As we head into the summer months, business owners can be found looking for a few extra hours in the business day to get those critical tasks completed in order to spend more time enjoying the season after-hours. Yet, as business owners, especially those of us in the workspace services industry, we often struggle to find a hard stopping point for work activity. Hour by hour, our personal lives are de-prioritized for the sake of that never ending business to-do list. Recently, I’ve shared some posts about how business owners in my industry and in general can get back more of their time by outsourcing the most time consuming business tasks. In this post, I will share some processes and procedures you can adopt to ensure that your selecting the outsource service provider that best suits your needs.
Ask the Hard Questions
One of the major reasons to employ an outsource company to take over an element of your business is to set your mind at ease concerning that element which in turn frees up your time to accomplish more. The last thing you want is to have to spend more time than ever on that task because of a misunderstanding that could have been avoided by asking the hard questions at the start. What are the hard questions? Consider some of the biggest bottlenecks and toughest situations you’ve run into with carrying out that task in-house. Present these to your prospective outsource companies and see if they’ve had experience with solving them. Make sure also to ask about additional fees and charges that may come up if changes are made to the service agreement. You want to be sure that the company you use is the appropriate fit for both your business needs and budget.
Referrals are A Must
Work only with companies where you are able to hear from customers first-hand. Reviews and testimonials on that service provider’s website are filtered and possibly tailored to present that company in the best possible light. You get the best information from third-party review websites and/or direct phone calls to customers who’ve worked with that company before. If you cannot access a review of that company’s services in any place other than through the company itself, then there’s a high probability that they do not yet have the experience to provide the full time-saving benefits of having outsourced that task.
Know Your Point of Contact
Unless you are outsourcing to a freelancer, your prospective outsource company is likely to have a huge staff providing your services. Make sure that you know who will be your chief point of contact for service changes and adjustments after the service contract is in place. Many times the person that you worked with to set up services is a member of that company’s business development team, but the person who will be attending to your needs afterwards is a customer service representative or account manager. You need to make sure that you will have a singular point of contact that is easily accessible to you when you need to make changes or have a question. If the outsource company cannot provide an easy way to get in touch, then they might not have the attentiveness to your specific business needs to make you feel at ease enough to fully delegate that part of your business.
Final Thoughts on Selecting an Outsource Service Provider…
The overarching tip for selecting a quality outsource service provider is to make sure that the organization is a solid fit for your needs so that you can rest assured that that area of business is well handled and use your day more effectively. The purpose of outsourcing areas of your business like marketing, accounting, and/or receptionist services is so that your business can operate more efficiently and with less attention in those areas from you, the business owners.
