How to Use Customer Service Outsourcing to Grow Your Ecommerce Brand

One powerful yet often overlooked strategy for growing your eCommerce brand is customer service outsourcing.

It’s not just about responding to customer emails and phone calls, as many think. Instead, it can be an investment in brand growth, with your outsourced support team actually helping drive revenue.

How, you ask?

In this article, we’ll explore four ways that an outsourcing partner can help you grow your ecommerce brand. We’ll also discuss other benefits of customer service outsourcing for ecommerce and offer tips for selecting the right outsourcing partner.

5 ways to grow your ecommerce brand with customer service outsourcing

Once you’ve selected a vendor and launched your outsourced customer support team, you’re on the path to growing your brand by reducing operating costs while delivering excellent customer experiences.

And with a BPO partner offering back-office services, you can leverage their expertise to further scale your brand—particularly during periods of low ticket volume when agents can assist with additional tasks.

Let’s look into the most popular options for scaling your ecommerce brand with customer service outsourcing below.

1. Build a low-cost influencer program

Collaborating with social media influencers—individuals with a significant following who can sway their audience’s purchasing decisions—can enhance your brand’s visibility and credibility.

While purchasing an ad on Kim Kardashian’s Instagram may be out of reach for most brands, a more realistic and efficient solution is to recruit small-scale influencers. These influencers, with as few as 5,000 followers, might be willing to promote your brand in exchange for products or even discounts.

Outsourcing makes it possible to cost-effectively reach out to large numbers of these smaller influencers, while your marketing team can focus on building relationships with larger influencers.

Much like outsourcing customer support, you can delegate influencer campaign management to your BPO team. At Peak Support, we do this for a variety of ecommerce companies and can build the entire system for you.

At Peak Support, we help a variety of clients with:

• Recruiting influencers. Using advanced tools to identify and recruit influencers who match your brand’s profile, we help you to effectively connect with your target audience.
• Managing campaigns. We reach out to influencers, send them discount codes or discounted product, check to make sure they’ve posted and that their posts meet your criteria, etc.
• Social media management. Effective social media management is key to building a loyal and engaged online community. Your BPO team can manage your social media accounts, schedule posts, engage with followers, and respond to questions and feedback in comments and direct messages promptly.

Similarly to customer support resources, your outsource provider can help set up FAQ resources for influencers and handle incoming inquiries about program terms, payouts, and tracking on your behalf.

2. Invest in proactive chat to drive sales

You probably already offer reactive chat on your website. With proactive chat, a real person reaches out to customers who are on certain pages or have met certain criteria (e.g. they have a cart that looks like it might become abandoned).

Think of proactive chat as a super friendly grocery store employee. When you ask them where you can find coconut aminos, they don’t just say “it’s in aisle 9.” They actually take you there.

One of our clients, Embark Veterinary, launched proactive chat and saw an 8% increase in average order size and 237% increase in revenue per chat, compared to reactive chat.

Get more great ideas in our blog post, 5 Ways To Use Your Customer Service Team To Drive Revenue.

3. Launch an affiliate program

Another area where your BPO provider can help scale your brand is by managing an affiliate program.

Affiliate programs allow businesses or independent marketers to promote your products in exchange for a commission on each sale. Affiliates earn a commission every time someone makes a purchase through their unique affiliate link.

For example, when you read a blog post about affordable kitchen utensils with links to Amazon products, those links are often affiliated—meaning the blog owner earns a commission every time someone purchases through their links.

If you’re looking to expand your brand through others promoting your products, an affiliate program is a cost-effective way to do so. Affiliate programs are low-risk for sellers since they only pay commissions on actual sales.

Whether you launch your program through a platform like Rakuten or build it independently to avoid mediator fees, your BPO team can help with ongoing communications, commission reviews to prevent fraud, and managing payouts. This allows you to focus on strategic business development while your BPO partner takes care of the operational details.

4. Invest in customer service quality

Quality customer support pays off. Customers are willing to pay up to 16% more for products and services from brands who provide great CX.

Brands who offer exceptional CX have better customer retention and don’t have to offer discounts to keep customers coming back.

On our podcast, Ismail Salhi, co-founder and CEO of Wildgrain, talked about how his company decided to make customer support a differentiator, and what they’ve done to keep customers coming back.

The result of their efforts: 96% monthly customer retention, compared with 80% customer retention at most food subscription companies.

Our article on maintaining a human touch in customer service offers dozens of specific ideas for leveling up your CX. Read it now!

5. Build and manage a referral program

Word-of-mouth is proven to be more valuable than paid advertising. In fact, a survey by Nielsen found that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over any other form of advertisement.

To tap into this powerful resource, you can launch a customer referral program—and your BPO team can help manage it effectively.

Similar to affiliate programs, a referral program gets your brand in front of new potential customers. The key difference is that you leverage existing customers as brand ambassadors, rather than working with professional affiliate marketers.

For example, Uber ran a highly successful referral program for years, allowing customers to invite friends to use the app and earn free rides once their friends completed their first trip. This strategy helped Uber scale rapidly by incentivizing users to promote the service within their personal networks, creating organic growth at a low cost.

While setting up a referral program is often straightforward—especially with tools like ReferralCandy for Shopify stores—there are many ongoing tasks that require attention. Your outsource partner team can help with:

• Responding to questions about the program or helping customers understand how to use their referral links or codes.
• Applying rewards or discounts when customers forget to use referral links or codes.
• Answering any questions customers might have about the referral process and ensuring a seamless experience.

Your BPO agency can also set up automated responses and create FAQ pages for common queries, helping to streamline support and ensure customers receive timely, accurate answers about the referral program.

Other benefits of customer service outsourcing for ecommerce brands

While a BPO team powering your influencer, affiliate, and referral programs help grow your brand directly, there are many more advantages to outsourcing ecommerce support. Here’s a closer look at the other benefits.

1. Reduced costs

Outsourcing customer support to regions with a rich talent pool, like the Philippines, can lead to substantial cost savings. Despite paying competitive wages, the lower cost of living means you get top-notch talent at a fraction of the cost. Most companies see at least a 10% cost reduction when outsourcing overseas.

Additionally, outsourcing alleviates expenses related to office space, equipment, benefits, and training—these can exceed $7,000 per agent annually in major cities. Redirecting these savings to shipping and warehouse infrastructure, marketing, and production can go a long way to boost your business.

2. Improved response times

Outsourcing often allows you to expand your team more quickly than you could in-house. This means better coverage and the ability to support various schedules, including 24/7 availability—leading to shorter response times across the board.

If your team is currently working a standard 8-hour day from 9 AM to 5 PM within your office’s time zone, partnering with an outsourcing agency can help fill the 16-hour gap from 5pm to 9 AM while your in-house team is out of the office.

At Peak Support, our network of agents across different time zones allows you to cover various shifts and add additional agents quickly when needed. For instance, our client Embark saw a 68% reduction in response times leading to a better customer experience and increased average order sizes after partnering with Peak Support.

3. Better customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is critical, especially today when 50% of customers switch to a competitor after a single poor support experience.

A skilled outsourced team can provide exceptional service, adopting your brand’s voice and handling multi-channel requests efficiently. Additionally, BPO providers bring extensive experience managing customer support operations, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

At Peak Support, for example, we scaled Wildgrain’s team by 10x while maintaining their customer satisfaction score above 97%.

4. Ability to scale up and down with volume

Outsourcing offers the flexibility to scale your support team up or down based on demand. BPO providers specialize in recruiting and training, enabling them to onboard new agents faster than your in-house processes would allow.

With vast networks of skilled agents, they bring in talented workers with skills tailored to your specific ecommerce needs—whether you require expertise in order management or international shipping.

For example, Peak Support can often launch a new team within just a week, with full operational capacity shortly thereafter. When dealing with seasonal spikes, product launches, or other fluctuations, this can help you manage these variations effectively.

Choosing the right customer service outsourcing partner

First, how do you select the right BPO partner to ensure your customers receive top-notch support? Here’s some tips to help you navigate the process and make an informed decision.

1. Experience in ecommerce

First and foremost, evaluate whether the BPO provider specializes in ecommerce or focuses on other areas like mobile apps or SaaS products instead. Ecommerce operations have unique requirements, and a partner with extensive experience managing ecommerce support can offer more efficient processes and best practices.

Additionally, check if they have handled teams of a similar size to yours. Some outsourcers excel with large teams, while others are adept at managing smaller groups.

For instance, Peak Support can build teams ranging from 5 to 50 agents, with experience scaling up to over 500 agents for larger clients.

2. Scalability

Consider how flexible the BPO provider is regarding team size and contract terms. Some BPOs may have high minimum requirements, which can be challenging for growing businesses.

Look for a partner that can adjust to your needs, scaling up or down as required, with manageable notice periods and minimal upfront fees.

At Peak Support, we offer flexible solutions tailored to smaller companies, making it easier to adapt as your business evolves.

3. Security measures

Data security is crucial. Ensure the BPO provider adheres to data privacy regulations like GDPR and has robust security measures in place.

Check whether they use your existing systems or require you to adopt their proprietary technology.

Providers able to work with your existing tech stack, like Peak Support, can offer a smoother transition and maintain data protection standards.

4. Level of support offered

Evaluate the range of support services offered by the BPO. Do they manage help center updates, chatbot configurations, and process improvements? If not, you’ll need to allocate internal management staff to oversee the BPO agents. This can incur additional costs beyond the agents’ hourly rate.

While this may not be a major concern when your team is small, it becomes crucial as the business grows and the support department requires proper management.

At Peak Support, our services include onboarding, training, and management. For example, at Public Rec, we scaled the team by 5x and now handle 15x of the original volume without needing an in-house support management role. Similarly, at Wildgrain, the Head of Member Experience is actually a Peak Support employee who oversees the entire support function.

“All I had to do was train the people from Peak Support, and since then, they have taken our support efforts to another level,” says Ali, VP of Marketing at Wildgrain, who trained the first Peak Support team member assigned to the Wildgrain account. That team member, Jedz, trained subsequent agents, and the team has since grown to 34 people over two years. Jedz continues to lead the team at Wildgrain, ensuring continuity and excellence in their support operations.

5. Coverage options and supported channels

Assess the available support channels and coverage options. Does the provider support the channels you need—like email, live chat, social media, and phone? Do they offer flexible support schedules, including night, weekend, and 24/7 coverage?

As your business grows, robust around-the-clock support may become essential for providing efficient responses to your customers. This need arises, for example, when you start catering to more demanding premium customers or expanding into markets across different time zones. As you can imagine, customers from Australia and Canada will reach out at very different times, making 24/7 support crucial for speedy replies.

However, do weigh the potential ROI. Sometimes, investing in 24/7 support can be a significant commitment, so it’s essential to forecast its impact on your operations before diving in.

6. Ability to match your brand voice

Consistency in brand voice is key to maintaining your company’s brand identity and not harming your reputation. . Make sure your BPO partner has a process in place to align with your brand’s tone, voice, and style so it’s consistent across all customer-facing communications.

Some providers may use a questionnaire to capture your preferred tone (friendly or formal, professional or witty, etc.). Others analyze your closed support tickets to identify the brand voice characteristics. Regardless of the method, their responses must reflect your brand’s personality and maintain high-quality communication to build and reinforce your brand.

Customer service outsourcing for the win

A team of proven experts ready to deliver exceptional service can set your brand apart.

But the benefits don’t stop at customer support. By leveraging your BPO team’s broader skills, you can maximize the impact of your outsourcing strategy to fuel growth and scale your brand more effectively.

If you’re an ecommerce brand considering outsourcing, we’d love to chat!

Not sure if it’s the right move? Schedule a call with our experienced team, and we’ll help you find the best solution for your business.