What comes after tax season?

Audit season.  

No, not that kind of audit. This audit doesn’t involve the tax man.

It’s the perfect time of year to check in on your outsourced CX costs. We just wrapped the first full quarter of the calendar year. Spring is in the air – it’s time for that annual deep clean. And doing it now means you’ll be rolling into the second half of the year with a fiscally sound plan.

Best of all – it’s easy to answer two questions: 

• How much are you really spending on outsourced CX?
• Can you do better? 

Preparation is easy.  All you need are a few accessible numbers from the last few months: 

• Number of tickets handled / amount of content moderated
• Total amount billed
• The nominal hourly rate you were quoted

Cost per ticket / piece of content moderated 

This tells you what you are paying per CX task. While it may not be a particularly useful piece of information on its own, it does serve as a useful benchmark to check over time with the same provider (are they becoming more or less efficient?) and a way to measure the efficiency of a new vendor.

Calculation is easy: divide your total cost for the service by tickets handled or items moderated.  

Cost per CX item is the best way to compare vendors apples to apples.  

Determine your true hourly rate

Outsourced CX services are typically sold based on hourly rates. How the services are actually billed can be more complicated, depending on your vendor. If you are being charged for full-time equivalents, you might be paying an FTE tax of up to 20% or more.

Calculating this is a bit more involved.  We wrote about it in our article on calculating your true hourly rate.  You can also check out our slideshow.  

Comparison Shop

Knowing your true hourly rate and cost per CX item puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to finding the right partner. You’ll have a better handle on what the work is really costing and what you’re actually getting in return. 

Outsource your audit too. It’s free.  

We know you have a lot on your plate and stopping to audit CX costs might not be at the top of your list at the moment.  No problem.  If you can gather a bit of data, we’re happy to run the numbers for you and be your first stop for comparison shopping.

And, as always, there’s no pressure and no obligation. 

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