Top Customer Support Outsourcing Companies

Every business wants to keep their customers happy. Having a great relationship with your customers helps unlock many opportunities and benefits. Exceptional customer support is important to showing consumers how much you prioritize them, helping build positive relationships.

Customer support is the proactive and ongoing process of assisting customers. Everything from order processing to managing helpdesk systems, customer support aims to help consumers solve whatever issues they have with the business, product, or service.

Essentially, customer support services fall under the massive umbrella of business process outsourcing. These service providers are composed of teams and specialists who are dedicated to providing efficient help, advice, and assistance to customers in need. Let’s break down the three main services offered by full-service customer support outsourcing companies:

• Live Support: Also referred to as real-time assistance, traditionally done over the phone where customers can directly connect with a trained representative. Over the years, live support has evolved from phone to live chat and video support. As its name suggests, live chat focuses on quick and straightforward inquiries. Video support, on the other hand, focuses on resolving complex or more technical issues.


• Asynchronous Support: A type of customer support solution for non-urgent issues, often conducted through emails, contact forms, and social media. Email support is managed through a specialized ticketing system, ensuring all messages are responded to within a specific timeframe. Meanwhile, social media support maximizes platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to respond to customer inquiries, complaints, and problems.


• Proactive Support: Anticipating customer needs and expectations then making the first move to get in touch with them before they encounter challenges. Proactive customer support involves agents conducting outreach calls to notify them about product updates, possible issues they’ve detected, and other factors that might impact the product or service.

5 Benefits of Hiring a Customer Support Provider

1. Build good customer relationships and improve retention


2. Opportunity to upsell products or services


3. Establish strong brand credibility and reputation


4. Effective in boosting sales and overall profitability


5. Good customer satisfaction can lead to an increase in recommendations and referrals

What to Consider When Hiring a Custom Support Company

When selecting the right service provider for customer support, there are other key factors to keep in mind to ensure your success. Businesses need to carefully assess each factor to narrow down the options and identify the perfect partner for their needs.

5 Factors to Consider

• Industry and Business Understanding


• Support Channel Capabilities


• Technologies and Tools


• Pricing Model


• Cultural Fit

Industry and Business Understanding

The entire process of customer support requires extensive knowledge of the product and industry. While it’s possible to train them, working with a company that already has experience in your specific market is a great leg up. As you search for a good agency, check their portfolios and case studies to see their track record. Their client reviews can also give better insights into their understanding of your business model or market.

Support Channel Capabilities

Good customer support services cover all the possible grounds, not just phone and email. Different customers have their preferred channel or communication method to contact their business. It’s crucial to look for a partner that offers all the support channels you need like multichannel and omnichannel support.

Technologies and Tools

Customer support services need specialized technologies to streamline processes, track customer interactions, and store invaluable records. Discuss with prospective service providers what technologies they use. Given the sensitive nature of business and customer data, it’s crucial that those technologies meet strict security standards. Check if the tools also help improve operational efficiency such as automated ticketing systems and modern Interactive voice response (IVR) systems.

Pricing Model

Customer support projects aren’t a one-off deal; they’re medium to long-term investments that require proper budgeting to ensure their financial viability. Understanding what pricing model — whether that’s per ticket, per agent, per call, or per hour — will help you better allocate resources and match with the right company.

Cultural Fit

Incompatibility can be a headache for your business and customers, leading to misunderstandings and inconsistencies. Finding a good service provider that aligns with your company’s culture is massively important, especially since harmonious partnerships require collaboration and communication compatibility.

Search for a Partner With Relevant Expertise

Customer support is all about making sure customers have a great experience with your company, helping resolve whatever issues they may encounter. Just as there are different types of concerns, there are also different types of customer support services aimed at resolving them. Here are vital customer support expertise you should be knowledgeable about as you search for the right service provider:

• Help Desk Services: Setting up an organized system to deal with tickets, support requests, and emails from customers. These tickets are queued on a centralized platform that will be organized by channels such as chat, phone, or email. Help desks are great for tracking and responding to simple customer issues quickly.


• Technical Support: Assisting customers with more advanced or complex technical problems related to the product or service. Typically, technical support is required for businesses focused on selling hardware, software, or digital services. Great tech support aims to efficiently troubleshoot and fix issues such as product configuration, installation problems, and system errors.


• Social Media Support: Dedicated support solution for responding to customer inquiries, concerns, and feedback on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Since social media plays a big role in connecting with customers and marketing, social media support is essential to handling any communication promptly whether it's privately on direct message (DM) or publicly on comment sections.


• Email Support Services: An asynchronous form of communication where customers and professional agents don’t need to be active in real time to engage. Email support is usually intended for ad hoc concerns, allowing customers to respond or write the email at their convenience.


• Multichannel Support: Refers to offering multiple channels of communication for customers to send their concerns, inquiries, or feedback. Each of these channels functions separately from each other and customers can switch between them for their convenience but their interaction and information on different channels will be recorded in separate systems.


• Omnichannel Support: Also offers multiple channels of communication and support to customers but all of the channels are integrated. This ensures customer data is synchronized, allowing agents assigned to each channel to access relevant records to help them provide the appropriate support.


• Order and Payment Support: The assistance offered to customers throughout their purchasing process, helping them place orders and process payments to ensure smooth transactions. They are resolute in resolving issues or questions that may impact the checkout process.

4 Questions to Ask a Customer Support Company

1. How do you ensure your team matches our brand’s voice?

Consistency is crucial for every business, especially when it comes to customer experiences and communication. By asking what their approach is to ensuring consistency in brand voice, you gain a strong understanding of their process for learning and adapting to your brand. A good answer to this question should give you insights into how they follow brand guidelines and study your marketing and sales strategies.

2. Can you walk us through your onboarding and training process for new agents?

The biggest challenge in starting and scaling customer support teams is the onboarding and training process. Poorly trained customer support agents can lead to headaches like dissatisfied customers, inefficient work, and miscommunication. Structured and thorough training for agents helps ensure their success, equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to offer top-notch service.

3. How long are your average projects?

The average project length of a service provider is a great indicator of their flexibility, performance, and reliability. Businesses will stay with a service provider if they’re doing a great job at providing customer support services.

Their answer shouldn’t just focus on the length of their partnership but also on how they’re able to scale with them throughout the years. Additionally, if you only need short to medium-term customer support services, make sure to be upfront with that.

4. What are your security policies protecting your clients’ sensitive business and consumer data?

Strict security policies are a must when hiring a customer support service provider. Since these teams handle sensitive information such as proprietary business information, personal customer data, and financial transitions, ensure the company’s security policies comply with relevant regulations and laws.

Their answer should outline their data protection policies and security measures. You can also ask follow-up questions like what systems or technologies they use for security and what activities they conduct to proactively protect sensitive data.

How Much Do Customer Support Services Cost

Working with a top-notch customer support outsourcing company is a great way for businesses to ensure customers are well taken care of without worrying about setting up and scaling internal infrastructure themselves.

The average cost of customer support projects reviewed on Clutch range anywhere from $10,000 – $49,000. Most customer support outsourcing companies listed on the platform change between $25 – $49 per hour.

Customer support is a crucial investment and should be given careful thought when budgeting. It’s worth noting that different pricing models may or may not work for your business needs. Be mindful and learn which pricing model brings more advantages to your company.

Moreover, several elements impact the total price tag of the partnership. You need to understand elements such as level of expertise, number of agents working, and communication channels to gauge how much you’ll be spending.

Shortlist Customer Support Companies by Industry Experience

Experience is a great asset for any customer support service provider. Elements such as regulatory environment, market dynamics, and customer preferences make each industry or niche unique. Extensive experience can help service providers tailor their strategies and solutions to ensure customer support efforts succeed.

Customer Support Services for Business Services

For the business services world, customer support outsourcing is focused more on interacting with business owners and key decision-makers. Projects often include solutions such as technical support and omnichannel customer support to help take care of client issues and concerns. Managing B2B relationships requires an in-depth understanding of the business and providing quick resolution.

Customer Support Services for Financial Services

Security is a high priority for financial services providers looking to outsource customer support solutions. The industry itself is complex and is governed by strict regulations dealing with sensitive financial records. There are also subfields in the financial industry — banking, insurance, and investment just to name a few — each with their own regulations, jargon, and intricacies.

Customer Support Services for Medical & Healthcare Services

The medical and healthcare field is also another industry that requires strict compliance with regulations and ethics. Hospitals, telemedicine providers, pharmaceuticals, and clinics need exceptional customer support to improve patient experience. They rely on customer support for resolving billing issues, helping provide and answer questions and appointment scheduling. Experienced companies in this field approach customer support with more empathy due to the sensitivity of health-related cases and concerns.

Customer Support Services for Information Technology

In the information technology realm, customer support services focus on providing efficient technical assistance to customers. Many IT service providers rely on customer support outsourcing companies to handle concerns such as troubleshooting and resolving errors, requiring agents to have a high level of technical fluency.

Customer Support Services for eCommerce

Order-related issues are the main focus of customer support services in the eCommerce space. They serve as a crucial touchpoint for customers, whether that’s issues with the product, processing orders and payments, or asking for more information about the products. In this space, customer support outsourcing companies apply quick and accessible omnichannel solutions, especially in a highly competitive marketplace.

Customer Support Services for Consumer Products & Services

As for the consumer products & services space, most customer support services deal with end users rather than businesses. These companies handle concerns such as warranties, product inquiries, replacement requests, and customer complaints. Agents are trained to have an in-depth understanding of the company’s product lines and services. They apply a customer-centric approach to ensure high customer satisfaction.

Evaluating Customer Support Services

When hiring and working with a customer support outsourcing company, it’s paramount to keep a close eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure that their work aligns with your business objectives. Continuously evaluating their work will help you maintain exceptional customer satisfaction.

Here are some essential customer support KPIs to monitor:

• First Response Time (FTR): The time elapsed between the customer submitting a ticket and a dedicated agent responding to it. A long FTR means customers are waiting longer, impacting customer satisfaction and leading to frustration.


• First Call Resolution (FCR): The percentage of customer tickets or calls resolved immediately on the first interaction, not needing further follow-ups. This metric is vital for ensuring customer satisfaction, eliminating the need for consumers to call back about the same concern.


• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): A commonly used metric to directly gauge how satisfied customers are with the assistance provided by customer support. Usually gathered through quick post-interaction surveys, this metric reflects the team’s ability to meet customer needs and expectations.


• Average Resolution Time (ART): Measures the total time taken to resolve a customer concern or inquiry and dividing it by the number of requests. This metric helps customer support companies to understand their performance and identify areas needing improvement.


• Agent Utilization Rate: The metric gauges the time agents spend actively working on resolving customer inquiries or concerns compared to the time they’re idle. Striking a balance between this metric ensures agents are productive without being burnt out.


• Quality Assurance (QA) Scores: Using scorecards, agents are evaluated by their team leaders to gauge their effectiveness in handling customer interactions. This KPI is important to helping improve individual and team performance, ensuring the best service for customers.

If you’re looking for a good customer support outsourcing company, you can assess them by reading more of their client testimonials and ratings. Check their reviews for key points like their efficiency and professionalism. Find out if their previous clients have issues with them about contract compliance or data security.

Browse through Clutch’s data-driven directory to find and connect with the ideal customer support partner for your business. Search for a service provider that meets your needs and understands your goals to unlock the benefits of customer support services.

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Customer Support Expertise

Customer support outsourcing companies on Clutch are highly skilled and vetted. They have necessary credentials such as HubSpot Help Desk Certification, COPC’s Client Services Certification, and CSIA’s Maximizing the Customer Experience Certification. Their specialization extends to different channels, industries, and strategies.

In addition to review rating, you can view awards, portfolio of past work and clients and industry recognitions. Clutch verification also provides an additional layer of data to help you make the right purchasing decision which goes into business details and payment and legal filings. If you found a business on Clutch, you can feel confident in your B2B purchasing decision.