Agile and scalable CX programs nurture passionate, empowered agents that go the extra mile to make customers happy.
You can test if your outsourcer is able to meet your expectations by requiring them to answer all 26 questions outlined here—and answer them to your complete satisfaction.
Section 1
Honesty is the best policy
Let’s get clear about who this is for. This Guide is for challenger brands… ambitious, young and hungry businesses who believe outsourced CX doesn’t need to suck.
Challengers like you are trying to carve out a new piece of a competitive market with a new approach. And once you get there, you’re planning to own it. And you need to get there first, fast, and do it better than anyone else.
Many challenger brands have discovered that customer experience (CX) is key to making this happen—and the need for consistently great CX became all the more pressing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, CX has become one of the key battlegrounds for businesses today. It’s as important—if not more important—than the actual service you provide. And to be brutally honest, delivering consistently great CX is hard. Really hard. It takes commitment. It takes adaptability. It takes technology. Most of all, it takes effort—day in and day out.
Customers have never been closer to businesses—the number of channels customers and businesses can interact within has exploded. This is a double-edged sword. First, you’ve got more avenues to sell into. But at the same time, you’ve got to meet customer expectations across every single channel, again and again.
We’ll guide you through the basics, and what you need to succeed, honestly. We’ll tell you what you should demand from any CX program, what you should steer clear of, and what that elusive, consistently great CX can deliver.
CX as a differentiator Honesty vs. Opportunity
Honesty for most
Focus on complaints
High-stress
Defensive attitude
Eternal on-hold
Transfer hell
Faceless response
Rigid scripts
Opportunity for the few
Turn the conversation
Empathy first
Solutions-driven
Anticipate needs
First call resolution
Personalized service
Empowered agents
Section 2
The CX challenges for challengers
Have you seen that popular chart comparing quick sales hikes to steady brand building? It looks something like this …
As a challenger brand, you face a unique set of obstacles. You’re likely encountering some success—and it feels good.
You’re ready for the next phase of your development. But development always equals growing pains. And that’s because you’re trying to figure out a bunch of new and different things as you go, while at the same time.
Growth is outpacing capacity
Priorities are constantly splintering, and CX is on the back burner
You lack regulatory and compliance expertise
It’s hard to cede control of functions to folks who aren’t part of your company
Your reputation is still embryonic—and vulnerable
You’re not prepared to scale up when business takes off
More often than not, companies like yours are started by brilliant industry experts—people who are skilled navigators in their field. However, these brilliant folks often have limited exposure to other aspects of running a business.
Suddenly you realize that you need to staff up and add a broader range of expertise to your wheelhouse. And if you’re honest with yourself, you likely don’t have the full gamut of expertise in managing customer experiences, training agents, and maintaining the highest standards.
There are just too many unknown unknowns. But one thing you know for sure is that most outsourced CX doesn’t work anywhere near as well as it should.
Your biggest worry, as it should be, is that your growing group of hard-won clients won’t get the service and attention they deserve. And you’re worried that if you don’t get it right, this phase of development could be your last.
The good news is we can tell you everything you don’t know. Honestly. Everything.
Section 3
TBH, not all CX is made equal
Truth be told, outsourcing doesn’t have to suck. In fact, outsourcing can be great. Would we lie to you?
Think about the possibilities:
What happens when customers reach agents quickly, through the channel that works best for them?
What happens when AI and ML are used to fill the gaps in overly manual processes—so they augment the customer and agent experience, rather than dominate it?
What happens when those indifferent, disengaged and script-bashing staff with no autonomy are replaced by industry-savvy, customer-obsessed and authoritative service agents?
It turns out that when you combine all this, strange, new, and abnormal outsourcing-y things start to happen:
The burden’s alleviated from your internal resources—so you can focus on your service or product.
Staff turnover moves from “revolving door” to “settled and secure”.
You breed industry expertise and smarter, more creative problem solving.
Key CX metrics like Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction start trending upwards.
Customers gladly recommend you to prospects.
This isn’t CX as a box-ticking exercise. It’s a people-driven dynamo that redefines how your business operates internally and externally. We call it Relationship-based Outsourcing. In the section below are the key things you need to look out for.
Section 4
Transparency turns CX into a growth driver
Done well, exceptional business process outsourcing treads a balance between efficiency—a focus on greater productivity, streamlined operations, and lower costs…
…and effectiveness, where the goal is to add value through business insight, partnership-led innovation, industry expertise, and personalized support.
With an agile, flexible, responsive, and scalable CX service provider, one doesn’t trump the other. Efficiency and effectiveness reach an ideal balance. And responsiveness delivers better outcomes—not just more efficient transactions.
Agile and scalable CX programs nurture passionate, empowered agents that go the extra mile to make customers happy. They obsess over pre-assignment team-building and devise processes for onboarding, agent training, problem resolution, and process improvements that fit your business.
If your outsourcer can answer these questions and satisfy these expectations, you may well have found the right fit. This will be a partner that can help you hit your business goals while delivering better, more seamless experiences to customers across all channels.
Section 5
Time to differentiate, honestly
We wrote this guide for a reason. It’s not just that businesses like yours deserve the best shot at success. It’s also that your customers do, too.
We believe this passionately. It’s why we spend so much time with our clients thinking about how they can simultaneously better serve their customers and better establish a foundation for the wider business to adapt and scale.
In fact, Relationship-based Outsourcing has unlocked strategic growth, delivered awesome CX acceleration, and exceeded critical KPIs across a ton of businesses like yours. We’ve made a living by turning CX from a headache into a growth engine.
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