7 Best Practices for Outsourcing Ecommerce Customer Service

With the growth of your ecommerce business, support requests inevitably rise, reaching a point where your current team might struggle to keep up.

Whether you have a single agent managing all the tasks or an established support team, the challenge remains the same – do you continue to hire internally, or is there a more scalable solution to enhance both your user experience and your team’s capacity?

When you find yourself at this crossroads, outsourcing can be the answer.

For over three decades, businesses have realized the financial and operational benefits of shifting customer support to business process outsourcing (BPO) providers. Outsourcing can reduce costs, streamline processes, improve service quality, and enable efficient scaling.

If you’re contemplating outsourcing your ecommerce support operations, this guide will help you navigate the process successfully. We’ll walk you through best practices and share real-life examples to help you launch a successful outsourced customer service team.

7 Best Practices for Outsourcing Ecommerce Customer Service

There are a ton of benefits to outsourcing ecommerce support. But if you want to realize those benefits in your organization, you need to make sure you’re following best practices for outsourcing your ecommerce support.

Here are the seven most important best practices you should keep in mind.

1. Focus on efficiency over the cheapest hourly rate

It’s tempting to choose the lowest-cost provider and hire an outsourced team to handle repetitive tasks using canned responses. You might think you’re saving money, but in fact, you’re missing out on significant efficiency gains.

Instead, consider partnering with an experienced BPO team that can help streamline your operations by fully automating common inquiries. With this approach, only complex issues requiring human intervention will be handled by agents, optimizing both your costs and your team’s productivity.

In our experience, about 80% of ecommerce support tickets typically fall into standard categories, like “Do you ship to my country?”, “Can I cancel my order?”, “Where is my order?”, “Can I return the product?”, “My order arrived damaged”, and so on.

These common issues have standard solutions and can be automated with better notification emails, FAQ resources, generative AI chatbots, and more informative product pages.

By investing in self-service and automating repetitive queries, you can reduce your total support volume and cut costs in the long run—regardless of whether your outsourcing partner charges per ticket or per hour.

For example, at Embark, Peak Support successfully automated 75% of their live chat volume by implementing an advanced bot performing at an impressive 96% resolution rate.

However, it’s essential to keep customer experience at the forefront when automating. We strike a balance by combining automation with a strong focus on customer satisfaction, maintaining a 97% CSAT across the board for the Embark team.

2. Train your BPO team as if they were internal team members

When partnering with a BPO provider, it’s easy to think of them as an external entity that should figure things out on their own. While outsourcing customer support certainly reduces your workload, it’s vital to provide thorough training to the initial agents who onboard.

This helps them understand and become passionate about your product, mission, and culture—ultimately leading to better quality support.

• Share the “why” behind your brand voice guidelines, standard operating procedures, and key decisions.
• Explain what emotions you want to evoke in customers and dive into your brand’s history and mission to build excitement around your products. For example, if you sell clothing, highlight what makes your pieces special, even down to small details like the stitching on the hem.
• If possible, send samples of your products to your BPO team. This allows them to experience the product firsthand, enhancing their ability to answer customer questions about materials, usage, and care with greater accuracy.

Remember, while setting up the partnership for success does require some effort, it’s an investment that pays off.

You won’t need to train every agent as if they were in-house. Typically, your first hire will onboard additional agents, passing along the knowledge and context you’ve shared with them as the team grows.

3. Delegate routine tasks

Outsourcing routine tasks like data entry, returns processing, and order management can free up your in-house team to focus on more strategic initiatives while keeping your BPO team engaged during periods of low support volume.

This is especially beneficial for seasonal products like beach accessories or ski equipment. During the off-season, agents can assist with backend tasks, and during peak seasons, they can fully focus on support tickets.

But don’t limit your outsourced team to just basic tasks. 

For instance, you can involve support agents who already understand the ins and outs of your business in more crucial operations, such as supporting influencer marketing efforts.

While initial outreach to influencers can often be fully automated, having your BPO team handle follow-up communications adds a personal touch, helping to nurture stronger relationships with influencers.

With clear decision trees, templates, and brand voice guidelines, your BPO team can manage influencer communications, send samples, and track promotions on your behalf. Regular reporting will keep you informed and in control of the process.

4. Set up recurring meetings with your BPO team

Effective communication is the backbone of successful customer service operations. By establishing clear and consistent lines of communication, you can prevent delays and misalignment, ensuring swift action when issues arise.

One of the best ways to maintain this clarity is by scheduling regular meetings with your BPO team. Setting aside time weekly or bi-weekly allows you to stay informed about customer concerns while also keeping your outsourced team updated on the latest product developments and business plans.

These regular check-ins are great for reviewing reports and discussing trending issues in customer tickets, which often helps spot potential problems with warehouse or shipping services early on. It’s also a great place for sharing feedback to help your BPO team align their performance with your expectations.

To make these sessions productive, ensure that you’ve scheduled calendar events well in advance and granted both parties the ability to update the agenda. This way, everyone can prepare for the discussion.

A typical agenda might include:

• Reviewing trending customer issues and discussing solutions to tackle the root causes.
• Evaluating KPIs and aligning expectations.
• Sharing key business updates with the BPO team.
• Additional time for agents to bring up specific cases or share frontline insights, such as praise and common customer complaints.

Frequent and thoughtful communication not only keeps everyone on the same page but also helps your BPO agents develop a deeper understanding and passion for your product, mission, and culture. This connection enhances the quality of support they provide to your customers.

5. Monitor reviews, tickets, and comments on social media

Reviewing your BPO’s reporting is a good start, but to truly understand the level of support your customers are receiving, you need to dig deeper.

Some BPO providers use their own tools, but at Peak Support we prefer to use our clients tools. Whichever approach you take, you should always have access to the help desk tool your team is using. It’s essential to look at the raw data in your help desk analytics. Review recent customer satisfaction scores and feedback, and check response and resolution times to see if they match your expectations.

Better yet, take the time to read through your online reviews and comments on social media, and go over recent frontline tickets. This will give you a much clearer picture of the actual support quality.

This doesn’t have to consume a lot of your time. Set a reminder or block off just 20 minutes each week to review key KPIs and skim through the most recent tickets and comments. This quick check will help you assess whether the support quality meets your standards.

If you’re not satisfied with what you see, don’t hesitate to share your concerns immediately or bring them up at your next meeting. This gives your BPO partner a chance to hear your feedback and make necessary adjustments – just as you would with an in-house team member.

The difference here is that you won’t need to manage their performance continuously. However, if your BPO partner fails to improve and deliver the results you expect, it might be time to explore other options. There are plenty of providers who prioritize quality and can meet your expectations.

The key is to ensure your business partners are always clear on what you expect from them.

6. Dig into the ‘why’ behind ticket volume

Unlike in-house agents, BPO providers typically offer detailed analytics on the structure of support requests. Before signing a contract, ensure you understand these reporting options, specifically regarding ticket volume structure and trends.

This data is crucial in identifying the most popular request types, reasons for returns, and common complaints. For instance, you might have opted for a less expensive warehouse service. Then, your BPO provider reports that 30% of your ticket volume comes from customers complaining about incorrect items being delivered.

Although you’re saving on warehouse costs, you’re incurring additional expenses with your BPO provider for managing these tickets and reshipping the correct orders. This issue also negatively impacts customer satisfaction – minimizing the likelihood of repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth, which is crucial for lowering customer acquisition costs.

By switching to a better warehouse service or investing in more efficient operations, you can enhance the customer experience and optimize customer support costs.

7. Empower your agents to make decisions

Recently, a Wildgrain customer canceled their subscription, explaining, “I can’t afford this, I just lost my job.” In response, Wildgrain’s founder and CEO, Ismail Salhi, decided to send them a free box. 

“We saw that they were a loyal member, and it felt like the right thing to do,” Salhi explains.

Wildgrain views such actions as brand-building. “You could spend $3 million on a Super Bowl ad and call it brand-building,” Salhi says. “Or, you can spend $3 million on things that matter to your customers and make them talk about you.”

No AI can replicate the pure delight a customer feels when your company goes above and beyond their expectations. That’s why it’s critical to empower your agents to make decisions. If an agent doesn’t immediately know how to handle a ticket, they should feel confident in seeking out the solution rather than following rigid processes out of fear of consequences.

The key is giving your agents the context they need to make decisions on their own. Ensure your BPO team understands your company’s values, desired outcomes, and decision-making process so they feel empowered to act when they see an opportunity to enhance the customer experience. 

Whether it’s accepting a return request that’s one day past your 14-day policy or offering a full refund when a customer reports an allergic reaction, these small gestures build trust, generate positive word of mouth, and ultimately benefit your bottom line.

Outsource Ecommerce Customer Service to Win Your Market

Ecommerce outsourcing is no longer just a cost-saving strategy – it’s a strategic move to stay competitive, especially when  50% of customers switch to a competitor after a single poor support experience.

A team of proven experts ready to deliver exceptional service can be your key differentiator.

If you’re an ecommerce brand looking to explore outsourcing, schedule a call, and our experienced team will help you choose the right option for your business.