Think Outsourcing and succeed.

Outsourcing – WHOA, I am not going to outsource. I don’t want my customer dissatisfied about our services.

If this is what you think when you hear the word outsourcing, please go ahead and read the rest of the article. I am sure, this article will change the way you think about the word Outsourcing. Not only will it change the way you think, but it will also lead you to a new path of success.

A path of success that many corporate giants have already discovered and they are enjoying the benefits now.

Now you must be wondering I have always heard my customers complain about outsourcing. Even when I call some companies, the support I get, makes me highly dissatisfied, then how can I outsource my services yet make my customers happy.

Well, I would say it is possible, if done correctly.

It is not that your customers hate outsourcing; they hate outsourcing when they suffer because of it.

What does that mean?

The customer would love outsourcing, if it is a pleasant experience for them.

Now, you must be thinking, how to outsource, yet make your customers love it.

By the end of this article, you will get to know how to outsource your business needs, without upsetting your customer.

Before we get started, let us cover some basics of Outsourcing.

Business Process Outsourcing is the delegation of one or more business processes which are not the core process of the outsourcing company to an external provider who in turn provides services for the selected process based on certain defined and measurable performance criteria specified by the outsourcing company. This generally involves an organization's non-core processes.

Outsourcing: Contracting some or all call center services to an outside company.

OnShore: Onshore outsourcing is outsourcing within nearby region or the same country.

Offshore: Offshore outsourcing is outsourcing beyond your country.

Call Center. A term that generally refers to inbound centers, outbound centers, help desks, information lines or customer service centers, regardless of how they are organized or what types of transactions they handle.

Help Desk. An inbound call center set up to handle queries about product installation, usage or problems, primarily technical support related to computers or other hardware. The same can be offered through Voice support, chat or email support.

Now that you understand few terms related to outsourcing, let us try to understand why it is important for your business.

Why is Outsourcing necessary?

I am sure; you must have read about the term Opportunity Cost. An Opportunity Cost is the value of a product that is forgone when pursuing another product. For example, if a CEO of a company chooses to spend two hours a day on building more sales channels, something that could be easily outsourced, the opportunity cost is the value of the time he denied himself and his primary work. That time could have been used to take important strategic decisions about your company, or it could have been time well spent playing baseball with your kids. Either way, the time represents an opportunity cost, or you may call it an opportunity lost.

Now let us try to understand how to make outsourcing a beneficial experience for both you and your customer.

Whenever any company thinks of outsourcing their customer service, technical support, helpdesk or Back office support, the only thing that they think about is cutting costs.

Now this is the problem.

As a company planning to outsource your services you should focus on these 3 things:

Quality of work desired.
Customer satisfaction.
Reduction in cost.

Most of the times, people forget about the first 2 and focus only on the 3^rd point. Such a strategy leads to drop in the quality of service leading to dissatisfaction of customers.

The Beneficial way of Business Process Outsourcing would require a complete business plan.

Let us take an example.

If your company sells a DVD player and you plan to outsource your technical support, this is what i would suggest to keep in mind while making your Outsourcing Business plan.

A document detailing the required infrastructure for the call center.
Minimum qualification of the technical support representatives.
Voice and accent test of the technical support representatives.
Quality guidelines for the call centers and the employees.
Thorough product training. (This is where most of the small companies lack)
A Complete Knowledge base, with detailed answers on each and every product.
Customer satisfaction surveys.
Blended outsourcing.

Blended outsourcing means, having an offshore as well as onshore support center.

If you require 100 technical support representatives, outsource 90 to offshore and keep 10 onshore.

You can always utilize onshore representatives to act as level-2 support.

Timely updates to offshore call center.

It is very important to inform your offshore call centers well in advance about any important updates or launch of new products. Please don’t forget to ship new player your company launches to the offshore call center well in advance, so that the representatives can be trained properly before the launch.

Start slowly and gradually. Don’t outsource all your services in a single go. If possible, operate multiple call centers in different parts of the world. This would also give you benefits in terms of Disaster management.
The most important point to remember: Always hire a professional Business process outsourcing company to manage your offshore operations.

The basic need is outsourcing is to focus on your core business. That does not mean outsourcing your services and to forget about them.

I would suggest hiring a Business Process Outsourcing company expert in the field of outsourcing to manage your outsourcing needs.

If you make a proper outsourcing plan and then outsource your business, it would definitely lead to a beneficial experience for both you and your customers.

Always remember, Successful entrepreneurs are those who can see the big picture. They know when to delegate and how to accurately delegate tasks.