Have you ever felt that the growth trajectory of your business is grinding to a halt? Systems that were delivering tangible results earlier are under constant strain. Your once-agile team seems bogged down and struggling to bring innovative ideas that can be successfully implemented to streamline operations and jump-start your growth train. Strategies and structures crucial for your success earlier are no longer viable. As a decision-maker, you know this is not sustainable, and you struggle to identify the path forward. This is a sign that you have reached the growth-inflection point for your business, a crucial juncture where you need to adapt to the new reality. Clinging to outdated methods at this point will only further stifle your business.
As a business leader, it is crucial to understand these inflection points and change course to propel your business forward. This is a perfect time for you to consider leveraging the power of outsourcing. This is easier said than done, especially for First-Time Outsourcers.
Outsourcing can initially seem scary as you are about to entrust a part of your business to someone else, making the stakes seem high. Some anxiety is common with big decisions, but you’re not alone! Considering that 68% of U.S.-based companies leverage outsourcing to streamline operations and stay competitive, it lets you know that it can be successfully achieved1. With the right partners, strategic partnering can give your business a robust growth and efficiency tool.
What critical questions must a First-Time Outsourcer consider to partner with the right outsourcing partner?
Critical Questions for First-Time Outsourcers
Embarking on an outsourcing journey does require some strategic considerations. One should ideally start by identifying the repetitive transactional tasks internal to the company that can be performed much more efficiently by external experts with specialized skills. In doing so, your internal resources will be freed up to deal with core business functions.
Define your goals by identifying whether you want to cut costs, tap into global talent, or de-burden your in-house team. Once clear on your objectives, you must identify access to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who can streamline your operations and leverage the latest technology tools or customize them to optimize your operations and the customer experience. In a Deloitte global outsourcing survey, the top three reasons businesses outsource today are cost reduction (84%), standardization of processes (82%), and development of capabilities (70%)2. These objectives will then serve as guidance toward selecting the right partner. Confirm no communication gaps by being sensitive regarding time zones and cultural compatibility; therefore, set up lines of communication. Data security should be a top priority as the partner should have robust security protocols and follow necessary regulations regarding its service area. Selecting a partner with solid data security protocols and a compliance certificate is crucial to preventing data breach costs, which have ballooned to $4.45 million in 2023, a 15% increase over the last three years3.
Your ideal partner must have all these skills and be scalable, meaning that they must be able to adjust and develop with your company to guarantee long-term and successful cooperation. Finally, cultural alignment is essential, as it bridges the communication patterns, time zones, and work ethics necessary for a long-term successful partnership.
Qualities to Look for in the Ideal Outsourcing Partner
Ensure success in your outsourcing with a partner who has these strengths:
- Proven industry expertise to navigate your specific challenges.
- Exceptional communication for smooth interaction.
- A steadfast commitment to quality through existing controls.
- Technological tools that include AI-powered analytics, cognitive technology, automation, and process excellence.
A leading home security provider struggled with dissatisfied customers, long wait times, and operational inefficiencies in a competitive market. As a first-time outsourcer, the client was understandably concerned about losing control and compromising quality by partnering with an external firm. Their customer service, crucial for building brand loyalty, failed to meet expectations. To transform its operations and customer experience, the client partnered with Premier, a leading provider of tailored knowledge process solutions across diverse industries.
Client: Home Security Client
The Challenge
The client faced a growing disconnect between its ambitious goals and its customer service reality. Rapidly growing customer demand turned the client’s operations into an unmanageable mess, with service quality issues resulting in dissatisfied customers and long wait times. Operational inefficiencies led to technical problems, open service cases, and high error rates: inconsistent case handling and cross-training challenges highlighted process gaps, severely hampering the customer experience. Frustrated customers and operational inefficiencies threatened the client’s hard-earned market position.
The Solution
Premier formed a dedicated team to partner with the client’s key stakeholders to identify goals and realign efforts to focus on the core mission and specific customer needs. Premier gathered and analyzed data to prioritize initiatives and develop targeted solutions for each pain point to enhance customer service and streamline operations. Applying industry best practices and competitor benchmarking, conducting internal surveys, and organizing focus groups led to detailed process mapping improvements to streamline operations and reduce frequent customer challenges. The team leveraged AI-powered tools to improve data dashboards, redesigned training curriculums, and developed critical cross-skill agent tooling using essential tools, such as workforce management systems and NICE activity coding.
The Results
The client leveraged the transformation of Premier’s customer experience to drive operational efficiency and better customer outcomes. Operational efficiency skyrocketed as pending queue calls decreased by 33.3%, average call handling time decreased by 26.6%, and the average number of open customer service cases significantly reduced by 57.1%. Financial gains were realized when the payment transaction error rate dropped by 73.9%, saving clients valuable resources. Positive online reviews surged across platforms, enhancing the brand’s reputation.
“The client researched many different BPOs before deciding to partner with Premier. We made the absolute right decision. The integration with Premier was much easier than anticipated and we have transitioned more skill sets and tasks to Premier than we had originally planned due to the excellent quality of their work. Premier’s leadership is responsive and easy to work with. The client feels like its partnership with Premier is a true collaboration. They want our business to succeed and truly care about our customers.” – COO, Home Security Client.
Premier is Your Ideal Outsourcing Partner for First-Time Outsourcers
First-time outsourcing should not be a challenge that cannot be addressed. At Premier, we do it differently, based on a shared partnership mindset that we call Premier Sync Framework. By executing this framework with co-sourcing characteristics, we can approach the whole recruitment and onboarding process together while harmonizing business objectives.
First-time outsourcing should not be a challenge that cannot be addressed. At Premier, we do it differently, based on a shared partnership mindset that we call Premier Sync Framework. By executing this framework with co-sourcing characteristics, we can approach the whole recruitment and onboarding process together while harmonizing business objectives.
We prioritize ‘Understanding Your Needs’. We integrate into your operations and provide prime solutions that enhance outcomes and align with your goals. Continuous improvement is our hallmark. Our robust back-office process lifecycle includes training, workforce management, analytics, reporting, and QA; there is no doubt of quality.
We go beyond cost savings by ensuring that clients who initially come to us for low costs stay with us because of quality, improvements, and excellence through an in-house team of quality assurance professionals.
Business Continuity is a must in today’s world. Our remote-ready teams with cloud-enabled technologies provide unhindered, securely connected communication and collaboration with deep-loaded security and data privacy features. We put their cultures at the center through Cultural Immersion. As an extension of your operations, we embrace working with you by incorporating your culture, practices, and processes to ensure our cultural fit and keep your brand at the forefront of our minds.
Partnering for Success so You Can Concentrate on Your Core Competency
At Premier, we are more than just a service provider; we are strategic partners. Trust Premier Sync to handle your business process management needs. Co-create the future with PremierTech Solutions. Premier is committed to pioneering innovative technology solutions that tackle customer pain points, elevate satisfaction, and drive operational efficiency. One can achieve better profitability by optimizing existing processes and realizing value beyond cost reduction. We bring quality, reliability, technical ability, and ROI—all with the enthusiasm to see you and your business flourish.
Ready for that First Step?
Taking the first step is always hard. However, due diligence and identifying the key factors that can shape your outsourcing needs will help you unearth the right partner for you and your organization.
Make that call to Premier today, and we will help you every step of the way to make your first-time outsourcing experience a success. We will answer all your questions as we create your best-fit solution customized to meet your needs and goals.
