By Caroline Watson – CEO of Voucherline Ltd
When I entered the industry before the last millennium way back in 1995, I knew very little about ‘white labelling’ or ’outsourcing’, and still today I meet other executives in our industry who look puzzled when ‘white labelling’ is mentioned. Partner services are another description.
For those that do not know, ‘White labelling’ is when another company takes care of services that you would normally have to do in-house, saving your company or department, time, resource and crucially cost in the process. Your partner acts like a division of your team, they might answer calls in your branding, and would usually also send out all dispatch as if you had sent it from your offices.
The cost savings of outsourcing are immense. No storing of your stock. No staff issues or indeed needing staff anymore for that role so all of the costs of that are gone. No worrying if your team needs an away day from the office – your white label partner can take care of that when you are out! You can divert your phones to some partners and know they will be answering your calls and acting as an extension of your team and they know the product well so can sell with ease.
In our industry for the gift card brands, we mainly saw customer services, and order dispatch outsourced in the early days, but now, most agencies can add on gift card API services, bulk ordering platforms, and even printing of gift cards alongside, rolling up everything so you can concentrate on getting your sales sorted, and growing your brand all with one partner if you wish.
Others like to spread out their options, making sure that not all eggs are in one basket, and have a couple of service providers retained instead.
For agencies where gift cards and e-codes are not your core business, but they play a large part in what you do, as your brand grows, so does the customer service side with customers chasing orders, saying they have not received their gift cards or e-gift cards not received. These soon start to encroach on your daily task list and your team starts to fret. Believe me, over the last 20 years I have met many a Sales Manager who knows they need help but cannot sign off a new employee yet so reach out to agencies like ourselves to take the flack away.
Cost-wise it’s a no brainer really. Clear defined costs are set out in reports that make it very easy for you to know just how much that part of your business needs to set aside, and also to then provide reporting to your C-Suite on your growth and margins to set aside for that growth. It also makes your partner accountable for best practices, excellent customer service, and you can seize the opportunity to learn from their other clients or hear about new ways of dispatching to help minimise loss and service desk queries. Your partner also grows with you. They welcome more work as they earn more! Unlike an employee who might worry about increased workload, let your White Label partner worry about it instead.
So reach out to Voucherline, we can really assist with taking away the strains and stresses of customer services, and with our longevity in the business, you are sure to end up with some great industry experts on your team.
