Factors and Management Considerations

 

For the past 15 years, businesses have integrated an outsourcing strategy into their development plans. Outsourcing has proven to be an effective process for reducing business costs without compromising quality and increasing revenue.

 

It has become the go-to strategy of start-ups and businesses during time of uncertainty and unpredictability because virtual staffing allows their modeling to become more flexible and cost effective.

 

Businesses that want to hire virtual staff usually start out with non-essential tasks such as administrative work, back office support and more specialized tasks such as sales support, customer support and telemarketing.

 

Then there are those that outsource technical services which don’t require large manpower. These technical services include transcription, translation, graphics design, web updates and content marketing.

 

If you want to maximize the full power of a virtual staff, you should take an analytical approach to managing your staff and payroll. Silicon Staffing is complementary creating a seamless hiring and OnBoarding process which leads to a seamless transition and monitoring of your virtual staff creating a productive work flow. Greater efficiency which maximizes return while reducing cost.

 

 

Identify the departments and related tasks that you want to outsource

 

Customer Support:

E-mail

Chat Services

Inbound Calls

Social Media

 

 

Back Office Operations:

 

Accounting

Information Technology

Human Resources

 

Outbound Calling Services:

 

After- Sales Services

Telemarketing

 

Digital Marketing:

 

Social Media Marketing

Lead Generation Services

Content Process Marketing

E-mail Marketing

SEO

 

These services can be categorized between “Push” and “Pull” services. Push services are those that reach out to customers. The agents are working to move leads down the sales funnel by using e-mail marketing and telemarketing strategies. Agents can also reach out to new and current customers and find out how the experience was, if there are pressing concerns, update them on the status of their accounts and to solicit input on how to make service better.

 

The outsourcer can do this by conducting after sales or customer surveys. These strategies are a proactive way to stay involved with the market. You are showing the customer that you will not forget them even after the sales transaction has been completed. It is an effective way of building long- term customer relationships.

 

Pull services are intended to bring prospective customers toward your business. You want to give them reasons to patronize your business over others. Pull services combine online marketing strategies with sound customer support practices.

Here is an effective way of categorizing the services

 

Pull Services:

Digital Marketing

Customer Support

 

Push Services:

 

Outbound Calling Services

 

 

Back Office Support plays a crucial role for both services. In Pull services, back Office particularly accounting, can provide updates on account balances, discounts and term payments.

 

The number one reason people contact customer support is to update their account status. The problem with some outsourcing set ups is that customer support has no immediate access to accounting. Sometimes, departments are in separate locations such as customer support in the Philippines and accounting in India.

 

Thus logistical issues can affect the rate by which issues and concerns are resolved. It makes perfect sense that customer service must have a lateral connection with back office support.

 

In Push services, back office support can give outbound calling services an update on the status of an issue. Instead of waiting for the customer to follow up, the outbound agent can reach out and give the customer the latest news on his or her account.

 

One of the most common complaints by customers is they have to keep following up on the status of their concern. They end up talking to another agent who puts them through the entire process: identification, summary of the problem plus the usual clichés. This type of system makes for a frustrating experience for the customer.

 

By creating synergy between customer service, back office support and outbound calling, you can reduce the turnaround time and enhance the experience for the customer.

 

 

To support your synergistic outsourcing services framework, you must have the proper infrastructure. It is absolutely important that you are accessible by at least 5 avenues of communication:

 

Inbound Line

E-mail

Chat Services

Regular Mail

Fax

 

Then you should set up the ideal technological profile. Customers do not like waiting on queues nor will they appreciate being put on hold. You should invest in a good and reliable PBX call distribution system to ensure calls are properly routed to the next available agent. It should have the following features:

 

Automatic Attendant and Dialing

Automatic Call Distributor

Automatic Call Ring Back

Call Park and Transfer

Call Waiting

Caller ID

Report Generation

 

For outbound calling, you should have a programmable predictive dialer which will make dialing more efficient. It should have the following features:

 

Automatic Call Recording

Caller ID

Reports Generation

Call Forwarding