By Ken Hayes - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayesken

Introduction

Outsourcing a vital part of your company requires goals, planning, expert experience, and extreme levels of courage! Seriously, it’s all in the planning and execution. Where realizing nearshore cost savings is a goal for first level contacts, be it support, low balance receivables, orders/reservations, sales, etc. the key is to blend coverage and have the option of a US-based incubator/back-up. You see, as agent training, program development, and call calibration steadily improves, you simply ‘tune the knobs’ to increase cost savings over time without risking service level…genius!

Goals

·       Cost savings

·       Maintain or improve CSAT

·       Have full control over agent listening, management, and calibration

·       Employ multichannel options

·       Blend nearshore, onshore, and/or virtual for fine-tuning and disaster/backup

·       Have access to technology that insures smooth training, transition, and control

Planning

·       Customer needs assessment- most common, easiest to address, surge times/days

·       Determine 1st level, overflow, hot transfer, maximization of answer time and contact resolution

·       Clear technology and security requirements to partner(s)

·       What multichannel comms are needed at launch vs. phase-in

·       What language options are required or can be transferred

·       Outline all KPIs with partner(s) for developing agent incentives

·       Outline all KPIs with partner(s) for ROI in upselling, cross-selling, appointment-setting, etc.

·       Number of agents needed over phases; blended; Erlang calc, class size, contingency plan

Blending

·       Should the program go off/nearshore immediately or over time with US hub

·       Should the program have virtual agents blended in for cost and/or recovery needs

·       Should the outsourced portion of the program itself have two or more levels of proficiency

Logistics

·       Who will drive the decisioning internally- Procurement, CX, C-level, etc.

·       Will an official Statement of Work be needed and who will drive its creation

·       Will an official Service Level Agreement be needed and who will drive its creation

·       Roles, responsibilities, and escalation for all partners need to be defined and agreed

·       Agent hiring and training timelines must be agreed and updated via project management

·       Technology requirements/assets must be coordinated and decided re cost obligations and timelines for implementation and connection (platforms, systems, APIs, certifications, software licenses, data security, data transmission safeguards, etc.)

·       Schedules for reporting and meetings agreed by partners (tracking of KPIs, CSAT, Quality, Listening, Calibration, etc.)

Pitfall Avoidance

·       All parties must agree that change is not just challenging, it is an ongoing challenge and commitment

·       Avoid post-contract misunderstandings by thoroughly reviewing SOWs and SLAs in terms of challenges that are unique to the business and/or unique to the experience of the partner

·       Clarify key points of agent empowerment and where that empowerment ends

·       Garner specific points of buy-in from senior stakeholders of the outsourcing entity

·       Jointly understand and commit to the nurturing of outsourced agents via positive acknowledgment followed by constructive criticism and corrective action

·       In a collaborative way, make KPIs and SLAs dynamic as program challenges are uncovered, diagnosed, and remedied

·       Realize that the growth and success that created the desire to outsource doesn’t end after outsourcing; hopefully growth keeps growing and having a partner that can scale is wonderful

Conclusion

It’s not as ominous as it first seems. Partner experience is the key and matching your project size and scope to that of your outsourcing partner’s size and ‘mid-market-attention-record’ is vital for being treated as the important client you are. Remember, outsourcing, and now virtual agent outsourcing, are no longer new and risky ideas, they are common and even necessary for the myriad challenges of the day. Being able to speak to a human being that can at least converse, advise, direct, or transfer your customers is vital to your customer retention. Profitable business growth is the proverbial 'holy grail'; we just have to make sure we are not only taking care of customers, but maximizing their experience with us and their lifetime value to us.

*For more information, please email Ken Hayes...

kscott@perspectiveinternational.org