planning, you can make the transition as smooth as possible for your customers – and for yourself!
In this article, we will discuss seven tips for creating a successful CX outsourcing transition plan.
Be prepared to put your CX outsourcing plan in writing
When it comes to CX outsourcing, putting your plan in writing is essential. Here's why:
The transition plan serves as a roadmap, outlining the steps you'll need to take and the goals you hope to achieve.
It helps ensure everyone involved is on the same page, from the CX outsourcing provider to your internal team.
It can help prevent misunderstandings and miscommunications, which can lead to disaster during any transition.
Writing down everything in black and white makes it easier for everyone to track progress and identify potential problems early on.
Quite often, we see brands let details slip through the cracks or create confusion by not putting their plan in writing from the start of the transition to outsourcing. It's OK if the plan changes, but putting it in writing and identifying those changes in writing keeps everyone on the project informed and on the same page.
Don’t worry too much about the form or layout of the document. Keep it simple and be ready to edit as you go. Here is Rush Order’s free downloadable template to get you started.
2. At a high level, identify what the ideal customer experience (CX) looks like for your company.
So, where should your written outsourced CX transition plan start? Before you outsource CX, you need to know what you want your ideal customer experience outcomes to look like. Questions to answer in this section of the plan include:
Who are your customers and what do they expect from you?
What does the best experience for your customers look like?
What else do customers need from you to be happy?
What are the limits you will set for agent response times via phone, email, chat, social and other support channels?
What other brands do you admire and wish to emulate? This question is sometimes helpful to gain alignment with other key stakeholders across your company.
By formalizing answers to these questions in advance, you will ensure that your outsourced CS provider can deliver the experience you are looking to create and keep your customers happy.
3. Outline your customer journey
Mapping your e-commerce customer journey is a critical part of any successful CX outsourcing transition plan. By understanding the customer's experience on your website, you can identify areas where your current CX operations may be falling short and make sure your new provider is up to par.
Here are the prompts Rush Order uses to map our new clients' desired customer journeys and resulting customer experience. We start with initial awareness of your brand and dive all the way into customer advocacy, where creating great customer experiences can generate additional revenue growth.
By taking the time to map your customer journey, you'll have a clear idea of where your CX operations need to improve and you will make sure your new outsourced provider is ready to meet your customers' needs.
4. Assess your current CX capabilities and resources
When assessing your current CX capabilities and resources, it’s important to ask the following questions:
How do our CX processes currently work?
Which CX processes don't work very well at the moment? Does outsourcing give us an opportunity to fix those broken processes?
What CX capabilities & resources do we currently have in place?
What CX resources are we lacking and hoping to gain by outsourcing?
Once you have a good understanding of your current CX state, you can begin to add detailed wants and needs to your outsourced transition plan.
5. Create a detailed project plan for transitioning to an outsourced model
With the above information in mind, you are ready to create your written plan. Our first rule here is to keep the plan simple. We like using a simple Word or Google doc. For a starting point, please feel free to download our outsourced CX transition plan template. You may want to consider adding a calendar or Gantt chart alongside this template to track timing as well.
6. Implement and track progress against the transition plan
As mentioned, progress can be tracked by using a Gantt chart or calendar to track timing and milestones, as well as weekly touch base meetings with your outsourced CS provider. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and that progress is being made according to plan.
Successful implementation of a new CS solution should include milestones toward the go-live date, but also metrics and reporting post-launch to ensure the right customer experience outcomes are being achieved. Implementing an ongoing quality assurance (QA) program for your CX organization is also a highly effective next step.
7. Celebrate successes and learn from failures
In addition, it is important to track CX metrics such as customer satisfaction scores and other qualitative data points to ensure that the CX transition was successful. This will give you a good understanding of how your outsourced CX partnership is performing and if any additional changes need to be made.
Another critical metric to track is cost. If you haven't already projected the potential cost savings of outsourcing CX, take Rush Order's inhouse versus outsourced CX cost calculator for a test drive.
Outsourced CX Transition: Parting Thoughts
By following these steps, you can create a successful CX outsourcing transition plan that will ensure smooth CX operations and an improved customer experience. Again, our outsourced CX transition plan is available for free download.
In addition, don't forget to subscribe to our monthly newsletter with more CX tips and tricks. Or, contact us to schedule a free consultation and see if Rush Order's outsourced CX solutions are a fit for your brand.
