Outsourcing customer support is one of the smartest moves a growing business can make. When your inbox is flooded, phone lines buzz, and customer inquiries pile up, your team can quickly become overwhelmed by the day-to-day grind.
Studies show that business owners spend around a fifth of their time interacting with customers and handling customer inquiries, leaving less time for higher-priority business needs.
What if you could hand off those customer service tasks to someone else, freeing up your in-house team to focus on things that move the needle?
Whether you're a small startup or a fast-growing company, outsourcing can provide the support you need to streamline processes and achieve your business goals. Imagine how much more you could accomplish if your team wasn’t tied up answering FAQs, processing returns, or managing order updates.
In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of outsourcing customer support, share examples of how businesses use outsourced support services, and help you determine if it's right for you.
Table of contents
- What tasks can outsourced customer support do?
- What customer support is best left in-house
- What are the benefits of outsourced customer support?
- How businesses use Prialto assistants for customer support
- How to know if outsourcing customer support is right for you
- Hiring Prialto for outsourced customer support
What tasks can outsourced customer support do?
Answer FAQs
Customers expect fast and high-quality customer service––60% of online clients dislike waiting longer than a minute for a response. An outsourcing provider can manage these inquiries, helping your team stay focused on higher-value tasks while ensuring excellent customer service.
Create tickets for bugs and feature requests
Your outsourced customer support team can manage ticket creation for bugs and feature requests, ensuring quick and accurate reporting without clogging up your internal team’s workflow.
Call routing
Managing incoming calls can be overwhelming. Outsourced customer support agents can manage call routing, ensuring customers quickly reach the right person—helping reduce wait times and improve the overall customer experience.
Provide customer specific status updates
Customers love timely updates. Outsourced support services can step in to provide real-time updates on orders, shipping status, or tracking information, helping boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Order processing
From handling new orders to ensuring details are correct, outsourced support can manage the entire order process. This frees up your team to focus on scaling operations rather than managing day-to-day tasks.
Handle returns and refunds
Processing returns and refunds is a tedious and time-consuming task. Outsourced support like a VA can manage these processes smoothly, ensuring customers are taken care of and that your policies are enforced properly.
What customer support is best left in-house
Around 60% of businesses outsource customer support to cut costs, but some tasks are better handled by your full-time team.
These are usually the tasks that require deeper product knowledge, emotional intelligence, or direct decision-making to ensure the best customer experience.
Handling complex or sensitive issues
When tricky or sensitive problems pop up, a personal touch can make all the difference. Full-time employees with deeper product knowledge and cultural nuance are better suited for high-stakes customer issues that require a personal touch.
Building long-term customer relationships
Nurturing long-term relationships often requires a more personalized approach. Your in-house team, who understands your brand values, is better equipped to foster these connections and enhance customer retention.
Managing VIP clients or large accounts
High-profile clients need special attention. Your in-house reps are the best choice for managing these relationships to ensure customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Learn More: Outsourcing vs. Contracting vs. Full-Time Hiring
What are the benefits of outsourced customer support?
Outsourcing customer support can offer big advantages for your business, helping you improve efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver better service.
By letting an external team handle routine support tasks, your internal staff can focus on higher-value activities, keeping operations smooth and your customers happy.
Here are eight key benefits of outsourcing customer support:
- Boost productivity by reducing task switching
When your team isn’t bogged down by answering repetitive customer queries, they can stay focused on more important tasks. Outsourcing customer support minimizes distractions, allowing your team to dive deeper into the work that really matters. - Focus on complex or high-value tasks
By handing off routine support tasks, your in-house team can concentrate on more critical issues—like resolving complex problems or nurturing key client relationships. - Cut costs
Outsourcing customer support is more affordable than hiring additional full-time employees. For example, virtual assistants costs 78% less than full-time, on-site employees. - Streamline operations
Specialized outsourced teams should easily integrate with your existing processes. This means smoother operations, quicker response times, and fewer bottlenecks in managing customer inquiries. - Scale with your business
As your customer base grows, outsourced support can grow with you, ensuring your customers always receive high-quality service, regardless of your business size or time zones. - Faster turnaround times
Outsourcing ensures quicker responses to customer inquiries and faster resolution of tickets, leading to better customer experiences and more efficient workflows. - Access to specialized expertise
Outsourced teams often come with specialized skills and knowledge of the latest tools and best practices, giving your business an edge in delivering top-notch customer service. - Improve customer satisfaction
With more resources dedicated to customer support, outsourcing can result in quicker response times and more personalized service, boosting overall customer satisfaction.
Pro tip: Did you know outsourcing overseas can help U.S. companies save 70-90% in labor costs? Learn more about hiring and outsourcing to virtual assistants in the Philippines.
How businesses use Prialto assistants for customer support
Prialto-managed virtual assistants (VAs) are like an extra set of hands for your business. They help keep customer support running smoothly while freeing up your team’s time.
With their help, you can focus on the tasks that really matter, knowing that your customers are still receiving great service.
Here are some real-world examples of how Prialto managed VAs step in to lighten the load:
PA acts as a buffer for a high-end wedding production company
A high-end wedding production company, catering to large, luxury weddings, needed their team on-site as “field coordinators” for events. With so many moving parts, they relied on their Prialto VAs as a “buffer” to keep things organized and handle the smaller requests that didn’t need their full attention.
The VAs handled tasks like answering pricing questions, managing music requests, and updating timelines. This freed up the company’s team to focus on coordinating the actual event and giving VIP clients the personal attention they needed. By handling the lower-priority tasks, the PAs helped make sure the on-site staff stayed focused on what mattered most—delivering a seamless, high-end wedding experience.
CABN
As green housing tech company CABN started scaling up, balancing support, logistics, and supply became a challenge—especially when they launched their first show home. They had an extensive waitlist of prospective clients who needed re-engagement and a personalized approach before viewing the show home. There were a lot of repetitive onboarding tasks that their small team couldn’t keep up with.
“We were recommended Prialto by my previous company,” said Jackson Wyatt, CABN's founder. The Prialto team quickly jumped in to help with scheduling calls, managing investor and media meetings, and creating tear sheets with important client and partner info. This freed up Jackson and his team to focus on growing the business rather than managing day-to-day repetitive tasks.
One of the biggest wins was with inbox management and customer service. CABN’s Prialto assistant became the first point of contact for clients, suppliers, and investors—handling calls, managing the inbox, and building out a living FAQ document that serves as the go-to resource for the team.
Prialto also took over CRM management, helping CABN’s team keep track of thousands of client and partner contacts. With everything organized, CABN could focus on the bigger picture. "Prialto quickly became part of our corporate team rather than just an external consultant," said Alex Kelly, CABN's COO. "They’ve streamlined processes and provided top-notch customer service, which is critical to our brand."
Small business operations
Outsourcing customer support through Prialto isn’t just for large companies—it’s a game-changer for small businesses too. Here’s how two businesses were able to streamline their operations and stay focused on growth:
Assistive technology company
This business produces and distributes computer mice, keyboards, and other accessories designed for neuro-divergent individuals. The founder, Parker, needed help with day-to-day customer support tasks that were taking up valuable time.
Parker’s Prialto assistant stepped in to handle order processing, tracking, and managing returns/refunds. They also answered customer questions and provided status updates, freeing Parker to focus on higher-level tasks like product marketing and funding campaigns. This allowed the business to grow without sacrificing customer service.
RacquetDesk - Sports management software
A sports management software company, RacquetDesk, turned to Prialto for help managing customer inquiries and improving overall efficiency. Their Prialto assistant used Intercom to respond to customer questions, handle password resets, and troubleshoot locked accounts. For call management, they relied on Grasshopper, while they used Jira to file feature requests and bugs reported by customers.
The assistant even used SendGrid to ensure customers received important emails from the RacquetDesk platform. By taking on these tasks, the Prialto assistant allowed the RacquetDesk team to focus on improving the software and serving their clients.
Read more: Save Costs and Maximize Efficiency: Virtual Assistants for Small Businesses
How to know if outsourcing customer support is right for you
Wondering if outsourcing customer support could help your business? Here are a few scenarios where it might make sense to bring in some extra help:
You’re a small business owner feeling overwhelmed
Outsourcing could be your lifesaver if you’re constantly drowning in customer inquiries and struggling to keep up with the day-to-day. Our managed service Engagement Managers can help you create clear FAQ answers and processes that your Prialto assistant can handle. That way, you can stay focused on growing your business instead of getting stuck in the weeds.
Your business runs on very standard processes and FAQs
If your customer support mainly involves answering the same types of questions over and over (think shipping updates, product inquiries, or order tracking), outsourcing is a no-brainer. A Prialto assistant can take on these repetitive tasks, giving you more time to focus on higher-value activities while ensuring customers get timely, consistent responses.
Your team feels bogged down by admin work
Are routine administrative tasks weighing down your team? From managing customer requests to processing orders and handling returns, a Prialto assistant can jump in and take over these time-consuming tasks, freeing your team to focus on strategy and growth.
If any of these sound like your business, it might be time to consider outsourcing customer support. With the right processes in place, your Prialto assistant can step in, handle the details, and help your business run smoother.
Learn more: How to Hire the Best Virtual Assistant Service for Your Business
Hiring Prialto for outsourced customer support
At Prialto, we’ve put a lot of thought into how outsourcing customer support can take your business to the next level. Our approach?
We offer Prialto Units—about one-third of a full-time employee’s capacity. You can easily add or reduce units as your customer support needs evolve, giving you the flexibility to scale without the headache of hiring full-time staff.
What truly sets us apart is that when you work with Prialto, you’re not just getting an assistant—you’re getting a full support team. Your dedicated assistant comes with a team of managers and backup support staff, ensuring seamless coverage and continuous process improvements. In fact, the longer you work with us, the better your customer support experience becomes!
Our team has the skills to handle a wide range of customer service tasks. Need help answering FAQs? Managing order processing, returns, and refunds? Keeping track of customer inquiries? We’ve got it covered. And as your customer support needs change, we’re right there with you, ready to adapt and ensure your customers get the best service possible.
Imagine what your team could achieve if they didn’t have to spend time on repetitive customer support tasks. With Prialto handling the day-to-day interactions, your team can focus on the big picture—growing your business and delivering exceptional experiences.
Ready to give your team the support they need? Let’s chat about how Prialto can help you streamline your customer service needs.