Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Technical Support

Technical support can be quite tricky. You need to provide support to your clients 24/7, which means you either spend a ton of money staffing a call center or you outsource the support to a third party. Of course, there’s more that must go into this decision than just the cost.

There are several advantages and a few disadvantages when it comes to outsourcing your technical support. Here’s a look at the many advantages and the few disadvantages you might run into.

Gaining Incredible Expertise

Unless your background is linked to providing technical support, you will gain an incredible advantage when outsourcing your support. Companies that handle technical support are experts in their field and provide only the best possible support for your clients. Not only will you have experts handling your client’s needs, but you can also hire experts to handle your backend needs, such as server monitoring.

Better Technology

Often, companies that handle technical support will provide better technology than you have. This is a huge advantage as you will always have a support team working with the best possible technology. You may experience faster response times and less of a need for support with the right technical support team.

Very Cost-Effective

If you take the time to actually crunch the numbers, you will quickly see that hiring a staff to work around the clock and every day of the week is expensive. Not only do you have to hire multiple IT experts to provide support, but you also have to pay the overhead for the space and equipment they need to do their job. This can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

When you outsource your technical support, you don’t have to pay nearly as much. You won’t need the extra office space and equipment. You won’t need to run up a huge tab on salaries every year, either. Instead, you only pay for the support package that fits your specific needs.

Outsourcing support can easily save you tens of thousands of dollars every year. For some, it could be a savings of up to 80% compared to hiring your own staff and outfitting your own support center.

Better Customer Service

Imagine you lease a new space, equip it with computers and phones, and then you hire a staff to provide support. What if your support volume increases so much that your staff cannot handle it? Could they end up frustrated and providing less than adequate customer service?

When you outsource your technical support to a company specializing in providing support, you don’t run into this issue. Instead, you gain amazing customer service because they are in the industry of providing great customer service and support. They want your clients to remain happy and taken care of, so that you will continue to use their company for support as you grow.

Easy to Scale your Business

Growth is important to any company. If you cannot grow, you are stuck in one place and not going anywhere.

Outsourcing your technical support allows you to grow as quickly or as slowly as you want. If the volume of support tickets increases, you can just add to your monthly support package. Even if you outgrow the largest package your support provider offers, they will often customize a larger package just for you.

These are just a few of the many major advantages to outsourcing your technical support. If you want to save money and gain an expert support staff willing to work 24/7/365, outsourcing is the best way to go.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing Technical Support

Of course, with all the advantages, there are still a few disadvantages to outsourcing your technical support. Before you make your final decision, it’s important to understand the following disadvantages:

• Potential of hiring the wrong technical support company – If you hire a company not capable of living up to the promises made or a company overseas, you may run into issues, such as language barriers or less than adequate service.
• Less Control – You won’t be overseeing the support on a day-to-day basis.
• You may hire a vendor with very little experience in your industry – Some vendors will advertise services and even accept projects in areas they simply don’t have much experience in.

There are a few disadvantages to outsourcing technical support. However, you can avoid these disadvantages by working with companies providing only North American call centers with experience in your area. If you’re willing to allow an expert to take over the technical support, just make sure you do your due diligence before hiring the company for your specific needs.

Even though there are some disadvantages to outsourcing technical support, there are several advantages, which outweigh the negative. The disadvantages can certainly be avoided when you hire the right company for your specific needs.