Customer Service Outsourcers

Customer Service Outsourcers or BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) provide a range of customer service solutions that can also be known as customer care, customer relations, customer support, customer loyalty, etc.

Whilst there are some subtle differences in the names, ultimately, the goal is to ensure your customers are satisfied and supported when dealing with your business's product or services.

Current CX research suggests that businesses must compete to acquire and retain customers, so providing customer care solutions has never been more important.

But that means more than just answering the phone. Customer care/customer support is now delivered over multiple channels, including social media, emails, live chat, SMS, video chat, co-browsing, and, of course, traditional mail.

Customer Service outsourcing functions can include answering basic and complex enquiries, providing technical support, complaints management, claims and compensation enquiries, conducting surveys and more.

Helping customers self-serve can also be an important strategy that can improve satisfaction and reduce costs.

Many call centre outsourcers and BPOs offer additional services such as helping you develop Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), automation & AI services through chatbots, Interactive Voice Responses (IVRs) design and more.

How to choose the right customer service outsourcing suppliers

There are several considerations you need to make when looking for the right Business Process Outsourcer (BPO) to handle your customer service functions.

For example:

Experience within the same industry vertical may be important (e.g. banking, insurance, retail, etc.,) and some contact centre outsourcers specialise in customer segments such as B2B or B2C or are more focussed on sales or service (although most will tell you that they can do everything!).
There are also some call centre outsourcers where size does matter—larger contact centres typically aren't interested in smaller opportunities (e.g., under 10 seats), so finding the right outsourcer who is actually interested in your opportunity can be tough.
Location can also play a critical role—do you use an offshore call centre to reduce costs or keep everything within Australia? Perhaps a mix of both can work, depending on the level of customer segmentation you are able to perform.
The technology capabilities of the outsourcer can also be critical—not all outsourcers are able to provide omnichannel solutions for social media customer support, SMS customer support, email customer service, live chat support, CRM tools, complex data reporting, big data analysis, etc.

If you are already clear on your requirements, scroll through the list of customer service outsourcing suppliers below and contact the outsourcers directly.

If you need a little help, the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) provides a free service to help businesses find and connect to contact centre outsourcers.

Try the free Contact Centre Outsourcing wizard. It will help you define your requirements for engaging in quality conversations with customer service outsourcers so they can provide you with accurate quotations.

It can also provide you with a recommended shortlist of suppliers to save you time, money, risk, and stress.

Prices to outsource your customer service function

There are many reasons businesses choose to outsource their customer service function to a BPO from increasing their flexibility, reducing costs, opening longer hours, reducing overheads, etc.

With regard to cost, there are many different methods outsourcers use to invoice, from cost per call to cost per minute to cost per hour to outcome-based, which can make comparing the pricing of outsourcers difficult.

For example, some include the cost of supervisors, reporting, phone calls, etc, as well as different set-up costs, induction rates and more.

The location of the outsourcer also plays a large component in the cost of outsourcing your customer service functions.

Indicative pricing by country for fully outsourced call centre agent:

Australia - $45 - $70 AUD per hour
New Zealand - $35 to $60 AUD per hour
Philippines - $8 to $16 AUD per hour
Fiji - $10 to $15 AUD per hour
South Africa - $15 to $25 AUD per hour

The range is determined by the skill of the call centre agents along with various other components that may or may not be included such as supervision, call costs, reporting, quality assurance and so on.

If you're not sure what the right solution is for your business, try the free Call Centre Outsourcing Wizard that will provide a shortlist of recommended suppliers based on your exact business requirements.

Where to learn more

If you'd like to increase your knowledge about outsourcing your customer service function, we have a range of free articles and guides written by industry experts:

Search the customer service outsourcing suppliers below:

Just scroll below to see all the outsourcers that specialise in customer care & customer service solutions or use the search filters to show suppliers by other specialist functions or offshore locations.

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