How to Outsource Customer Support

Outsourcing can be a tempting solution for scaling customer support, but it may not always be the best fit for your company (or not the best fit right now). 

Here are three key questions to help you determine if outsourcing is the right move for your customer service team. 

Do you have enough ticket volume to justify a full-time agent? 

If your customer support volume is low, say a few inquiries per day, outsourcing might not be practical at this stage. Someone in-house is probably able to handle those requests. We often recommend a founder or CEO handle requests when volume is this low, as it’s a great opportunity to interact with and learn from customers. 

Outsourcing may also not be cost-effective with low volume.  

Most outsourcing firms have a minimum requirement, and typically, it’s at least one full-time agent. A dedicated agent  can handle from 15 to over 100 tickets per day (depending on the complexity of your support requests), so if your volume is below that, outsourcing may be a waste of money. 

Some outsourcing firms charge per ticket, which could be an option for you. However, this means that your outsourced team will be supporting multiple brands and switching between clients. While cheaper, this can hurt your response times and your overall support quality.

Do you have a good foundation in place? 

Outsourcing is great when you already have standard operating procedures (SOPs) set up and ready to be delegated. Otherwise, it may be too early for some BPO providers – many outsourcers don’t even offer the option of building a customer service team from scratch. 

At Peak Support, we can assist with choosing and implementing a ticketing system, building macros, and establishing other processes. However, this makes sense only when your workflow is fairly standard—for example, in e-commerce, where operations are often repeatable across companies. 

If you sell enterprise software or work in a highly regulated industry, it’s best to develop your core processes and infrastructure in-house so it’s a great fit for your internal needs. Once you have established your common support workflows, you can consider outsourcing certain ticket types, such as basic Tier 1 requests. 

Is customer support your core business?  

The last critical piece to successful outsourcing is not to outsource your “core” business. For example, a telehealth company providing remote, video-call mental health and wellness counseling probably shouldn’t outsource its agents, because those agents are the core of the business. In the same way, companies selling virtual assistant services should probably keep agents in-house. 

In both cases, the customer support team isn’t merely supporting the product – it is the product. If that’s your situation, outsourcing other business functions, such as sales, trust and safety, or accounting can still help accelerate business growth. 

Before talking to potential BPO partners, consider what type of outsourcer you need. 

International vs. domestic 

Building an international customer service team is typically more cost-efficient than hiring domestically. Most companies see at least a 10% of cost reduction when outsourcing overseas. Additionally, tapping into overseas markets can provide access to a larger talent pool. 

For example, the Philippines is brimming with millions of customer service professionals. Peak Support’s Philippines-based agents have excellent English skills, college degrees, and an average of 7+ years of support experience serving major multinational brands. Many have also held leadership roles at large outsourcing firms. 

Domestic outsourcing is more expensive, but sometimes it’s necessary. If you’re in a highly-regulated industry, it may be required. Depending on the product or service you sell, your customers may feel better knowing that your entire operation is based in the same country.  

A blended team of domestic and international agents can offer the best of both worlds. Your international team can handle Tier 1 tickets, while domestic agents take on more complex issues and phone calls. 

Dedicated vs. shared teams 

Ideally, you’d want to hire full-time agents who work only for you. Dedicated agents are fully immersed in your company’s processes and better prepared to resolve questions with nuanced answers (rather than boilerplate responses).  

Some outsourcers, however, offer shared teams that work across multiple accounts. This is often a suitable solution when you have a lower volume of tickets or can’t afford to commit to full-time agents yet. 

If you’re working with shared agents, they can focus on easier tickets – such as FAQ responses and password resets – while escalating difficult issues to a dedicated team to minimize the risk of incorrect answers sent to customers. With that said, today’s generative AI platforms means simple FAQ-type questions can often be handled by a bot without requiring a human agent – which brings us to the next point. 

Outsourced agents vs. fully managed operations 

Running a support team involves more than just hiring, onboarding, and managing agents. 

As you’re exploring vendors, consider if each BPO provider offers:  

• Leadership such as Team Leads, Operations Managers, and Operations Directors 

• Trainers (dedicated or shared, depending on team size) 

• Training services such as curriculum development 

• Quality Assurance Analysts and Managers 

• Reporting & analytics, including productivity reports, real-time dashboards, voice of the customer analytics, customer satisfaction deep dives, and more 

• Workforce Management  

• Tech & AI services to help you implement and optimize new tech 

Leveraging their experience and expertise, BPO providers offering a complete solution can take care of your entire support organization. This is hugely beneficial if you want to offer quality support experience without dedicating significant internal resources to managing it.

Some BPO providers only offer outsourced agents without full operations management — leaving that work on your plate. They may seem cheaper, but you’ll want to think about all the work that you’ll have to do internally – and factor that into the cost.  

Multi-language support 

While many outsourcers primarily offer English-language support, some provide additional language options. 

• For example, nearshore options in Mexico or Colombia often supply both English and Spanish support. 

• In the Philippines, many agents are bilingual, fluently speaking English and some other popular languages, such as Spanish and French. 

• Similarly, Eastern Europe is a great region to consider for other European languages, as many customer service workers in this region are fluent in multiple languages – including English, German, French, and Italian. 

However, with the development of AI tools, AI-powered translations are often as good as, or even better than, those provided by non-native speakers. Platforms like Intercom, Help Scout, and Zendesk now come with built-in translation services (if you’re on the right product tier). If you’re only providing email support, solutions like this may be sufficient to enable your English-speaking agents to translate inquiries and respond in each customer’s preferred language. 

To find the perfect outsourcing partner, start by building a list of questions that cover everything from culture, to technology, to scaling capacity, to training methods.  

Here are ten key questions to include: 

1. What support channels and coverage options do you offer? Do they offer day, night, weekend, and 24/7 support? As you grow, robust around-the-clock support may become necessary. 

1. How do you manage remote teams and handle performance issues? How do they ensure productivity and uptime? While you don’t need to be involved in day-to-day operations, your outsourcing partner should meet your performance standards and work collaboratively to address any issues. 

1. Are the agents and team leads dedicated to my team or shared with other clients? At Peak Support, all our agents and team leads are fully dedicated to one client to ensure optimal quality. Consider whether this is the case with other providers. 

1. What is your average team size? Do they have teams similar in size to yours? Some outsourcers specialize in large teams, while others manage smaller groups with just a few agents each. At Peak Support, our minimum team size is 1 full-time employee, but we specialize in building teams ranging from 5-50 agents. Our largest client includes over 500 agents across twenty-five lines of business. 

1. Do they have a minimum monthly commitment? Some BPOs may require you to hire 25 agents or more, at minimum. Others, like Peak Support, set a more manageable baseline because they’re targeting smaller companies and brands. 

1. Will I have the flexibility to scale up or down? Contracts with rigid terms can be challenging for a growing company. You need a BPO that can quickly adjust to your needs, scaling the team up and down as you need. Consider how much notice they require and any fees you may need to pay upfront if you need to reduce team size.  

1. What tech platforms do you work with, and how do they keep your data secure? At Peak Support, we typically use our clients’ existing systems, though we can bring a tech stack as well. This means we have experience working with almost every CX platform out there. Some other outsourcers require you to use their proprietary technology platforms, making it harder to switch providers.  

1. How will you keep my data secure? Whether they use your existing tools or pull data into their systems, ensure that your provider follows data privacy regulations like GDPR and has robust data security measures in place. Ask for certifications like PCI, HIPAA, and SOC 2.  

1. Do you offer agents only, or do you provide a fully managed operation? Consider if the BPO provider can provide you with support services like training, QA, workforce management, and reporting. 

1. What level of support will I receive? Who is your main point of contact? How often can you communicate with them? What will happen if you have issues or the team isn’t performing as you expect?

While these practical questions can help you choose the right partner, you should also pay attention to the BPO’s company culture and core values. They should align with your company culture to ensure seamless integration and avoid friction between BPO agents, your in-house team, and customers. A strong and healthy company culture means lower turnover among agents, leading to a more consistent experience for you and your customers.  

Another thing you may want to consider is whether your potential BPO partner offers back-office services like data entry, billing support, and content review. This can be helpful if your ticket volume fluctuates, as it allows agents to assist with tasks outside the support queue when the volume is low. Here’s a short example highlighting how this played out at healthtech startup Wally Health.  

Request for Proposals (RFP) 

In some cases, it makes sense to create a Request for Proposals (RFP) with the questions that you want each potential BPO partner to answer. It helps objectively compare their offers and can even get you a lower price as vendors compete for your business. 

An RFP should include information about your company profile, ticket types, ticket volume, channels, tech stack, hours of operation, contract terms and conditions, and criteria you use to make the decision. 

Building an RFP from scratch can be time-consuming, so feel free to take advantage of this full guide and template for Crafting an RFP to Outsource Customer Support. 

Signing a contract might be the end of the sales process, but it’s only the start of your BPO partnership. Here are the key steps to ensure a smooth integration and long-term success of your partnership: 

1. Appoint a vendor manager to oversee your relationship with the BPO. This person should be aligned with senior management’s priorities to avoid sending conflicting messages from different levels of your organization to the BPO partner. In smaller companies, this is often a customer support manager. 

1. Create a comprehensive contract, including target KPIs and SLAs. It’s important to clearly communicate the quality standards you expect and the benchmarks you’ll use to measure the progress of your partnership. 

1. Align technology and configure tools. Just like with remote in-house workers, ensure that your BPO team has access to the necessary technology for remote meetings, communication, and data sharing. This might include Slack, Trello, Zoom, Google apps, and other tools to facilitate seamless collaboration. 

1. Provide training on your processes. Training is usually faster if you have existing training materials. If not, your BPO partner may help you create them, but you’ll still need to verify the accuracy of the information before the training begins. Typically, you only need to train a BPO representative once, and then they’ll handle the onboarding of other agents going forward. 

1. Set up recurring meetings to address ongoing issues quickly. Clear communication lines prevent delays and misalignment, allowing for swift action when concerns come up. Regular meetings also help your outsourced team better understand and become passionate about your product, mission, and culture, all of which improve the quality of the support they can provide.