The 5 Mistakes to Avoid Before Outsourcing Your Customer Service

Mistake 1: outsourcing for the wrong reasons

The first mistake is also the most fundamental. Many companies outsource their customer service solely to reduce costs, without asking what they actually want to achieve for their customers.

The problem: a provider selected purely on price optimises for price — not for quality. It will reduce AHT, limit training investment, and pool resources to the maximum. The result is predictable: short-term savings, a degradation in customer satisfaction, an increase in churn, and ultimately a total cost higher than the original situation.

The right approach: define quality and customer experience objectives first, then find the provider capable of achieving them at the best cost. Outsourcing is a performance lever, not just a cost-cutting mechanism.

Mistake 2: neglecting the internal preparation phase

Companies frequently hand over to an external provider processes they do not fully master themselves. The result: the provider inherits the disorder and amplifies it.

Before outsourcing, it is essential to:

• Document your processes: handling procedures, scripts, decision trees, access rights, edge cases. If you cannot clearly explain how your customer service works today, you cannot transfer its management effectively.
• Measure your current performance: CSAT, FCR, AHT, answer rate. Without a baseline, you cannot measure whether outsourcing improves or degrades the situation.
• Identify which interactions to outsource first: not all interactions are equal. Start with the most standardised and highest-volume ones — not the most complex or strategically sensitive.

The right approach: invest four to eight weeks in internal preparation before launching the RFP. This time is easily recovered during the onboarding phase.

Mistake 3: writing a requirements document that is too vague — or too rigid

The requirements document is the foundation of the project. Too vague, it leaves the provider to interpret freely and strips you of any leverage in the event of underperformance. Too rigid, it prevents the provider from bringing its expertise and blocks potential improvements.

Classic mistakes in BPO requirements documents:

• SLAs expressed in absolute terms without accounting for the natural variability of contact volumes
• Process requirements so detailed that they leave no room for the provider to adapt or improve
• No customer satisfaction KPIs — productivity is measured but perceived quality is not
• Unrealistic volume forecasts (typically underestimated) that distort the economic model of the contract
• Missing reversibility and contract exit clauses

The right approach: a requirements document that clearly defines outcome objectives (service levels, customer satisfaction targets, cost targets) while leaving the provider freedom to propose its methods for achieving them. Involve your shortlisted provider in finalising the document — their operational knowledge will strengthen it.

Mistake 4: selecting your provider on price alone

A BPO RFP typically produces very different commercial proposals. The temptation to select the cheapest is strong — and almost always a mistake.

What price does not tell you:

• The real quality of team training and management
• The provider’s financial solidity and capacity to invest over the long term
• Hidden costs: surcharges on volume overruns, transition costs on exit, termination penalties
• The churn impact of a quality degradation — typically far more expensive than the savings achieved on the contract

The right approach: evaluate the total cost of ownership over three years, factoring in transition costs, underperformance risks, and the estimated impact on customer satisfaction and retention. A provider 15% more expensive that maintains a higher CSAT can be significantly more profitable in the long run.

Mistake 5: abandoning governance after go-live

This is probably the most common mistake of all. The company invests heavily in selection and onboarding, then progressively disengages — leaving the provider to self-manage, without feedback, without challenge, without continuous improvement.

What happens next is predictable: performance stabilises at the contractual minimum, irritants accumulate without being addressed, provider teams lose motivation and skills through lack of stimulation, and the client company finds itself two years later with a contract to renew and a disappointing track record.

A successful BPO partnership requires sustained investment from the client side:

• Regular steering committees with decision-making participants — not just operational managers
• Proactive sharing of product changes, marketing campaigns, and process updates
• Regular call listening and quality review sessions to maintain proximity with operational reality
• A culture of constructive feedback — recognising strong performance, challenging underperformance

The right approach: treat your BPO provider as a strategic partner, not a supplier you leave running on autopilot. The best BPO relationships are active collaborations where client and provider co-build continuous improvement together.

Summary: the 5 mistakes to avoid