Did you know, that it takes just 0.05 seconds for a person to start forming an opinion on your webpage?
In the day and age of people needing what they want before they actually want it, it appears that not only can you judge a book by its cover, we all already do. With that said, how do you think a customer would feel if they visit your site and it is down?
Worse, what if you know that there is a problem but have no way to fix it? This problem is one of the many reasons that having a 24-hour seven day a week, managed IT help desk is necessary.
Time of year can affect the number of time zones globally, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s just say that there are 35 plus time zones at any given point of the year. With the internet, and technology in general, we truly live in the day of the global marketplace.
In this international exchange of goods and services, a thriving business needs on-demand support at all hours of the day. We truly live in a 24-hour business cycle and customers need support instantly.
Support desks handle a vast variety of issues. Ranging from a simple user error, to the minor issues, the important and big issues. Having a primary point of contact is not just a reassurance for a customer but also a selling point. Whether it be a business-to-consumer or a business-to-business model having a full 24/7 support desk is a vital value proposition.
Outsourcing business functions have also become increasingly important for businesses in the modern world. For a full-service help desk specifically, running an in-house operation is beyond expensive. If you want said help desk to also be a 24/7 operation those costs only increase. This is a key factor in the decision to move towards business process outsourcing, and for a technical support help desk, outsourcing is the smart choice.
The Philippines is one of the biggest and still growing business process outsourcing hubs in the world. Currently, the Philippines is home to 107 million people with 90% of that population being under the age of 55. This means that the Philippines contains an abundance of labourers in its workforce. This workforce also currently boasts a 5.3% unemployment rate which means this island nation is ready to work.
Over the past 20 years the Filipino people have built up and borderline perfected a robust business process outsourcing industry. The large workforce is full of educated driven individuals who are looking for high paying jobs. While the pay is not high by western standards in the Philippines call centre and BPO workers are paid quite nicely relatively speaking. For companies who are looking to outsource their business processes in a manner that is friendly to the bottom line but is not sacrificing quality, the Philippines is the best option.
Another advantage in outsourcing to the Philippines is in the culture. For the not so history knowledgeable, the Philippines was at one point colonized by the United States The after effects of this are a more westernized culture and a large number of English-speaking Filipinos.
Speaking English and having a westernized type culture certainly is not the end all be all, but with the large corporations in the west and English being spoken by roughly 20% of the global population it certainly doesn’t hurt.
All of this put together is why there is such a booming business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines. The Philippines BPO industry is truly where quality and cost efficiency intersect. Tech support is a time consuming, high volume activity, and time is the most valuable asset after all. Companies are taking advantage of outsourcing to utilize other countries laws and economies to their benefit, which is smart.
At the same time, you are not looking to sacrifice quality and ostracize your customer in the end. A bad experience can truly become a nightmare when a minor tech issue is met with less than exceptional support.
The key to BPO is in fact process. The infrastructure that the Philippines has laid out cannot be overlooked. Experience and expertise in handling a high-volume amount of issues is an incredible asset for this growing country. Businesses should also do their part here too.
Your website is another great resource and tech support should but a multi-angle strategy. In the support, page should be a link to some common and quick troubleshooting resolutions. In addition, there should be an FAQ section to give help as well. Lastly, you list your number for your outsourced 247, 365 days a year call centre. The first two steps will eliminate some of the lower level issues which will, in turn, save your tech support call enter for the big-time problems. This will all streamline your process.
Ultimately, a business is left to decide for itself what is best for its customers. And for some, if control is the ultimate end game, then keeping your tech support in-house may be the best way to go. The evidence shows, though, that a little bit of trust, here will go a long way.
When outsourcing tech support, you need trust and given the experience and success of the Philippines BPO industry has earned that trust. Leading tech support outsourcing providers such as PITON-Global have proven their success, they have the workforce to support it both today and tomorrow, and the move to outsource will prove to be a lucrative one for your business.
With a little bit of research, the question will no longer be why should I outsource my tech support to the Philippines? It will become why haven’t I already outsourced it to the Philippines yet?
