Digital customers wish to have all their queries answered online as they decide to purchase. E-commerce sectors should put focus on their customer support to gain consumer loyalty. Outsourcing eCommerce customer support brings excellence to online businesses.
It has many benefits, like a fast response time, handling a high volume of queries professionally, providing 24/7 support, constant reporting, and many more.
What is E-commerce Customer Service Outsourcing?
E-commerce customer support is the way online retailers provide assistance to their customers via different digital channels and mediums. The main intent of e-commerce businesses is to drive online traffic. Customers reach out to eCommerce customer support departments to ask about product pricing, features, payment details, shipment process, and many other queries. When online retailers assign a third party to handle customer queries, it is called "eCommerce customer support outsourcing."
Types of eCommerce customer support
When it comes to customer care outsourcing service, people still seek human interaction. Every customer has unique preferences for reaching out to their favored brand. E-commerce maintains many types of customer support to ease the communication methods of its customers.
Call Center Support
The eCommerce call center handles all phone calls from customers with questions. Any company can choose to have its call center handle inbound or outbound calls. Inbound call centers only interact with existing customers. Outbound call centers make cold calls in order to acquire new customers.
Live Chat Support
There is hardly any e-commerce website that does not offer live chat assistance. This real-time communication form is the best way to turn a visiting customer into a sale. Consider that you have to act quickly whenever a customer seeks attention. The market now has many automation tools to provide live chat support using artificial intelligence. Progressive businesses still prefer to have human agents to avoid automation errors.
Email Support
B2B businesses frequently communicate through emails. When it comes to the services offered, eCommerce has both B2B and B2C aspects. The advantage of using email as a customer support tool is that you do not have to answer them instantly. You can take a breath before preparing the appropriate response for your client. Privacy is another big factor. Most of the clients feel safe sharing their personal information through emails.
Social Media Support
More than half of the world now uses social media, which is about 4.70 billion people, according to Smart Insights (2022). Social media is the most powerful, multifunctional tool for e-commerce websites.
First, customers use social media updates to learn about the products, then they reach out to the business if they have any queries, and finally, they give positive or negative reviews. All these platforms come under the common roof of social media.
The Benefits of Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing
Outsourcing is a practical solution for eCommerce businesses to improve their service excellency in a cost-effective approach. That is what every business person targets to achieve—the maximum efficiency and value of the investment.
The High Volume of Customer Queries
In business, demand frequently shifts in unexpected ways. For example, some days your business may have only a few queries from customers. Another good day; you may have hundreds of queries every minute.
An in-house customer support team has limited capacity. When you outsource customer e-commerce service, the team will be able to handle a high volume of queries.
Omni Channel Customer Support
Omni-channel support means providing customer support across different entities and touchpoints. Through this process, eCommerce customers can reach out to a business through whatever channel they prefer. They can switch to different channels if they wish.
An omnichannel customer care service combines all the data from several channels. Even if you assign various agents to handle customer assistance, they will be able to access the database promptly and maintain a consistent voice of service.
Round-the-clock Customer Support
90% of customers claim that they feel more appreciated and are more likely to purchase a product when they get an instant reply from a business. A round-the-clock customer support service eliminates time constraints. Customers do not have to wait long to get the service they need. Outsourcing is the best option for e-commerce businesses that target 24-hour customer service.
Highly Skilled Workforce
Customer service skills differ from those required in all other departments. They should be able to communicate promptly and have problem-solving skills, adaptability, and a positive attitude. Outsourced customer service agents go through particular training to master all the expertise that it takes to address the customers. As a result, they serve as valuable assets to eCommerce businesses.
Stay Ahead with The Latest Technology
Only employing skilled professionals is not enough to ensure a top-notch customer experience. CRM, voice-of-the-customer (VoC) solutions, customer engagement hubs (CEH), live chat, and other cutting-edge technologies are required in the new age of CX. Some of these technologies are not budget-friendly.
However, you do not have to worry about technical solutions when you outsource eCommerce customer support. You will get access to the latest technology tools provided by your outsourcing partner.
Customer Service Quality Assurance (QA)
eCommerce customer support services intend to make customers happy while also upholding the business's reputation. Quality assurance supports customer service agents to improve their product knowledge and makes them qualified to provide knowledge-guided customer service.
Outsourcing firms employ QAs to follow through on the service of customer service executives. You will be able to find loopholes in underperforming customer service by outsourcing.
Regular Reporting
Since a large part of your business success depends on how well your customers are served, you constantly need to monitor the performance of your customer service agents. Getting regular reports is another perk of assigning a third party to handle your customer service. You will get insights into whether or not the team is providing the expected level of customer experience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What Happens to The Quality of Service if I Outsource?
Outsourcing enhances the quality of your customer service. Since they are completely focused on satisfying the customer experience, the quality is never compromised.
How Much Does it Cost to Outsource Customer service?
The cost depends on some measures like the number of agents, hours, expectations, etc. In the United States, a typical customer service representative may charge between $10 and $25 per hour. It will cost you less if you consider offshoring.
Is Outsourcing Customer Service Good for E-commerce?
We have already discussed the benefits of outsourcing eCommerce customer support. Yes! Outsourcing definitely adds value to your customer service without aggressively cutting your budget.
Does Amazon Outsource Their customer service?
Amazon itself does not outsource its customer service. However, Amazon fulfillment sellers have been seen frequently outsourcing their customer service and other business processes.