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BPO for Aussie businesses: What to look for in an offshored team?
If you’re considering business process offshored for your business, choosing the right team that fits your company culture, business needs, and budget is important.
Choosing the wrong offshoring partner could cost you time and money and cause frustration if the BPO company does not align with your goals. Here are the top 5 traits to look for in an offshore support team.
Communication
Part of your success will depend on having clarity around what your organisation needs and how well you can communicate this to your offshored team.
As with many things in business, communication is the key to success. This includes an understanding of how your team communicates: what hours do you need them to be available? Will they communicate primarily via email, Slack or weekly meetings? How will the flow of communication work?
Having these processes mapped out will help to remove uncertainty and build a culture of trust and transparency between the in-house and offshored teams. Communication in terms of language is also essential: look for teams that are proficient in English and can understand subtleties and nuances in communication.
Once you understand your business needs, you can provide solid and clear direction to your offshore team. The offshored firm you choose should focus on delivering excellent customer service and have a team in place to respond to enquiries and requests in the way you need.
Culture
Culture fit is extremely important when choosing a BPO company. Companies located close to Australia and New Zealand, such as the Philippines, often share more cultural traits than BPO companies on the other side of the world.
Look for a team that ‘gets it’ and understands your business and your particular way of approaching tasks and projects. When your values are reflected in how your BPO company does business, you know you’ve found a great fit.
Having strong cultural ties also helps to create a ‘one team’ mentality across all stakeholders and removes any negativity in the workplace. Tasks and processes flow more smoothly when communication and culture align, so make sure you take the time to find a partner that fits your business.
Skills and Expertise
It goes without saying that offshoring to a trusted third party will benefit your company by addressing immediate gaps in skills and resources.
However, finding a BPO partner with a wide range of people in their network with specialised skillsets and abilities will enable you to build a genuinely customised team.
Look for companies offering general customer service and admin assistance and a highly skilled pool of experts who can skyrocket your business with their in-depth knowledge. If you are offshoring a technical role, it’s a good idea to talk to the technical lead assigned to your project and understand what they can bring to the table.
Additionally, roles such as BI experts, SQL developers and other expert skill sets are likely to be much more affordable as part of an offshoring team, allowing your business to grow rapidly with access to these newfound team members.
Cost-effectiveness
It’s a good idea to look for BPO partners that offer a direct pricing model, helping you to understand the value of the services you receive. Ensure they have service-level agreements in place to align you and your offshored team with what is considered quality work.
Steer clear of hidden costs, vague advice, or lock-in contracts that don’t allow your BPO team to expand and contract as needed. Countries with unstable exchange rates could present challenges, so look for stable economies such as the Philippines, which doesn’t experience wild currency fluctuations.
In these uncertain times, your business can grow quickly overnight or just as easily hit a slow patch, so your team needs to flex with your company – and the costs of your offshored team should be adjusted accordingly.
Technology and Data Security
When it comes to offshored, you can never be too cautious about the security of your data.
The need to share sensitive information such as passwords, account details and customer data is expected as part of the offshored process, so you must ensure that your BPO partner has robust tech contingencies in place and that no data breach will put your business at risk.
You should also investigate the technology infrastructure of the area you’re offshored to: is there a stable power supply and a fast internet connection, or do outages regularly occur? Being offline in our connected world is a massive blow to your business, so you’ll want to ensure your BPO team is available when and where you need them.
Get in touch with us for professional, skilled BPO services.
Finding a reliable offshored team can be a challenge. Still, by carefully choosing your offshoring partners, you can add considerable value to your ongoing projects while boosting business efficiency and reducing costs.
At Acxelsus, we handle every business as if it were our own. We devote the utmost focus, effort, and care to help further your company’s growth. As an innovative BPO company based in the Philippines, we help businesses of all sizes grow and achieve tremendous success. We’d love to hear from you – contact us today to learn more about our services.