If you have clear goals and a tangible small business infrastructure, you want results and you want direction. But at the same time you don’t want to blow up your overhead. Is there a balance between hiring freelance and local? Can you get the best perks of incorporating and outsourcing while having surer, more calibrated results?
If you’re a businessman, you know that one of the most daunting prospects of getting started is where to hire employees. At first, it’s easy to do it all yourself, you can manage certain aspects including paystubs and payroll, but when admin tasks escalate, then you may consider hiring someone locally, a family friend a colleague or a stranger entirely to complete your backend tasks!
And if you’re hiring two or three employees, that’s fine! It’s perfectly manageable.
But if your sales has expanded to the point where you may need to farm out other tasks to either freelancers or offshore outsourcing providers, then there is the important aspect of checking into which business process outsourcing company to hire.
What business process outsourcing companies are best?
The bottom line in Outsourcing is being able to minimize costs while maximizing your sales. While that’s easier said than done, it’s going to be a faster and more efficient process if you know which tasks to farm out and which tasks to retain back home.
1. Outline the set of tasks you want to outsource to a BPO
This might seem simple at first. But in reality, if you’re going to hire an offshore company to do some of your tasks, then it’s paramount to include the things you need to be able to outline the software, the hardware, the work hours and the types of workflows you need. Because these are things which indicate the feasibility of committing to an outsourcing partner.
- What kinds of software to use
- Any communications platforms you prefer
- Hardware and computer makes and models
- How often should they report to you?
- What are their work hours? Are they night shift relative to you? Or are they day shift workers to you?
- What days are their rest days?
2. Intelligence gathering in Call Center Outsourcing is a must
You shouldn’t just take our word for it, or the word of any BPO for that matter! It’s important to perform due diligence prior to hiring an outsourcing partner. It helps if you have friends there in the West who have hired similar or related companies to the one you’re eyeing to hire. Because of that, you get a clear picture of their working methods and if they truly are the right facilities for you.
3. Think about the pros and cons of hiring offshore
There might be pros and cons to hiring offshore. The most ideal advantage is the cost savings. This is because in the Philippines, there is a low cost of living and you can afford to pay your employees MORE and you get happy, motivated and passionate employees.
But perhaps you’re thinking about hiring locally since you can interact with them more? That is true, in call center outsourcing, most of the time, people are are put in boxes and you can’t get as much interaction you would get when hiring onshore.
But if you find a Managed Operations provider, then that will lead the way to having as much customizability offshore that you get onshore.
4. Focus on quality
It’s a great idea to get into the software and hardware of things. Never just consider the cost. Are you hiring a sweat shop with a lot of people taking calls, people huddled close together like a marketplace? That’s NOT the right outsourcing company. It might be good if you hire an outsourcing partner who is willing to give you a virtual tour of their place and to see they possess the infrastructure needed to come up with these ideal routines as well.
5. Focus on your products and services
It’s also important to come up with a timeline of releasing products and services, free trials, freebies and marketing campaigns beforehand. Now, you may ask if the goal was to outsource, why should I have to do everything myself? You don’t! But it’s important to get a clear idea of what, when and how you want to deploy some of your services so that your outsource team can have an idea of what these releases are going to look like and it gives them a little more content as to when you want to deploy
6. Interview the management and supervisors
It’s a great idea to interview their management, the CEO and supervisors. If you talk to them personally and perhaps even ask for a demonstration with their remote team that might give you a clue as to how fast and efficient they are with the outsourcing workflow. If their management is willing to talk to you, that may be an indication of their hands on quality and how they want to make you feel at home and immediately get started with your outsourcing requests.
7. Inform them of your budget.
iSuporta does not compromise. We normally set our outsourcing price at $10.00 per hour employees to $16.00 per hour employees and that already includes your computer, office space, IT, tech support and results coaching! But if that’s too steep for you? I promise you that won’t find the same quality of work if you’re willing to go for freelancers who are going to charge you cheap. If you go for the best freelancers anyway, they’re going to charge you up!
But inform your outsourcing partner of your budget, how many employees and the level of skill and professionalism you’re looking for whether that’s in outsourced bookkeeping or simply hiring a virtual assistant.
8. Outline the scope of your work
If you’re hiring an outsourced accountant for example, it’s important to reveal the scope of the work your outsourced accounting professional will perform. Will she be issuing stop payments? Or will she be checking the time keeping of your employees?
Or in the case of customer service, how much do you want to automate? Versus how much would you like to be performed by a human agent? These are questions which are vital and you don’t have to come up with a crisp and clear answer before talking to your outsourcing company, but you do need to get an idea of which tasks to farm out and what level of authority or how much of the keys you want to give to your remote team.
9. Outsourcing with the best requires legitimacy
Check on their legal requirements. Are they ISO certified? For the Philippines, that also goes with being PEZA certified. You want to make sure this office you’re hiring isn’t just someone’s home or basement with a couple of computers. You want to hire an authentic call center in the Philippines. Most BPO’s comply with ISO and PEZA requirements
10. See portfolios of their work
It’s important to see their output. Are you hiring a digital marketing company? Great! Then check out their graphics, their animation, their copy writing to see if their sensibilities and their style is a match to that of the client. And if you’re certain their work is being put on display for those companies, then that is one way to ascertain if hiring them works for you or not.
11. Think feasible
Thinking feasible is important. First you may just want to hire 1 or 2 bookkeepers while you yourself and your local employees do the heavy lifting with sales and marketing. Perhaps only your bookkeeping needs needed to get out of the way so you can finally soar with telesales? If not, you can hire a team of 5 or 6 to figure out how to best get your products to market. Thinking in feasible ways without overblowing your budget is a great way to calculate your investment in Outsourcing so that you can keep your overhead low.
12. Information and data security
It’s also paramount to talk about information and data security. Along with narrowing the scope of your tasks, it’s vital that this company understands how you want the files delivered and what platforms are being used. Data security is something we take seriously. You may inquire about the software, the hardware and the IP channels being used because a True Outsourcing company will have no problems allowing you this level of transparency especially if your assets require that much care.
13. Communication is key.
This is vital for any outsourcing project. You must be able to communicate with your workers. You can set up weekly or daily scrums depending on the project and you ought to be able to work with your employees directly! Managing them in this way allows you the freedom to talk to them like you’re hiring a local. And more of than not? Filipino workers can deliver much more than local hires because of the way they’re highly paid, well furnished in their workspaces and doing what they love.
Read: the measures of call center effectiveness.
14. Project management is fundamental in outsourcing
You can set project milestones and tie them to payments or packages you avail. If you’re hiring an outsource company, then make sure you set expectations and quotas as to when certain sales are going to be met, certain leads are going to be qualified, or you’re looking forward to more sales within a given timeline. If your outsourcing partner is trustworthy, it’s going to be a given that they will deliver on the goods that you are expecting.
15. Choose employees with a good track record
It’s important to choose employees who are known to staying long in their companies. That goes to show they are willing to commit to the task. It’s okay if this person has shifted careers when first starting out, but you may want to look for a stable individual especially in hiring careers that may have turnarounds with newbies such as outsourced bookkeepers and outsourced customer service.
16. Use project boards online
You may use Asana or Trello to track your progress! If not you may also opt to use Google sheets so you can work together. Nothing hurts your pipeline much faster than being disorganized. And it also allows you to keep track of the progress of your workers making sure that none of them are slacking off and they are actually doing their jobs properly.
Being able to collaborate while working with your remote team is absolutely the crux of iSuporta outsourcing. There are certain things that help you move forward much faster than working with other outsourcing companies. You’ll be able to track your work, but at the same time delegate only as much as you want to delegate through your use of full operational control.
On site supervision or Results Coaching
Finding a company with results coaching such as iSuporta allows you to make sure that on site supervision is in hand and none of your employees are slacking off. The great thing about working with us is that you get the choice between whether you talk to the supervisors? Or if you wish to speak to your remote employees yourself. This is as hands on as it gets in outsource remote staffing.
Full Cost Transparency
Outsourcing with us gives you full cost transparency. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is often mired by reputations of corruption. And this cannot be good for business owners who only want to increase their bottom line. With iSuporta you will be assured that your employees are WELL PAID. And that they will be getting benefits, commissions, bonuses or other payments and remittances you wish to dole out and there will be no middle-man like other call centers.
iSuporta is the Next Gen in Business Process Outsourcing.
Compensation and HR
We have our own HR team to take care of your employees’ needs. No longer will you have to be computing paystubs on your own and we can also inform you of any lates, tardiness or overtimes which are performed by your employees and you can sign off on or make adjustments accordingly. If not, we have their whole employee package covered in compliance with PEZA and Philippine labor laws.
These are the advantages of Managed Operations – you cannot get them in other Call Centers in the Philippines.