Struggling to keep up with customer service emails?
If you are like most high growth e-commerce businesses, you are struggling to keep up with the deluge of customer service emails. In a way, the onset of this challenge is a symptom of your success, but it is a challenge that needs to be addressed nonetheless.
Many e-commerce brands we speak with in this situation find themselves managing a difficult trade off between:
Option A: Doubling down on expensive customer service investments to keep up with the volume and to keep customers happy. Your brand may thrive, but your bottom line may not.
Option B: Suffering a hopefully manageable number of negative reviews and customer blowback in an effort to preserve margins. This is a big gamble with your brand and long term prospects.
However, there is a third option… perhaps a goldilocks solution… and we will outline it in this post.
Your Third Option: Outsourcing Some or Most Customer Service Functions
You hired a few customer service reps, but they are becoming overwhelmed. Your customers are starting to get frustrated, and you're beginning to wonder if there's a better way. In fact, there is.
Leveraging today's technology, it has never been easier to outsource a portion of your customer service inquiries. By outsourcing as much of the work as possible, you can free up your in-house customer service team to focus on more important tasks. You can also rest assured your customers' questions will be addressed promptly and professionally.
Here's a closer look at the benefits of outsourcing at least a portion of your customer support efforts.
5 Benefits of Outsourcing Ecommerce Customer Service
Get More Done in Less Time: When you outsource your customer service emails, you'll be able to get more done in less time. That's because you'll have a team of highly-trained professionals working around the clock to answer your customers' questions and resolve their issues. As a result, you'll be able to free up your customer service reps to focus on more important tasks, like developing relationships with customers and troubleshooting the most complex issues.
Improve Customer Satisfaction: Another benefit of outsourcing your ecommerce customer service emails is improved customer satisfaction. When customers' questions and concerns are addressed quickly and professionally, they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand. While your current team may be well-skilled to answer these inquiries, a slow response time does not help anyone. Outsourcing your customer service emails is one of the best ways to ensure your customers are always happy with the level of service they receive.
Focus on What You Do Best: When you outsource your customer service emails, you'll avoid the distraction of managing a larger support team and be able to focus on what you do best: running your business. By outsourcing this time-consuming task, you'll be able to take care of other important tasks, like developing new products and marketing your brand. In the end, outsourcing will allow you to focus on what's really important: growth and profitability.
Get Expert Help: When you outsource your e-commerce customer service emails, you'll be able to get expert help from a team of highly-trained professionals who also have experience with the latest and greatest customer support technologies. Perhaps it is time to move beyond an email-centric approach and include other communication channels like live chat, SMS, and social media platform support. Outsourcing to specialized professionals gives you the benefit of their years of experience and an opportunity to review the tools that will work best for your business. As a result, outsourced providers will often be able to "up your game" and provide your customers with the highest level of service they deserve.
Reduce customer support costs: Finally, outsourcing e-commerce customer support can save you a significant amount of money. You'll be able to avoid the high costs associated with hiring and managing an in-house customer service team. As an example, Rush Order's outsourced customer support solutions leverage a mix of US onshore agents and offshore agents. The exact mix of onshore versus offshore talent is uniquely tailored to our clients' individual needs. To see the potential savings in action, check out our handy cost calculator tool.
5 Items to Consider when Hiring your First Outsourced Customer Service Provider
When searching for a contact center or BPO to outsource your customer service needs to, it's important to evaluate each provider carefully. Not all providers are created equal, and it's important to find one that will be a good fit for your business. Here are five tips for evaluating a potential outsourced partner:
Look for experience: When looking for a contact center to outsource your customer service needs, it's important to look for one that has experience in the industry. The last thing you want is to partner with a contact center that doesn't understand the challenges of e-commerce customer service or the nuances of your product category.
Ask about their technology: It's also important to ask about the technology the contact center uses to support customer service inquiries. Will they bring their help desk platform to the table, or will they use your existing systems? Make sure they have experience with the latest and greatest customer support technologies, including live chat, chatbot, and social media platform capability. The right partner should be able to pull your business forward and deliver an improved customer experience as a result of their expertise.
Ask for references: Another great way to evaluate a potential outsourced partner is to check out their reviews and/or references. By hearing directly from other businesses that have worked with the provider, you'll get a better idea of what to expect from their solutions.
Ask about their hiring and training process: Make sure to ask about the potential provider's agent training process. The last thing you want is to have your customers' questions be mishandled by unqualified agents. The provider should be able to articulate and demonstrate their agent training methodology. Better yet, the provider should also have a technology-based method for monitoring agent quality and performance.
Take a test drive: Finally, consider taking a trial run or only outsourcing a portion of your needs before fully committing to a long term partnership. The provider should be willing to work hard to earn your business and simply help both parties explore a strong mutual fit. A "crawl, walk, run" approach is almost always ideal for both you and the provider.
Parting Thoughts
Outsourcing a portion of your customer service email traffic is one of the easiest ways to free up your time so you can focus on critical tasks, improve customer satisfaction, grow your business, and increase your bottom line.
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to improve your e-commerce business almost overnight, outsourcing your customer service emails and other support inquiries is a great place to start.
Remember to take our cost calculator for a test drive.
Contact Rush Order today to discuss a potential fit with our customer support solutions.