Outsourcing can be both the boon and bane of a company, especially when outsourcing tech support. Companies that can’t afford to provide in-house technical and customer support choose to outsource their contact centers to an offshore location or company.
Outsourcing tech support is not just about cost savings, it’s also about practicality. Outsourcing allows companies to provide support 24/7/365 without breaking the bank and without overworking their core teams to the ground. Also, expanding and outsourcing tech support lessens high call volumes, decreasing the wait the customer has to endure to get to a live agent. This solution is typically cost effective and practical, though its practicality can bring a slew of problems if the technical support agents aren’t effective in communication and problem solving.
The challenge for companies outsourcing tech support is to find a domestic or offshore provider that offers high quality manpower plus reliable resources and infrastructure. There are several countries that specialize in offering outsourced services, particularly business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). Popular offshore outsourcing destinations include developing countries like India and the Philippines, along with other countries like China, Ireland, and Russia, among others.
Choosing where to outsource skilled manpower from can be challenging as one particular outsourcing destination can be perfect for one company, but not for another. Different countries have their own strengths and weaknesses. India has friendly government policies for IT exports, strong infrastructure for telecommunications, and several thousand IT graduates in a year. The Philippines also offers a lot of English proficient graduates a year, in addition to a long and successful history in customer service and an affinity to Western cultures.
Also, a company can choose to outsource just one technical support team (from basic tech support to higher levels) or the whole department; outsourcing tech support services can be as big or as small as a company chooses.
Outsourcing tech support can also help companies in providing different levels of support that promotes better service. There are several levels of tech support, the initial tier of which is responsible for handling basic customer support, including collecting customer information, providing basic troubleshooting, and handling customer requests and questions. The first tier in technical support handles most of the calls, escalating customers with issues that require higher levels of support or service.
The second level of support is staffed with highly trained personnel to support the first tier agents with issues that require more in-depth knowledge. For issues that need further support, second tier agents will need to forward the issue to a third or fourth tiers. Aside from providing support to first and second tier agents, higher level tech support are responsible for coming up with new troubleshooting methods and tracking recurring problems in the product.
At any rate, outsourcing tech support can be the practical solution for companies that deal with software, consumer electronics, mobile phones, and other consumer products to provide a suitable amount of support for their customers. Good tech support and customer service keep consumers, the lifeblood of a company, happy.