When evaluating a customer experience outsourcing partner, it’s tempting to start with the rate card. Cost is, of course, an important consideration, but a lower hourly rate doesn’t necessarily translate into lower total cost or better customer experiences.
The more important question is what happens after the contract is signed. A strategic CX partner should understand your operation, communicate clearly about performance, identify opportunities for improvement, and work toward outcomes that matter to your business.
How do you know if your BPO partner is a strategic partner rather than simply another vendor? Look for these seven signs.
Why ‘vendor’ and ‘partner’ aren’t interchangeable
A vendor is someone you enlist for a task. They are given guidelines to follow, then do the work on their own with minimal back-and-forth communication.
A partner, on the other hand, works alongside you, learning your company’s goals and workflows so they stay true to the heart of the operation. They consistently check in and communicate with you about what’s going on to make sure everything runs smoothly.
The 7 signs you’ve found a strategic CX partner
Transparent performance reporting
A strategic partner uses transparent reporting to keep you in the loop with how their service is performing.
For leaders, this gives you peace of mind that you can see the inner workings of your processes without having to monitor them at all times. You can also rest assured that if anything concerning comes up, your outsourcing partner will report it quickly because of this open line of communication.
For employees, transparent reporting can be helpful because you can see the impact of the work being done. As improvements are made, you can see the impact almost immediately.
Strong QA infrastructure
To provide this transparency, your outsourcing partner needs a strong QA infrastructure, so they have a clear view of how employees and defined processes are performing.
They should have a QA framework in place during the time of your evaluation. Still, you should take time at the start of your partnership to discuss this framework and ensure their QA methods align with your business outcomes.
A strong framework would look like:
- Being honest about the current state of performance
- Defining goals and standards for what high-quality work looks like
- Choosing the tools that will be used for assessments
- Establishing the process for assessment and metrics to track
Structured training
Structured training includes both the initial onboarding process and the ongoing training that continues after time to proficiency has elapsed. This training should include hands-on interactive experience through techniques such as live simulations of realistic situations or low-stakes interactions with customers.
When evaluating a potential outsourcing partner, see if you can find feedback from employees. Do people feel supported in their training? Do they feel confident when handling complex tasks? Does the organization promote an environment of continual learning and improvement?
Healthy agent retention practices
When it comes to the importance of healthy agent retention practices, Dennis O’Reilly put it best:
“When a valued employee leaves a company, the impact can be felt long after their last day, and far beyond their team and department. The cost of recruiting and onboarding merely scratches the surface of the financial damage such a departure can inflict on the organization.”
With this in mind, when evaluating outsourcing partners, consider these questions:
- Do the agents and managers feel a sense of camaraderie amongst one another?
- Do employees feel like their work is important and appreciated?
- Do agents have set goals they are working towards that are both realistic and attainable?
- Do employees feel as though there is room to grow within the company, or do they feel stuck in one place?
Shared KPIs
Shared KPIs can be used alongside several of the signs on this list.
When an organization has a strong QA infrastructure, it may include shared KPIs, where employees and managers alike have access to metrics such as CSAT or average handle time, along with a target to work toward.
Additionally, when everyone can see how a shared goal is progressing, it can strengthen camaraderie and improve agent retention.
This transparency can also create a feedback loop for agents. They may see areas for improvement, make changes, and then check the KPIs again to see whether their adjustments were successful.
Operational/technology expertise
One of the main reasons to start the search for an outsourcing partner is to find someone who can provide expertise. That expertise may involve workforce management, process optimization, customer journey design, analytics, automation, routing, or other technologies that influence the customer experience.
Transparent routing, for example, can help organizations understand how interactions move through the operation and where bottlenecks occur. Technology expertise can also help identify opportunities to automate repetitive work or give agents better tools and information.
During strategic vendor evaluation, ask potential partners what they would examine if they were given access to your operation tomorrow. Their answer can reveal whether they are thinking primarily about staffing requirements or about the broader operational picture.
Proactive recommendations
One of the clearest differences between a vendor and a strategic partner is what happens when no one has explicitly asked for improvements. A partner should be willing to say, “Here is something we’re seeing, and here is what we recommend doing about it.”
That could mean identifying a recurring customer pain point, suggesting a process change, recommending a technology improvement, or pointing out a trend in performance data. Proactive recommendations demonstrate that the partner is paying attention to more than the immediate scope of work.
The strongest outsourcing relationships create a routine with these conversations. They review performance, identify opportunities, test recommendations, and measure results. This turns outsourcing from a service transaction into an ongoing improvement process.
Closing Thoughts
Choosing a BPO partner is ultimately about evaluating more than price.
Rate cards can tell you what a service costs. Still, they don’t tell you how effectively a partner will communicate, how seriously they approach quality, how well they develop their people, or whether they will actively look for ways to help improve your operation. These factors may be harder to quantify, but they can significantly affect the long-term value of an outsourcing relationship.
As you compare potential partners, look for evidence of transparency, strong QA infrastructure, structured training, healthy retention practices, shared KPIs, operational and technology expertise, and proactive recommendations.
If you are looking for a structured way to evaluate those factors side by side, download the CX Outsourcing Partner Scorecard to help assess potential partners beyond the rate card.
