How to Choose Right Customer Support Partner for Your Business

July 21, 2008; 07:58 AM

/24-7PressRelease/ - INDORE, INDIA, July 21, 2008 - With every day increasing better customer service demand and increasing cost associated with it. All type of Companies including Small to big have a proven alternative, of using an outsider vendor or company having expertise in outsourced customer support services. While it is cost saving, result oriented approach but if you are a new buyer in this area, you should know choosing a vendor only based on cost is not always enough and you may need to check all the companies your are considering based on few important parameters and need to identify if they are the right choice for you or not. In fact this initial, a bit extra effort will not only can give you happy clients but may also be your strategic competitive advantage. And can lead to big savings on customer acquisitions and retentions.

First of all you need to understand, do you need to outsource your customer support?

Consider following points:

Your Organizational & customer needs:

1.Understanding both the customer's value to the business and the customer's expectations for support.

2.Segment customers according to profitability like expectations and provisions for customers generate much higher, higher and low profits

3.Level of coordination needed between your departments marketing, sales, operations and finance. Also how it is achieved in present conditions and what changes will be needed in outside vendor provisioning.

4.Customer expectations for support, turnaround time to resolve problems, complexity levels, support coverage in terms of time, ability to resolve type of issues such as any technical support issue

Your Technology & skills needs:

1.Technology you are using while technology you needed to support your customers within customer expectations?

2.Detailed reporting capabilities and your reporting needs?

3.QA provisions such as calls details, voice recordings and is it available always or on demand? Company with various process certifications and other latest quality measure already has such QA provisions in house.

4.Scalability or expansion capabilities to handle sudden loads?

5.What measure they have to prevent any kind of data or information misuse i.e. privacy protection and are they guided or approved by any good agency?

6.Provisions for employee selections, retention, skills improvements and management? always remember a company with happy employees will have more number of happy clients.

7.Service cost and availability of options to choose from based on your current needs and possible need changes? to avoid any surprises.

Ok, I have checked these entire thing now what, should I use near-shore or offshore services?
To find out best alternative for you, First of all you should forget about the physical location of the vendor while checking companies on the basis of points given above. If in the short listed companies you have offshore company or a company with all the features and facilities in best or offshore rates, Go opt for it. In this way you can also address any possible issue related to:

1.Cost savings.

2.Culture, Skills, Competency limitations or differences.

3.Any Effect of physical distance between your company and vendor.

4.Man power availability and ease of getting skills i.e. vendors man power management capabilities.

These day offshore destinations like India are developed enough and have large availability of suitable manpower with skills to boost your company's growth and profits by savings up to 50% or more.

What after choosing a provider:

Choosing a right provider is not end of your task, it is just a beginning; now you needed to ensure following to get most benefits:

1.Do you have an accounts manager or single point of contact in Vendor Company.

2.Do have a regular check on QA and other reports, call recording etc.

3.Notice any sudden rise or dilutions in a certain type of customer complaints or contacts.

4.Be in contact with your vendor to ensure continuous communications and to figure out any possible flow.

5.Do keep a provision like "Contact with CEO" and also inform your customers about it to use in case, if they are not happy about any product or service by any of your department of outsourced vendors. It will not only help you understanding any problem but also will give your continuous channel of customer feedbacks and suggestions as well. And will be a company with image "Yes, we hear you!"