7 Tips for Outsourcing Support Roles
After a year and a half of experience working in Vendor Management, I thought it would be beneficial to share my experience and tips for professionals looking to outsource support roles for the first time. Below is a list of items to consider when your company begins this journey and steps you can take to implement a solid communication structure between the BPO and your team.
About me: I have worked in the tech space for 3 years. During my employment at Bird, I spearheaded the outsourcing processes for image verification, email/chat, and phone support. I launched 2 sites in Manila and 1 in Bucharest.
General Things To Know
- BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing
- Acronyms are often used in this industry. It’s very important to get familiar with them. Some examples include TM (Team Managers), TL (Team Leads), and SME (Subject Matter Expert).
- There are two general structures for BPO operations: 1. BPO’s hire specific Trainers to do the onboarding training when new waves are hired 2. others require the TL’s to do the training themselves.
1. Identify Tasks You Want To Outsource
It’s important to know exactly what services you are interested in outsourcing now and in the future. As you begin discussing pricing you’ll come to find that it varies depending on the task. If the task you are looking to outsource is somewhat complex, then you’ll also have to discuss if it is something they can accommodate and hire for based on the skills of the workforce of the BPO company you are working with (this is a guess).
- Chat/Email
- Phone Support
- Image Verification
- Other
2. Consider Languages
Depending on where your company operates and the regulations in place, you may have to consider hiring agents who can speak additional languages other than English. If you happen to be a company based in the US and do in fact need to hire agents who speak European languages, then it is in your best interest to partner with a BPO that has locations in the Philippines and EMEA.
From my experience, agents in Europe are more expensive especially when you consider the languages they speak. Some languages can be more expensive than others, but overall, the price per agent is much higher in EMEA than in the Philippines.
3. IT/Security
It is good practice to include your IT/security team in the conversation as early as possible. The reason being is they can ensure that the BPO’s IT/security practices are in line with your company’s needs. Some BPO’s have more sophisticated practices than others therefore you need those experts on your side to vet the BPO’s you are looking to partner with. The communication and agreements between both parties will make onsite/remote training, site visits, and implementation of new processes much smoother.
4. Invest in LMS software as soon as possible
Training and access to clear and concise processes are essential to the success of international support teams, especially if your processes are complex and always changing.
I spent a couple of months demoing various Learning Management Systems to identify the right fit for the company’s needs. I knew that the operations and support processes were very complex. Therefore, we needed an LMS system that helped us simplify and make our training digestible, make it more interactive for the agents, as well as provide us with analytics to improve articles as needed.
Based on those needs we moved forward with Lessonly. However, there were various other options, which were much more cost-effective. Be sure to identify your business needs and what you’re looking to gain from the LMS system you choose. The right system should also make onboarding easier and allow you to track knowledge retention seamlessly.
5. Communication is Key
Communication plays an important role in any successful team. Managing remote support teams can be challenging at times. So it’s important to focus your efforts on implementing a good communication structure.
- Agent Schedules: Set in place a schedule for the agents that address your business needs and maximizes the number of agents you’ve hired. If you do this correctly, you should never have any issues with receiving timely responses from the agents.
- Slack Etiquette: Regardless of the chat tool you are using to communicate with the team, be sure to set guidelines early on. Organize your channels and set expectations on what they should do when your team makes an announcement, when and when not to use @here, etc. You want to avoid unwanted noise as much as possible. In some cases, you will see trends and patterns, which means you may have to create new processes to address those issues.
- Cultural Differences: Be mindful of the difference in cultures. In some cultures, people are comfortable giving feedback to improve processes, in others, they are less likely to do so. Your team should make an effort to meet with agents to gain their trust and enable them to share their thoughts. This feedback loop will help your team identify why certain KPI’s are not being met.
- BPO Leadership Team: Having a great relationship with leadership at the BPO site(s) is crucial to move the needle in the right direction. As you build those relationships you learn more about what is working and what needs improvement. In some cases you will find that your Team Managers are not equipped to manage the agents and might need to hire someone with more experience. These conversations will be very insightful. Most importantly trust will be built in this process, which will greatly improve how the BPO communicates with your team.
6. TM/TL Ratio
The number of agents a single Team Manager/Team Leads can manage will vary between 8–15. This is likely to be different depending on the BPO you partner with, but keep this in mind if you happen to be a company that expects support to operate 24/7. In some cases, you may find that you do not have enough TM’s/TL’s to cover all hours of operation. In such cases, you’ll need to identify a Subject Matter Expert or Team Lead in that shift to manage the team. This is a very common practice and it also promotes growth from within. Some agents are looking for opportunities for growth thus making this is a great way to increase motivation and boost team moral.
7. Outages
Outages may occur and can be used as learning opportunities. Be sure the BPO and your internal support teams have processes in place so they know what to do when outages occur. Whether that be outages related to your product or outages at the BPO site gents should be fully trained regardless of the circumstances. They should also know exactly who to contact if they happen to be working in a shift without a Team Manager on the floor.
Overall, the decision to outsource will vary depending on the business needs. Identifying requirements is the first step to begin the process and determine if outsourcing is the right solution. To a smooth implementation process, it is important to have the right tools and SOPs ahead of time. Finally, strong communication among key stakeholders will make future changes in the team structure a seamless experience.
