Busting the outsourcing myths

Few years ago, outsourcing was a new concept. For many industries now, it is a major requirement. It has become a necessity for MNCs. Although, many corporates are still sceptical to take the plunge of outsourcing. This article highlights the myths surrounded around outsourcing and debunks it to realise the benefits of outsourcing. Here were just few of the many things that would worry a corporate.

1. Language barrier

This is one of the foremost worries of companies that an overseas firm will not have the language skills required. Accent issues, unfamiliar local words, and regional issues are something that a customer service person is likely to encounter. Although, these executives are given high quality training for many months on several situations they would come across, accent training, and complaint handling skills too. With the standard of training they receive, it is extremely difficult to point out a mistake in them while handling calls. Moreover, they are given the training to be a native speaker and not just technically fluent.

2. Quality will be compromised

Every little aspect of the company makes the relationship between the company and its customers stronger. This is how businesses gain loyal customers. So it is quite relevant if businesses are reluctant to hire a third party to entrust with their relationships. Especially when it comes to outsourcing technical support. When outsourcing technical support, it becomes imperative to have sound knowledge of the product and the company. The foremost reason to outsource is cost cutting. But no corporate would be willing to sacrifice on quality because of reduced costs.

In real, quality is never compromised while outsourcing. A corporate should just seek the services of the right company. If you as a company wouldn’t sacrifice on your production or customer relationship quality, then why would an outsourcing company sacrifice on theirs? If you value your clients, then they would value their clients too, which is you.

3. No control over the outsourced company

It is easy to be sure about the quality of customer service when it is being done at your end. Since you can walk over to your customer service department anytime and check what the agents are doing and listen to the conversations they are having. But how can one be sure of what an outsourcer is doing?

Well the technology has advanced a lot and a company can still keep a check in real-time of what the outsourcers are doing. You can look at a dashboard showing response and resolution rates, and also judge the time required to resolve each complaint, even the number of escalation calls the company has. When a bird’s eye view is maintained on outsourcing companies, their reporting is much accurate than that of an in-house department.

4. High fees

For any organisation, setting up an in-house service will always be an expensive step to take than an outsourced one. Geographical factors help in cutting down cost of the company and in turn also affect the hiring of connected departments or employees. Hence, high costs are never to be a worry for any organisation when it comes to outsourcing.

5. Training the agents

A corporate might feel that it will take more time to train an outsourcing company’s agent than an in-house employee. In some cases, you might even encounter such a problem. Yet, in most cases, it is only the initial training that needs to be conducted for the outsourcing company. An initial training usually suffices the requirements. Thereon, the client can always keep a tab on the calls and quality through real-time checks and reports.

Guest article written by: Paul J co-founded [tp lang=”en” only=”y”]a company which is for outsourcing technical support[/tp][tp not_in=”en”]a company which is for outsourcing technical support[/tp]. He started of in an outsourcing company during his college and visioned to build something of his own. His company is one of the best examples of how an outsourcing company should be.