Customer service is one of the most important factors customers consider when choosing a company, but it’s one many businesses get wrong.
Buying a service or product is much more emotional and complicated than people like to meet. It’s more than just a transaction. People want to have an emotional connection with their products. They want to support companies that mirror their values and attitudes in life. Much of what people feel about a company starts and ends with their customer service experience. Get it right and you can have a loyal customer for life. Get it wrong and you’ll push them into the arms of your competitors.
This fact is one reason why the idea of hiring a remote customer service team can be controversial. When done right it can deliver a host of benefits but when done wrong it can impose further barriers between you and your customers.
The move to remote customer service
If you’re considering hiring a remote customer service team, you’re not alone. Remote customer service roles surged during the pandemic. Covid-19 created a perfect storm. Lockdown meant businesses had to think of new ways of working, and faster digital communications meant they no longer needed a customer service team based onsite to engage with customers.
Now they could easily outsource to another location or have teams of remote customer service agents connecting to your systems from their homes. Customers quickly became accustomed to the idea of customer service agents speaking to them directly from their living rooms.
Covid may have provided the impetus, but the drive to hire remote customer service teams has continued apace. Companies have been driven by several factors including:
• Lower costs: Remote customer service teams can be more cost-effective than in-house teams. By outsourcing to another organization or hiring freelancers you can free up space in your office and reduce equipment costs. If you hire remote customer service agents in a country with cheaper labor costs, you can also keep employment costs much more affordable.
• Flexibility: A remote customer service team enables you to scale operations up and down as you need them. It can provide extra capacity at peak times. If you hire remote customer service agents overseas, you can have them operate in a completely different time zone allowing you to offer 24/7 support.
• Wider talent pool: With an in-house team you’re restricted to professional representatives who can commute to your office. By hiring remote staff you can broaden the talent pool to potentially include the entire world.
The risks of hiring remote customer service
The overriding motivation behind remote customer service operations has always been affordability. The ability to take advantage of lower labor costs and friendlier employment laws prompted many companies to move customer service functions offshore. Countries such as India and the Philippines earned a lucrative niche in providing UK companies with bargain basement customer service teams. However, that came as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they saved money, but their customers were not happy.
Communication difficulties created friction in the customer experience. Complaints were common. Businesses quickly discovered that customer service was much more than an operational cost. When customers experience poor service they look for alternatives.
Many firms such as Lloyds TSB and BT began to bring back customer service functions in-house, but that doesn’t mean customers have abandoned call centers or that there is no need for remote customer service. Far from it. Instead, attitudes are changing with a much greater attitude toward quality and value.
Wherever customer service operations are based, they need to be able to provide first-rate customer service. This has prompted businesses to look at new locations for remote customer service staff. One promising option in particular is South Africa.
At first glance, South Africa seems to have everything:
• The language and time zones are a good match for the UK. English is widely spoken with a clear, fluent neutral accent.
• So too is the culture. South Africans share many of the same sports and pastimes making it easier to empathise with customers.
• Staff are highly trained with a commitment to quality. South Africa prides itself on a reputation for providing outstanding customer service results. Companies maintain a commitment to best practices and adhere to internationally recognized standards of data security and accountability.
• The workforce is young, diverse, upwardly mobile, and highly educated – everything you want from a customer service agent. There is also a wide and deep talent pool incorporating multiple disciplines which makes it a good option for many different areas of expertise.
• The government has worked hard to attract foreign investment. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has become the country’s top export. Any company that creates employment for local South Africans can potentially receive valuable tax breaks, incentives, and grants.
• Best of all the cost of labor is much lower than in Europe. When government support is factored in hiring remote customer service teams in South Africa can be as cheap as in the lowest-cost destinations.
How to hire remote customer service teams
South Africa offers a no-compromise solution – a place where you can optimize your costs without compromising on quality. However, when you hire South African staff you will have to make sure you comply with the regulations. Employment laws are strict and the penalties for non-compliance can be high.
The traditional approach of setting up a local legal entity in the form of a local branch or subsidiary can be expensive and comes with compliance risks. Understanding the rules can be difficult in a foreign country.
A cheaper and safer option can be to go with a local intermediary in the form of an Employer of Record, a Professional Employers Organization, or an Agent of Record.
They all serve similar roles but differ slightly. An EOR serves as the legal employer of remote customer service teams and will handle operations such as PAYE, tax deductions staff entitlements, and all other legal and administrative duties. As the legal employer in South Africa, they will have liability for those employees which protects your business. You will pay a set fee to the EOR and they will pay the wages of the employees.
A PEO is a slightly different approach in which employment is shared. They handle the legal and admin duties, while you manage the day-to-day relationship with your employees.
An AOR, meanwhile, tends to be for freelancers and independent contractors. It will handle details such as onboarding, contracts, and worker classification.
Each of them offers the same proposition – a chance to benefit from local experts who can shoulder the legal and compliance requirements of managing staff. They can help with sourcing the right people and navigating the legal requirements of employment law. They can do all this without you having to set up an expensive legal entity in the country.
Customer service, therefore, should be a top priority. By hiring remote customer service staff, you can give your company all the tools it needs to thrive. To find out more download a PDF guide free of charge.
