Anyone quoting you a single number for outsourced customer service before asking about your volume, hours, and contact types is guessing. The range across legitimate providers is wide enough that the same workload can differ several times over depending on four variables.
This is what those variables are, how providers structure their pricing, and the cost that never appears in a proposal.
The four things that set the price
1. Delivery location
This has the single largest effect, and it is not close. The same eight-hour shift costs substantially more onshore in the US or UK than nearshore in Latin America, and more nearshore than offshore in Asia. If a quote seems far below every other quote, the delivery location is almost always the explanation.
2. Dedicated or shared agents
Dedicated agents work only your queue and build real product knowledge. Shared or pooled agents cover several clients and cost less per hour of coverage. Dedicated is worth the premium when product knowledge is deep or brand voice is distinctive; pooled works well for high-volume, well-documented contact types.
3. Coverage hours
Business hours in one time zone is the cheapest configuration. Extending to evenings, weekends, and overnight multiplies the headcount required to hold the same service level—often more than people expect, because a queue still needs a minimum staffing floor at 3 a.m. even when volume is low.
4. Skill level required
Order status and password resets are one price. Technical diagnosis, regulated work, licensed activity, or anything requiring specialist vocabulary is another. Tiering matters here—paying a technically-skilled rate for the whole queue when 70% of it is routine is a common and expensive mistake.
Tier your contacts before you buy. Paying a specialist rate for password resets is the most common way to overspend on support.
The pricing models you will be quoted
Per hour or per FTE. The most common structure and the easiest to compare across providers. You pay for staffed time regardless of how many contacts arrive.
Per seat or per month.Similar to per-FTE but usually bundled with tooling, supervision, and reporting. Read what is included—supervision and QA are sometimes priced separately, which makes a headline rate look better than it is.
Per ticket or per contact.You pay for what is handled. Attractive when volume is unpredictable. Watch how a “contact” is defined: whether a follow-up email on the same issue counts again changes the bill substantially.
Per minute. Common for inbound voice and answering services. Fine for low, spiky volume; expensive at scale, and it rewards short calls in ways that occasionally conflict with resolving the problem.
The cost nobody puts in the proposal
Your own management time. A programme with clear documentation, defined escalation rules, and a regular reporting rhythm takes very little ongoing attention. One without them consumes more of your week than the support did before you outsourced it.
Budget real hours for the first six to eight weeks regardless of provider. Writing the process down, reviewing early tickets, and correcting drift is the work that determines whether the engagement succeeds—and it is entirely on your side of the line.
What to ask before signing
Ask what is included and what is billed separately—supervision, quality assurance, reporting, tooling, and training all appear in different places depending on the provider. Ask what happens when volume goes up 40% for a month, and what happens when it drops. Ask about minimum commitments and notice periods.
Then ask the most useful question of all: what does a bad month look like, and what did you do about it the last time one happened.
Getting a number for your situation
Cost only becomes meaningful once scope is defined, which is why any honest answer starts with your volume, hours, channels, and contact mix. Our customer support outsourcing page covers the engagement models in more detail, and comparing nearshore against offshore delivery is usually where the largest cost difference gets decided.