7 Tips for a Global BPO Provider

There has been a significant shift in what companies are looking to achieve when outsourcing. Rather than focusing on labor arbitrage and utilizing offshore resources to merely lower costs, customers' wants and needs have changed, and BPO strategies are now focused on achieving greater flexibility to scale global operations.

Here are 7 tips to help BPO providers achieve client business goals on a global scale.

1. Understand today's outsourcing motivations.

BPO companies need to be aware of customers’ ever-changing needs, and they should constantly be asking themselves how they can appeal to those needs. One thing to understand is that the majority of buyers are interested and willing to move onto standard processes to adopt quality process flows that maximize their company’s efficiency. Understanding this motivation can help tailor a provider’s message to capture customer interest.

2. Gain insight into specific business processes.

Finding the right solution to achieve a customer’s outsourcing goals requires extensive knowledge of the particular processes to be outsourced and the roles of the people involved. BPOs that have experience in the industry of a potential client are in a much better position to understand the key issues involved in the client’s day-to-day business. Providers can branch out of their niche industry, internally, by either expanding their business or hiring a diverse staff with an assortment of backgrounds. This will grow company knowledge across a field of different industries, thereby appealing to a much larger client base.

3. Share your past BPO success stories.

A smart prospective customer will compare their outsourcing goals with those of other companies a provider has serviced. This gives the customer a way to gage the provider’s level of experience in regards to their particular industry and outsourcing needs. Show the potential buyer past results and share outsourcing successes to develop trust. Once they discover the end results for past clients, potential customers have a good measure of what they can expect to achieve in relation to their global operations goals.

4. Let them know you’re the right vendor.

• First, schedule a preliminary meeting or call with potential customers before deciding to work together. Buyers want to know that their potential BPO provider has their best interest in mind, and each party should be focused on the end goal.
• Next, gather both positive and negative information about the company’s current business processes, as well as their vision of success. For the relationship to be truly mutually beneficial for both parties, there needs to be a complete picture of what the buyer wants and where they are coming from.
• Lastly, a provider should be willing to communicate openly, even if that means telling a potential client that what they’re asking for will not work with the BPO’s qualifications. Neither party wants to be let down in the middle of a project, so being honest about expectations is the best approach.

5. Be an advocate of the client.

There are three different levels of a client relationship:

• A Tier One relationship is defined by the client depending on the BPO to do their work, as if they were hiring a temp agency, and is not very invested in developing a relationship together.
• A Tier Two relationship is when both the client and the provider seek to reduce costs and improve business processes while sharing gains – an improvement from the simple Tier One relationship.
• A Tier Three relationship seeks to create a strategic competitive advantage with the services the BPO provider is providing for the consumer. The two are working together as business partners to develop every opportunity into an area of improvement and ultimately success.

6. Offer advanced technology support.

Buyers are motivated to outsource because they want better technology support. Recently, there have been great advancements in how BPOs can use image, image lift, image data, electronic capture, and indexing in images that are blended with data and information. BPO providers need to be transparent about their expertise as buyers want a sophisticated technology partner that can not only understand their data processes, but improve them.

7. Be flexible.

BPO providers need to be flexible to the customer's point-of-view and try to "walk in their shoes" by taking their company background and culture into account. The provider will act as the company’s partner in developing an optimized business process tailored to a given company’s needs and future goals.

As the outsourcing industry continues to grow and evolve, global BPO providers should keep these tips in mind when forming new business relationships and seeking success, and potential clients will have a better understanding of what to expect and how to guide negotiations.

[eventpdf]