Customer experience: In-house vs. outsourcing

touch. Many fear that introducing AI-supported CX systems will cause their business to drown in technologies and obliterate their customer-centric culture. Nowhere is this fear more overwhelming than in the decision whether to outsource CX to a third party.

Of course, both in-house and outsourced solutions have their advantages, but which set of benefits is most relevant to startups—and to your business in particular? In this enlightening article, Teddy Albayero, XtendOps VP of Operations and Strategy for Latin America, presents the advantages of in-house and outsourced solutions in the context of growing businesses.

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In my experience working with startups, a major pain point around growth is the fear of losing control of the business’s unique appeal to customers. When the time comes to invest in CX expansion, the decision between an in-house or outsourced solution can become a significant crossroads in the life of your business.

I like to think of it as the difference between a trusty robot sidekick or a mysterious alien ally. In other words, if you bring in an outsider to manage your customer experience, will it harm your business? Your decision is more complex than a simple insider-outsider binary. It requires a realistic assessment of the human resources and scaling capacity within your team and evaluation of the capabilities of different types of BPOs in the CX space.

Customer engagement is the natural differentiator for a startup like yours. Your customer experience must become a priority as you begin to scale up, so you don’t lose that fundamental competitive advantage. Improved efficiency should serve the customer experience, not transform your business into a turnstile of impersonal transactions.

Your primary consideration in choosing between in-house or outsourced CX: which option will optimize performance without compromising on humanity? The strategy must be people-focused, so the human touch is always present.

Handling your customer experience program in-house gives you one chief advantage: the freedom to fully customize your strategy. You design and implement your system according to the preferences and tendencies you’ve observed in your customers. You can adapt quickly and align your CX with your startup’s goals. Your existing team knows the customer and can provide a nuanced experience.

Bear in mind that customization can be limiting to your growth. Although in-house CX affords you more control, it’s constrained by your team’s capacity. How will you maintain that granularity of service as your business scales up? Effective customer experience processes require time and repetition. As your customer base grows, the resources you use to grow CX expertise in your in-house team may see diminishing returns.

If your startup is really growing, there will come a point where you don’t have the luxury of time and money for your in-house team to add CX capacity to your core business expertise. At this stage, outsourcing becomes your best option. Let’s look at how outsourcing CX delivers long-term benefits.

Dedicated expertise

‍Your team can focus its attention on your core business functions.

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Time efficiency

‍A BPO can apply proven solutions and tailor them to your internal processes and systems. You don’t want to waste time reinventing the wheel.

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Scaling capacity

‍The right CX partner has ample staffing capacity and can plug in the right people and technologies when needed.

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Cost-effectiveness

‍You don’t lose time and money playing trial-and-error with your customer experience.

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The right CX partner will let you hit the ground running. Need advice on making the case to investors? Check out this article on selling CX expansion to your board.

If outsourcing is your chosen strategy, get to know all your options. A larger enterprise BPO with a robust portfolio and reputation may offer an appealing sense of stability. However, legacy CX providers often have established processes and won’t easily adapt to your business’s need for flexibility and agility. Their bureaucratic lag can cause even simple decisions to take more time than necessary.

A further risk you face with a legacy BPO is their organizational bias. To sustain their own hefty business, they’re incentivized to give more time and effort to their larger clients. Additionally, their solutions—even for a smaller startup—may come with hidden costs or unnecessary service features.

We are in an era where we need things done fast and then faster, but developing and customizing a CX strategy will always take time. Whenever you implement something new, you need time to measure its output and success. Your BPO partner must be able to deliberate where needed to assess progress, but it should not impede your growth.

With the right BPO, you should be able to select only the services you need and adapt quickly to fast-changing conditions. Want more information on finding the ideal partner for your CX expansion? This article outlines six considerations for startups choosing a BPO for CX.

We’re in a people industry, period. Real CX innovation combines technology with humanity for a people-centered customer experience. With our accessible, responsive management team, our XO AI Ecosystem, and our global staffing capacity, XtendOps brings technology-empowered solutions with a human face. Our customer-centric approach extends to our clients and to their customers.

Ready to invest in CX growth for your startup? Connect with us to explore the possibilities.