Outsourcing is a business practice that involves subcontracting a third party to perform certain business activities on your behalf. Outsourcing non-essential business processes can help improve the bottom line by cutting business costs and improving productivity while freeing up time and resources to focus on your core competencies.
Outsourced services can include customer-related services such as customer experience and customer success management, back office services such as accounting and finance, billing support, research and development, IT and software tech help desk, as well as marketing, sales, HR services, and many more.
As different businesses have different goals, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to outsourcing. Choosing to outsource the right service must be aligned according to your specific business goals.
This blog post is an extensive guide on what to do and how to determine which services to outsource so you can focus on your primary business goals.
You want to start outsourcing some non-essential work, but you’re uncertain where to start
Different industries, different businesses, different goals, right?
Yes, BUT the one true goal of every business, no matter the industry, is revenue growth. Every business owner wants happy, returning customers, a return on investment, and an increasing market share. We can also add reducing employee turnover and increase satisfaction and productivity. Overall, improving company value, becoming a leader in the industry, and improving customer satisfaction. Quite a long list, right? And certainly not an easy one – especially if you’re just starting. Outsourcing some of your non-essential work will undoubtedly help you in the long run, no matter how big or small your goals are. This is an extensive guide on what to do and how to determine which services to outsource so you can focus on your primary business goals.
Begin by developing an outsourcing strategy
Because outsourcing is a business investment, having a clear plan and implementing an outsourcing strategy is crucial. But what should an outsourcing strategy include?
- Outline the business goals. It is critical to clearly outline the business goals you intend to achieve through outsourcing for a project to succeed.
- Set a project structure. It will help you manage the project and ensure that the outsourcing team will meet the requirements.
- Be specific. Make a clear and extensive list of tasks you’d like to outsource and how and when you’d like them completed.
- Carefully plan the budget. This will affect the timeline, the number of hires, and the technologies and equipment you’ll be able to use.
- Determine your preferred outsourcing model. You can either go with a project-based or dedicated team model. In the first case, you’ll have the entire project handled by the BPO partner you choose. While in the second case, you can select a team from the BPO partner to work only for you and report directly to you.
- Carefully select your BPO partner. Examine portfolios, previous work, customer feedback, and referrals – carefully. Ascertain that they have the required knowledge, technology, and infrastructure (including, but not limited to both hardware and software).
- Define clear processes, roles, and responsibilities. This will help the project run smoothly.
- Have clear and frequent communication. Starting with a kick-off meeting, weekly follow-up meetings, and monthly report meetings. Make sure you determine the right channel and communication flow. All of this will keep you up to date with the project status and progress.
- Measure the productivity, progress, and results. This will allow you to see how the project is progressing, and whether it will fulfill your goals.
What services to outsource easily?
You know that outsourcing some of your jobs will save time and energy. That way, you’ll be able to focus on your primary business objectives. But do you have a clear idea of what services to outsource efficiently?
Customer success management
Every company nowadays relies on positive client interactions, particularly favorable consumer feedback. Companies that deliver solutions using a SaaS mode benefit from customer interaction. The customer support manager (CSM) is your conduit to the customers. They ensure everything goes well after a purchase is made and smooth over any other customer-related friction, issues, and critical concerns.
Customer support & experience
The quality of customer service has a direct effect on sales. The damage one unhappy customer can do to a business is significant! Especially today when people publicly express their thoughts on products or services all over the internet. Customer service and experience (CS and CX) is a genuinely challenging aspect of running a business. If one does not have enough workforce to meet customer support demand, it’s best to consider outsourcing to a BPO call center. Outsourcing your CX will save you time and money (usually because of the lower-cost labor). But also it will deliver better results (because of trained agents with the specific skillset).
Back office services
All services like accounting and finance, billing support, research and development, and IT and software tech help desk can be outsourced. And this is especially recommended for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It would make your life so much easier if you didn’t have to know everything about compliance standards connected to bookkeeping, tax regulations to follow, and internet security infrastructures. Leave all of it in the hands of dedicated professionals.
6 simple yet powerful strategies to improve customer retention
Can you remember the last time you re-engaged with your customers and tried to win them back?
These strategies will do exactly that and more.
Sales generation, management & support
Small enterprises usually don’t have big sales teams, often only having one person for the job. Sales management is one of the essential parts of running a company. You’ll never attain your profit goal if you’re not closing deals. Therefore, outsourcing sales support will help you locate and nurture leads. It will help your business grow, make sure you are always speaking to potential customers, and allow you to focus on converting instead of administration!
Human Resources
Recruiting is a long, complex, and time-consuming process. It requires developing job descriptions, hunting for suitable candidates, and endless rounds of interviews. All of this will not only cost you time and money but energy and focus as well. And having good HR managers in-house is quite expensive, too. All of this makes outsourcing human resources the smart choice.
Marketing, Research, and Development
Whether launching a new product, adding something to your marketing mix, or simply expanding to new markets, you’ll need thorough research. You need to know the competitive environment, the product, the competition, and the entire industry. As a result, you’ll need hands-on research, development, and marketing expertise. However, if you lack the necessary knowledge, expertise, skillset, or people on board, this will be another challenge. Outsourcing all those operations is something to consider.
The key takeaways
By now, you should have a good idea of which services to outsource to BPO professionals and how you can choose your best BPO partner. We at FrontLogix provide exceptional outsourcing services for all of your needs. We’re committed to delivering and developing a customer-centric business model that will boost customer satisfaction, improve revenue, and lower costs. We’ll work together to develop strategies that will increase customer loyalty. We will help you make the most of your customer data, create new customer experiences, and optimize your business processes. Contact us today to discuss your needs.