Should you outsource live chat or inbound calls? It depends on your business and customers’ needs.
Live chat outsourcing works best for large numbers of quick questions from customers who would rather type than talk. Inbound call center outsourcing works best for complex, urgent, or sensitive issues that may need a human voice. Most businesses get the best results from a mix of both.
This guide explains how each option works, compares them side by side, and helps you decide which one fits your business.
What is Live Chat Outsourcing?
Live chat outsourcing is the process of hiring an external provider to handle your business’s real-time chat messages with customers. Trained agents answer questions, solve problems right in the chat, and escalate issues to the right team when needed. With live chat outsourcing, agents can provide customers with 24/7 support.
How Does Chat Support Outsourcing Work?
Chat support outsourcing connects your messages with a website chat widget or mobile application. The website chat widget or mobile app is linked to an automated system or engine that routes incoming customer messages to the next available agent.
A customer starts a chat by clicking the chat widget, filling out a form, or taking an action on your site that opens a chat. The automated system or routing engine then sorts through the digital traffic and customer messages in the queue to assign them to agents.
With chat support process outsourcing, the agent can answer the question or solve the problem in real time. They can even send customer questions to technical, engineering, or sales teams. Sending queries to additional teams is also part of the escalation process, where agents can turn a chat into a ticket that is passed on to the appropriate team.
On the flip side, if a chatbot handles the customer’s initial messages, then the message history is sent to a human agent.
Supervisors also review chats for quality as part of the chat support process outsourcing workflow. Reports on response times, resolution rates, and common issues may also be created.
What Does Inbound Call Center Outsourcing Involve?
Inbound call center outsourcing involves partnering with a third-party company to answer the calls customers make to your organization. Customer support services may include customer questions, technical and non-technical issues, and customer complaints.
Inbound call center outsourcing can help reduce backlogs and service delays by addressing large call volumes and customer conversations. According to Grand View Research, the inbound services segment held the largest revenue share in 2025, with 59.2%.
The right inbound call center outsourcing partner should be trained on your business’s systems, understand your service standards, and operate like an extension of your in-house team.
Live Chat vs. Inbound Call Center Outsourcing: A Side-By-Side Comparison
| Live Chat Outsourcing | Inbound Call Center Outsourcing | |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Simple, high-volume questions | Complex, urgent, or sensitive issues |
| Common Uses | Account help, product or service questions, basic troubleshooting, order status | Billing disputes, technical problems, complaints, highly regulated topics |
| Customer Preference | Digital-first customers who prefer to send a chat | Customers who want to talk to a person right away |
| Agent Capacity | One agent can often handle several chats at once | One agent handles one call at a time |
| Cost per Contact | Usually lower, because agents handle multiple chats | Usually higher, because each call needs an agent’s full attention |
| Speed | Fast replies, but a chat can stretch out while the customer multitasks | Real-time, and complex issues are often solved in one conversation |
| Personal Touch | Friendly, but harder to show tone and empathy | Easier to build trust and calm upset customers |
| Escalation | Chat becomes a ticket for the right team | Warm transfer to a specialist or supervisor |
| Data and Reporting | Transcripts that are easy to search and review | Call recordings and notes, which take more time to review |
| Coverage | 24/7 coverage available | 24/7 coverage available |
When Should You Outsource Live Chats, Calls, or Both?
Consider outsourcing your live chat support if your business:
- Requires 24/7 coverage for customer service
- Has high-volume support requests and delayed response times
- Wants a boost in customer satisfaction, sales, and retention, while reducing costs
- Needs clear data on support performance metrics and recurring problems
- Is experiencing overall business expansion and growth
On the other hand, consider outsourcing your calls if your business:
- Sees high call volumes, with even higher call volumes during demand surges
- Is absorbing high recruiting, training, overhead, and turnover costs for customer service agents
- Has an internal team that is so overwhelmed with calls that strategic business priorities are interrupted
- Requires 24/7 coverage for customer support
- Is scaling and experiencing overall business growth
When it comes to outsourcing both, a business process outsourcing (BPO) partner like CBE Customer Solutions can support you with both live chat outsourcing and inbound call center outsourcing services depending on your business’s needs.
How CBE Customer Solutions Can Help
If you’re considering outsourcing your business’s live chats or calls, CBE Customer Solutions can help.
CBE Customer Solutions provides customer experience and care across chat, voice, email, and other digital channels. CBE’s services also include technical and specialized support, analytics and reporting, workforce training, and CX strategy delivery.
CBE Customer Solutions also specializes in call center outsourcing for complex and regulated industries. Whether you need inbound call center outsourcing services or customer experience support, CBE delivers trained agents who immerse themselves in your brand and standards and operate within your compliance framework.
Learn more about CBE Customer Solutions’ live chat outsourcing and inbound call center outsourcing services, and get started here.
Live Chat and Inbound Call Center Outsourcing FAQs
Yes. CBE Customer Solutions offers live chat outsourcing, inbound call center outsourcing, and support across voice, email, and other digital channels. CBE Customer Solutions specializes in providing business process outsourcing (BPO) services for complex and regulated industries. CBE’s trained agents work within your business’s standards and compliance framework. In most cases, yes. Live chat usually costs less per contact because one agent can often handle several chats at the same time, while a call center agent handles one call at a time. Calls can still offer better value for complex issues because they are more likely to be solved in a single conversation. It depends on the types of questions your customers ask and your business’s needs. Outsource live chat if you get a lot of simple, repeat questions from customers who prefer to type. Outsource inbound calls if you handle complex, urgent, or sensitive issues. Many businesses outsource both so customers can get help on any channel. Chat support process outsourcing involves handing the full chat support workflow to an external provider. That includes receiving chats, routing them to the right agent, solving issues, escalating tickets, quality assurance, and reporting on results. Your business can receive expert chat support without having to build and manage the team in-house.