Support As A Service For Your Company: Full Guidance And Useful Tips

16 April 2021

Customer support is a powerful thing that can help your business to grow. Customers pay attention to how quickly and effectively you respond to their requests and what information you provide.

For example, according to McKinsey, 70% of customers measure their experience based on customer service level.

If the company is not ready to provide good customer service, it’s better to find other solutions than to lose customers. And one of these solutions is called support as a service.

Support as a service: what is it

Briefly, it means outsourcing customer support functions. Let’s imagine that you are managing a middle-sized company and are going to organize customer support. What options do you have?

At least two. First, you may build a customer support department inside the company. Second, you may hire an outsourced customer service responsible for clients’ communications and requests.

What choice is better? You may pick up any of these options considering available financial, human, physical, and other resources. Let’s compare the main pros and cons of both decisions.

An in-house customer support department-

Pros:

The customer support team is fully involved in all processes.
You hire every team member.
You may manage everything on your own.
The success of your external communications with the customers is in your own hands.

Cons:

It’s pretty expensive (needed equipment and installation may cost thousands of dollars).
You pay customer agents for the whole working day and not for the number of calls.
You are not flexible and can’t change the whole customer department in case something doesn’t work.

An outsourced customer support team-

Pros:

You may choose from a variety of different providers unless you find an appropriate one.
You may influence all processes that take place inside an outsourced team.
You should not think about any technical aspects of customer support.
You pay only for the delivered service.
You free up a lot of resources inside the company and use them for more critical tasks.
Your customer service team may speak different languages.

Cons:

It’s possible to get poor service because not all providers guarantee good quality.
Sometimes you may experience issues, misunderstandings, and mistakes.
Your customers may not be satisfied.

Related Reads: Making Sure You’re SOX Compliant

Support as a service: who uses it

During the last five years, support as a service became widespread among different businesses. This model has a lot in common with another approach called SaaS (software as a service) or providing cloud software solutions on demand. Support as a service is popular in:

E-commerce:

People like shopping online (especially now, during pandemic times). They also want to choose goods on the weekend or late in the evening after work. So, customer support has to be ready to provide customers with the required information at any time. In these circumstances, an outsourced customer support team is the best option for businesses.

Tech and finance business:

Hiring a customer support agent with the relevant tech or software experience may last for several months. It’s a lot, taking into account that the company loses money during this time. Professional support as a service provider knows how to find required team members fast and effectively.

Season businesses:

Before Christmas or summer months, some companies experience an increasing number of customers’ requests. As a result, their internal customer support departments cannot handle all questions and answer them quickly. An outsourced customer support team on demand may solve this issue and take over part of requests only for a limited time.

Available services-

Another essential question is what exact services an outsourced customer support team may provide. In general, all normal functions of customer support.

Calls:

According to Zendesk, more than 50% of customers prefer to use phones for communication with the brands. That means that voice customer support plays a significant role in building a positive customer experience.

Emails:

Letters are an excellent alternative to calls. They allow sharing more detailed information with customers. But for better results and effectiveness, you should establish special rules on how soon customer agents have to answer letters, tone of voice to use, etc.

Live Chats:

If your company works with millennials and young generations, think of using modern communication tools like live chat or messengers. According to Statista, live chat has growing popularity in almost all industries.

Support as a service: how to start

Here is a checklist of everything you need to do to start collaborating with an outsourced customer support company.

Read Also:

Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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4 Ways To Reduce Waste And Improve Revenues

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Road construction comes with many risks of injury. Some of the causes include dangerous equipment, the risk of collision, falling objects, and exposure to harmful objects. Before starting road construction, identifying all potential hazards in the work zone can minimize the risk of injuries. Hazards include things like oncoming traffic, pedestrian walkways, and power lines. The weather should also be taken into account when starting construction. Top 7 Road Construction Safety Tips Here are some tips to follow to ensure a safe road construction project. 1. Control Traffic Not many people follow traffic rules and it may lead to accidents even without road construction. So special care should be taken when you start working on a road. Make sure to mark the construction zone properly with barriers and cones. It is also crucial to place a warning sign before the zone to alert the incoming driver. At night it is preferable to use neon-colored traffic zones to make them more visible. 2. Create a Site Safety Program To ensure the safety of the workers, it is crucial to implement a site safety program. The staff should be given occupation safety training. Make them aware of the potential hazards and how to use certain equipment to minimize injuries. Most importantly, contractors should be well-equipped with advice on how to deal with emergency situations when the on-site manager is not around. 3. Avoid Blind Spots On a construction site, it is common to find vehicles and heavy equipment moving around constantly. Although many sites use the best water carts by TTi Water Trucks on the same truck to minimize the use of vehicles, there is still a need to avoid traffic in the construction zone. Operators should make sure to all visual aids and devices are attached, and alarms and lights are working properly on equipment. For workers who are walking on the site, make sure to stay in visual contact with any drivers. The drivers operating the vehicles usually have a limited range of sight when driving. 4. Use Personal Protection Equipment Just like other construction projects, PPE should be worn by the staff when working inside the construction area. Even if visiting for an inspection, it is necessary to wear basic PPE such as a helmet and vest to avoid any risk of falling objects. Some common pieces of personal protection equipment include steel-toed boots, hard hats, highly visible clothing, and headphones for noise protection. Especially at night, site workers should wear a jacket or vest with fluorescent orange or lime yellow reflective material. It can allow others to see that someone is at work even from far away. 5. Use Caution for Heavy Machinery When using heavy machinery, more steps should be taken to ensure the safety of the operator and everyone else on the site. Below are some precautions for operators to follow: Apply brakes when vehicles are not in use.Wear a seatbelt at all times.When the machine is parked on an inclined path, put a block around the tires.Check the mirror at all times.Use a spotter when unloading and loading equipment. 6. Stay Hydrated When workers perform construction during the day they are more exposed to heat. This is why they are more susceptible to heat-related illnesses. Therefore, they also get dehydrated quickly compared to others. Workers should drink plenty of water and fluids like sports drinks and coconut water. On extremely hot days, work should be stopped to avoid health problems like heatstroke and heat exhaustion. 7. Hire a Safety Manager Lastly, you need someone who is competent in handling and monitoring safety requirements. A safety manager should be able to identify existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings. They can then identify the hazardous or unsanitary working conditions for the employees. Additionals: Commercial and Residential Construction: Key DifferencesCrucial Reasons To Choose Prefabricated Construction MethodsSurprise Costs to Consider When Starting a Construction CompanyCommercial Construction After COVID-19: How Developers Can Adapt

Support As A Service For Your Company: Full Guidance And Useful Tips