December 30, 2008, 6:12 PM — As companies grow, dealing with that growth can be quite an ordeal to manage. An increasing volume of orders can be a strain on staff. For technology companies, this problem is twofold: not only do they need more staff time to continue to enhance their products, but they also need more staff to provide technical support to customers. The challenge of providing tech support is the greater of these two tasks - lengthy calls requiring highly experienced technical staff can consume a larger and larger part of their valuable time. Fortunately, outsourcing technical support to a trusted partner can alleviate this problem. With the right outsourcing, companies can free up their resources and meet the challenge of growth head-on.
Companies often become concerned as they face the reality that increased sales volume means
bringing on board increased resources. There is a quite legitimate apprehension that bringing
on new full-time staff could prove a dangerous move if sales volumes recede. For technology
companies, especially in software development, growing sales equal growing demands on
tech support, placing the greatest immediate pressure for expansion on tech support centers.
Outsourcing offers a way to deal with an increased volume of tech support without taking on
new staff. The savings can be considerable, and the risk is lowered--companies can handle an
increase in volume without taking on the risk of overextending themselves.
Technical Support Outsourcing Enables Companies to Maximize Resources
In addition to reducing risk, outsourcing technical support frees up other internal resources
needed for growth. In a small company, the same employees who provide tech support are
also often the ones doing research and development. Freeing them from tech support calls
means more time to develop products. Providing the challenge of R&D work can also aid in
employee retention. Thus, a successful technical support-outsourcing program can maximize
the effectiveness of existing technical staff. Outsourcing tech support is especially useful in
today’s economy when the focus is on cost avoidance. Building out a technical support call
center requires space, equipment (such as redundant VoIP telephone systems, automatic call
distribution systems, software packages that include skills based routing, etc.), and a failover
plan and of course staff. In these unstable economic times, companies must find a way to
provide the quality support that is critical to product sales while also practicing capital
conservation.
One of the greatest benefits of outsourcing is the opportunity to provide a higher level of
service, in the form of longer hours of tech support, thus creating a more solid, professional
image for a company. Customers increasingly expect near 24-hour technical support; they
have come to view extended hours of support as the norm. Meeting this expectation can often
be an important deciding factor when customers consider recommending a product or
company to others. It is also vital to fostering repeat business from existing customers. Many
small businesses want to offer extended hours of support, but cannot afford to hire the
additional dedicated staff required to make it happen. This is when they begin to consider
outsourcing some or all of their technical support operations.
What to Look for When Outsourcing Technical Support
Growing companies often think about outsourcing, but are reluctant to try it for several main
reasons:
Concerns about the quality of the service – a technical support
provider directly interacts with a company’s customers
Concerns about seamlessness, if outsourced support is provided as
an adjunct to in-house support.
Concerns that outsourcing plans available will not fit their business
model.
Quality service, seamless integration with in-house support, and plans tailored to specific
business models are fully realizable as long as a company asks the right questions of potential
providers up front. What kind of call and customer satisfaction metrics can they provide?
How will they ensure that your calls are answered in a timely fashion? How will they train
their representatives to support your application or product? The answers to these questions
and more should be included in a Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Quality is a key to seamless integration with existing in-house support. Inforonics has a long
track record of providing highly experienced, highly trained, onshore technical support staff.
The quality of service is consistently the highest in the industry, with Inforonics becoming the
top choice for many rapidly growing tech companies. Inforonics’ highly trained staff can
quickly understand a client’s products and provide top-notch support. And that means that
customers will receive the same quality of assistance as they do from a client’s in-house staff,
though often times it is better. Outsourcing to an expert in providing technical support
ensures timely and consistent service is delivered to your customers, features your in-house
staff may not be able to deliver based on other job responsibilities and skill sets.
Also important to seamless integration is dealing with an experienced outsourcing company,
who can work with clients to truly understand their technology and their business goals. It’s
not enough for a call center provider to understand outsourcing - they must also be able to
understand the specific technology of a client. Clients need to be assured that the provider
they choose is on the same page with them. At every point of contact between a client
company and an outsourcing provider, being on the same page is often a matter of having a
provider who has expertise in a wide variety of technologies, and has formulated outstanding
processes and procedures for each one.
A high level of experience also enables a technical support services provider to be responsive
to clients’ needs, tailoring their outsourcing programs to a range of businesses. Every
company has a unique set of conditions they bring to any outsourcing program. Their budget,
product, target market and current staffing levels - all these factors play a role in determining
the ideal outsourcing model. While a mid-size business-to-business company may need only
supplementary call center support, perhaps outside normal business hours, a small consumer
product company may feel more comfortable having their entire support operations handled
externally. A provider, who is knowledgeable about not just a variety of technologies, but also
a variety of business models, is able to anticipate a range of outsourcing needs and tailor their
solutions to meet those needs.
Outsourcing can provide numerous benefits to an expanding company and ensure a satisfying
technical support experience for customers. More than ever, now is a good time for
technology companies to explore the benefits of a tailored tech support outsourcing program.
How Inforonics Can Help
Regardless of what specific technology space your company is in, whether it is leading-edge
consumer products or business-to-business enterprise solutions, Inforonics can provide you
with exceptional outsourcing services. Tailored to your business model, our services can be:
- a complete solution, providing all your technical support, or
- a supplementary program, adding extended hours or additional expertise to your inhouse
support
Whichever solution you choose, we will work with you to make sure that our technical
support outsourcing service meets your needs.
To find out more about how Inforonics can help you meet the challenges of a growing
business, visit http://www.inforonics.com/outsourced-support.aspx or call 978.698.6593.
About Inforonics
Inforonics helps its clients succeed with solutions to their business and technology challenges.
Inforonics’ team of professionals deliver premium managed services and branded technical
support to small to mid-sized businesses. Clients benefit from the company’s unique ability
to create, deploy and support highly customizable, scalable and flexible services to meet
changing business needs.
Inforonics offers branded, multi-tiered, outsourced technical support - up to 24/7; device
management and monitoring solutions in its clients’ data centers or in their scalable, secure
facility; custom application management and SaaS-enablement services. Based in Littleton,
MA, Inforonics has been a privately-held company for over 40 years. For more information,
visit www.inforonics.com.
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trademarks or registered trademarks of Inforonics, LLC. All other names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
