Outsourcing Tech Support: Identifying What Works

Even with the rapid advancement of technology, companies of all sizes are facing increasing financial strain on budgets. One of the easiest ways for companies to save money is to outsource specific business operations to an outside management or support service provider. Thus, outsourcing technical support to an outside provider is something that every business should consider. It will not matter if your business is a fresh startup or a well-established organization because there are good reasons for outsourcing for any business.

The first benefit that will come to mind for those seeking for cost reduction is, of course, how to save money without sacrificing the company’s bottom line. Let’s set aside for a moment the cost of maintaining telephonic systems and paying for VOIP services, outsourcing your technical support to a professional third-party specialist transfers the cost burden associated with hiring and training tech support specialists, setting up resources, and maintaining systems to the outside specialist.

Outsourcing your technical support reduces the cost for additional employees your business faces, while also providing the peace of mind that knowledgeable, highly-trained professionals will assist your business when issues arise.

Next comes flexibility. As your business grows, you need your systems and infrastructure to keep pace so that customers don’t pay the price for problems that arise in service or coverage. If you keep your technical support service in-house, there are two potential problems involved when it comes to scalability.

If your business experiences rapid growth, you might struggle to find quality team members to work in your technical support group and clients will suffer through longer waits. On the flip side, if your company has too many technical support specialists, you are burning money on employees sitting around waiting to tackle problems that won’t immediately pop up.

By outsourcing your technical support to an outside vendor, you have transferred the responsibility for scaling up or down to them. You are paying them to add qualified staff during expansion or scale down services when contraction occurs. It is their responsibility to absorb those shocks and adjust on the fly.

And then, there is the concept of the company’s focus. Every company has a limited budget and limited resources, and those resources need to be able to tackle all of your business’s needs appropriately. Outsourcing your technical support services to a third-party professional tech support company can free up resources, funds, people, and infrastructure for use on core business processes.

Without the burden of staffing, funding, and maintaining a technical support group, your company can focus its efforts on perfecting its core business processes to ensure clients are receiving the best possible services and products directly from your company.

IT Support: An Opportunity for Businesses to Promote Growth for their Clients

IT support is important for any business, particularly in terms of improving customer service and promoting growth for clients. If you want to keep customers happy and grow your business, here are a few reasons that discuss the importance of outsourcing to a professional IT company:

It helps maintain first-call resolution strategy

Although it’s just human nature to seek for help, this is a simple reminder for companies to always provide good customer service, whether through phone, e-mail, chat, or service center support. Support can be a selling point of the company. Sadly, not all companies focus on providing excellent after-sales service. Exemplary customer or technical service is a tough competition. One negative feedback can destroy the whole company. This is the reason why it is also important for a customer to know what kind of support the company offers before purchasing the product. Since not all companies can maintain a large IT department to maintain first-call resolutions, businesses can outsource their tech support to third-party vendors.

It helps increase sales

A company can increase its sales if they have an exceptional technical support team. This is why some companies even get help by outsourcing professional tech support companies. A good technical support is when a company provides user-friendly assistance to its consumers. The technical support team is composed of individuals who are experts of the products that can assist customers accordingly.

With every technology-related item introduced to a company for the purpose of increasing work output, the more a company should instill a world-class after-sales service. Every company MUST have a great team of support representatives even if this small group is further supported by outsourced services from a third-party vendor. Thus, companies can opt for tech support outsourcing with a reputable Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. These outsourcing companies can offer businesses technical support depending on their specific needs.

Below are usually the main factors to consider before outsourcing your IT services:

§  Know the different technical support services that an outsourcing company can provide to your customers.

§  Know the flowchart procedure of the outsourcing or BPO company in terms of recruiting, hiring, training, and managing because most outsourcing tech support companies will only hire professional or licensed tech support personnel.

§  Know the overall culture of the BPO company if it aligns with the company’s beliefs and values.

Never underestimate the power of outsourcing

There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing your IT support to third-party company because not all businesses can afford or have the budget to hire and maintain a separate IT team even if dedicate to customer support. The resources and infrastructure alone will be enormously costly, not to mention the fact of hiring and paying additional employees.

In the end, having a brilliant IT team, even if outsourced, is definitely a good business practice for any small or medium-sized business.