Customers are a company's backbone. Therefore, it's essential to offer customers the most satisfactory customer support experience to address their concerns or meet their requirements. Hiring an inbound and outbound customer service representative is an intelligent decision.
However, by hiring local customer service employees, you would dramatically increase your costs. But if you outsource this job, you can accomplish your goals without the devastating increase in costs.
The low-cost expense is one of the significant advantages of outsourcing to the Philippines. The overall labor cost in the Philippines is around a third (1/3) than in the US or the United Kingdom, which already includes other overhead expenses, such as office space, legal and HR services, and existing equipment.
Based on recent figures, outsourcing to the Philippines allows US and UK businesses to save between 60% to 80% of the overall labor cost. It's a massive saving that could pave the way for a healthier bottom line while at the same time expanding operations.
Suppose you're looking for ways to hire customer service representatives in the Philippines. In that case, this article will guide you on hiring the best CSR for your business and the best tips for improving your recruiting strategy.
Types of Customer Support Can You Outsource to the Philippines
Customer service is a necessity, especially for service businesses nowadays, but what customer services provide depends on the requirements of a company and its customers.
Here are the types of customer support you can outsource in the Philippines:
1. Live Chat Support
Sometimes consumers need someone from the company to address their problems immediately. In this situation, chat agents interact with customers via email or, for a more immediate one, through the website's live chat feature to answer inquiries, solve issues and resolve problems.
As they operate on the front line of the business, chat support has to be convenient and easy to use for customers. Sometimes, live chat support works hand in hand with customer service on social media because of their overlapping nature that requires immediate and friendly replies.
Therefore, chat agents must stay updated on all the company's business products and services to assist clients as efficiently as possible. They must learn everything about what they cater to, including product information, warranty data, customer guides, and existing promotional campaigns.
You can hire live chat support agents for between $2.50 and $5.00 per hour on average.
2. Email Support
Email support agents offer customer support via email. The primary duties of this position are to build client connections, handle customer problems, promote goods and services, maintain job knowledge, report to supervisors and refer unsolved questions to experts. It is similar to live chat support, just not as immediate as the response period.
Suppose you're looking into prospective candidates for the position. In that case, a good email support resume sample should include:
- Customer service experience;
- Strong writing skills;
- Endless amount of patience;
- Attention to detail;
- Sales skills;
- Dispute resolution skills; and
- Computer literacy.
3. Customer Service Representative
A Customer Service Representative, or CSR, will serve as a liaison, provide product/service information, answer inquiries, and resolve any developing issues our customer accounts may encounter.
The finest customer service representatives are genuinely enthusiastic about assisting clients. They are friendly, patient, empathic, and communicative with zeal. They like conversing and recognize the importance of practical communication skills.
Customer service professionals may put themselves in their customers' shoes and advocate on their behalf when required. Customer input is precious, and these customer service representatives can collect it for you.
4. Social Media Specialist
A Social Media Specialist or Social Media Manager is responsible for producing and managing content across all social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, for growing an audience and maintaining consumer engagement. Additionally, the specialist may monitor site analytics, respond to reader feedback, and supervise creative design.
Social media specialists are also responsible for developing visually attractive and engaging digital content for numerous social media channels. They report to the social media manager and collaborate closely with the digital marketing team to create a social media marketing plan focused on increasing consumer interaction and brand recognition.
The ideal applicant will possess exceptional communication skills, be a flexible, creative writer, and team player. They will take an active role in data gathering and analysis to gradually enhance their social media operations.
Suppose you need a staff member who is a bit more versatile than a traditional social media manager? In that case, you can hire a social media virtual assistant.
5. Sales Support Specialists
Sales Support Specialists help the sales team ensure that customers are pleased with the performance of the sales department. They'll do secretarial and administrative tasks for the sales team, including arranging appointments, responding to client inquiries, and updating consumers on the progress of their orders.
Sales Support Specialists are in charge of compiling lists of sales leads and equitably distributing them among sales team members. They'll develop performance metrics for the sales team to monitor and report to the Sales Manager and Sales Director to evaluate. Additionally, Sales Support Specialists will handle different product and service orders and any urgent orders.
6. Technical Customer Support
Technical support agents take inbound phone calls and solve computer software and hardware issues for customers. Call centers hire specialized support agents to work full-time and part-time inflexible schedule hours, including nights and weekends.
Technical support representatives operate in teams and are mainly accountable to the supervisor of the technical department or shift manager. They must be excellent listeners and problem solvers capable of diagnosing and resolving computer issues with minimal information.
Hire Your Customer Service Representative in the Philippines
Here are some excellent methods to hire your customer service representative in the Philippines:
1. Utilize a BPO
The Philippines is home to hundreds of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. They will charge a margin on top of the pay and for the use of office space, among other things. As a result, you may anticipate prices to double in many instances compared to direct hires, but still well below what you pay when you hire locally. This option is applicable for big companies with a budget for outsourcing their staff for their global business.
3. Use our Philippines outsourcing marketplace!
If you'd like to strip costs, and be able to find, hire, manage and pay your Filipino staff in one easy-to-use dashboard, VirtualStaff.ph might be the perfect option for you.
As an employer, you can post jobs, directly message applicants, schedule interviews, send job offers, track the hours your staff work, and even pay your Virtual Staff weekly.
Why Use VirtualStaff.ph for Hiring Your Offshore Customer Support Staff?
VirtualStaff.ph is the only Philippines outsourcing marketplace that allows employers and businesses to directly negotiate, hire, and build their virtual team in the Philippines without going through a traditional outsourcing provider.
As an Employer, you can create an account for FREE.
With hundreds of thousands of virtual staff to choose from, you can decide what salary rate you want to pay. On average, you can hire customer support staff in the Philippines for around $3.00 to $6.00 per hour.
If you compare that to the $14.64 per hour average pay in the US, you'll be saving up to 80% on employee costs, which does not yet factor in the additional savings you get from other local employee-related costs and compliance.
Imagine hiring an entire team? Your savings will be astronomical!
To get the actual salary rates for outsourcing customer support, you can browse our database of thousands of CS profiles.
Have Your Dedicated In-House Account Manager?
The Enterprise Solution includes an in-house Client Success Manager (CSM) that assists you in recruiting your customer support agents and building your virtual team. With the CSM's help, you can utilize VirtualStaff's effective screening and recruitment experience to filter candidates that perfectly fit your requirements.
The CSM will take care of your workers' onboarding process and provide the necessary legal safeguards by onboarding the worker through their Philippine legal entity (company) before assigning them to work for you directly.
This has enormous benefits for both you as the employer and the staff themselves. First of you get the assurance that you have the total weight of the Philippines' largest outsourcing provider in your corner. Secondly, the staff gets paid benefits including social security and health insurance.
Don't worry, you as the client, pay a set monthly fee. We handle the compliance, payroll, and everything else.
The CSM will also monitor your staff, and VirtualStaff.ph's payroll team will handle the salary computation and staff payout. So you are free from all the administrative burdens, and you will still enjoy considerable savings in the whole scheme of things.
You can learn more about the Enterprise Solution on this page.
