Define Back Office Support and Why a Business Should Outsource Its Back-office Activities
Can’t figure out what back office support means? Maybe someone has asked you to define back office support, and you have googled it instantly to land here. Don’t worry; you are in the right spot for that! In simple words, these are the activities that aren’t customer-facing. But they are improving the overall customer experience. Think of them as the web design or good content that facilitates visitors with effortless navigation and excellent information but not supporting customers with sales or more. Still, feel like this information is going above your head? Fear not, as we are expanding on the topic in the next paragraph. Hence make sure that you stay with us until the end of this blog post to make the most out of it.
Back Office Support – Getting into the Details
Let’s understand what back-office support means and why a business should outsource it. Bet you’ll bag enough to define back office support!
Back Office Support
As brought to light in the introduction, a business needs back-office support to improve the customer experience. Suppose a laptop seller wants to switch to online selling. For this, he needs to create an e-commerce website and invest in some good software. He will hire a website developer and hand over his guidelines about the website’s final appearance. He’ll also hire a copywriter to work on crafting engaging content. Now, these services have nothing to do with the customer directly but will improve their experience as they scroll through the website when it’s live. See, you are already admiring the back-office support, aren’t you? Hold on as we move you to discuss whether or not a business owner should outsource the back-office support to an expert agent or individual. In short, we are heading from ‘define back office support to elaborate on the same.
Should a business outsource back office support?
It depends on the nature and complexity of business operations. If a business operates on a small scale, it will need an expert to deal with important back office tasks simply because it would like to use most of its resources on the core. Hiring an expert or two full-time for such purposes may result in a huge periodical cost. Therefore, outsourcing is the best option for such businesses! On the other hand, a large company will have a huge list of such tasks, so full-time hiring experts for such a role will be a more feasible option. Before we get into such explanations, let’s first understand the common back-office support tasks that businesses will usually outsource.
Commonly outsourced back office tasks
Most businesses around the world will look to acquire the following back office support:
Data Entry
Some organizations may have a huge amount of data to enter into the system. It may be form filling or other. Instead of hiring full-time data entry experts, the company may outsource this responsibility to a firm or freelancer for half the cost. Doing so will save cost and make its resources free to use in the main process.
Call Center
A call center is an important business function that deals with the incoming and outgoing calls of customers or potential customers, respectively. Fielding customers’ queries, requests, or support over the phone is known as as inbound calls. On the other hand, reaching out to potential customers over the phone for sales or information is known as outbound calls. Small businesses that receive a few calls may not want to outsource their call center function. Whereas large organizations most commonly outsource this function to call centers around the globe.
Bookkeeping and IT support are also among the most commonly outsourced back office support activities.
Now coming back to ascertain whether or not a company should outsource its back office tasks.
The need for an expert
A small or new company may not have enough budget to keep a full-time expert for, let’s say, inbound calls. But it needs this expert to enhance the brand’s reputation. Outsourcing allows them to use the time and effort of an expert for the time being they need.
To Focus on the Core
Due to cutting-edge competition these days, businesses will want to put more time and effort into focusing on their core. For that, they use the back-office support activities for the specialist firms.
Maybe, it’s getting a bit too technical for you to absorb all the information like this. Let’s get to understand this with a real-world example.
How does back office support work?
Suppose you are a new manufacturer with enough customers to compensate for the cost incurred. Now you want more people to buy your product, for which you must put in some effort in your marketing. Researching for the best marketing tactics, you have realized that marketing calls are the most effective way of spreading product awareness. Plus, you have estimated that keeping an in-house resource for that will surpass the company’s budget. Therefore, opting to outsource this task to a BPO call center is a rational decision. Here’s how the call center will take care of this back support activity of marketing calls for you.
Expertise
The outbound call center or a BPO services provider has experts who can make marketing calls to prospects professionally and effectively. They will try their best to turn the receiver into the customer using all their skills and expertise. Hiring such individuals full-time will result in a huge periodical outflow. But with the call center, you can avail the expertise and only pay for the time and effort invested. See, business process outsourcing is a life savior!
Round-the-clock Availability
The experienced agents at the call centers know when your prospect will give the marketing call a chance. Hence, they will try to reach him at that hour of the day. It might be the afternoon, evening, or maybe the hour after dinner. Doing so is not an issue for the outbound call centers as they ensure the performance of their duties 24/7.
Take Away
Back-office support might be a confusing term. And it gets very confusing when your manager out of nowhere asks you to define back office support. Not now, we suppose! Since you have reached the end of this very informative yet engaging blog post. That means we can now question you on what back-office support means and how outsourcing such tasks is your best bet. And just as your manager, we expect you’ll have a lot to say about it. Thank god, as it also vouches for the effectiveness of this write-up.