4 Ways BPOs Can Boost Customer Service and Support Retail

Over the past year, retailers experienced a fair amount of turmoil, from inflation and supply chain issues to a labor shortage and more. In 2023, the pendulum may once again swing, throwing up even more roadblocks as a potential recession may pressure retailers to reassess their labor allocations and cut already-thin workforces to reduce costs.

However, reducing headcount isn’t the only way to cut costs, and doing so can come at a high price: customer satisfaction. Instead, retailers looking to preserve their customer experience may want to explore the benefits of partnering with a company that can offer expertise to lighten the load.

The Benefits of a BPO

As retailers take steps to overcome these hurdles, engaging with business process outsourcers (BPOs) can help companies overcome short-term challenges without threatening long-term success. Offloading certain processes — e.g., customer service management, manual order review and processing, and billing — to experienced BPOs allows retailers to enjoy a variety of benefits, including increased flexibility, lowered risk, improved labor pools, and boosted efficiency.

Flexibility

Utilizing a BPO can help retailers build more agile strategies and systems, which is incredibly important when navigating the roadblocks retailers have been experiencing. These businesses are designed with efficiency and flexibility in mind, allowing companies to pivot and scale to meet changing market demands.

For example, if there's a spike in demand for customer service — like around a holiday, during the back-to-school rush, or in response to a product recall — BPOs can allocate more personnel to teams, train new workers, and oversee progress. When demand drops back to average levels, BPOs can manage employee numbers and reallocate associates to different teams. Or, if a more prolonged demand spike occurs, BPOs can re-strategize and suggest alternative methods that may drive better long-term results.

Reduced Risk

Using a BPO can also remove risk for retailers, helping leaders find more peace of mind while still running efficient and successful companies. This is especially true for customer service operations, where assets like contact centers or dedicated teams appear as large investments without obvious financial returns to the powers that be.

Tapping into a BPO puts the responsibility for those investments elsewhere. They take on the risks associated with staffing, managing teams, onboarding, and more. When partnering with BPOs, companies get to offer top-quality customer service without all the risk and stress.

New Labor Pools

From increased supply costs to rising wages, retailers are seeing budgets rise across business areas. Rising labor costs, in particular, are a source of stress for retailers, especially those whose operations are based in high-cost cities. Partnering with a BPO for customer service or other remote positions allows employers to source labor from other regions to help keep costs low while business continues as usual.

Hiring additional employees or adding a new line item may feel counterintuitive when cutting back on costs, but bringing on new people in lower-cost areas can actually save companies money in the long run. For example, if a business’ operations are based in New York City or San Francisco, utilizing a BPO to hire customer service representatives in a more rural area can help reduce costs while still keeping teams staffed and efficient.

Furthermore, the return can be even more significant when working with a company with an international presence. In fact, a BPO with operations in countries like the Philippines, Colombia or India can help companies cut costs even more significantly while improving the business’ international reach.

Expert Insights

Ultimately, working with a BPO means getting experience and expertise. All of the above improvements stem from partnering with a company that's core business rests on enabling others to improve efficiency and quality. BPOs have access to the newest technology, tried-and-true strategies for success, vast talent pools, and effective training methods — and that allows them to deliver programs that go above and beyond what most enterprises can do in-house.

For example, customer experience BPOs have specialized teams who focus on optimizing processes to reduce call times, deflecting contacts, and resolving customer issues. That means better execution, fewer mistakes, more unique ideas, and more satisfied customers, allowing leaders across industries to get back to the core functions of their own businesses.

A Future With BPOs

It’s clear that now, more than ever, retailers must take a step back and look at the big picture. Between inflation, supply chain issues, layoffs, and a potential recession, building more streamlined and productive teams has the potential to make a significant impact on businesses’ ability to achieve their goals.

BPOs can help companies do just that. When retailers decide to outsource, not only will they get a significant return on their investments, but they'll become more agile, confident and productive. With a potentially tumultuous year on the horizon, seeking the guidance of experienced teams will be the key to success.

Giuseppe Ficarra is senior vice president of global business development at Majorel, a leading global provider of next-generation end-to-end customer experience (CX) solutions for digital-native and vertical-leading brands.