The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted businesses all over the world. Despite the problems with supply chains, online stores saw an increase in sales. To meet the growing demand of people who were forced to stay indoors and order everything online, e-commerce companies started outsourcing a lot more than they did in the past. Ecommerce customer service outsourcing is quite common among ecommerce companies. Customer support is easy to outsource:
- You can find a large number of outsourcing partners
- Outsourcing companies are professional
- Outsourcing customer service provides you with instant results
If you are an ecommerce business owner and you are looking to outsource customer service to an overseas company. You must have a lot of questions:
“Why should you outsource your customer service in the first place? How to find a reputable company to partner with? What can you expect to see once you outsource?”
Let’s explore.
Why Should Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing Be On Your Mind?
Talking to customers will never get boring!
There’s a lot of reasons why you should consider outsourcing customer service. On the other hand, customer service outsourcing does have some downsides, but the potential is just too big to look over.
Improve the Quality of Your Service
Selling online is a tricky business. Some products might not be delivered on time, the others may get damaged during transportation. Some customers might not be pleased with their delivery or their product and they want to return it or replace it. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong.
Having professional customer service representatives in your team goes a long way. You need to address all the complaints, answer all the questions and have happy customers at the end of the day. Happy customers are the ones who return and buy again.
Ecommerce customer service outsourcing puts you one step closer to providing the service of the highest quality. All of a sudden, you have dozens of agents who are proficient in English, understand your business and are polite!
Stick with us and we will show you where to find an outsourcing partner that has all of this to offer!
Scale Easily
Not having to employ people at a physical location allowed ecommerce businesses to quickly change in size. With the customer service outsourced, you don’t have to worry about the entire department of people.
And also, it is the customer support you outsource! What does that mean? Well, you can easily manipulate the products you have on sale. If you plan on growing your ecommerce business, it is much easier to add new products when you already have the customer service in place.
Outsourcing teams usually have a multitude of experienced individuals they can transfer from one position to another. Let them know about your plans and they’ll ensure that enough people are providing the top-quality service.
Scaling Down is Also an Option
Let’s say you might need to pull some products out of stock and reduce the number of items you sell. Suddenly, you see that you no longer need a large team. With the customer service outsourcing partner, you can discuss the conditions with them and they can reduce the number of people working on your project.
Often customer service outsourcing companies have multiple clients at all times. They can easily transfer people where they are needed.
This type of flexibility is something you don’t get with an in-house customer service team.
Get Results With Little Investment
Finding an outsourcing partner to help you with customer service is an investment. You need to allocate a substantial amount of money to work with an overseas outsourcing company. However, you’d need even more to hire a customer service team within your business.
And customer support is where you can see results quickly. Even after a few weeks, you can receive reports on the customers served and you can expect an increase in sales.
Customer service is something your ecommerce business can’t go without. We’ve already talked about the benefits of outsourcing in more detail and explained what results you can expect when working with a professional customer service outsourcing company.
7 Ecommerce Customer Services To Outsource (+1 You’d Never Think Of)
Agents are always happy when they help customer.
Now that you know why you should outsource, here are some of the specific customer service tasks and segments that you can transfer to your overseas outsourcing partner. There are 7 of them + 1 we added that you might not have expected to see here.
- Finances Like Invoices and Billing: Outsourcing the handling of invoice and balance inquiries puts the burden off your back. Your outsourcing partner will handle invoices and make sure that the billing goes smoothly. This can include answering questions about invoices, payment terms, account balances, and resolving any billing discrepancies. Keep in mind that you need to have a payment system in place for your company to provide adequate customer service.
- Order Tracking and Fulfillment: Outsourcing order tracking and fulfillment services streamlines the process for your customers. They can easily track their orders, while your partner ensures everything goes smoothly. This service often includes inventory management, order processing, shipping coordination, and handling customer inquiries related to order status and delivery.
- Return Customers and Loyalty Programs: A large number of online stores feature loyalty programs. Having returned customers and rewarding them not only shows your appreciation but also helps you market your business. Customers will be willing to recommend your brand to others and praise the discounts and benefits they get! As for ecommerce customer service outsourcing, the team can handle tasks such as points tracking, rewards management, and customer engagement.
- Good Replacements: Product replacements can be challenging to manage, especially for online retailers. This is a complex process and it lasts a while. It is much better for your outsourcing partner to take care of replacements, process requests, approve them and finalize everything.
Doing great! You’re Halfway There:
- Account management: You can outsource the management of your business accounts online. This can include tasks such as updating product listings, optimizing product descriptions, managing inventory levels, and monitoring customer reviews.
- Billing support: Even if your billing process is automated, it’s essential to provide support to customers who may have questions or encounter issues during the payment process. Remember, not everyone is tech-savvy and knows their way around your online store, no matter how intuitive it is.
- Refunds and Returns: Handling refunds can be time-consuming and complex. Outsourcing refund assistance ensures that the process is efficiently managed. The staff from your service provider can handle refund requests, verify eligibility, process refunds, and provide necessary documentation, ensuring that customers are satisfied throughout the refund process.
Are You Ready For The Last One?
- Virtual assistants (VAs): Yes. A.I. is slowly taking over. Implementing virtual assistants can help your business grow .Check with your outsourcing partner if this is something they can take on.
How to Find Reputable Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing Partners?
Trusted ecommerce customer service outsourcing companies have offices in city centers.
Now, it is time to help you find the best overseas outsourcing company. If you’ve never outsourced parts of your business before and especially customer service, make sure that you take your time when choosing the company to work with.
Of course, if the customer service outsourcing company isn’t achieving the results and costs money, you may not be as open to finding another business and decide to build an in-house team. Although that may be a reasonable move, you shouldn’t give up easily on finding outsourcing agencies.
There are a large number of high-quality businesses that can help you outsource your customer service and do a fantastic job of improving your business and bring in more money.
What’s the safest way to find a reputable business to outsource your customer service to?
Research Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing Companies
If you’ve never outsourced your customer service, you need to start looking at potential partners and the easiest way to do this is through Google. Look for the outsourcing companies that specialize in customer service for ecommerce businesses as they already have everything they need to be the best.
While Google is a reliable tool to look for outsourcing companies, the companies that it shows on the top page aren’t necessarily the best companies to partner with. While they are certainly reliable, it just means that they are great at SEO.
Whether they are the best to outsource your customer service to, that’s for you to see. And the best way to do that is to schedule a call with them and see what they offer.
But before you get to that, another simple way is to reach out to other ecommerce businesses and online stores and ask them to recommend you partners they work with. While not everyone will be willing to share the details with you, most business owners are happy to help and this is a great way to get a recommendation from companies structured like yours.
Schedule a Call
To determine which company is the best fit for you and your customer service needs, you’ll need to talk to them. Most ecommerce outsourcing companies offer a free call to talk about services and see if you are a great fit. Sometimes, there could be several meetings organized.
Either way, it’s your job to prepare the questions and ask them everything you are interested in. Don’t hesitate to ask them who they work with and check with those companies how satisfied they are with the outsourcing client.
After contacting a few businesses, it is time to make the final decision.
Start Collaborating
Before you outsource your customer service for the ecommerce business, you need to be 100% sure that this is it. After that, there’s not much you can do but go for it. Make sure you sign the contract and have some basic documentation sorted out in case something goes wrong.
Keep in mind that customer service outsourcing businesses located in Asia, for example, may be subject to different laws and regulations and there are some risks that you can take. Although there is a large number of reputable companies, some may be looking to take advantage of the rich US ecommerce businesses.
Ideally, you want to find a European company. Businesses here are more responsible and it is much easier to sort out all the documentation that you know will be legit.
How Does Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing Work With Morph?
To save you some time, you can skip the research and book your call with Morph Networks! We are a company with years of experience in customer service for ecommerce businesses and we can provide you with top-notch customer service!
Our process takes just three steps!
Schedule a call with Morph
Fill out the form on our contact page and let us know what you need help with. We will schedule a call with you and talk about the options and possibilities.
Sign a Contract
We’ll need to sign a contract before we start providing customer service to your clients. Then, our team will go over all the details and regulations with you and ensure that we are on the same page. We’ll communicate all of the expectations clearly and send you the paperwork straight to your inbox.
Let’s Start Working
Leave everything else to us! Our experienced agents will start answering calls from your clients and start solving their problems! At this point, you’ve nothing to worry about but we’ll stay in touch and organize meetings to update you.
Now that you know everything about ecommerce customer service outsourcing and how beneficial it can be for your business, it is time to contact Morph and set up a meeting to tell us more about your online store and what you want to improve!
