Providing excellent customer service is crucial for home services businesses to stand out in a competitive market. But delivering 24/7 support with limited internal resources can be challenging. Partnering with an experienced outsourced call center can provide valuable benefits for your home services customers.
Here are 5 key ways outsourcing your call center can improve customer satisfaction:
- Increased Availability
One of the biggest perks of outsourcing is gaining the ability to offer customer support at all hours. A dedicated team working across time zones can handle after-hours and overnight calls when your in-house staff is off duty. This ensures customers can get assistance whenever issues arise rather than waiting until morning. Round-the-clock coverage also enables customers to call at their convenience after work and on weekends. This flexibility and always-on access results in greater satisfaction.
According to Accenture research, 63% of customers expect service outside of normal business hours. Outsourced partners can cover:
- After-hours (40% of call volume hits after business hours per a RingCentral survey of service businesses)
- Overnights
- Weekends
- Holidays
Outsourced partners with staffing capabilities can easily scale up during peak periods like holidays to provide seamless overflow support.
Unlike an in-house call center with a fixed number of employees, outsourced call centers maintain large teams of specialized agents. They leverage this economy of scale to flexibly align staffing levels with client demand.
For example, during seasonal spikes an outsourced partner can quickly ramp up the number of dedicated agents temporarily to handle the increased call volume. They can also extend hours easily by adding overnight and weekend shifts.
Similarly, as a client's business grows over time, the outsourced team can smoothly increase headcount and capacity in line with call volumes. If call traffic drops, capacity can be reduced to optimize costs.
This scalable model based on maintaining high agent occupancy and capacity provides flexibility difficult for solo in-house call centers to match. The outsourced partner absorbs the staffing complexity on behalf of their clients. This enables home service companies to deliver consistent, responsive support regardless of fluctuations.
Forbes notes that home services can see 25-40% sales increases by offering 24/7 intake and scheduling. No customer should be ignored simply because they called at 9pm instead of 9am.
- Reduced Wait Times
Nothing frustrates customers more than spending endless time on hold. Outsourced call centers leverage economies of scale with large teams of specialized agents. This added capacity compared to limited in-house staff translates to reduced wait times for your customers.
With prompt, speedy responses, callers feel their time is valued. Outsourced partners also implement the latest call routing and IVR technologies to efficiently distribute calls. Advanced ACD’s provide real-time data to align staffing levels with demand.
According to a survey by Marchex, long hold times have caused 61% of consumers to not complete a purchase they were considering. Quick call pick up shows customers their business is important.
Outsourced call centers like Dexcomm maintain average speed to answer of less than 30 seconds. Cutting wait times boosts satisfaction significantly.
- Higher First Call Resolution
Studies show that successfully resolving a customer issue on the initial call has a significant impact on overall satisfaction. Outsourced call centers invest heavily in agent training to drive effective call resolution.
Partners with dedicated experience in home services also equip their teams with specialized knowledge on technical topics. Continually updated information pages made up of FAQs, documentation, and call history data on each customer also aid in solving issues quickly.
According to ICMI, first call resolution averages 22% higher at outsourced centers compared to in-house teams. When problems get fixed the first time customers call, the perception of service quality increases.
Advanced training and industry expertise facilitate faster diagnosis, dispatching the optimal technician with the right skills and parts the first time.
- Increased Professionalism
For many home service companies, call center roles are filled by office administrators or field technicians rather than professional customer service reps. Outsourced partners only hire agents with the aptitude and empathy required to deliver exceptional service.
These agents are specifically trained and skilled in areas like active listening, verbal communication, de-escalation techniques, and conflict resolution. With no distractions from other tasks, they remain laser-focused on providing excellent customer experiences.
Outsourced agents are challenged to grow continuously through ongoing investment in partnership meetings and luminary visits that help instill a sense of the home services company's culture of care into the call process. Agents then have exposure to part of key internal DNA and feel integrated into the team working from a different location.
According to Harvard Business Review, customers with the highest satisfaction tend to feel an emotional connection to the company beyond just efficient service. Outsourced agents adept in relationship-building provide that all-important personal touch.
- Better Technology
Outsourced call centers invest in state-of-the-art technology stacks tailored for their specialty. This includes advanced call center communication systems, cloud-based network infrastructures, automated call routing tools, and robust reporting dashboards.
Outsourced call centers also invest in power and telephony redundancy that are not present in smaller home services business. Single points of failure for your telephony provider will cause your customers to not be able to reach you and move on to the next available business. A power outage means that your operation is at a standstill. Major call centers have multiple power sources and telephony from different underlying providers and they are geographically resilient.
Partners integrate APIs with your internal platforms to unify data. This technology arsenal optimizes the efficiency and accuracy of all call center operations. Smaller home service businesses simply can’t match these tech capabilities on their own budget. Investments in technology fuel better performance.
The Bottom Line
Delivering exceptional 24/7 customer service is table stakes for home services companies in today’s on-demand world. Outsourcing your call center to specialized partners provides access to expertise, technology, and resources difficult to match internally. This gives your customers the professional, responsive support they expect around the clock.
By leveraging economies of scale, home services businesses can offer big company service with small company care and compassion. Partnering with experienced outsourced call center experts provides strategic advantages tailored for the unique needs of your industry.
Want to learn more about how outsourced call centers can benefit your home service business? Download our free eBook "The Home Services Guide to Outsourced Call Centers" to get an in-depth overview.
