What’s Offshore Outsourcing and why it’s great.

Ring, ring. Who’s that? It’s Offshore Outsourcing. What now? The future of your business. Let us explain. 

Customer service drowning you in a sea of inquiries? Feeling overwhelmed by support tickets? Don't fret - offshore outsourcing might just be your personal life raft. But before you set sail on this cost-saving adventure, dive deep into this post to understand what offshore outsourcing is and how it can buoy your business.

What is Offshore Outsourcing exactly?

It's not exactly shipping your worries overseas although it does come pretty dang close. Simply put, offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring a third-party company, usually specializing in business process outsourcing (BPO) to take care of your customer service operation. In this specific case in a country that’s relatively remote from your base of operations. 

This could be anything from customer support and technical helpdesk to data entry and even software development. The idea is to leverage the cost savings and talent pool available in different parts of the world.

So it’s better than other types of outsourcing?

Yes, and no. As with many things in life things aren’t that black and white. On the one hand things like nearshoring - like offshore outsourcing but closer - mean that your operations are at arms length and can be overseen more directly. But on the other hand, direct oversight isn’t always the best practice and it might be really, and we mean really costly.

The same goes for onshoring which is nearshoring but inside your country of operations. The location you outsource to here is a maybe more provincial area that has lower costs. While the costs are lower they can always get better, and that’s where offshoring comes in.

What are its benefits then?

You now know what offshore outsourcing is and that it’s pretty amazing, but what you don’t know is how amazing it actually is. Let’s get into all the good things that offshore outsourcing can provide your business, and maybe answer some questions or alleviate some doubts you might have.

Unmatched flexibility and scalability. 

First and foremost, your business in general gets a boost. Think offshore outsourcing to countries with large populations and a large highly-educated talent pool. Places like this allow you to reach amazing talent quite quickly. That’ll come in handy when wanting to expand your operation to accommodate, let’s say, a higher volume of calls or just a steady stream of new customers. 

“Oh, but hiring a bunch of highly skilled people all at once will cost too much.” we hear you grumble. With on or nearshoring it shore would. Since we’re offshoring to competitive markets that means that we might not need to spend as much on talent acquisition as we usually would. So, while your worries are understandable they don’t really apply to offshore outsourcing. A true win-win situation if you ask us.

Better coverage in both time and location.

So, what does a higher number of CSRs give you apart from being able to answer more calls? You don’t have to have all agents working at the same time. Having multiple smaller operations spread out across the globe ensures you can give your customers non-stop support. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays. While you can do this with a single operation, having more locations means that your agents are working at optimal times and suffer much less fatigue.

But why stop there? As the saying goes it’s important to be in the right place as well as the right time. So with time covered let’s talk location, location, location. Most of us probably know how to speak two or three languages, right? In spite of that we still feel most comfortable speaking in our native language. Having a global presence ensures that you have most if not all major languages covered. While it might seem like a minor thing to you, your customers are definitely going to notice the difference. 

Customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

And it’s that difference that makes for happy customers, and that is the end goal - right? A more efficient service through offshore outsourcing leads to increased CSAT and increased CSAT means customers that stay with you for years to come.

In any industry, new customers are good, but returning customers are great. Not just because they themselves are what puts bread on the table but also because they are walking adverts for your business. We have all been guilty of gushing about a business that thrilled us at one point or another. 

Lower costs and increased profit.

Happy customers stay. Happy customers tend to spend more. Happy customers recommend you to others. Others become new happy customers. Great service creates a positive feedback loop that sees your profitability rise from month to month, from quarter to quarter. And while that’s amazing by itself, it isn’t all.

Remember how we talked about hiring in more competitive markets? That means that the costs of your operation decrease with offshore outsourcing, which, of course, means that profits rise yet again. It isn’t all just due to a more cost-effective workforce, it’s also due to the fact that experienced partners like Transcom simply know what we’re doing. 

You can have the lowest price per FTE while still not being able to turn a profit. That’s where the experience and expertise of a BPO come in. Years of experience in the field mean that we know which corners to cut, and which must be left alone at all costs - leading to the leanest, most efficient service you can imagine.

High-level security and safety. 

“Oh, this all sounds fine and well, but aren’t offshore markets less secure?” we hear you grumble once again, and grumble you should. Security, trust, and safety are paramount in our industry. Whether you’re an online retailer that handles sensitive personal information, a finance business handling people’s livelihoods, or a travel company where less than top-notch security can be the difference between a dream holiday and a vacation from hell, we’ve got you covered. 

We make sure that all of our offshore outsourcing operations are adherent to the highest and most rigorous security standards, and that all data is handled with the utmost care it deserves. This means that your offshore operations with Transcom can enjoy the same level of protection and safety as if they were next door