Outsourcing customer support is among the smartest moves a growing business can take. When your inbox is flooded, phone lines are buzzing, and customer inquiries are piling 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 delegate those customer service tasks to someone else, freeing up your in-house team to focus on things that make a difference?
Whether you're a small startup or a rapidly growing company, outsourcing can provide the support you need to streamline processes and achieve your business objectives. Imagine how much more you could accomplish if your team weren’t tied up answering FAQs, processing returns, or managing order updates.
In this post, we’ll explore the advantages of outsourcing customer support, provide examples of how businesses utilize outsourced support services, and help you decide if it's the right choice for you.
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.
By outsourcing customer support, you can let your team handle ticket creation for bugs and feature requests, ensuring timely and accurate reporting without disrupting your internal team’s workflow.
Handling incoming calls can be a daunting task. By outsourcing customer support, you can streamline call routing and ensure customers get connected with the right person quickly, ultimately reducing wait times and enhancing the overall customer experience.
Customers appreciate timely updates. Outsourced support services can step in to deliver real-time updates on orders, shipping status, or tracking information, which helps increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
With outsourced support, your team can focus on scaling operations instead of handling day-to-day tasks. They'll manage the entire order process, from new orders to ensuring details are accurate.
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 adequately enforced.
Around 60% of businesses outsource customer support to cut costs, but your full-time team handles some tasks better.
These are typically tasks that require in-depth product knowledge, emotional intelligence, or direct decision-making to ensure the best customer experience.
When tricky or sensitive problems pop up, a personal touch can make all the difference. Full-time employees with more profound product knowledge and cultural nuance are better suited for high-stakes customer issues that require a personal touch.
Building long-term relationships often needs a more personalized touch. Your in-house team, which knows your brand values, is better suited to nurture these connections and improve customer retention.
High-profile clients require special attention. Your in-house representatives are the best option for managing these relationships to maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Learn More: Outsourcing vs. Contracting vs. Full-Time Hiring
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:
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.
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 truly matter, knowing that your customers continue to receive excellent service.
Here are some real-world examples of how Prialto managed VAs step in to lighten the load:
A high-end wedding production company catering to large, luxury weddings needed its 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 ensured that the on-site staff remained focused on what mattered most—delivering a seamless, high-end wedding experience.
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 achieved through effective inbox management and customer service. CABN’s Prialto assistant became the primary point of contact for clients, suppliers, and investors—handling calls, managing the inbox, and developing a comprehensive FAQ document that serves as the team's go-to resource.
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."
Outsourcing customer support through Prialto isn’t just for large companies—it’s a game-changer for small businesses too. Here’s how two firms were able to streamline their operations and stay focused on growth:
This business produces and distributes computer mice, keyboards, and other accessories specifically designed for individuals with neurodiversity. The founder, Parker, needed assistance with day-to-day customer support tasks that were consuming 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, such as product marketing and funding campaigns. This allowed the business to grow without sacrificing customer service.
A sports management software company, RacquetDesk, turned to Prialto for assistance in managing customer inquiries and enhancing 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 essential 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
Are 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:
Outsourcing could be your lifesaver if you’re constantly overwhelmed by customer inquiries and struggling to keep up with day-to-day tasks. Our managed service Engagement Managers can help you create clear, concise FAQ answers and processes that your Prialto assistant can easily handle. That way, you can stay focused on growing your business instead of getting stuck in the weeds.
If your customer support primarily involves answering the same types of questions repeatedly (such as 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.
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 smoothly.
Learn more: How to Hire the Best Virtual Assistant Service for Your Business
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 whole support team. Your dedicated assistant is supported by a team of managers and backup 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. As your customer support needs evolve, we’re right there with you, ready to adapt and ensure your customers receive 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.