Scaling Question: Outsourced Customer Service

[Lucid Tech]

For those of you that have eCommerce, SaaS, or other businesses that can involve customer support, how have you successfully handled this when scaling the user volume?

To date I have handled all of this myself, to ensure we are providing customer service that is a step above what is normally expected. (Customer service that SUCS, per the Fastlane terminology.) As our user base approaches the low thousands, I find myself answering emails at all hours of the day, most days of the week.

Does anyone have experience using an outsourced team? I would prefer not to hire for this, to avoid all of the headaches that come with an extra employee. It would also be great to ensure there is still support on the weekends as well, and one FTE is not going to be available 365 days a year.

Most of the user questions tend to be the same 8-10 questions; it would appear many people do not like to read the FAQ.

In case it matters, we sell a software program used by individuals in the healthcare industry. It does not directly affect patients so a delayed response is not the end of the world, but people with the letters MD, NP, DNP, etc. after their name can often have a prima donna attitude and expect a quick response at all times.

Thanks in advance.

 

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[Chimp]

Just a thought, maybe have the faq pop up and ask them to skim it before they follow through with the chat.

 

[hughjasle]

I use an outsourced team for my ecommerce business for all my customer support needs. They are FANTASTIC. I know exactly what you mean by answering emails 24/7, getting someone else to handle the customer service opened up a whole new world for me again. Wether you outsource or bring on employees to handle it, it'll be like lifting a huge burden off your shoulders.

 

[Waspy]

From my experience using, not giving, customer service, it would certainly be possible to implement "forced" reading if the FAQs. Usually along the following lines:

- Customer clicks "Contact us"
- Is presented with a contact form (Name, email, a drop down for their question subject, and a text field for specifics)
- As soon as they click their chosen subject (from the 8-10 that are common) the answer is automatically appears.
- You ask "Did we answer you question?" If yes, the go on their way, if no they continue with the form.

Personally, contacting a company is a last resort for me. I want the answer NOW, and who knows how long this company will take to get back to me. So from a user experience point of view I am very happy to have my question answered right before I send my message. It has stopped me sending many an email.

 

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[jrfkelly]

I use an outsourced team for my ecommerce business for all my customer support needs. They are FANTASTIC. I know exactly what you mean by answering emails 24/7, getting someone else to handle the customer service opened up a whole new world for me again. Wether you outsource or bring on employees to handle it, it'll be like lifting a huge burden off your shoulders.

They sound great, who are you using? How did you find them and verify quality before engaging them?
I'm going to need to do this very early in the process of developing my business, so I'm after any tips I can get!
TIA

Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk

 

[Lucid Tech]

I use an outsourced team for my ecommerce business for all my customer support needs. They are FANTASTIC. I know exactly what you mean by answering emails 24/7, getting someone else to handle the customer service opened up a whole new world for me again. Wether you outsource or bring on employees to handle it, it'll be like lifting a huge burden off your shoulders.

That sounds terrific. Can you share the name of the company, or at least your criteria for finding them? US-based or foreign? Reasonable cost? etc.

 

[Lucid Tech]

From my experience using, not giving, customer service, it would certainly be possible to implement "forced" reading if the FAQs. Usually along the following lines:

- Customer clicks "Contact us"
- Is presented with a contact form (Name, email, a drop down for their question subject, and a text field for specifics)
- As soon as they click their chosen subject (from the 8-10 that are common) the answer is automatically appears.
- You ask "Did we answer you question?" If yes, the go on their way, if no they continue with the form.

Personally, contacting a company is a last resort for me. I want the answer NOW, and who knows how long this company will take to get back to me. So from a user experience point of view I am very happy to have my question answered right before I send my message. It has stopped me sending many an email.

This is a very good idea. The FAQ is easily found but not "forced" on them before they contact us.

 

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[lowtek]

Everybody outsources customer service, because they want to maximize profit. I get it.

But I wonder, is that the best thing for the customer?

I've called Google "customer service" before, and it's an awful experience each and every time. EVERY TIME. The only reason they can get away with this is because they are a deeply entrenched monopoly.

In more competitive verticals, outsourced customer service could become a blind spot. Particularly for a business who deals with customers who expect to be treated like royalty.

I would implement the fantastic suggestion by @Waspy and force the FAQ upon the customer first, and really think long and hard before outsourcing one of the most important parts of your business.

It would save an extra 10-20% to your bottom line, perhaps, but what would it cost you in customer retention and lifetime value? What would it cost you in handing an opportunity to competitors on a silver platter?

If you MUST outsource, make sure the call center has no discernible or a very vague accent. Nothing screams "we don't give a shit about our customers" like outsourcing to the cheapest call center in India where the customer can't understand what the "customer service agent" is saying.

 

[hughjasle]

They sound great, who are you using? How did you find them and verify quality before engaging them?
I'm going to need to do this very early in the process of developing my business, so I'm after any tips I can get!
TIA

Can you share the name of the company, or at least your criteria for finding them? US-based or foreign? Reasonable cost? etc.

So I had 2 inhouse employees doing my CS before finding these guys. 1 of them was US based the other was not but had good verbal english (found out the hard way that her written english wasn't as good as her spoken). I use customer service for emails, facebook messenger (live chatting is the #1 method people use to talk to my brand), facebook comments on both my ads as well as on my FB page. They handle everything from common questions about the product or how to buy to helping with returns and refunds etc.

My difficulty in continue to hire in house was that my traffic would go up and down based on scale+inventory on hand. I didn't want to hire people who i'd have to then let go in a month when I blow out of inventory on new products. I wanted to be able to scale up or down without having to really think about it. I needed good english speakers and needed to have trust that they wouldn't screw things up royally or steal from me. I also wanted it to make sense on the bottom line. Be close to or better than what I could do myself in terms of costs.

I couldn't really gage quality before engaging them so I just started small and did tests with them to see how well they did. This caused more work for me as I was having to double check everything myself, but I was very pleased and went with it. It took a good 2 weeks to get them up to speed on everything. What to say when people ask this, how to navigate my stuff, etc. The same it would take training anyone to take over customer service really.

I'm not sure if posting them publicly is a good idea or not as they have been great for me thus far, but I don't want to be pimping a third party. I'll gladly give you their URL in PM, but don't want to post it here for time and all eternity only to have a new CEO come in and turn the co. to trash. Their employees are based all over the world but they have their own internal training and tests they have to pass and do. I've been extremely pleased with their written english so far. No complaints in that area at all even though I'm pretty sure they are all Filipinos. Because of that, I am paying about $1,700 a month for a large enough team that can handle massive scale. They run about $10/hr but the more hours you need each month the cheaper they are. So my $1700/mo is for near 24/7 service.

 

[miked_d]

Most of the user questions tend to be the same 8-10 questions;

This makes me think there is problem in your process. Is there a change you can make elsewhere to eliminate the question before it even comes up?

 

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[Lucid Tech]

Everybody outsources customer service, because they want to maximize profit. I get it.

But I wonder, is that the best thing for the customer?

I've called Google "customer service" before, and it's an awful experience each and every time. EVERY TIME. The only reason they can get away with this is because they are a deeply entrenched monopoly.

In more competitive verticals, outsourced customer service could become a blind spot. Particularly for a business who deals with customers who expect to be treated like royalty.

I would implement the fantastic suggestion by @Waspy and force the FAQ upon the customer first, and really think long and hard before outsourcing one of the most important parts of your business.

It would save an extra 10-20% to your bottom line, perhaps, but what would it cost you in customer retention and lifetime value? What would it cost you in handing an opportunity to competitors on a silver platter?

If you MUST outsource, make sure the call center has no discernible or a very vague accent. Nothing screams "we don't give a shit about our customers" like outsourcing to the cheapest call center in India where the customer can't understand what the "customer service agent" is saying.

Agree entirely with the importance of the customer service, which is why I've handled it personally for so long. This does however put an inherent limitation on our scale without hiring a dedicated rep for this which I would like to avoid for reasons given in the OP. Therefore it is not an attitude of saving 10-20%; it's a matter of being currently prevented from exponential growth because I am handling this aspect personally.

You are absolutely correct in that any outsourced CS will need to be thoroughly vetted first.

 

[Lucid Tech]

This makes me think there is problem in your process. Is there a change you can make elsewhere to eliminate the question before it even comes up?

It's possible and I will give this some thought. By far the most common question is something akin to: "I know you said this will be processed by X date, but I need it sooner because reasons. When can I expect it?" So, that's a tough one to prevent.

 

[miked_d]

It's possible and I will give this some thought. By far the most common question is something akin to: "I know you said this will be processed by X date, but I need it sooner because reasons. When can I expect it?" So, that's a tough one to prevent.

Can you change the fee structure? Have them pay more for rush jobs?

 

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[Lucid Tech]

Can you change the fee structure? Have them pay more for rush jobs?

Would be difficult, as these are requests made after they have purchased the product. Even if it is possible, it does not solve the original problem of scalability.

 

[Austin Ogre]

Would be difficult, as these are requests made after they have purchased the product. Even if it is possible, it does not solve the original problem of scalability.

I've worked in some large scale SaaS operations (in a couple of them I was there prior to landing our first customer). I'm huge fan of exceptional customer support for building passionate customers who become advocates for your solution. All of my customers have been subscription customers, so there's an ongoing relationship/revenue aspect which is, I think much different from a typical eCommerce solution which is more transactional in nature.

But, that being said if you're answering the same 8-10 questions repeatedly and you're not using canned response template (even with just some minor customization per response) you're not working efficiently even with a small number of customers. Start with a custom template response and tweak it for each customer as needed (and modify the template if the tweak seems broadly applicable). Once you are comfortable with the template and customer response to the language in it, you can auto-reply to the initial inquiry using keyword or topic matching.

For the SaaS applications I've worked with for the larger customers (typically > 60k ARR) we white glove the on-boarding and during that process I typically provide them with a template of the process with multiple links into a KB and constantly refer to the KB and pull up articles as I step-by-step onboard them to train them as to the value and quality of the documentation for the product (basically train them to RTFM before they call or email).

YMMV of course.