The competitive advantage through which brands try to differentiate themselves from the other brands in the market is the delivery of exceptional customer experience (CX) that promises to meet customer expectations in this rapidly evolving market. Customers are likely to shun brands that cannot offer fast and frictionless personalized experiences that can cater to the demand for 24/7 omnichannel experiences. Brands have no room for mistakes, as just one bad experience can turn off customers from the brand and tarnish the brand’s reputation in the competitive marketplace.
To ensure that brands are on point while meeting customer expectations, brands increasingly partner with tech-savvy partners to overcome a lack of expertise. There’s been a shift in outsourcing strategies, with 80% of companies in North America actively considering nearshoring.1 With 39% of services, decision-makers at North American and European companies expect to increase their use of nearshore labor.2
Why Nearshore?
Traditional outsourcing strategies involved companies outsourcing customer service centers to partners located at distant locations to drive cost savings. Unfortunately, companies often realize cost savings by sacrificing the ability to deliver a truly personalized touch due to the ensuing communication barriers and cultural differences arising from the distance between the two strategic partners. The ability to partner with a provider in a geographically closer country is why nearshoring offers a compelling narrative. The closer proximity helps bridge the cultural gap as nearshore agents are better equipped to understand customers’ nuances, helping with more natural and effective interactions. Nearshoring helps to boost communication as the closer proximity minimizes time zone differences, facilitating real-time communication and faster resolution.
Furthermore, the nearshore locations often have a multilingual talent pool that allows you to cater to diverse customer bases with agents who speak their language. With 50% of executives identifying talent acquisition as a top internal challenge in meeting their organization’s strategic priorities.3 That is precisely why more US-based companies seek nearshore talent because of a close workday overlap, strong cultural fit, and high English language proficiency.4 Nearshoring is the new frontier for building a powerful partnership that fuels your CX strategy.
The CX Advantage of Nearshoring
Nearshoring is instrumental in ensuring an enabling environment for a more positive customer experience. This enabling environment facilitates increased customer satisfaction, as customer issues are resolved quickly with a clearer understanding of customer expectations, providing personalized care that leads to happier customers. Positive CX helps build brand loyalty, making customers more likely to return and recommend your brand to others. This enhanced brand reputation due to exceptional CX greatly helps attract new customers. The CX advantage for nearshoring is evident from the following case study, which showcases how nearshoring services were instrumental in enriching the customer experience offered by the client to build brand loyalty and enhance the brand reputation even though the customer was in a precarious situation.
Client: Small Appliance Brand
The Challenge
A booming small appliance brand struggled with a failing customer service system as the existing fulfillment house lacked the capacity and expertise, leading to long wait times, frustrated customers, a lack of transparency and performance metrics, and a social media firestorm that continued to tarnish the brand image fueled by customer dissatisfaction. The brand could not leverage a positive “Good Morning America” feature for its products due to fulfillment errors that turned a great opportunity into a growing crisis.
The Solution
Premier’s North American division comprehensively overhauled the client’s customer support operations to restructure contact center hours and optimize staffing levels. Premier introduced dedicated representatives for specific tasks and fulfillment errors and established a priority queue for high-value inquiries. Premier developed a comprehensive knowledge base to facilitate the agents and utilized workforce management tools. The North American division supplemented these measures by integrating technology solutions like chatbots and automated email responses while effectively managing social media platforms to build the client’s brand reputation.
The Results
The solutions led to significant improvements in customer experience and operational efficiency as staff reduction by 30% brought in savings of approximately $180k annually. The streamlined operational work plan helped decrease the abandon rate from 27% to 3%, reducing average handling time from 11 to 8 minutes. After-call work time halved, improving hold times and contact center efficiency. The brand reputation got a significant boost with social media sentiment shifting from negative to positive and customer feedback becoming overwhelmingly positive. Quality scores improved from 88 to 93, enhancing agent morale and efficiency.
The positive turnaround was possible because the outsourcing partner was nearshore, coming in quickly to resurrect the situation through proactive crisis resolution. It was in sync with the client’s needs and quickly adapted and implemented the identified solutions that could immediately improve the customer experience. Cultural alignment is far more critical as processes have become more agile and teams have become more integrated, constantly working closely on a multitude of tasks; the degree of team integration plays a crucial role in ensuring the optimum customer experience.5
Choosing the Right Nearshore Partner: It All Comes Down to Fit
Nearshoring can improve customer experience (CX) and help meet customer expectations regarding personalized and 24/7 omnichannel experiences. To leverage the advantages of nearshoring, you must align with the right nearshore partner. The ideal partner should be culturally aligned with you, as this will foster better communication and understanding, leading to a more seamless experience. Furthermore, your identified partner should have a proven track record in delivering exceptional customer experience and a deep understanding of your industry. Your chosen provider should be equipped with all the technology tools necessary to ensure clear and efficient communication channels, supported by AI-powered tools to meet evolving customer needs. The open communication channel between the two is vital for the ongoing training of your nearshore team so that they keep abreast of your brand guidelines, products, and best practices.
Ready to Unlock the Potential for Exceptional CX?
Nearshoring is not just a cost-saving strategy; it’s a strategic move to elevate your customer experience. By partnering with the right nearshore provider, you gain access to a skilled workforce, bridge cultural gaps, and foster real-time communication – all crucial ingredients for building lasting customer relationships and achieving success in the digital age. So, are you ready to nearshore your customer service and unlock the potential for exceptional CX?
Integrating the nearshoring strategy into your business mix is a daunting challenge, but Premier will help you find the right nearshore solutions to transform your customer experience. Premier tailors its global centers to align with your business needs and optimize success through the right-shoring strategy. Since 2003, Premier has delivered exceptional client value through its award-winning approach, consistently exceeding industry benchmarks with an 85% client CSAT and an NPS score 20% higher than average. Premier is more than just a service provider; it is a strategic partner that leverages the Premier Sync framework to handle your business process management needs.
Partner with Premier and leverage AI-powered tools optimized for your needs to achieve significant revenue growth. Co-create the future with PremierTech Solutions, which pioneers innovative technology solutions that tackle customer pain points, elevate satisfaction, and drive operational efficiency. Premier solutions foster superior customer experiences that drive increased retention and brand advocacy and maximize customer lifetime value. Optimizing existing processes and realizing value beyond cost reduction can improve profitability. Premier brings quality, reliability, technical ability, and ROI with the enthusiasm to see you and your business flourish.
Don’t settle for average—experience the difference Premier can make by transforming customer interactions and helping you boost the customer experience (CX) you offer.
