5 Myths of Offshoring for MSPs

It’s an exciting time in the MSP industry with more and more ways to support customers, to offer new technologies and to find new profitable approaches to servicing clients.
One of the hottest topics in the MSP industry right now is the concept of outsourced helpdesk services to underpin MSPs and ITSPs looking to grow and scale effectively.

But before you say you’ll never outsource here’s some common myths that we here at Benchmark 365 believe should be busted:

“Offshore helpdesk staff aren’t good communicators”

The offshore outsourcing industry is more than 20 years old and was pioneered by the telecommunication industry.  During these early days there was little care taken to ensure customers received great service, offshoring was simply a way for these big companies to offer cheaper cellular plans and internet services to price sensitive consumers.

Unfortunately, these early consumer experiences have resulted in a negative impression about outsourcing.

But, 20 years is a long time.  Today, countries like the Philippines have an enormous English speaking workforce many of whom have worked in some of the largest western companies in the world including IBM and Accenture.

The mistakes of early outsourcers have been learned from and today the offshore market is thriving with talented, well trained customer service personnel and systems engineers.

In fact, many MSPs are outsourcing their helpdesk and finding that it leads to better customer experiences.

“Outsourcing your helpdesk = poor customer service”

The Philippines people are warm, courteous and empathetic.

Filipino’s are quick to adapt to the training that is provided so much so that the Philippines is considered the top location in the world for outsourced helpdesk services.

At Benchmark 365 our employees are all English speaking, they meet global customer service standards and are highly trained on the technologies an MSP uses every single day.  To keep our services at a high standard that MSPs want and need we ensure every ticket we handle is overseen by a dedicated quality assurance team.

Outsourcing to a partner that understands the unique needs of an MSP and provides effective training programs is an important aspect when considering outsourcing your helpdesk.

“You’ll lose your customer relationship”

I was reading earlier today about an MSP who was worried he would lose a customer if he used an outsourced or offshore helpdesk.  The truth is you could actually lose customers whether or not you outsource if you don’t continuously build effective relationships with your customers.

Our partners understand that the most important relationship to manage is the person who pays the bills.  They regularly hold business technology reviews, they call their customers to see how their business is doing and keep a pulse on the sorts of requests their customers are making that could lead to more opportunities.

Outsourcing your helpdesk should never be a reason to lose a customer.  If you are already outsourcing and not getting the results you expect then perhaps it’s time to look at an alternative provider like Benchmark 365.  We put our partners customers first and have a 94.2% customer satisfaction rating with a 70% survey response rate.

With an outsourced helpdesk meeting customer demand you’re actually far more likely to retain customers because your business is hitting every ticket quickly while you spend more time in the board room rather than the server room.

“Outsourcing is expensive”

There would be little point to outsourcing if it was expensive.  The concept of outsourcing is to help your business grow much faster than a traditional hiring model allowing you to scale up rapidly.

At Benchmark 365 we reduce our partners costs by more than 50% of an equivalent full time employee and offer our partners services that they would otherwise have to spend considerable time and expense to build out a local team.  

With day and night support and expertise across the full stack of MSP technologies it gives our partners enormous potential to grow revenue quickly without the expensive overheads.

Conversely, the cost of local recruitment, training, HR issues, employee downtime and overheads is expensive and is why a lot of MSPs find it very difficult to scale up.

When you outsource to the right helpdesk partner your MSP saves cost and grows profitably.

“My customers won’t speak with someone offshore”

This is the most common fear we hear from MSPs and yet another myth.

Some MSPs believe that their clients are doing business with them on the sole basis that their employees are local and that their customers will somehow refuse to speak to somebody offshore.

This is not only unlikely but from our experience in servicing thousands of customers globally it’s also untrue.

The reality is at the helpdesk level customers want their issues fixed fast.  That means they want someone to take their call and resolve it as quickly as possible.  In a transactional 1st or 2nd level incident the only thing the customer remembers is that the job was done quickly and competently, not the name and nationality of the technician!

The reality is customers are buying from you and your brand.    They like your product offering and they find you an economical fit for their business.  

An outsourced partner like Benchmark 365 works with you to understand your customers needs, develops tacit knowledge about your workflows and processes and provides an exceptional standard of service both day and night.

So that’s all for now.  We hope we’ve been able to bust some myths for you about offshoring your MSP.