Choosing An Outsourcing Company That Best Fits Your Company's Needs

BY MICHELLE CURLESS

I recently evaluated fourteen vendor proposals for contact center outsourcing services. The evaluation and scoring process could have been lengthy for my client. Each package appeared to be unique. Furthermore, underneath the classy covers my client found it difficult to gage the true identity of the services and pricing being offered. What they quickly learned was that not all fourteen proposals were created equally. Each offered a different "brand" of contact center outsourcing. The lesson learned: starting with the knowledge relative to the brand of outsourcing services that align with your business strategy will absolutely accelerate the decision process, as well as result in the best fit for your company's needs.

There are three primary brands of contact center outsource solution models:

• Service Bureau
• Leveraged
• Co-Managed

As an example, perhaps you consider the contact center to be a core competency of your business; although you would like to outsource, maintaining a level of management and staying close to your customers is a requirement. As a result, you would seek an outsourcer that operates as a partner in a co-managed environment. Alternatively, if you view the contact center as necessary, but all or part of the organization does not play a vital role within the enterprise, then you should pursue a service bureau or leveraged model.

Each model offers a primary set of capabilities, culture, and price. Your requirements relative to your business strategy and how you interact with your customers are key factors in aligning with each brand of outsourcer.

SERVICE BUREAU
There are hundreds if not thousands of service bureaus in the US. These outsourcers often run networks of interlinked centers, and are used by companies that need to cover a sudden surge in call volume, or that are interested in testing out a promotional program that's going to generate calls, but aren't willing to invest in infrastructure, personnel and technology.

If you're buying "spot" services for overflow calls, seasonal or promotional programs, a service bureau model will be the likely answer for your business.

Keep in mind, if you want the cost and time benefits of a service bureau operation, failing to determine and dictating your business requirements will cause higher-than-expected costs, poor levels of service, and dissatisfaction with everything from communication to the vendor's ability to deliver on promises. Although they are great practitioners of contact center operations, service bureaus are not in the business of anticipating the nuances and demands of your industry and customers. Similar to technology, a service bureau is an enabler.

LEVERAGED
More and more outsourcers offer a hybrid of the service bureau and co-managed models -- the leveraged contact center. Unlike the service bureau, the leveraged model allows for degrees of customization with people, process, and technology.

Companies with a vested interest in their customer interactions, who do not require dedicated resources or technology and are interested in outsourcing all or some of their contact center, are often buyers of leveraged center services. These businesses appreciate the level of attention received, the lower costs from leveraging, and the ability to customize as required from a leveraged model.

Unlike the service bureau model, leveraged outsourcers seek longer term contracts and the ability to build relationships with both the client and the customer. They are likely to offer suggestions for improvements to the contact center operation relative to people and process -- often resulting in a modified partnership approach to the outsourcing relationship.

CO-MANAGED
The final outsourcing brand is the co-managed model. Many companies consider customer interactions and the contact center to be a core competency within the enterprise. However, they also recognize their limitations relative to infrastructure and expertise in the strategic and tactical elements of managing a contact center operation.

As a result, buyers of a co-managed model seek to outsource to a partner. They expect dedicated resources, fully integrated technical capabilities, a cultural match, and gainsharing. They want to work with an outsourcer who will act on their behalf making recommendations and decisions which have positive impacts to the bottom-line of the business.

Although you can expect to pay more for a co-managed environment, the cost-benefit of this collaborative relationship must be considered. Often a co-managed outsourcer will save you money both in the short and long term, due to their expertise and experience in implementing and managing a contact center. And with longer term and gainsharing based contracts, co-managed outsourcers put some "skin in the game" relative to your success.

DEFINING YOUR BRAND
Aligning your business, cultural, and operational needs with a brand of outsourcer is the first critical step in the vendor selection process. But before you can begin to align with a brand, at a minimum, you must define the following with key stakeholders:

Strategic Drivers

• Service: A differentiator
• Capital constraints
• Quality issues
• Contact interaction management expertise
• Rapid implementation required
• Scalability -- growth or consolidation

Business Requirements

• Clearly define how an outsourced operation fits into the enterprise
• Define specific strategies, workflow, business rules, and metrics for outsourced function
• Detailed requirements must be well understood and documented

Culture/Fit

• Understand outsourcer's background
• Assess current clients and services provided
• Discover industry reputation
• Understand how leadership and management currently interact with clients

Pricing Requirements

• Fixed
• Variable
• Gainsharing

Data Requirements

• Integration and customization
• Ownership of data
• Specific platform needs

TWO ADDITIONAL TIPS
At this point, although you have determined your strategic intent, business requirements and identified your brand, the decision making process can still leave you feeling uncertain. There are numerous regimented approaches in the evaluation and scoring process -- perhaps to be shared in another article. In the meantime, keep the following two key points in your back pocket. You should not be without them in the buying process.

Establish Buying Criteria -- Hold True To This Perspective
When you buy a house you know the features, floor plan, square footage, location, and condition that align with your needs. You also know the amount that you will pay. Ultimately, you may compromise on any one of these items, but for the most part you hold true to your buying criteria.

In working with outsourcers the same rule applies -- define your buying criteria up front. Too often businesses define relationship and culture as primary buying criteria, but concede on the value of these requirements for larger cost savings. In this example, the end result is often the difference between selecting a service bureau vendor and a co-managed vendor, resulting in misaligned services, expectations, results, and relationship. Keep in mind that hiring the wrong outsourcer will not only reflect poorly on your business, but will also put the customer-relationship in jeopardy.

Make Sure You Are The Expert First
Did you want an outsourcer to reduce your headaches? Then before you give it to an "expert," make sure you are the expert first.

How many times have you heard:

• "The outsourcer is running us, and we are not getting what we had hoped for."
• "We had no understanding of what to outsource. We had no business plan. We just turned over the organization and hoped for the best."
• "The service level agreement was crafted before we knew what we really wanted, and now we find that the metrics don't align with our needs."
• "The outsourcer was supposed to handle all tier 1 calls, but their agents do not have access to the right information, therefore, most tier 1 calls are escalated to tier 2�which means that the calls come to us anyway."

Do not view outsourcing as the abdication of business functions. You are not abdicating anything -- you are delegating. This means that you are still responsible to define detailed requirements, and you are still held accountable for the success or failure of the business. Make sure you are the expert first.

IN SUMMARY
Fourteen was a daunting number of proposals to review. Fortunately the client had determined their business requirements, strategic direction and buying criteria. This allowed for the swift elimination of certain "brands" of contact center outsourcers.

If you want to avoid the often overwhelming process of outsourcing vendor selection, the first place to begin is simple: know the brand of outsourcer you are targeting. To request proposals and compare them based on price will result in the poor alignment of capabilities, costs, execution, and culture. Hold true to selecting a win/win relationship, which may require you to look beyond costs savings to things like flexibility, collaborative relationships, and open communication. Recognize that with the proper planning up front and an understanding of the outsourcer landscape, you can ensure that you choose an outsourcing company that best fits your company's needs.

Michelle Curless is a managing director with The Customer Group, LLC. She has over 10 years of both operational and consulting experience in working with call centers, contact centers, outsourcers, and customer-facing organizations for both domestic and international Global 2000 clients.