Almost 40% of shoppers have stated they would stop shopping with a retailer after a bad experience – showing that if there’s one thing businesses need to get absolutely right from the get-go, it’s customer experience (CX). But with the challenges the last few years have thrown at businesses, there are knock-on impacts which are causing untold pain when it comes to meeting customer expectations.

The good news is that customer demand is at all-time high. The bad news? That can make it an even greater challenge to manage.

For fintech brands in particular, the challenge of quickly bringing on additional capacity to manage rising customer expectations can be intense. Especially as there is often an almost immediate need for live customer support roles to be in place in weeks rather than months. This is where outsourcing can help you manage demand and move quickly to keep your business delivering memorable CX.
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A helping hand for first-time outsourcers
We’ve supported many fintech and hypergrowth businesses with their outsourcing over the years and now have a solid understanding of what things they must consider early on to get the results they want, and fast. While many of the below points may be obvious, we have often found that they have not, leading to delays.
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Here’s our top 5 things to consider before partnering with an outsource provider:

1) Be clear on the initial requirements
Think through what types of work you require from an outsource provider to support you at a contact channel level. We would recommend that you ensure to bring in capacity at pace that initially focuses on simple contact types. This way, your business can quickly and simply train a new team while still delivering high quality customer service.

2) Stakeholder engagement
Sure, your wider team may have acknowledged that there is an urgent requirement to bring in more capacity. But have you agreed that an outsource provider could be part of the solution with all key stakeholders? Whether this is your first time using an outsource provider or you are already working with an established partner, make sure that stakeholders are on board with the approach early on. Their understanding of the risks and benefits is critical to securing their buy-in and sign off on the initiative.

3) Ensure funding is in place and secured
Along with stakeholder buy-in, you need to ensure that funding is in place for the additional capacity. The competitive process will define the final commercial outcomes but having an agreed budget in place ahead of the process will ensure that there are no financial blockers further down the line.

4) Have all the right resources secured in advance
Everyone is always busy with other work commitments, and this goes hand-in-hand with a growing business. However, your business needs to be engaged and ready to support from the very start. Make sure that you secure the time across different teams prior to the delivery of the outsourcing process. This doesn’t just mean procurement and legal team, but technology and operational teams too. Workforce management also needs to be considered as well as any learning and development needs.

5) Have all the information ready to share
Outsource providers will want as much information about you and the scope of work as possible so they can build the best possible solution. This will not only be about the type of work, but the volumetrics of the work (for example volume, AHT, arrival patterns) as well as documented processes.

If you’re involved in an outsourcing project and are yet to have some of the above steps in place, don’t panic. We’ve worked with businesses worldwide, across many different industries to create a successful outsourcing process. Whether you’re facing upcoming seasonal support challenges or in need of additional capacity to meet rapid growth in meeting customer demand – we’ve got you covered.

Rob Hartley
Principal Consultant
E. rob.hartley@davies-group.com
L. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-hartley-3736864/

Find out how outsourcing can support your hypergrowth trajectory here