Call center outsourcing has become an integral part of business operations taking place these days. Every business owner wants to convey to his customers that he cares about them and hence, tries to reach out to them in any way possible: be it text support or voice support. In the past, voice support was the preferred mode of communication between customers and businesses, however, with evolution of chat and email support tools, the preferences have changed.
Merits and Demerits of Voice Support
As mentioned before, voice support has long served as the pillar on which customer support services have stood. It provides a more personal way to interact with customers. If voice support services are imparted with due diligence, they are known to have a positive impact on customers’ psyche. Voice support is directly related with higher customer satisfaction levels and repeat sales.
Off late, we have seen an increase in the number of customers calling for support via phone. This has increased the number of contacts per day considerably. Most companies that run in-house call centers are finding it hard to meet the increased demand. The result: long wait in queue and increase in customer dissatisfaction. To counter this demerit, many companies are resorting to call center outsourcing services.
Merits and Demerits of Text Support
Compared to voice support, text-based support systems like email and chat supports are more recent phenomenon. The integration of chat window on a company’s website has worked wonders for many enterprises. Customers are now able to express themselves in a lot better way e.g. by sending screenshots, links and other attachments. Another mode of text support i.e. email support has also carved a niche for itself in many important processes. It is seen that most call center outsourcing companies prefer using it for the purpose of providing RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization). Through emails, it is possible to send technical information a lot easily and clearly than any other voice-based method.
The biggest demerit of text based support systems is that customers find it hard to gauge the sincerity of individual interacting with them. (On calls, it is still possible to get an idea of how agents are responding to you through tone and their speech.) Also, certain customers find text support systems completely useless (due to personal reasons) and may take some time to become accustomed to them.
The Verdict
Given the current state of affairs in the business world, both text and voice support systems have equal importance. It would be foolish to depend on one support medium and ignore the other. Hence, companies should always understand their requirements thoroughly and only then decide which support system to employ.
A Word of Advice
Whether you outsource email support, chat support or voice support, you should always employ a vendor who has decent experience in the call center industry. Never outsource before analyzing the track record of a company and its previous client list. When you hand over your operation to a trustworthy call center company, you are able to relax and focus more clearly on your core processes (instead of worrying about your outsourcing venture).