Having the right partner for the labor-intensive Business Process Outsourcing is critical to ensure long-term growth and success. Your new BPO company partner will be a big part of your business, and this means looking for a BPO partner must be carefully undertaken as if your long-term future success hinges on it.
From a business perspective, you and your BPO partner should understand each other well. And both parties should establish an effective and strategic transaction, ranging from negotiation, communication, and collaboration. The lack of understanding, consideration, and solid agreement could mean the end of your partnership.
In short, choosing your next BPO service provider is a complex process. When approached without the needed professional approach, your business might suffer. To find good business process outsourcing vendor that can perform the job well, collaborate professionally, and help save money, consider these ways.
Establish Clear Goals
When setting your goals, ask these questions. What are your business goals for outsourcing? Do you need outsourcing to help reduce operational costs? Do you think by way of outsourcing, you will be able to improve the quality of your service? Will outsourcing enhance customer experience? Will getting an outsourced company help retain more customer or generate revenues for the company?
Do you give ‘yes’ as answer to all the questions above? Now, name what is your priority. By having a clear requirement, the better are your chances to achieving your desired business outcome.
Know What Kind of Relationship
To get the most out of outsourcing – from getting high-value talent to do stuff for you to managing costs – your relationship with your outsourced partner must be strong. Yet deciding to outsource and the process of selecting the right vendor can be daunting. Foremost when selecting is that your prospective outsourcer adopts high quality standards while still be able to be cost-effective.
Assess carefully whether the outsourcer doesn’t cut on components crucial to you and your customers. Finally, select a BPO partner that will act more as a strategic partner with your business, than merely a vendor.
Research What They Do Well
One of the things to look into is the experiences your prospective BPO partner have in the past. Have they worked with your competitors or other firms in your sector in the past? Choose one with a grasp of industry-specific terms and concepts and a BPO partner whose knowledge base is in-house.
Make sure the outsourcer is skilled at hiring qualified talents with an industry background, good phone conversation skills, and a good track record in previous jobs. Having well-trained, high-caliber performers employees will put your partner outsourced company in the right position to meet your business objectives.
Know the Location of Your BPO Partner
Always consider a BPO company whose geographical location your organization feels most comfortable with. When selecting an outsourcing vendor, make sure the geographical footprint of your outsourced team suits your location needs. If you are after cost-saving, there are many business process outsourcing companies in the Philippines that can provide you with services that can suit your customer needs.
Remember that time zones can have a great effect on the work you are doing, so make sure to take that into consideration. Make sure that you can organize your workflow so that your business is not falling behind. Establish a mutual understanding so no matter what factors or technical issues you might encounter, problems are easily resolved.
Good Track for Keeping Employees
For BPO companies, keeping or retaining their agents is one big priority. Not only regarded as the most important asset, the pool of agents who stays longer in their companies reflect the retention programs and how they are treated. Some outsourcers implement creative incentive programs just to ensure their employees are well taken cared for while strengthening the ability to recruit new, promising candidates.
Make Sure Outsourcing Partner is Certified
To ensure certain performance quality is posed by your prospective outsourcing partner, request for certifications. It is a must that just like their clients, BPO companies must possess certain certifications – from employee protection, environmental safety and other anti-hazard protection regulations. Make sure your outsourcing partner understands the many different regulations and compliance guidelines, as well as knows how to treat your customers, accordingly.
Look for Partner that Can Scale
Make sure your chosen BPO partner can match all your core operations’ requirements. Do they have a track record in opening and operating new locations? Can they give you a ballpark figure how fast they can get the engagement moving up and running? Look for an outsourced company that can rapidly scale and align its schedule with your business. If the nature of your business is seasonal, ask your partner about their experience in ramping up and down, accordingly.
Consider Good Communication
Successful BPO partnership entails good communication between your organization with your outsourced partner. When your vendor outsourcer have a good communication strategy or program, this means the company has made communication its top priority. When your BPO partner is committed to good communication, you can be sure there is smooth functioning of all operations.
You and your BPO partner must understand each other well to collaborate more effectively. You should be able to work out any possible risks or challenges you anticipate and that you can negotiate for the best solution. Without a healthy relationship and communication your partnership could end very quickly.
Sooo, this list surely is not all there is to keep in mind when looking for a suitable BPO partner. And it is by no way a suggestion to replace your own business sense about what is the right fit with your business.
We list this down only as a guide when making the daunting challenge of pre-selecting the BPO partner candidates and eventually deciding for the most qualified company. Take your time and do your homework and then start eliminating BPO candidates one by one until you find the perfect partner.
P.S.
This is important, don’t forget to ask about your BPO partner’s former clients and request for reference check. Just don’t expect this to be immediate since most companies do not publicly disclose that they outsource some aspects of their operations, such as customer care. Just be patient when the reference check do not come immediately.
