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Customer trust is vital, but businesses might struggle with dedicating resources to maintain it. Fortunately, this is where offshoring can help. 

Businesses have a lot of responsibilities to prioritize, but none prove to be more valuable than building customer trust. It can be in every action, even in the little things. While it might not be a priority when you make upgrades for your operations or pursue digitalization, it certainly will be for the people you try to convert into customers. A recent survey from Edelman shows that 81% of customers only buy from companies they trust. Therefore, businesses should be active in building the ideal relationship in every way possible, whether through marketing strategies, product improvement, or client servicing.

Building customer trust should be part of every business decision, but there is one outlier where you might have to double your efforts when trying to achieve it. The Customer Service division is at the forefront of building customer trust. The department is responsible for listening to and solving customer concerns, tracking consumer behavior, and collecting feedback, among other things. Hence, companies dedicate funds and resources to strengthen their customer outreach efforts.

Businesses are in the midst of digital transformation, and customer service could definitely benefit from the many advancements pursued by digital and online technologies. However, how do we balance this with actual human interaction? After all, isn’t building trust more effective in a face-to-face environment?

Digitalization's Opportunities Come with Challenges

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Customer service is the bridge that cultivates the dynamic between businesses and people. Innovation, marketing strategies, and online presence can be great ways to build healthy relationships for people. But those pale compared to the trust and reliability seamless refunds and returns processes, fast response to complaints and queries, and transparency can provide.

Part of the reason why customer service is so effective in building consumer trust is that it is among the only steps where consumers can feel like they are connecting with the people behind the business. They can interact with people behind the counter or the phone, voicing out their concerns and requests, knowing that someone is actually listening on the other end. This situation is where digitalization can encounter unprecedented challenges.

Digitalization aims to streamline processes that take up a lot of time, among many things. Everything seems to trend toward robots taking over duties that people used to perform. Performing repetitive tasks, transforming manual labor-heavy responsibilities, and automating workload are among its benefits.

One particular area made significant changes to customer service more than others. It is incredible how much things changed when Digital Marketing arrived. Businesses can now reach out to their targeted audience through content and outreach, using different tools brought by digitalization’s advancements. It isn’t just a trick to convince companies to say they are innovating. Building a strong digital marketing team can be exponentially profitable and effective. As a result, the division is often the blueprint or stepping stone for businesses approaching digitalization.

It’s a bit more challenging when it comes to Customer Service. Many customer service tools are coming out of the business landscape’s digital innovation. Everything that confuses customers is on the business website or related links. Companies utilize chatbots, FAQs, customer portals, and self-service sites to innovate customer service, similar to how they did marketing.

As beneficial as those tools might be for customer service tasks, they take away the chances of customers to voice out their unique concerns. In the end, it feels like they are talking to machines instead of actual people. This shows how digitalization is a whole process, not a one-time solution.

Customer service is a critical part of a company’s effort to maintain a healthy connection with consumers. Letting them share their concerns through automated programs might only make the customer experience unpleasant, causing a strain on the relationship.

Effective Customer Service Still Requires People

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Customer service benefits, and always will, from innovation. Digital programs and tools can provide unsatisfied or hesitant customers with all the information they need to answer their concerns, preventing companies from wasting resources on repetitive requests or concerns.

A McKinsey & Company survey shows that companies reduce costs by almost 30% while improving customer satisfaction ratings to 19%. As long as it is accomplished correctly, digitalization in customer service can be effective. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take away that most consumers have unique concerns or circumstances beyond the options addressed by chatbots and other digital customer care tools. 

Building customer trust is more achievable and efficient when using digital tools with a human touch. Communication has always been, and will be, between people. Not with one side as machines. Thus, customer representatives and call center agents are still essential personnel for this department.

Unfortunately, dedicating funds and resources to the business function can be costly when performed in-house. Companies might be attending to hundreds of customers at once. If that is the case, the better, less costly option might be creating an offshore customer representative team. Even the most profitable business quarter might not sustain your operations if you do the math. Fortunately, one country excels in providing talent for customer service over others.

Offshoring to the Philippines for Customer Service

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Often hailed as the BPO capital of the world, the Philippines provides a large talent pool of customer representatives with all the right tools to build customer trust for international organizations. Here are a few of the benefits you will receive when you partner with an offshoring company for customer service staffing:

Cost-Efficiency

Businesses will always factor in funding for all business decisions. If your company requires more customer representatives, the recruitment and hiring costs attached to the task could cripple the venture financially. The monthly bill will look insurmountable when you add the equipment and tools necessary to provide customer service. Offshoring services can help businesses save on investment by up to 70% reduced costs.

High Literacy Rate

Communication is an integral part of customer service. Therefore, you’ll need customer representatives and call center agents with mastery of the English language. No country provides more fluent English speakers with neutral accents than the Philippines. Boasting high marks in English proficiency, among the highest in Asia, well-spoken Philippine customer representatives can communicate effectively with unsatisfied consumers. An astounding 98.2% of Philippine workers can speak English, and they don’t have strong accents that make communication with customers difficult. English proficiency is among the most notable traits that make the Philippine workforce one of the most attractive sources for customer representative offshoring.

Work Attitude

Organizations can rest easy knowing they have talented offshore teams from the Philippines to handle customer service. Moreover, talent is far from the only element they can offer. Filipino workers are also trustworthy, highly adaptive, optimistic, and open to criticism and suggestions for improvement. These attractive qualities can ensure your investment will be worth it.

There is a reason why the Philippines earned the monicker, BPO capital of the world. With over 1.3 million local workers employed in hundreds of outsourcing and offshoring companies, the Philippines relies on the BPO industry as one of its economic pillars.

Conclusion

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The digital era is progressive for businesses, but it doesn’t mean there are no challenges to overcome. Maintaining personal connections should always be part of the customer experience, especially in the post-purchase stages.

Gaining customer trust is a vital component of business growth and success. Without it, companies can lose consumers to business rivals that prioritize customer service. Despite the many benefits of digitalization, businesses must still connect consumers with customer representatives.

Offshoring to the Philippines can be a beneficial solution. If you want talented customer representatives for your business within 30 days max, you can book a 15-minute call here for a fast setup.