WOW customer support, Author at WOW Customer Support

10 Valid Reasons to Outsource Inbound Call Center Services

January 15, 2021September 14, 2022

Call center outsourcing has gained popularity in recent times as more companies leverage BPOs. This is because handling various customer communication channels such as calls, emails, webchats, and text messages–in-house is an expensive proposition. It requires investment in facilities, equipment, technology, time and energy for staff training and ongoing operations. Therefore, many Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies outsource inbound call center services to ensure they stay focused on core competencies.

Generally, inbound call center services are availed by organizations to manage incoming calls from customers/clients. Trained inbound call center agents handle these calls, who are experts in providing such information and resolving queries. Also, an inbound call center offers workspaces for call center executives to handle calls. Usually, an agent is given a computer and a headset connected to a telecom switch to attend customer calls.

Why outsource inbound call center services?

Customer support services have become one of the most critical components of any business strategy for organizations worldwide. Hence, inbound call center outsourcing has multiple benefits apart from cost reductions. Also, India provides one of the best inbound call center services across the world. Not convinced? Then here are a few reasons why you should consider outsourcing inbound call center services.

24×7 service for your customers

If you run a business that caters to customers across the globe, a good idea is to outsource your inbound call center services. For companies in Europe and North America, outsourcing customer support services to India is very favorable. With almost a 10-12 hour difference in their time zones, they will be able to provide services round the clock, making your business operate 24×7.

Offers flexibility and scalability

Due to seasonal surges, most businesses tend to have an unpredictable workload. Sometimes, you end up with idle agents due to low business volumes or end with inadequate staff due to excessive workload. Therefore, to avoid such issues, you can always to outsource inbound call center services. Moreover, inbound call center companies are already equipped to handle such situations. They can customize their services to give you the flexibility to utilize their services according to your needs.

Furthermore, in India, you can find a highly trained workforce with diverse skill sets at an affordable price that will help you deliver optimum results.

Stability and attractive IT policies

When you provide great customer services to your clients, you create a mindset that your company really cares about its customer’s experience. This creates loyal customers who might refer you to their colleagues, leading to a stable growth in your business.

India is an ideal country to outsource inbound call center services as a pro-IT government supports it. Their GDP growth policies, economy, power, taxation, industrial parks, telecom and special zones have been extremely favorable for the IT sector. Also, IT is considered as one of the top five priority industries, and thus the policies framed by the Indian government aim to harvest the most out of IT outsourcing.

Expert support staff and management

Inbound call center companies are generally expert service providers with well-trained managers and support staffs. They have years of experience with call center operations. On the other hand, in-house call centers struggle as they will be used to providing customer care for one type of product or service. Therefore, when you outsource inbound call center services, you get access to institutional knowledge and skills necessary for top-tier customer service.

India is known for its well trained and educated workforce. In a year, nearly two million graduates are English speaking students, and out of which approximately 75,000 students are IT graduates. Hence, this is a huge advantage for call center operations, which require fluency in English. Due to a large workforce, inbound call center service companies in India can provide scalable services to your business.

Focus on core operations

Generally, inbound call centers are the primary touchpoints for your customers. Therefore, how you interact with them plays a crucial role in your business growth. Therefore, apart from expert services, you free up your time and workforce to focus on core operations while the rest is taken care of by the inbound call center companies.

No capital investments

Having an in-house inbound customer service operation would require you to spend heavily on real estate, infrastructure and software. These investments can be quite heavy on your pockets, especially if you are starting out. On the contrary, outsourcing inbound call center services to a reliable operator will provide you instant access to all these resources without breaking the bank. Especially in India, inbound call center companies offer cost-effective and customized plans for your business so that you pay for only the services you utilize.

Access to the latest technology and tools

Inbound call center companies generally invest in the best technologies for multichannel customer support services. They utilize software tools that offer features like cloud-based platforms, VoIP, email, webchat, SMS text, social media monitoring, etc. Therefore, you gain access to advanced tech at affordable rates.

India is currently in the middle of a digital wave, and therefore the government hopes to connect the entire country with a robust IT infrastructure. Thus, making it an excellent choice to outsource inbound call center services.

Eliminates staffing issues and increases business continuity

Inbound call center companies typically handle all of the hiring, training, scheduling, and managing of a team of call center executives. Thus, saving your company time, money and stress. Moreover, inbound customer service providers guarantee 100% uptime. In addition, they have staff dedicated to making sure call quality is excellent round the clock. Therefore, you can be more confident with your business as you can meet your customer’s needs.

Detailed reports on data analytics

Inbound customer service providers understand the importance of collecting and analyzing call information to gain insights to improve their processes. Also, outsourcers have experience with multiple clients and generate data through marketing and advertising campaigns. Outsourced inbound customer services have monitoring tools, performance assessments and improvement plans to ensure SLAs are met. Generally, inbound call centers may not have the resources or expertise available for the same.

Utilize currency exchange rate difference

Having call center operations in house costs a bomb. Subsequently, inbound call center outsourcing gives access to quality talent at a considerably cheaper rate, all thanks to the currency exchange rate difference. Many companies from India can help you cut down the costs of your inbound customer services considerably. For example, a company in the US can lower the cost of its inbound customer services by up to 2-3 times without any compromise in its quality.

Wrapping up on Inbound Call Center Services

If you are considering outsourcing your inbound call center services, Wow customer support is one of the leading organizations providing one of the best inbound call center service at affordable rates. They provide services to many Fortune 500 companies and top organizations. To know more about their services, click here.

Interesting posts to read:

6 Core Benefits of Multiple Customer Support Platforms for eCommerce Business

How to Build a Successful Outsourcing Team for Phone Answering?

Tips to Improve Customer Service during the Holiday Rush

September 28, 2021September 14, 2022

The holidays are upon us, and this is the time of year when customer service goes through a huge shift. Though an exciting time for retailers - it can also be stressful. You've got buyers coming in from all over looking for deals on everything from toys to refrigerators. Your team has to be on call 24/7 during Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve.

It's not unusual for some retail stores' phone lines, websites, and social media accounts to become overwhelmed and spammed with messages. But that doesn't mean it's impossible to make sure your customers are satisfied with their experience. Businesses need to make sure that they have the right customer service to help their customers during this busy season.

Luckily, there are many ways to improve your customer support service by managing your seasonal staff effectively, or outsourcing your service!

Read on for some tips on how you can improve your customer support services during the holiday rush!

1. Draw Insights from Past Holiday Trends

This is a great place to start for any business that has been around the holiday block more than once. It's always worth looking back on your past encounters with customers during this time of year and reflecting on what went well, as well as where there may have been room for improvement - you can use those insights to plan better customer support service for this year's holiday rush. Start with asking questions like:

What were the biggest problems that your customer service reps encountered during past holiday rushes?

Were there any particular events or issues with customers that seemed to surface more than others (such as returns, shipping errors, etc.)?

Did you notice any patterns regarding what types of questions certain demographics asked most often about your products?

This is also a great time to have an all-hands meeting with your staff and brainstorm some creative ways that you can make the holiday season more enjoyable for both customers and employees. The goal should be to keep everyone on their toes so that they're always engaged in the process of trying new things - but it's important not to overdo it!

2. Pick your Communication Channels and Assign Ownership to Seasonal Customer Support Staff

It's important to make sure that you're prepared with the right customer communication channels for this time of year. You want to have a plan in place so your customers know who they can contact during the holiday rush, and there should also be someone designated as "the owner" for each channel - like Email, Live Chat, Phone Support, or Social Media handle. This way, you'll be able to monitor each channel and make sure that customer needs are being addressed as quickly as possible.

For example, if someone tweets at your company's Twitter account - it would be best for the social media team to handle their inquiry by responding with a message on Twitter, letting them know who they can contact, or directing them back to an FAQ page on your website.

Once you've assigned channels and reps to each of them, the staff needs to be trained in what they need to do during this time of year! Ensure that these employees know about all the available resources - like FAQs, troubleshooting tips, and other helpful information.

Finally, make sure that you're monitoring your channels, so every staff member has a positive experience during the holidays. Make it clear to employees - especially your seasonal assistants - what their goal should be when responding to customers: If they can solve someone's problem on the spot, then do it! But if not, then they should direct the customer to someone who can help them, like a supervisor or 24/hr support line.

3. Consider Hiring Remote Seasonal Workers

Hiring seasonal employees is a great way to handle the holiday rush. Investing in temporary workers for this time of year will help you alleviate some of that financial burden, as well as making sure your customer service team has enough people on their side when things start getting hectic!

There are many benefits to hiring remote seasonal employees. One is that it's much easier to train them - especially if you have a more sophisticated customer support system and want people who already understand how your product works!

Another benefit of Customer Support Outsourcing is the flexibility they provide for holiday schedules - these are agencies that work dedicatedly in customer support, helping businesses handle the holiday rush with ease. One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing is that you don't have to spend your time and resources to train employees.

The agents you hire are already trained and have worked with a range of businesses. This can give you a competitive edge because you'll have a well-trained, knowledgeable team to rely on when the holidays start. So, you can start from day one.

4. Approach each Conversation with Empathetic Calm and Focus on Fast Solutions

During the holiday season, it can be difficult to stay calm in the face of all that's going on. You need to assign a customer support team leader who can take an empathetic approach with your customers and understand where they're coming from - after all, we've been there before!

One thing is for certain: don't let anything undo your best efforts. Your customers will appreciate it if you're calm, and they'll feel more comfortable talking to you about concerns or problems!

The most important thing for customer support team leaders is making sure that every customer has a fast solution as quickly as possible. If you can solve someone's issue on the spot - do it!

Pro Tip: Every customer should have access to a "first contact" person to handle their needs. If this is not possible, the customer support team leader should designate someone in charge of each channel - like Email, Live Chat, Phone Support, or Social Media Handle. This way, customers will be listened to and addressed quickly with a response they want to hear.

5. Focus on Revenue Based Customer Support Service

In the next few weeks, you'll want to focus on revenue-based customer service. This means that your goal will be to do whatever is necessary for customers to feel satisfied with their purchase and often return - not just this year but in years down the line!

This holiday season can bring a lot of challenges when it comes to satisfying customers and increasing revenue. Therefore, you need to keep track of important customer metrics to know what you are dealing with.

For this, you'll want to leverage tools like Google Analytics, find customer service tools, identify revenue opportunities (Google CPC, Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, and conversion rate optimization), and start conversing. In addition, it will help you track necessary metrics and evaluate the success of your efforts.

Moreover, you'll want to make sure you're staying on top of negative reviews, responding quickly and efficiently. This ensures that your revenue isn't impacted, and you keep your reputation up.

Conclusion

So, what do you think would be the best way to help make customer support service more positive? One pro tip would be to spend time planning a customer service strategy for the holidays before they start. And have an empathetic approach to conversations and focus on solutions, not just problems! But, most importantly, track important metrics, so you know what is going on with your customers.

UG Content Moderation: A Guide To Moderating Users’ Content To Make Your Brand’s Social Media Presence Top-Grade

October 13, 2021September 14, 2022

UG Content Moderation A Guide To Moderating Users Content To Make Your Brands Social Media Presence copy

The online world works with a huge amount of content daily, and content moderation is of utmost importance. As many users have started generating and posting content online in audio, video, image, and text, content moderation has become the need of the hour. Primarily, as brands use the content generated by the users as a part of marketing campaigns, regular inspection helps maintain the brand value.

User-generated content moderation or UG content moderation is the process by which the content uploaded by the users is reviewed to see if they abide by certain internet rules. A license to share posts on social media does not mean that any content is acceptable. A lot of what people share is purely illegal, insulting, and inappropriate. These have to be monitored before they cause disrespect to brands or specific groups.

Is User-Generated Content Important?

User-generated content can be a great way to speak out loud about your brand without actually doing any real work. Much of the work is done by the users who post reviews or testimonials of the brand, which can be used for marketing campaigns. Implementing UGC can be beneficial in the following ways.

Attract new users: A section of the audience is hard to reach and may not be convinced by the regular ads or banners. But they might get influenced by users on social media who are known for their authentic content. If these influencers support your brand, your job is done. They build content that finds a way to new customers.

Make Optimum Use Of UGC With Social Media Moderation

Social media content moderation puts the brand in a place where you are safe enough to be exposed to consumers devoid of any inapt content in your pages. The process includes supervising users' images, text, video, and audio to eliminate toxic terms or comments. Let us see how the statistics of user-generated content looks like. This gives a picture of how many videos, images, etc. are shared on social media in a single day.

Twitter: 500 million tweets
Facebook: 350 million photos
Snapchat: 5 billion snaps
Instagram: 95 million photos and videos
YouTube: 500 hours of video uploaded every minute

This data stresses the need to monitor user content regularly. Here is how social media content moderation can be of help.

Understand The Customers

Going through the user content can assist in understanding if there is a general pattern that is followed unknowingly. In addition, content with certain attitudes towards the brand can be highlighted and kept for reference in the future. This can aid in taking actions that improve your brand, thus changing the overall opinions of users to work in your favor.

Up The Quality Of Brand Campaigns

Marketing campaigns that include user-generated content are found to penetrate more into the audience. A well-planned moderation by content moderation services can better the quality of movements without any negative impact on your brand's reputation.

The method you adopt for moderation must be scalable so that there is enough knowledge to review the content irrespective of whether they are images, videos, or anything else.

Better Online Visibility

Research shows that 25% of the search result pages of large brands are from UGC links. This shows the importance of user-generated content. However, you have to make sure that no offensive content could do the opposite of what you expect.

This means that a content moderation services team must constantly be on their toes to see that only appropriate user content is published on your website. As this can draw effective traffic to the brand.

Acts As A Shield To Your Brand And Users

Proper moderation ensures that the posts are respectful of the values and vision of the brand.

Users can post anything in their hearts, but moderators can do the edits to align them with what the brand believes in. This can also protect the users from any bullying they might otherwise face.

Good To Build Better Relations With Users

Your brand can have first-class relations with customers if their content regularly appears on the brand pages. The moderators can make the content incredible so that the brand itself becomes approachable and authentic. This promises an expansion of your brand's followers.

Shape The Purchasing Behavior For Good

Today, the only way to reach a potential buyer is through user-generated content. Learning from experiences, people are searching for customer reviews or referrals before they make the buy. So the content that goes through content moderation can shape the purchasing behavior of users to maximize sales.

Implementing UG Content Moderation

Moderation filters the user-generated content to project those posts that go well with the brand image. Of course, it could be a hassle to find the best content from among the massive user content out there. But keeping the following things in mind can make implementing social media content moderation worth doing it.

Be Clear About The Rules

There must be a set of rules that define what can be accepted by the company and what cannot be. Be strict with disgusting or illegal content in any way, like something that involves bullying or violence. An important tip is to add spam content once in a while. This could be any post that questions the worth of the brand or anything similar. Deleting all such content may not build the best relations with customers. So include them and consider them as feedback upon which your business can improve.

Outline The Process Of Submission

The content moderation services you hire must help create a submission process that answers the how's and what's of user-generated content. First, get an idea about the three approaches to submitting content. In the pre-moderation, you can review all content before it gets published. You can also include a message that says, 'Your post has been successfully submitted for review'

In the post-moderation, you can post the submitted content in real-time and keep a routine check. In reactive moderation again, you will be posting the content in real-time and review them only if other customers have some issues with the published content.

Adhere To Certain Restrictions

Having some restrictions is a good way to moderate the user content efficiently. For example, you may ask the users to have an account before posting anything on your website. You can even restrict very new users from posting anything at all. Once they are acquainted with the brand and trust is built, these restrictions can be lifted.

Keep An Eye On Pages With UGC

With content flocking in regularly, it becomes imperative to check the pages that have UGC. Whether you do the moderation with in-house resources or take help from content moderation services, there are some top-notch moderation methods you can resort to. Regular monitoring safeguards the brand reputation along with giving space for your brand to grow.

Link The Marketing Goals With Great User Experiences

Linking the marketing goals with content moderation can go a long way in brand promotion. There must be a way to make the best use of user-generated content that creates the best user experiences in the process.

These are some of the best practices.
Make the permissions and rights agreement available to the users
Be clear about how to use the user content
State all the rules, including submission deadlines
Associate a strong call to action for submissions

One clear example is an Australian brand that boomed to become an international favorite product with more than 10,000 brand images shared on Instagram. From the start, the brand used the same hashtags #letsbefrank and #thefrankeffect for all their UGC content and made sure that all their UG pictures had the same quality and color theme.

Include contact information

Additionally, you can make the customers aware of what the brand expects from UGC. For this, you can give examples from other submissions and use branded hashtags that are consistent across all online platforms. It is also good to reward the users by featuring on your website, giving gifts and promotional discounts, and any other way you feel appropriate.

Types of Content Moderation

Human-Based Content Moderation

This method involves people monitoring the user-generated content for data that can threaten the brand image. You can implement this model either through an in-house team monitoring the content or outsourcing the work to content moderation services.

Though this method is quite reliable, there are a few issues that cause concern. It is not a good thing when moderators are scanning harmful content daily. Other issues include manual social media content moderation being expensive, speed of moderation not being able to keep up with the rate of content generation, privacy issues, etc.

AI Content Moderation

AI content moderation is powered by visual recognition algorithms that promise the most efficient ways of screening content. They can work with massive data in real-time, giving little scope for errors. In addition, they are experts in recognizing harmful visuals in the content, including mass fights, pornography, weapons, horror, and much more that can have undesirable results when published.

The main con associated with AI content moderation services is the lack of contextual understanding in some instances. For example, a video showing how military personnel are trained in various weapons can be interesting for the masses. But when shared by a user, this video can be filtered by the AI-powered moderation citing that the video contains weapons and fighting.

A Hybrid Approach: AI + Human Moderation

Combining human intelligence and AI algorithms can be a great option to screen loads of content being generated every day. The algorithms can monitor most of the content and send just a part of it for manual moderation. This makes way for greater productivity, a lesser workload for moderators, and can be largely cost-saving.

The algorithms are useful to remove objectionable content in a general sense. The reviewed content can be again moderated manually to see if it adheres to the guidelines of the brand.

Do You Think Your Brand needs Content Moderation?

As already discussed, the benefits of content moderation are endless. Going with the statistics, the online world will be spammed with posts if a proper monitoring system is not in place. Implementing social media moderation can be done effortlessly if the brand knows what content it supports and what is not acceptable.

Still, confused if UG content moderation is beneficial for you or not? Well, you must know that websites or campaigns with UGC results have a 29% more conversion rate. In addition, a whopping 5.4 hours is spent by users every day with UG content; this shows the importance of having content moderation for your business.

As a business, you can go with any UG content moderation method that suits your interest and budget. Call Wow customer support today to create better customer engagement and build brand credibility with our content moderation services. Get the best content moderation for apps, blogs, forums, and social media to have content that complies with your business policies.

7 Proven Call Answering Services Best Practices in 2021

June 17, 2021September 14, 2022

Managing call answering services is no easy job. Effective management requires hard work, strategic vision, employee motivation, and the ability to make hard decisions and several other factors.

Leaders in the call center industry need to be acquainted with all the aspects of call centers and should be able to work within the budget. However, at times, all this can be quite overwhelming. Hence, to help the call center leaders get out of this situation with ease, a list of 7 best practices that every phone answering services company should implement in 2021 to manage call centers effectively.

1. Always Prioritize Customer Experience

Customer experience was and will always be the most important aspect of any business. Businesses are now focusing on differentiating themselves based on the customer experience they offer. Customers prefer to buy more products/services from businesses providing better customer experience than the competitors. Delivering an exceptional customer experience is the only way to retain your customers and convert customers into a reliable source of revenue year after year.

Inbound call centers play an important role in providing such an experience. Hence, a phone answering services agency should design the whole process keeping the customers in mind. From training the agents to establishing their KPIs, everything should be focused on improving customer experience.

2. Use the Right Technology and Tools

Technological advancements have helped inbound call centers automate the whole process. For example, interactive voice response can automate general processes, eliminating the requirement for customers to communicate with an agent for minute inquiries, such as checking balance, paying bills, checking the order status, and other tasks that IVR systems can handle.

Furthermore, chatbots can help customers with some general questions. If the customer requires the assistance of the customer relationship team, the chatbot can transfer the whole communication to the agent, reducing the time and efforts of the agents. In addition, speech analytics can screen all the calls to recognize issues and queries that require further attention. These self-servicing techniques can be highly beneficial for live phone answering services, as automation can reduce the overall traffic by decreasing labour cost, reducing time, improving accuracy while enhancing customer experience.

3. Establish a Strong Onboarding Process

Hiring is just the first step towards employing an agent in your telephone answering services agency. While it is an important part, companies can eliminate mistakes in hiring by establishing a strong employee onboarding process.

They should emphasize training new employees how to handle complaints and queries of customers. Most inbound calls will be related to various complaints. Hence, new hires must be prepared well to handle these complaints from the beginning. The employees should be motivated to find complaints as an opportunity to deliver exceptional customer service. A strong onboarding process will help your new hires handle all types of calls with ease. The employees who have performed exceptionally well in the past can also help new hires get familiar with the process and policies to provide quality services.

4. Use Customer Feedback to Improve Performance

Customer feedback is important to analyze the performance of your agents. Therefore, companies should encourage the customers to provide their feedback at the end of every call. This will help the outsourced phone answering agents improve their performance by evaluating their mistakes and implementing important suggestions received from the customers.

Most people don't submit their feedback until they aren't asked for it. According to research, only one out of 26 unsatisfied customers provide their feedback. Hence, the phone answering services agency should not consider the absence of feedback as satisfaction. Moreover, these unsatisfied customers will inform around 15 other people about their experience.

5. Provide Omnichannel Support

Companies should make it easy for customers to connect with you through any device. Allow customers to connect with you using their cellphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Evolve your inbound call center to help customers connect through multiple channels. Equip the agents with integrated communication tools to deliver exceptional satisfaction. With omnichannel support, callers can avail themselves of the comfort to connect with the call center agents using their preferred device or platform. This will provide them with a better experience and increased chances of satisfaction.

Do you find yourself at crossroads while implementing omnichannel support for your customers? Our experts can help you out.

6. Use VoIP technology to Scale your Agents

Use a cloud phone system to allow your team of agents to work from anywhere they want. These systems include VoIP that lets the agents communicate with the customers using devices connected to the internet. In addition, cloud phone systems allow agents to work from the comfort of their homes, helping companies save on office space and installing expensive infrastructure.

Using VoIP, inbound call centers can avail the services of high-performing agents even when they cannot commute to the office location. In addition, call answering services agencies using VoIP can hire agents from anywhere globally and would not have to depend only on the local population.

7. Use More Interactive Methods to Provide Better Assistance

Inbound phone answering services companies usually handle the problems and complaints of the customers. Use interactive tools that allow screen sharing and screenshots to assist your customers in resolving their problems. Simply speaking, the instructions on call may add to more confusion. Hence, use screenshots and screen sharing wherever possible to help customers navigate complex tools and problems.

When your agents use screen sharing and screenshots to resolve customer's complaints, they have a better chance of providing satisfactory solutions even to the customers who are less familiar with the technology. This allows call centers to enjoy a better experience in less time.

To Conclude -

These are the 7 best practices that every inbound call center should implement in 2021 to enhance customer experience and provide satisfactory assistance to the customers. Moreover, these practices would help you manage your inbound call center effectively.

Are you looking for a phone answering service company that has implemented all these best practices?

You are at the right place.

Outsource your call answering services to our reliable team of agents to deliver an exceptional customer experience!

We are sure both you and your customers will be satisfied.

Importance of Logistic Outsourcing & Its Role in Supply Chain

March 29, 2022September 14, 2022

If you have an eCommerce or retail business, you must know about the complexities of handling the logistics. Besides the surging consumer demands, you need to handle various channels to sustain yourself in the industry. Infact, it becomes so resilient to manage things (at times) that even the in-house logistics team doesn't seem enough to meet the targets!

So, what's the ideal way to deal with such situations? The answer is logistic outsourcing. Logistic outsourcing ensures that you get high-end logistics services for your business. It's that little help in logistics management that takes away your burden. Here's more about logistic outsourcing and its importance.

What Do You Mean By logistics outsourcing?

Before knowing the entire term, let's understand outsourcing first. Outsourcing is a well-known business practice where you hire a third-party professional to perform any in-house task. Thus, when we say logistic outsourcing, it means taking external help from third-party service providers to handle the logistics for your supply chain.

For example, say it's a rush season, and you are falling short of productive staff to manage outbound shipping and deliveries. That's when you can reach out to a logistic outsourcing company and hire a professional to handle the work. They will ensure that the targets are met timely, and everything's done accurately.

The best thing about logistics outsourcing is that they are self-equipped. Be it warehouse, tools, technologies, or safety; they are well-sourced with all the essentials. You can stay assured of any such investment hustle.

As per data on third-party logistic users (3PL), domestic transportation is the most frequently outsourced service, followed by warehousing, custom brokerages, international transportation, and freight forwarding.

Importance of Logistics Management

Primarily, logistic management means handling, controlling, and supervising the movement of goods. But, it also includes other aspects like transport/inventory management, order fulfillment, and material handling. Logistic management is useful to satisfy customer demands while also keeping you ahead of the competitors. Some other reasons behind its importance include:

Better Services and Customer Satisfaction

Logistic management is useful for improving delivery timings. This helps the customers to get timely deliveries and hence better services from your end. In the US, 55% of shoppers prefer same-day deliveries, and 58% of customers require less than 40 minutes of delivery. With such statistics, you can offer better deliveries and warrant customer satisfaction to the consumers.

Higher Efficiency and Supply Chain Transparency

Supply chain transparency, in simple words, means having complete knowledge of what's going on in your supply chain. Logistic management provides clarity on your business supply chain, which can further contribute to better efficiency.

All your data will be thoroughly tracked and documented. Be it data analysis or operations; everything will be clear cut visible to you. So, there will be negligible disruptions and mismanagement. Having a clear picture of your logistics could also reveal your mistakes and help you improve with time.

Brand Reliability and Higher Revenue

With customer satisfaction comes brand reliability. If your customer is happy, they will speak strongly about you to others. This will ensure a better reputation and positive customer experience while generating more business for your company. Also, nearly 70% of customers say that they would support a company that offers good customer service. So, that's a plus point. Once your business grows, revenue is likely to increase itself.

Cost-efficiency

With adequate logistic management, you will have optimized inventories, lesser inbound freights, and negligible goods backflow. All these factors can ensure cost-efficiency and adequate savings. So, directly or indirectly, logistic management can help you with money management. On top of that, if you outsource logistic management services, it can contribute to more cost reduction (around 70%).

Relationship between Logistics And Supply Chain Management

Logistic management is focused on the storage and goods movement. Simply put, it ensures that the products are stored and delivered precisely to the customer. On the other hand, supply chain management is a broader term.

It involves the methods and process that ensures an effortless flow of goods to the customers. While logistic management features transportation, fleet/inventory management, material handling, supply chain management, including sourcing, manufacturing, storing of goods, etc.

Both logistics and supply chain management relate to each other through goods movement from start to end. Both these concepts require the synchronization of labor and supplies to ensure an efficient flow of products. Some key common aspects between logistics and supply chain management include:

Both of their motives are to encourage company growth and keep them ahead of the competitors.
They focus on common factors like customer satisfaction, information, goods, services, etc.
Both logistics and supply chain management features a similar goods flow, starting from suppliers to customers.

What is Outsourcing in Logistics and Supply Chain Management?

Outsourcing in logistics or outsourcing in supply chain management means hiring a third-party service provider to cover the services of the respective domain. This means you will be taking external help to manage and boost the supply chain functions (including logistics). Everything from warehousing to shipping and fulfilment is covered in this type of outsourcing.

Is Outsourcing a Part of Supply Chain Management?

In supply chain management, outsourcing can reduce the overall service cost and ensure better flexibility in supply chain operations. It can ease out things for your business and help you meet customer demands in a hassle-free manner. So, if you make outsourcing a part of supply chain management, it will benefit you from top to bottom.

For example, outsourcing in supply chain management can take your workload and provide additional time to develop new business ideas. Similarly, it can offer exclusive knowledge and facilities that are necessary for business upliftment. It also offers other benefits like flexibility, adaptability, lesser financial risks, professional assistance, and so on.

How Does Outsourcing Affect the Supply Chain?

While the benefits listed above are just small highlights, outsourcing has various positive effects on the supply chain like:

Supply chain outsourcing ensures better visibility that can help you identify the risky areas and mitigative solutions accordingly.

Thanks to their personal tools and technologies, you can get high-quality services without spending a fortune.

You can access these useful resources to sustain yourself in the industry for a longer time.

With supply chain outsourcing, you wouldn't face any downfall during peak seasons or employee holidays.

How Can a Logistics Outsourcing Company Help You to Handle Your Supply Chain?

With so many benefits, you must wonder how a logistic outsourcing company can manage your supply chain. Till now, we learned some experienced professionals take up the workload and meet targets for you, but what services do they exactly cover?

3PL outsourcing services utilise their advanced resources to process and audit thousands of bills easily. They handle critical logistic pursuits and ensure easy operations.
You can use their expert assistance to manage the logistics even when you are well-staffed. That's because their long-term- expertise isn't worth missing.
These service providers can manage the safety ratings, insurance certificates, distribution in supply chain management, and carrier contracts. Besides, they can provide back-office help like carrier betting and invoicing variances which eventually results in lower liabilities.
Their charges are low, and you only have to pay for the services you took. This cuts down the cost for a full-fledged in-house team that requires employee benefits.
Most 3PLs service providers offer real-time tracking assistance where you can check loads. Some of them are integrated with warehouse management systems for better safety.
These professionals handle petty expenses like insurance costs, transportation, docking costs, etc. This ensures a lesser burden on your financial management team.
They also cut down the hassle of training costs, teaching, and directing the logistics team to understand the work. As they are experts already, all you have to do is hire, and they will handle the rest.

What to Look for When Taking logistics outsourcing Services?

Like any other outsourcing service provider, choosing a proficient team is important when hiring an logistics outsourcing company. Thus, it's recommended to do thorough research and select a professional company that offers diverse services. Here's what to look for:

They should cover important services like supply chain operations, gap/cost analysis, distribution in supply chain management, and practicality.
If they have a website, check for their expertise. Look for their warehouse capacities, customer support team, transportation, and more.
Make sure that they cover crucial logistic processes like receiving, pick-up and drop, inbound inspection, etc.
Estimate a budget and look for a company that offers services within a similar cost range.
Navigate to the review section, and check the experience of their prior customer. Avoid a company with a large number of bad reviews or ratings lower than 3.4 stars.

To Conclude

logistics outsourcing is one of the most useful ways to manage your business supply chains. It guarantees effortless goods management while saving your time and money from doing the same. However, to get the best services, always choose the best outsourcing logistic company.

At Wow Customer Support, you can get the finest assistance for your business logistics and supply chain management. We cover everything from shipper coordination to email/chat support and data entry to be your ideal logistics back-operations partner.

Besides that, we can also help you with invoice processing to ensure customer satisfaction. So, if you are looking for expert assistance with logistic operations, reach us today. We are happy to help you!

How can your eCommerce Company benefit from professional Phone Answering Services

January 27, 2022September 14, 2022

As the head of an eCommerce business, you must know that customer engagement and connection is extremely important. The way you nurture the relationship with your user base will directly impact your bottom line.

Balancing out the day-to-day operations of running the business with your customers' communication needs can be extremely difficult. And each time you drop the ball, the repercussions ripple like a wave.

More and more eCommerce brands are realizing the benefits of hiring phone answering services to take care of their customers. And also to give their audiences constant support and a more personalized experience. Let’s look over some of these benefits and why letting someone else answer the phone for you is better than doing it yourself.

7 Clear-Cut Benefits of Hiring Phone Answering Services

Never miss an opportunity

When you work with a phone answering service, you'll never miss a call again. One phone call may finish a sale that has been on the verge of happening for a long time, and sometimes that one call is all it takes to gain a longtime supporter or lose them. 85% of people never call again if their calls aren’t answered.

You'll never have to worry about disappointing a customer or missing an important message because you'll be safe in the knowledge that a dedicated professional receptionist will accept your calls.

Customers nowadays shop around. It's simple for them to go on and call your rivals if they can't reach you, which is why it’s so important that you never miss an important call. If you have a Phone answering service for small business agent, you won’t have to worry about that.

Increase your productivity

Every call is an opportunity to provide excellent customer service and raise income, but picking up the phone is a distraction you don't need, especially if you're in the middle of a meeting or working on a major project. A telephone answering service is an excellent approach to filter and redirect calls so that you and your team can focus on your customers’ demands while still addressing their queries.

Do you have trouble keeping track of your schedule?

Virtual phone answering services can also assist you in organizing your calendar and diary software. This means they'll make, cancel, and reschedule appointments on your behalf.

This is a terrific technique to decrease stress and distractions and ensure that you complete more chores.

Provide customer service 24/7

A telephone answering service can be utilized for calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for overflow assistance, or for after-hours coverage, depending on your company's needs. In this instant-access era, it's critical to be on top of your business 24x7. Having a live person available to assist your clients even when the actual office is closed can only help you maintain your competitive edge.

Virtual phone answering specialists may perform other activities such as faxing, accepting payments, and transferring phone calls to the relevant parties.

Also, phone answering services may make appointments for your clients in addition to taking calls at any time. Instead of pressing buttons to reach the appropriate department, customers are immediately linked to a live person who can schedule appointments for your clients, giving you a distinct advantage over your competitors.

Reduce the costs and time spent on calls

It's expensive and time-consuming to hire an in-house team to handle your calls. On top of all the normal HR and business hassles, you'll need to acquire a workspace, recruit workers, and purchase a phone system. Even if you can afford the wages, hiring full-time employees to avoid missed calls or lower service quality at peak periods can be extremely inconvenient during the hours, or even days, when they aren't needed. A call answering service gives you the freedom to scale up or down your usage as your business needs change, and there are no hidden costs.

It's important to understand that even if you hire someone to answer the phones, you'll still have to spend time responding to client demands. This will take your attention away from your main goal: expanding your business.

Hiring a telephone answering service will help you and your staff save time. This will free you up to focus on initiatives that will help you increase sales and expand your company.

Furthermore, a telephone answering service is less expensive than hiring an in-house team. If you recruit an in-house staff, you'll have to invest a significant amount of money on salary and employee perks, bonuses, payroll taxes, workers' compensation coverage, and other costs.

Give customers a great impression

A telephone answering service strengthens solid customer connections and maintains a high-quality professional image, whether you're a startup or an established company. Your client relationship begins the moment you answer the phone, and it will make all the difference.

The corporate world's dynamics have shifted. The modern customer prefers to do business with well-established companies and know what they're doing, and roughly 80% of business takes place over the phone.

A virtual phone answering service might help your company appear larger than it is. This will give your brand's identity and voice some validity, making it easier for clients to trust you. A virtual phone answering specialist, as previously said, is trained to handle all customers professionally.

As a result, you can be confident that they'll uphold and strengthen the image and reputation you've established.

Personalize the customer experience

As previously mentioned, phone answering may be both time-consuming and frustrating. This makes providing individualized services to your consumers challenging for your in-house receptionists.

Virtual live phone answering service professionals understand how to deduce clients' demands based on previous interactions. They're also taught how to connect with customers on an emotional level. This makes it simple for them to give tailored services to your clients.

Even better, these agencies take the time to research your company so that they can match you with virtual experts who are familiar with your industry, clientele, and goals.

As a result, you can rest confidently that your customers will always receive knowledgeable and individualized care.

After all, your customers are the lifeblood of your company. And you would want to recruit someone who can respond to your customers' questions professionally and build long-term connections with them.

Virtual phone answering specialists have the knowledge and expertise needed to build a strong, credible relationship with consumers.

They'll assist you in converting your leads into genuine, long-term clients.

Make your brand stronger

In today's world, your brand is similar to your company's personality. It informs potential clients about who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Your brand comprises visual features like your logo, your tone of voice, and the values you express in many facets of your interactions with consumers and your target audience.

Customer service and the initial point of contact are important aspects of your brand. If someone attempts to call your business and no one answers, it does not reflect well on your company and, as a result, your brand. It implies that your business does not appreciate its clients. On the other hand, if a phone is answered by a highly professional and skilled receptionist with years of experience and relevant industry expertise, it speaks volumes about your company's image.

One of the advantages of using a Phone answering service for small business is that it may help you stand out from the crowd. Having a good phone manner may directly influence your brand and, as a result, the money generated by your company. If you ever decide to sell your company, the power of the brand will almost always determine the firm's value.

Conclusion

Running a business is truly a balancing act, but you can’t do it all yourself. Some things you have to delegate, or you run the risk of letting some aspects of your business falter. By delegating your Live call answering service to a company that handles such services, you can free up a lot of time while also providing your customers with a better service available 24/7. If you want a company that provides excellent phone answering services, you’ll want to work with WoW customer support. Our customer service teams will handle each and every call with professionalism and care, ensuring your customers get the service they deserve.

If you want to add something to the discussion or keep the conversation going, leave us a comment. You can also like the blog to let us know we should keep doing content like this and share it with your friends to see what they think.

Benefits of Content Moderation and why Should You Outsource it?

January 21, 2022September 14, 2022

An assured way of building brand trust and recognition is by leveraging user-generated content. The top brands worldwide rely on user-generated content to secure good ranks in the search engine. However, publishing user-generated content comes with a major risk – what if the users don’t portray you in the right light? What about those fake reviews and ratings on your social media account?

There is one simple way to solve all of these problems: content moderation.

All you need is a group of experienced and dedicated content moderators to go through every user-generated content before it reaches your page.

Advantages of dedicated content moderation: Why outsourcing content moderation is the right way?

You have a basic idea about content moderation, and maybe even most of your competitors are investing in it. But do you know if you need to get on the bandwagon as well? Here are some of the reasons to let you know why the answer to this question is a big yes.

Protecting your users and brand

The content that reaches your page as videos, pictures, or comments on the community forums and blog posts need monitoring. After all, any user-generated content always has the risk of straying far from what your brand considers acceptable.

There is no way for you to control what people perceive your brand to be. But you can always use content moderation services to edit what the users post to the site. When you have a team of expert content moderators to ensure that nothing upsetting or offensive reaches your site, it also protects the audience from any kind of trolling or bullying by irrational users.

Understanding your users and customers

Moderating all user-generated content is a great opportunity to outline the patterns. This is particularly true for the high-volume marketing campaigns where the moderators might tag content with specific properties like attitude and thoughts towards the brand, and so on.

The content moderation solutions can leverage this particular information for designing actionable insights into the opinions and behavior of the users. Also, it can help you in figuring out whether there are areas where your brand can improve.

Improving the online visibility of brands

Studies have shown that 25 percent of search results from the biggest brands in the world come from links to user-generated content. Now, you need the content, but you also have to ensure that it does not affect the brand reputation.

You can allow your users to post as much content as they wish, but ensure that you have content moderation services alongside.They will go through all the content before getting them published on your site. This will help you bring good traffic to your website given that it does not have anything that’s offensive or against the brand.

Scaling your campaigns more effectively

Your marketing and sales campaigns require user-generated content for being more efficient. The content moderation solutions can be an immense help in scaling your campaigns minus the risks of negative effects on the brand.

If a major part of the campaign is based on user-generated video content, for instance, when you have a contest to increase your brand reach, you require an easily scalable way to go through all this. Skilled professionals in this domain will help you scale your campaigns and ensure that you don’t have to get your staff to remove the content later on.

Improving the purchasing behavior and process

Advertisements through the TV, radio, and print media, might not be that effective in impacting or persuading customer behavior in this online era. Conventional methods like banners, auto-play videos, pop-ups, and other such formats do not fare too well because people now have ad blockers on the browsers. The ad blockers make it harder for a business to reach customers.

Thus, your target buyers are much more likely to have your brand exposure through user-generated content on the site. They would want to know what other people have to say about the brand. A trend that is going around these days is the potential buyers asking referrals or opinions from other customers while making any purchase decision. Customer support outsourcing companies dealing with content moderation can help in improving the buying process and buyer behavior.

Enhancing customer relations through online content moderation

Your site will have better customer relations and credibility when it has content from real users or customers. The presence of well-moderated content on the site makes a brand look friendly, approachable, relatable, and authentic. When you make a brand that’s worth discussing, your fans will join in.

Why do you need to outsource content moderation?

Now that you know how important content moderation is, it’s time to assess whether you should outsource it or get your in-house team to do it. We are leaning more on the former option for the following reasons.

A time-consuming responsibility for the in-house staff

You have to constantly search for scams that are present almost anywhere and everywhere these days. They are getting more difficult to detect due to the amount of sophistication. You might think that your platform is free from such things. But remember that almost 60 percent of customers worldwide have faced online fraud at some point or the other.

Moreover, over 75 percent of the people have seen scams on a site and have never returned to it. The truth is that online harassment, scams, and fake reviews are the kind of things that you have to worry about constantly. Overall, it is a highly time-taking initiative that has to go on consistently. Thus, if you make your in-house team do it, your staff will not have enough time to focus on other responsibilities than content moderation outsourcing.

The cost burden of hiring in-house content moderators

Even when businesses understand the need to moderate user-generated stuff, they are unsure whether to hire someone to do it or get their own team. Now, consider the average salary and other perks you will have to give to a content moderator – not something small businesses and startups can afford.

This is one of the main reasons why most companies outsource online content moderation. After all, they can find qualified and skilled people from the local market by spending a fraction of what they would do by hiring an entire team of in-house moderators. Why spend more when you can get the job done for much less?

The hassle of training and buying the necessary tools

You can be free from all the responsibility of training the new content moderators. It is not easy to get the right people for the job, particularly when you need them soon. Right from hiring, training, performance feedback, and monitoring, getting a team of professional moderators requires a lot of time. Thus, rather than handling such a bulk of tasks for your brand, you can simply hire a team for social media content moderation and let them do the needful. In this way, you will have the time to focus on the other core business responsibilities.

Moreover, the outsourcing companies already have the manpower, processes, and tools they need before they begin offering any business solution. Therefore, it is one of the best parts of outsourcing the job. After you begin working with any outsourcing company, your resources and time are saved. Additionally, you do not need to deal with the hassle of getting a new office, hiring a new team, and training new team members to handle the tasks related to content moderation.

The added efficiency of an outsourced team

There are added benefits of having user-generated content on a website, such as engaging the present followers, brand exposure to newer audiences, and even better SEO. In addition, it allows you to think about some really high-end processes, such as using user-generated content in the overall marketing strategy, while leaving the responsibility to your outsourced team to deal with content moderation.

Think of this as a way to manage the best of both worlds as you can receive all the benefits of reaching out to your users without the worries of getting hit by the negative impact of it.

The Endnote

It must be amply clear by now that your brand needs content moderation when it plans to rely on user-generated content for marketing. And if you are planning to outsource moderators for the job, look no further than Wow Customer Support for it. From social media monitoring, image moderation to comments moderation, nothing is out of bounds for our experts. They are fast, efficient, and work 24/7 to complete the tasks as swiftly and effectively as possible. So, if you want to outsource this major responsibility, contact us right away. And don’t forget to leave your likes, comments, and shares!

Methods to improve your ROI with Customer Support Services!

December 24, 2021September 14, 2022

Any flourishing and successful business relies on excellent customer support service. Customer service's aim is to create and maintain relationships with customers by ensuring that they are satisfied with your products/services and listening to their suggestions on how to improve your organization. As a result, providing a positive customer experience can have a substantial influence on your business's ROI by raising conversion rates, increasing market share, developing brand loyalty, increasing the potential for upselling and cross-selling, and attracting talent. Negative experiences, on the other hand, might lead to a loss of money as well as irreversible damage to your company's reputation.

The benefit to an investor from an investment of a resource is known as return on investment (ROI). A high return on investment (ROI) indicates that the benefits of the investment outweigh the costs.

At Wow Customer Support, about how important it is to provide excellent customer support service in general. However, we stress the need of using concrete numbers to evaluate the success of your efforts. When you combine the two, you'll be able to see exactly how your customer service efforts are benefiting your company's bottom line.

Let’s discuss the ways a company can improve its return on investment by taking the below-mentioned measures.

Tips to improve your ROI from your Customer Support Service

More than 88% of businesses now place a premium on customer experience in their daily operations. Yes, it's that crucial. And it's not hard to see why. If a customer chooses to do business with you based on their customer experiences, then that's where you must stand out. Customer experience is now the primary differentiator for more than two-thirds of businesses. Consequently, you're increasing your company's return on investment because more customers mean more sales.

Improving ROI by improving customer service management

Calculate Customer retention - It’s all about the perspective. If you start watching customer support services as customer success operations, the game changes. Customers will stay longer with the company if they’re getting their answers properly addressed. They are going to continue using your products and services because they know the customer support services provided by your company are reliable. Observe how and when customers reach out with an issue, getting the problem addressed by a call or any type of communication results in reducing cancellations and refunds. This way, you can improve the services and keep your customers coming back!

Nonetheless, we know that excellent customer service is linked to company success, and it's apparent that customers want to contribute their money to organizations that care about them.

Educate and Train your Staff - If your employees don’t have a proper understanding of your products and services, it’s going to cost you a lot of company resources. It’s important that employees are easily able to navigate through different processes and systems are able to help your customers with ease. By training your staff you’ll be able to resolve your customer issues effectively and efficiently. Training them regarding the different processes, troubleshooting skills, product/service knowledge, active listening and resolving conflicts will enable your company to perform better in the long run and a small investment will be worth all of it and more.
Identifying the right ROI indicators - It’s easier to sell your product or service to an existing customer rather than a new customer. Hence, the customer support service provided should be exceptional. Identify which ROI indicators seem to be working for your company and are proving the results. You can start executing modest, measurable trials with specific ROI figures once you've figured out which customer service metrics your team can use and how that adds to the company's performance.
Implementing Feedback Software - By installing feedback software, you can get complete information on the customer’s experience. This way, you can understand what’s working and what’s not working. The technique and approach used by high performing employees to handle customer queries can be utilised in training the one’s that are struggling to perform.
Reward Employees for practising great Customer Service - Providing great customer support service and customer incentives that braces great customer experience, a company can expect direct investments in marketing and referrals. Keeping incentives for your employees will drive them to provide a high-quality customer experience. Moreover, prospects when going through your customer service reviews are likely to turn into customers after seeing a positive compliment on your company’s efforts to keep their customer’s happy.
Sales - Customer support acts as marketing by offering a fantastic customer service experience that customers want to tell their friends about.

Improving ROI by reducing costs

A company can get a high return on investment by cutting costs on the customer service operations. The two major factors that play a big role in this strategy are Efficiency and Effectiveness. By improving the efficiency of processes and individual activities, time consumption is going to get lower and hence the cost per unit of work will reduce. If your employees are able to resolve customer issues faster, they would not be required to work extra.

Similarly, if customer queries are solved on the first call, they won’t have to contact customer service agents several times through different means of communication. Less number of calls to attend means you’ll require less staff.

Keeping these two factors in mind, there are proven strategies you can implement to lower the cost of your customer service, they are listed below:

Customer service tools and data - Improve the productivity of your customer support service operations by installing an IT system that’s updated and services like helpdesk management and online support can help along with customer queries and requests. Agent assisted support can be minimalised if there are self-sufficient solutions available for customers. Furthermore, with the quality of the information provided to agents, they’ll be able to handle customer problems effectively.
Process Optimization - By reducing the number of steps in a particular process, eliminating the need of piling up work and unnecessary tasks will not only help your company in saving resources but is also going to improve the customer support service experience.
Restructuring Customer service operations to build better teams - When customer support service operations increase, the possibility of redundancies developing between teams, business processes and organizations increase as well. Restructuring of customer service operations in specific intervals can create greater synergy and it will also help in reducing overhead costs of customer service management.
Outsourcing - Customer support service outsourcing will give you the opportunity to access less costly resources to perform large scale operations. It will also allow you to work along with global workforces that will be of great support to your company’s needs.

Improving ROI by improving performance

In order to improve your ROI by customer support services, you’ll have to improve the quality of your customer service functions. Here are the top four ways you can implement to improve your services -

Listen to your customers - Sometimes when a customer comes to you with their query, more often than not they’re looking for a customer service representative to hear them out and empathize with their problems. Even if the problem isn’t resolved quickly if you’re customer service representative is able to communicate and build a relationship with the customer, it will improve customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Don’t keep them waiting - A very simple and effective way to increase the value of your customer service operations is by not making them wait. One of the main problems faced by the companies is customers having to wait to get the agent’s attention and get their issues resolved. By the time, the customer service representative attends to the issue, the customer is already upset. Minimizing the customer waiting time will show them that you value their time and business.
Caring and Knowledgeable staff - When customers interact with your company regarding a problem, they expect to interact with a knowledgeable staff that can assist them properly and handle their issues with utmost concern.

How a Call Center Can Help

Even if you grasp the concepts of high-quality service, putting them into practice successfully is a different story. Despite their greatest efforts, many companies still struggle to provide excellent customer support services.

So, what can you do right now to improve your customer support services? Contact an outsourced call centre.

With Wow Customer Support, you can improve your customer service results and increase your return on investment.

Your Ultimate Guide to Financial Services Outsourcing

March 20, 2022September 14, 2022

Did you know that nearly 82% of small businesses fail due to poor financial management? That's why effective financial management is vital for any business, small or big.

Businesses often face many challenges, and finance management is one of them. That's why businesses spend capital and resources on recruiting, training, and retaining staff responsible for managing finances. But maintaining an in-house finance and accounting department can be time-consuming and expensive, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs.)

That's why many SMEs prefer outsourcing financial services as a flexible solution that fits their specific requirements and budgets.

This blog will explain how you can benefit from financial services outsourcing. We’ll also explain what kind of tasks you can outsource and how to find the right service provider.

What is Financial Service Outsourcing?

Any time your company hires an outside team of consultants, experts, or advisors to help with finance and accounting, this is called business accounting outsourcing. You can hire outsourcing financial services for both a permanent or temporary basis.

Financial services outsourcing refers to outsourcing several or all of your company’s finance and accounting functions to a third-party service provider. The company that you choose can handle all or some of your finance and/or accounting processes, from bookkeeping to tax returns. This saves a lot of hassles and costs involved in hiring an in-house team or managing finances yourself.

An outsourced finance team you choose should consist of experienced individuals who can provide the best quality results. Each professional on the team should be outstanding in their area of expertise, whether it's making capital strategy or financial reporting. In addition, the team should be available whenever you need them. Such a team helps create consistency, avoid stress, and ensures using best practices.

Benefits of Outsourcing Financial Services

Today, businesses, particularly small and medium-sized companies, need confidence, timeliness, quality insight, and reliability in their financial performance. Each of their financial transactions must be processed without any fraud or error.

You should be able to close books timely, create insightful financial statements, and provide accurate investor reporting. All these require financial leadership, which can be achieved with outsourced accounting services.

Here’re the most important benefits of financial services outsourcing:

Access to Global Talent and Expertise

You're restricted to the local talent pool when you hire an in-house team. But the right fit for your company may not be available within that pool.

On the other hand, when you decide to outsource, you can hire experts with specialized knowledge from across the world. Reputable outsourced firms employ highly trained accountants and finance professionals. They work with a variety of businesses across different industries and bring that experience and best practices to serve you.

Moreover, there may be fluctuating needs for bookkeepers, controllers, accountants, and CFOs. SMEs can't hire all of them. Outsourcing financial services may help receive any such services as and when needed.

What’s more? Time zone differences allow you to extend your company's working hours. So, you can benefit from the timezone disparity to boost your financial activities through proper management.

Cost Saving

From hiring and training costs to infrastructure-related expenses, businesses have to shell out huge amounts of money to handle their financial and accounting management needs.

But with outsourced financial management services, these costs are cut down. You save on:

Hiring costs: You don’t need to spend time and money on finding the best talent. By outsourcing financial services, you can get started right away.

Training costs: Since outsourcing professionals are experienced in their area of expertise, they save you time and resources you might have to spend on training an in-house team.

Software pricing: Not using the latest software programs can make you lag behind in the competition. But these programs can add high costs to you. On the other hand, outsourcing financial services have access to updated technologies so that you can benefit from high-end tools at a fraction of the cost.

Infrastructural costs: By outsourcing financial services, you save on real estate rental, utility bills, and many other costs by financial services outsourcing.

Flexibility

Sometimes, you may need only 2-3 people to manage the current workload. You may need more people to handle the seasonal peak at other times. You can't keep hiring and laying off staff members.

But achieving this flexibility is easy with outsourced accounting services. You can either pay only for specific services rendered by the outsourcing provider or hire a full-time team. It’s possible to convert fixed costs into variable costs and invest capital in other areas.

Improved decision making

If you handle your company's finances yourself, there's a fair chance that you don't find time to assess your financial situation. It’s because you’re often caught up with endless duties in addition to running your business. So, it’s unlikely that you’re able to make sound business decisions that align with your financial situation.

By outsourcing financial services, you can free up time for other business activities while still being able to keep a tab on your financial picture. The outsourced team keeps you updated on everything with regular financial reporting. As a result, you can make better decisions to ensure business growth and profitability by outsourcing financial services.

Security

A dedicated and good outsourcing service provider follows strict practices and protocols for data protection, security, and client confidentiality. There is no chance of fraud as the external team closely monitors and regulates your accounting and financial activities to ensure everything is on track.

Meeting compliance deadlines

Failure to meet regulatory compliance deadlines can significantly affect your business. It can result in hefty fines or other non-monetary penalties for your business and you personally. For example, non-compliance with deadlines may cause problems in acquiring tax rebates or refunds due to your business. It can also cause trouble when renewing your trading license.

By outsourcing financial services, the external team ensures that your business returns are updated timely. In addition, they ensure that all your business-related financial obligations are fulfilled, and compliance requirements are met.

What Kind of Financial Services can be Outsourced?

The goals and needs of your company determine what kind of tasks you can hand over to your outsourced financial management services. Generally, SMEs often outsource forecasting, budgeting, variance analysis, bookkeeping, cash flow management, etc. Different types of financial and accounting services that can be outsourced are:

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is a time-consuming, repetitive task that demands high-level accuracy. Bookkeeping outsourcing services handle this monotonous task while delivering comprehensive reports. These reports can provide better visibility into your company’s financial data and support informed decision-making.

Moreover, bookkeeping outsourcing provides access to highly qualified bookkeepers who use the latest technology to ensure secure, accurate, and error-free data.

Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable (AR/AP) Management

Outsourcing financial services for AR and AP ensures that you’re paying you on time. They can handle all or any of the following tasks:

Invoice imaging and storing
Invoice approval
Online payment approval
Check processing
Vendor inquiries handling
Order management
Billing and payments
Collection management
Debt management
Cash forecasting and reporting

As a result, you can stay focused on revenue-generating tasks like acquiring new clientele, building business strategies, improving customer experience, etc.

Financial Reporting

Preparing financial documents and reports requires accounting experts and a team of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) who consolidate your income and expenses through financial statements. CPAs record and update your account books while ensuring the security and accuracy of your financial data. Outsourcing financial services to a skilled team of CPAs also creates financial reports for your board members, the general public, and stakeholders.

Financial Planning and Analysis

Your outsourced finance team can provide a detailed evaluation of your company's financial health so that you can make the right business decisions. Outsourcing your financial planning and analysis gives you access to useful resources 24/7. You can access the required financial data anytime you need:

Your outsourced partner can offer the below functions efficiently:

Preparing management reports
Data collection and analysis
Audit support
Board and bank reporting
Investor reporting and communication
Planning, budgeting, and projections
Creating reports for cash flow forecasts

Cost Accounting

Cost accounting is the core of accounting, and it determines the actual costs of any service provided by your company. Cost accountants work collaboratively with supply chain, manufacturing, R&D, and marketing functions to help you make the right pricing decisions.

Business accounting outsourcing makes it easy and smooth to scale up and down your resources according to your growing business needs.

Tax Reporting and Filing

A reliable outsourced financial management services firm can ensure your compliance with federal, state, and local tax laws. They help avoid vulnerabilities to financial and accounting computation errors that can affect your business in the long run. CPAs employed with your outsourcing financial services provider can submit your taxes timely and help with other functions like:

Preparing federal and state income tax returns for your business
Tax assistance
Franchise tax support
Collecting, filing, and paying payroll tax
Tax planning
Recording and reviewing tax statements

Other tasks you can delegate for outsourcing financial services are:

Payroll processing
Forensic accounting
Controller services
And more

Conclusion

By now, you should be clear about how beneficial outsourcing financial services can be. Finally, make sure you hire a reliable outsourced partner with a team of finance specialists and serve as your complete solution for finance and accounting management. Ultimately, they will scale with your growing needs and help your company achieve the desired growth.

5 Live Chat Service Lessons Every Business Should Learn

February 5, 2021September 14, 2022

Live Chat Leads to 48 Increase in Revenue per Chat Hour Heres How

We all live in a digital world. We expect results within minutes. That’s why instant Maggi and coffee are so popular. Similarly, when it comes to online platforms, customers expect instant responses to their queries. Did you know that research shows that the average response time for customer service requests on social media is just 10 hours? With such high competition, it can get tough to grab attention and have business traffic. One way to ensure you have loyal customers and build a positive brand image is by providing the best customer services.

Having your customer’s requests and concerns addressed timely can go a long way in growing your business. One of the best ways of doing this is by implementing live chat services for your business. When you respond to your customers within minutes, they know that you value them. If that isn’t enough to convince you, research from Forrester.com said that live chat is more than 50% cheaper than handling phone calls. But not everyone gets it right when it comes to running live chat services. There are a few No No’s that we need to avoid. Hence, here are five live chat support lessons one should keep in mind!

Gratitude all the way!

One of the most basic mannerisms we learn as a child is to say, “Thank you” and “Sorry.” That’s because those two words have so much weight in them that they can turn tables around in many situations. Similarly, when addressing a customer, being humble and sometimes going the extra mile to ask if they are having a good day can change the entire mood of the conversation. A friendly tone to keep the conversation light also helps in lightening the mood. Furthermore, in a live chat service, apologize first no matter who’s at fault. This generally calms the customer down to get the details right to make sure you take the right actions next.

Being timely earns respect

Solving a customer’s issue quickly is a knack that is essential to determine the success or failure of the customer service experience. But even if one doesn’t manage to do that, make sure you follow up with them later. It’s a good practice to let your customers know what they can expect to hear back from you. Also, try your best to get back to your customer within the promised time frame. This adds a sense of assurance that you genuinely care about your customers. When you respect your customers’ time, they’ll be happy and look forward to repeating their business with you.

The right attitude and skills is a must!

When you are hiring someone to work for you, it’s vital that you have someone not just with the right skills but also the right attitude. Ensure they know your vision is ready to help you achieve it. When you have positive, friendly employees in your team, they tend to go the extra mile and cooperate with you during hectic schedules. This will help you position yourself better to offer a live chat service that will stand out in your industry.

Live chat services is a reflection of how you treat your customers

You cannot expect your staff to provide excellent live chat support when you treat them poorly. That’s one of the reasons when there are so many burnouts during recent times. As a business owner, you need to ensure you have a healthy work environment for your workers. Let them strive and give them space to grow. Simply put, if your employees have a great time at work, so will your customers. This kind of environment is not expensive or time consuming. A simple smile to start your day, encouragement and appreciation when a team member performs well and supporting other employees when they have shortcomings can really help build employee confidence. This in turn, will help you get that ‘wow factor’ that will make you stand out in your industry.

What you cannot measure is something you cannot control

When you are trying to provide the best live chat services, proper measurement of your efforts is essential. Tracking your service pages and URLs is crucial as you need to understand how your business is performing. You wouldn’t want to deploy a landing page without monitoring its impact on sales. The right CRM software can supply essential data points, track your website traffic as well as your employee’s performance. This will also ensure no efforts go wasted and the areas that need improvement. Furthermore, this also avoids the human error of forgetting and misplacing data. It’ll help your employees provide timely email responses and manage sampling outcalls.

Customer services in any business cannot be overlooked no matter how great your product or service is. Subsequently, live chat services have a significant impact on both sales and customer satisfaction. Research by the American Marketing Association found that B2B companies who used live chat service see a 20% increase in conversions! Also, eDigital research paper found that live chat support has the highest satisfaction levels for any customer service channel, with 73%, compared with 61% for email and 44% for phone. Hence by implementing these lessons, you can make a great impression on your customers and your business.

If you are looking for live chat services for your business, Wow customer support is one of the leading live chat outsourcing organizations providing the best 24/7 live chat support at affordable rates. They provide live chat support services to many Fortune 500 companies and top organizations. To know more about their services, click here.

Interesting posts to read:

Earn 2 Times Your Profit with Chat Support Outsourcing

6 Core Benefits of Multiple Customer Support Platforms for eCommerce Business

Why outsource inbound call center services?

24×7 service for your customers

Offers flexibility and scalability

Stability and attractive IT policies

Expert support staff and management

Focus on core operations

No capital investments

Access to the latest technology and tools

Eliminates staffing issues and increases business continuity

Detailed reports on data analytics

Utilize currency exchange rate difference

Wrapping up on Inbound Call Center Services

1. Draw Insights from Past Holiday Trends

2. Pick your Communication Channels and Assign Ownership to Seasonal Customer Support Staff

3. Consider Hiring Remote Seasonal Workers

4. Approach each Conversation with Empathetic Calm and Focus on Fast Solutions

5. Focus on Revenue Based Customer Support Service

Conclusion

Is User-Generated Content Important?

Make Optimum Use Of UGC With Social Media Moderation

Understand The Customers

Up The Quality Of Brand Campaigns

Better Online Visibility

Acts As A Shield To Your Brand And Users

Good To Build Better Relations With Users

Shape The Purchasing Behavior For Good

Implementing UG Content Moderation

Be Clear About The Rules

Outline The Process Of Submission

Adhere To Certain Restrictions

Keep An Eye On Pages With UGC

Link The Marketing Goals With Great User Experiences

Include contact information

Types of Content Moderation

Human-Based Content Moderation

AI Content Moderation

A Hybrid Approach: AI + Human Moderation

Do You Think Your Brand needs Content Moderation?

1. Always Prioritize Customer Experience

2. Use the Right Technology and Tools

3. Establish a Strong Onboarding Process

4. Use Customer Feedback to Improve Performance

5. Provide Omnichannel Support

6. Use VoIP technology to Scale your Agents

7. Use More Interactive Methods to Provide Better Assistance

To Conclude -

What Do You Mean By logistics outsourcing?

Importance of Logistics Management

Better Services and Customer Satisfaction

Higher Efficiency and Supply Chain Transparency

Brand Reliability and Higher Revenue

Cost-efficiency

Relationship between Logistics And Supply Chain Management

What is Outsourcing in Logistics and Supply Chain Management?

Is Outsourcing a Part of Supply Chain Management?

How Does Outsourcing Affect the Supply Chain?

How Can a Logistics Outsourcing Company Help You to Handle Your Supply Chain?

What to Look for When Taking logistics outsourcing Services?

To Conclude

7 Clear-Cut Benefits of Hiring Phone Answering Services

Never miss an opportunity

Increase your productivity

Provide customer service 24/7

Reduce the costs and time spent on calls

Give customers a great impression

Personalize the customer experience

Make your brand stronger

Conclusion

Advantages of dedicated content moderation: Why outsourcing content moderation is the right way?

Protecting your users and brand

Understanding your users and customers

Improving the online visibility of brands

Scaling your campaigns more effectively

Improving the purchasing behavior and process

Enhancing customer relations through online content moderation

Why do you need to outsource content moderation?

A time-consuming responsibility for the in-house staff

The cost burden of hiring in-house content moderators

The hassle of training and buying the necessary tools

The added efficiency of an outsourced team