Optimizing E-commerce Customer Service Through Contact Center Outsourcing
In the face of dynamic growth in e-commerce sales, which reached approximately $5.8 trillion in 2023 according to Statista, the need for effective customer service becomes increasingly evident. Projections indicate a further 39% increase in the coming years, with sales expected to surpass $8 trillion by 2027. As a result, customer service demands are on the rise.
How can this challenge be effectively managed? The answer lies in outsourcing contact center services. This article outlines the key benefits of outsourcing customer service to an external provider, especially for online stores.
Flexible and Rapid Resource Adjustment to Traffic
Customer service load in e-commerce is closely tied to website traffic. During peak periods, such as seasonal sales, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, order volumes can significantly increase.
According to a platform.sh report, e-commerce sites saw up to an 80% increase in traffic during these times compared to previous weeks. On Cyber Monday, site visits rose by 50% compared to an average Monday. Such traffic spikes can heavily burden internal customer service teams, which may struggle to quickly scale the workforce.
Outsourcing contact center services can be an optimal solution, allowing for flexible resource adjustment to current needs without the need for recruitment or infrastructure development.
Outsourced contact centers have HR teams and trainers who can quickly recruit and train new consultants. This means that the client does not have to worry about recruitment or developing internal training processes. Moreover, the external service provider can also scale services down, adjusting the number of employees to current demand.
Multichannel Support
Today’s customers expect to choose their preferred communication channel, making multichannel support the standard. From phone communication, email, website chat, to social media – a variety of channels allows better alignment with customer expectations. An outsourced contact center can handle all or selected communication channels, providing detailed reports that help analyze data and optimize customer service strategies.
Sample services provided by VCC for e-commerce companies include:
- answering product and service questions, shipping information
- managing customer accounts
- collecting customer feedback
- handling returns and exchanges
- managing loyalty programs
- supporting and closing sales
- navigating customers in an omnichannel environment
- supporting B2B relationship management
- back office activities related to product positioning and presentation.
Service Quality
An outsourced contact center operates based on agreed-upon KPIs, such as response times to customer emails, call duration, NPS survey results, and more. Ensuring high service quality and consultant efficiency is the responsibility of the service provider. External contact centers employ established processes for monitoring and improving service quality.
Multilingual Customer Service
For e-commerce stores operating in international markets, customer service must meet the linguistic requirements of their customers. Partnering with a contact center provides access to a team of multilingual consultants, positively impacting customer satisfaction and the company’s image. Outsourcing also reduces costs related to recruitment, training, and operational expenses.
Voice Contact Center offers the LinGO service, which provides multilingual customer support in languages such as Polish, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, and Hungarian. If other languages are needed, the HR team and trainers can quickly recruit and train new consultants.
Advanced Technologies
Outsourcing providers often possess advanced technologies like chatbots, voicebots, and analytical tools. Implementing these technologies is faster compared to a company doing it independently. Contact centers with their own technologies can tailor these tools to the specific needs of the online store’s customer service.
Voice Contact Center offers Primebot – an AI-based tool that can handle repetitive tasks in inbound and outbound contact centers. Primebot is also a cost-effective solution, managing phone calls in multiple languages and supporting customer feedback surveys after sales promotions.
One of the main challenges in e-commerce is shopping cart abandonment. Automation systems, such as chatbots, can help recover abandoned carts by offering assistance in completing purchases and recommending products suited to customer needs.
Implementing contact center services in an online store typically takes from a few days to several weeks, depending on the project scale and IT system integration.
Voice Contact Center has its own tool, Boromir, designed to analyze, monitor, and optimize the work of consultants and contact center operations. Boromir’s functions include:
- analyzing the number of consultant posts on the Teams platform
- monitoring question frequency and response times
- identifying peak activity periods
- assessing consultant efficiency
- analyzing traffic patterns.
Results of using Boromir in a project for a leading e-commerce company in Poland include:
- quality improvement by 10 percentage points, reaching 94% positive ratings
- eeducing agent response time by 3 minutes (a 50% decrease)
- reducing consultation time by 35%, resulting in financial savings and better utilization of team leaders’ time
- reducing the number of consultation channels from 12 to 9
Outsourcing contact center services is a strategy that can significantly enhance customer service efficiency, reduce costs, and provide flexibility in resource management.
Boosting Customer Service Efficiency through Outsourcing
Outsourcing contact center services is a strategic solution that can significantly boost the efficiency and quality of customer service in online stores. Partnering with external providers allows for flexible resource management, quick adaptation to dynamic traffic changes, and the use of advanced technologies such as chatbots and analytical tools.
This enables companies to focus on their core activities while ensuring high-quality customer service across multiple communication channels. Outsourcing is an investment that brings tangible benefits in both the short and long term.
Author: Patrycja Hala Saçan, Senior Content Specialist, OEX VCC.