5 Ways Outsourced Customer Service Is a Growth Strategy

Imagine you're the CEO of a company that's hitting a period of high growth, and you realize you must increase headcount to accommodate the additional business.

Would you a) hire additional staff, committing to salaries and benefits, while focusing more of your time on noncore, operational issues, or would you b) outsource noncore, nonessential functions such as customer support, payroll, human resources, etc., to focus primarily on core activities that spurred the growth in the first place?

The obvious answer is b. CEOs around the world have realized that outsourcing is a resource catalyst to company growth, allowing them to not only pay less for noncore services, but also ensuring that they stay focused on innovating and marketing their products and services instead of being bogged down in administrative responsibilities.

Outsourcing can spur growth for the following five reasons:

1) It allows you to hire experts—for less. Imagine hiring someone to run your HR department. You'll need to buy software, find office space, and hire someone who's proficient and current in employment laws in many states, especially critical if you have remote employees. So, tell me your thoughts on the employer credits under prevailing wage law SB 776. Not familiar? Neither is anyone else who doesn't make HR their primary reason for living. I'm glad to know there are people who can ensure that companies are not at risk of being sued in a far-off state for a law they didn't even know existed.

2) It keeps your turnover to a minimum. In the support business, there's an industry-wide problem that follows this pattern—hire, train, ramp up, replace, repeat. Unfortunately, most customer service representatives aren't very good at their jobs for the first few months, and customer satisfaction scores generally suffer as a result. It's a tough job.

Outsourcers locate their operations in areas where jobs are limited. Many of those employed by outsourcers not only don't mind level-one support work, they often view it as a career path. As a result, a company's internal support people are now free to focus on level-two or three problems, gain more satisfaction from their jobs, and reduce turnover, all allowing for enhanced growth.

3) Ready to sign a two-year lease for that proof-of-concept (POC) project you're considering? This single item has kept more companies from expanding than any other I can think of. A typical scenario—a company has what appears to be a great idea that could lead to double-digit growth over the next three years, but the new product/service will need to be supported, and there's risk involved. There's a lease to be signed, as well as new computers, phones, fiber, switches, new hires, etc., to be considered. At the same time, in the back of every CEO's mind is this—what if, after just a few months, something that hadn't been considered rears its ugly head and the POC becomes a no-go? There would be employees to lay off, infrastructure to be sold for pennies on the dollar, and a lease that 

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