Help Desk Outsourcing: Customer Care and Culture

Help desk outsourcing may be one of the biggest areas of growth in the outsourcing industry, but business owners should be careful when outsourcing such functions if the ultimate aim is to run a profitable business.

Before outsourcing the help desk function of your business, there are a number of things you should take into consideration to avoid adverse effects of outsourcing wrongly. The two most important of them all are:

• Customer service function
• Target audience cultural appeal

CUSTOMER SERVICE FUNCTION

The very first thing that comes to mind when you hear “help desk” is customer service. The reason is that help desk is one of the biggest points of contact between an organization and the general public. In a lot of cases, the help desk might even be the only point of contact between an organization and its consumers. So it is a very important position in every business.

Since the help desk function is this important to an organization, businesses should only outsource such function to service providers that are passionate and knowledgeable about the business. It might take a while for the service provider to get a hold of the core values of a company, but it is better to spend time schooling the customer care personnel that to have a half baked representative stand in as a help desk attendant for your organization.

Still on the issue of knowing the core values of an organization, business owners will gain more if they carry out in-depth research about a company they want to outsource their help desk function to. They can also consult the outsourced service provider’s past clients on their level of efficiency and experience before going ahead to outsource to them. One can never be too careful.

TARGET AUDIENCE CULTURAL APPEAL

Cultural differences have been one of the major reasons for reduced communication between businesses and their customers, and this can be sorted out while outsourcing the help desk function.

Culture is what makes you who you are. It is what makes you different from other cultural group, and it goes a long way to determine how well you can relate with another person. There is high probability that you can relate better with a person you have the same cultural background with as opposed to a person with a different cultural background entirely.

In that light, the help desk representative you outsource your services to should be someone who at least understands and appreciate the cultural background of your clients and prospects. This will give him or her better basis for communicating and understanding the customers efficiently.

Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.