10 Best Customer Support Outsourcing Companies for 2024

Outsourcing customer support is a cost-effective and dependable solution. It works well for both phone and online assistance, providing many excellent options.

Companies that outsource customer service do so to solve staffing problems and reduce training costs. While outsourcing can improve operations, it can also damage a company’s reputation if done poorly. Choosing the right partner that fits your needs and maintains quality is essential.

This guide covers top customer support outsourcing companies, detailing their strengths and areas for improvement. It will help you make an informed decision.

Our top picks for the 10 best customer support outsourcing companies are:.

1. HelpSquad – wide array of services, omni-channel, technology-focused BPO. One of the first AI adopters.
2. HelpWare – best of back-office support.
3. WOW24-7 – multilingual staff, with wide range of services.
4. TELUS International – best for large head count (300+ customer support agents).
5. ExpertCallers – Customer Support Outsourcing. Global Call Centre in USA, India and UK
6. Teleperformance – multilingual and multicultural services with HQ in El Salvador.
7. Unity Communications – wide range BPO with emphasis on telecommunications solutions.
8. Sykes – Sykes keeps a group of service agents who are from the same countries as its clients.
9. VXI – Superior CX expertise results in a seamless customer experience for both customers and employees.
10. Influx – A better customer experience can be achieved by relying more on human interaction and less on automation.
11. Skycom – Nearshore operations reduce issues associated with time zone and distance differences.

What is customer support outsourcing?

Outsourcing customer support is like bringing in a helpful neighbor to look after your customer service. It’s a way to keep things tidy and efficient, save some cash, and make conversations with customers better. This helpful neighbor can take care of anything from answering questions to solving tech glitches, using all sorts of ways to chat.

Customer care outsourcing service offers cost savings, better performance, expert knowledge, and 24/7 support. However, language and cultural gaps may lead to misunderstandings and impersonal service. It also means losing some control over customer interactions and potential data security threats.

In summary, outsourcing customer service can cut costs and improve support but may also bring communication issues and loss of control. Choosing a reliable outsourcing partner carefully is crucial.

List of the 10 Top Customer Support Outsourcing Companies

🏆 Best overall pick – HelpSquad

Wide array, omnichannel customer support outsourcing company.

🥇 Runner Up – HelpWare

Best of back-office support.

HelpWare is a firm providing with back-office customer support team to its customers. They are experts in providing solutions for companies in search of outsourcing tasks like customer support, back-office operations, sales, and other non-core activities.

Strengths

HelpWare services cover all customer support channels through email, phone, and social media activities. They also provide sales support which entails services such as lead generation and outbound sales calling. In the case of back-office operations, HelpWare take care of administrative assignments which include data entry, scheduling, and bookkeeping.

In addition, HelpWare provides technical support which is utilized to help businesses troubleshoot and iron out IT related issues. They also provide content moderation services which help organizations in controlling their online communities and brand image as well.

The Virtual Assistants (VA) service is one of their key services. A VA can be employed by a company to manage many administrative tasks thus allowing the company to concentrate on core business functions

The distinctive characteristic of HelpWare is that they seek to provide quality service that is personalized. They are so much more than the usual customer service team scripts that would give personalized, sympathetic support to customers. They excel at providing a Great Customer Experience while boosting the company’s overall Performance who takes them as a part of their team. HelpWare’s unrivaled attention to quality is what secured its #2 position on best customer support outsourcing companies list for 2024.

Potential weaknesses:

1. HelpWare, being a new company, lacks a strong market presence. This limits its growth and ability to attract many customers compared to established market leaders.
2. As an American company, it may struggle to reach global markets or become well-known in various countries.
3. Dependence on External providers: Helpware significantly depends on external technology vendors. The interruptions in these services can disable the company to execute customer contracts, which may lead to reputation damage.
4. Less Diversified Product Portfolio: Helpware is less diversified in number of products and services than competitors. It is a potential risk as any reduction in demand for these particular services has a great influence on the entire business.
5. Pricing: The rates of Helpware services might be relatively steep thus making it hard for some small enterprises or startups to go for them. This could restrict their prospective client base to big entities.

Pick #3 🏅 – WOW24-7

multilingual staff, with wide range of services

WOW24-7 is a customer service outsourcing company that offers a wide range of services to businesses around the world.

These services include:

1. Outsourced customer support services: The company processes customer enquiries and complains in the following channels like phone, email, social media, live chat etc.
2. Multilingual support: Multilingual customer service provider
3. Tech support: WOW 24-7 offers technical support to help customers deal with the problems they have using a product or service.
4. Virtual assistant outsourcing service: They offer qualified specialists who are able to execute administrative work, enhance customer experience, and other business activities from afar.
5. Helpdesk services: The company offers quick technical solutions which minimize downtime and keep operations flowing smoothly.
6. Sales Support boosts business sales by improving the customer buying experience and quickly, accurately answering customer questions.
7. Pre-sales and after-sales services: The company provides with customer care service which helps attract customers and retain them in the future.
8. Back-office support: They specialize in custom task processing, data entry, financial management,order processing, billing, and reporting, among others.

Potential weaknesses:

1. Limited Market Presence: Wow24-7 has less market coverage especially in possible regions with extremely high growth such as Asia and Africa. This limits the company’s customer base growth and capability of increase revenues.
2. Staffing and Training: One of the common customer complaints is staff that is ill-trained leading to poor customer service. There have been instances of staff who had insufficient product knowledge and therefore, were not able to help the customers to resolve their queries.
3. High Dependence on Particular Clients or Industries: Revenues of Wow24-7 come from few clients or even industries. This level of dependency creates a high risk on the company if contracts are lost or the industry heads south.
4. Limited Range of Services: The types of services offered by Wow24-7 are relatively narrower compared to those of other global competitors, which covers a broad range of services such as email support, customer retention, replacement product, technical support, and others.
5. High Employee Turnover: This can result in variability of the services rendered and customer discontent. The gain of quality employees by competitors will also negatively affect the company’s competitive advantage.
6. Technology Implementation: Weakness of a service-based company could be the inability to render an efficient and effective service in this age of modern technology. Wow24-7 ought to adopt technological innovations in a timely manner.

WOW24-7 is a market leader in providing high-quality customer service and technical support 24/7. They are the most competent in dealing with customer inquiries, addressing worries, and providing solutions in a timely and efficient manner. The multilingual support feature they provide makes them unique as they can service customers from various nationalities. They comprehend the customer behavior and how to keep a positive customer bond and this way helping the businesses to enhance their satisfaction rates as well as retention, and overall growth. WOW24-7’s ability to support wide array of languages contributed to its listing in #3 sport on best customer support outsourcing companies list.

Pick #4 🏅 – TELUS International

Best for large head count (300+ agents)

TELUS International focuses on digital solutions, customer experience, innovation, and digital consulting globally, including IT, customer support, and software services.

Strengths

The company is renowned for providing a complete suite of low-priced, high-quality call center service and IT solutions, encompassing customer care, sales, technical support, and back-office support services. These services are delivered through multiple channels including voice, email, chat, and social media.

TELUS International offers digital IT and business process services like IT consulting, cloud services, and process optimization. They provide tailored solutions for fast-growing sectors like tech, health, fintech, gaming, travel, and hospitality.

TELUS International stands out for its customer-first approach, delivering transformative outcomes with innovation, agility, and a caring culture. Known as a CX innovator and digital solutions provider, they focus on developing next-gen digital solutions to improve customer engagement and experience.

In addition, they also emphasize on employee engagement, and community giving, which is in line with their principle of people and customers first. They have always been acknowledged for their excellent customer service, creative technological solutions, and solid corporate culture.

Main contact center location is in El Salvador.

Potential weaknesses:

1. Dependence on Domestic Market: The name Telus is an international one while it is the Canadian market that the company depends heavily upon for its revenue. Therefore, the company is in danger of any economic crisis that Canada may face, which could impact its profitability.
2. Slow International Expansion: The expansion of the services of Telus beyond Canada has been much slower that of its competitors. This lags what makes it able to increase the level of its revenue, diversify business, and cushion itself from the risk of the market concentration.
3. Limited Service Diversification: The main target of Telus International is telecommunications provision. On the other hand, this single-minded approach might be an inadequacy in the quickly changing technology and communication industry where diversification is the key to the survival and growth.
4. Controversies: Though Telus has had a few controversial incidents related to customer privacy and data security, these have almost spoil the complete image of the company in the customers’ eyes. These controversies make the company vulnerable to financial penalties and may as well put off future clients.
5. Poor Customer Service Ratings: There have been times when Telus has been rated unevenly and mediocre with regards to their customer service because of poor service reliability, slow response times, and dissatisfaction with the resolutions. Inadequate customer service will result in customer disapproval, loss of customers and negative feedback for the company.
6. High Debt Levels: Telus has a high level of debt from the latest reports and this restricts its financial flexibility in to invest in other areas or expansion in the market.
7. Reliance on Outside Vendors: Most of Telus’s hardware and software are purchased from external vendors, and so a problem with them would have a negative impact on the company.
8. Workforce Management: The cases of employee dissatisfaction and strikes in Telus clearly point to the problems in controlling a motivated staff. Employees with low levels of satisfaction could have a negative impact on productivity and service quality.

Telus’s size and reliability is a major factor in getting the #4 sport on best customer support outsourcing companies list for 2024.

Pick #5 🏅 – ExpertCallers

Customer Service Outsourcing – Global Call Centre

ExpertCallers is a leading provider of Customer Support Outsourcing solutions, offering a diverse range of services to businesses globally. With a focus on enhancing customer satisfaction and driving revenue growth, ExpertCallers leverages advanced technology and skilled professionals to deliver high-quality, cost-effective solutions. Whether it’s inbound, outbound, telemarketing, or IT support, ExpertCallers has the expertise to exceed expectations. If you are looking to outsource your voice customer support, you can’t go wrong with ExpertCallers, our #5 pick for best customer support outsourcing companies in 2024.

Pick #6 🏅 – Teleperformance

Multilingual and multicultural services with HQ in El Salvador.

Teleperformance is one of the leading global groups on digitally integrated business services, offering an array of customer relation management, digitally integrated business services, and other specialized services.

Key services include:

1. Customer Care: This service involves managing customer queries, complaints, and requests with efficiency, empathy, and effectiveness.
2. Technical Support: They try to manage and troubleshoot their customers’ technical problems, solving challenges and providing accurate and quick solutions and maintenance.
3. Customer Acquisition: They help clients design, launch, monitor, and optimize acquisition programs through a data-driven methodology that includes consulting, analytics, and tailored solutions.
4. Video Content Review & Moderation: They review and moderate agreements, ensuring user safety, content quality and maintaining a clean platform ecosystem.
5. Content Moderation: Content is reviewed and moderated to build a reliable and trustworthy digital customer community.
6. Social Media Management: They provide management of social media channels, which includes monitoring discussions, posts, and comments.
7. Community Management: They manage and support customer community platforms, tracking growth and engagement.
8. Virtual Assistant: Automation and AI solutions, the customer interaction process becomes more efficient.

Potential weaknesses:

1. Labor Disputes: Teleperformance was accused of multiple labor practice violations such as low pay, long working hours and lack of staff safety. Employee satisfaction and turnover could be the result of such problems.
2. Dependence on Limited Clients: The company relies too much on a few clients for a large part of its revenues. The withdrawal of any large client can cause a drastic effect on the financial performance of the company.
3. Negative Public Image: Poor employee handling allegations and labor disputes can also spoil the image of the company detriment potential clients and employees.
4. Lack of Diversification: The customer experience management is the industry Teleperformance mostly operates in. This lack of diversification makes it susceptible to changes in this sector.
5. Low Staff Morale: Reports on stressful work conditions and pressure-filled environments can result in employees low morale, causing low productivity and high employee turnover.
6. Data Security Concerns: The clients of Teleperformance entrust it with the sensitive information. A breach of data or non-compliance with data security rules may lead to considerable outcomes.
7. Dependence on Offshoring: Teleperformance business model is based on offshoring, which makes it vulnerable to political and economic instability in these regions.
8. Contractual Risks: The inability to renegotiate deals on more advantageous terms or cancel unfavourable contracts may erode the profitability of the business.
9. The customer service outsourcing sector is highly competitive, and Teleperformance faces intense rivalry from global players, threatening its market share.
10. Compliance with Different Regulations: Working in several states means that you should adhere to different rules and regulations, which often are complicated and expensive. Sanctions or fines may follow failure to meet the requirements.

The major of Teleperformance is in customer excellence, satisfaction, and customer loyalty. They employ a High-Tech, High-Touch strategy that combines contemporary technology, data analytics, and human touch to deliver solutions. Similarly, the versatility with which they can offer multi-channel solutions with speed, flexibility, and the ability to support a global market also makes them unique in the sector. Besides, they are present in 80 countries, which enables them to offer multilingual and multicultural flexibility to their customers. Their services are used by much of the major global industry players across the worlds of retail, technology, banking and travel.

Pick #7🏅 – Unity Communications

Wide range BPO with emphasis on telecommunications solutions.

Unity Communications, a U.S. BPO company, provides customer support, technical support, and sales support to various industries.

Services encompass:

1. Customer Support: They take care of customer enquiries and complaints through different platforms which includes call, email/live chat, and social media.
2. Technical Support: They diagnose and resolve technical problems that the customers encounter.
3. Sales Support: Unity Communications helps to identify prospective leads, to nurture them and to close deals.
4. Back-Office Support: They do administrative chores like data entry, order processing, inventory management, and financial processing.
5. Lead Generation: They aid business in targeting prospective customers and generate leads that lead to sales growth.
6. Social Media Management: This is another category of people that track the social media presence of the company, the customer interactions with the company, and the brand reputation.

Unity Communication’s strengths include:

1. Cost-Effective Solution: Unity communications outsourcing is cost-effective as it lets businesses do their core operations and leave supportive functions to them.
2. Quality Assurance: Unity Communications seeks to deliver excellent quality.
3. Expertise: They have a team of professionals who are not only experienced but also knowledgeable in their areas of service, hence offer excellent services to their clients.
4. 24/7 Availability: They provide 24/7 assistance that boosts customer satisfaction and ensures that all questions and complaints are dealt with timely.

Potential weaknesses:

1. Limited Control: The services are outsourced, therefore companies may perceive to have limited control over the operations.
2. Sector Focus: What could be seen as a drawback of Unity Communications’ service is that they are too general and they lack some of the industry-specific experience.
3. Quality of Service: Even if they target excellent service, outsourcing, at times, will result in barriers in communication, misunderstanding or varied interpretation of the business values and priorities.
4. Dependence: To some extent, dependency on Unity Communications with regards to crucial business operations poses risks, especially when there is a potential for service interruptions or the need to terminate the relationship for some reasons.
5. Data Security: Every time confidential information is shared with third party companies, then there is a threat of data breaches or cyber attacks. Even though they use the highest level of security, these threats can’t be completely eliminated.
6. Cultural Differences: Their outsourced group in some locations would have cultural issues as well as language barrier challenges that would undoubtedly have an impact on customer service quality.

To sum up, Unity Communications provides many valuable services that can help businesses to reduce complexity and growth. Regardless, businesses must weigh these advantages against their likely limitations to see if it’s the best fit for their particular requirements.

Customer Service Company FAQ

Conclusion

In conclusion, outsourcing customer service requires a strategic approach. Be thorough, ask questions, and take your time. Start small and track KPIs carefully.

Interview agents and have your team test them before they interact with clients.

Outsourcing customer service can significantly impact your business. Below is a list of top providers: HelpSquad, HelpWare, WOW24-7, TELUS International, Teleperformance, and Unity Communications, each offering unique strengths.

HelpSquad integrates live service with any CRM, while HelpWare excels in back-office support. WOW24-7 offers multilingual services, and TELUS International leads in CX innovation. Teleperformance has a global reach, and Unity Communications provides an affordable, comprehensive solution that covers both customer support and lead generation.

However, challenges like market share, overreliance on key clients, staff training, and data security must be considered. Thorough research is essential to match the right provider to your business needs, turning outsourcing into a strategic advantage.