Managing Outsourcers

[OffshoreMGR]

We're a firm that outsourcers our call center work to several centers around the world and we're looking for some best practices in managing outsourcers. We're fairly new to the game 1yr. and want to make sure we are doing the right things.

We currently meet weekly and monthly to review SLA's and other metrics and also have technical meetings with our Subject experts for continous learning.

Quartlerly trips to the Outsourcers are also made. Ideas surrounding what should be reviewed during these trips would be appreciated as well.

Any ideas? Also, does anyone know of any free resources regarding managing outsourcers or any Organization besides SSPA or HDI? Is anyone in a similar position? If so, what are your responsibilities? Specific objectives relating to managing relationship?

[ctaylor]

It certainly can be a challenge managing outsource service providers. I spent 18 years running one of the largest outsource Agencies on two continents, before I moved to the professional service side, so I may be able to add value to your thinking process.

It is essential that you develop a transparent and continuous dialogue with your outsourcer. They must know what your tactical and strategic goals are opposite the call center operation as well as the timetable that you expect to realize these goals. Contact should be on a daily basis, at least electronically, you should review KPI's and the SLA on a daily basis. Your internal QA group should be conduction monitoring of the outsourcer, both live an based upon recorded calls (.wav files). Weekly you should be conducting calibration sessions between the vendor QA and your internal group to ensure that both score quality in similar fashion.

You didn't share the details of your SLA, but I would suggest that the SLA should include the following;

-Grade of Service,
-ASA,
-Abanbdon Rate,
-Blockage,
-First Call Resolution,
-Customer Satisfaction,

I hope that I have added some value to this discussion. I would be happy to discuss this matter with you in more detail at your convenience; please email me directly at ctaylor@thetaylorreachgroup.com ,

Colin Taylor

www.thetaylorreachgroup.com

[OffshoreMGR]

Thanks Colin. We're doing much of you mentioned, except for the sharing of strategic goals and objectives aside from operations.

I'll be sure to incorporate that into the communications as well.

Thanks again!

On a side note; with so many firms outsourcing now a days, I thought there would be a ton of replies.

[ctaylor]

Offshore,
Glad I could help. I am not surprised by the lack of response. Many of the outsourcers out there are not really that good at the fundamentals of call center operations. They live on the dollar arbitrage and economies of scale. Knowledgable and informed clients can be very dangerous to an outsourcer that doesn't have the expertise.

I spent almost 20 years running an outsource agency and have seen it all.

Please feel free to contact me directly at ctaylor@thetaylorreachgroup.com if I can be of further assistance.

You may also wish to register for our free monthly newsletter where we deal with both operational and strategic call center issues. You can register on the web site www.thetaylorreachgroup.com .

Regards,

Colin

[dpzim]

Sorry about the late reply, just getting back from vaca.

I have managed 5 outsourcers at one time and I agree that it can be hectic at times.

I think you have all the right tools in place, but I agree on the daily discussions. I have had some very bad outsourcers at times and waiting one week to touch base is too long and allowing the chance for something to fall thru the cracks.

The bottom line is the customers: I would implement a customer satisfaction survey, if you have not already done so, and you can share these results with your vendor and hold them accountable.

I also agree with live monitoring at least once a week. I would stay away from the recorded calls. I have had a bad experience with this, the vendor actually picked all the best calls, instead of randomly, and sent them to me. Needless to say they are no longer vendors.

I managed an outsourcer an them I became part of some, so I was play both parts, The thing is don’t believe everything they said, don’t let them run all the business, remember they have the technology and they are well trained but the expert always is going to be your company. I don’t know your firm and your services but if possible place yourself a center in-house as a benchmark, not bring all the operation, but if you can an internal benchmark is always helpful.
I work with several call centers, in-house and outsourcing, we place centers and make all the call center consulting and one very good thing is never give all to one outsourcer, what we do is, locate your business and services as Business Units, and take them to the expert in the area. The outsourcers generally have a specific expertise one of them are good telemarketers but that don’t means they are going to be good technical support or customer service, billing or customer inquiries. The best option is select the expert in the Business Unit Area and you can solve the expertise and benchmarking issues.

The best practices for call center are very similar, a good report, daily review of the metrics, quality assurance and monitoring, site visits, and every time when you go and make the visit, everything is going to be perfect. First the basics, but now they have to provide a extra value, now is not enough have the technology and a good price, because now you have a call center, you open your communication channels and you listen your customers, but what are you doing with all the information, are you taking decisions? Or you only manage your calls and get a lot of reports? As an advise go to your outsourcers and start to work in how they going to help you to take decision, they have the information, you the expertise. If you see the potential of the information you can start since now taking decision based on what your customers want and not what do you think they want. Think about it, you have all the information.

I hope this helps you and best regards

Miguel Barcena
mbarcenag@prodigy.net.mx

[OffshoreMGR]

Thanks for the valuable feedback! Looks like we are doing ok.

For those who are maybe looking for some ideas, I've outlined what we follow below:

-Weekly review of metrics (vendors are required to report and explain performance, same as montly but more in depth).

-Monthly Review (Key metrics- Satisfaction Surveys, ACD stats, Q/A, First contact res., Improvement plans and progress)

-Service level and aban rate are discussed daily if needed (if out of range) -Working

-Weekly Technical calls to update on latest techical problems/solutions

-Weekly Q/a calibrations

-Daily Remote monitoring

-Weekly troubleshooting improvement calls based off of Six Sigma. Started daily then moved to weekly.

-Technical Site Visits (technical personel visit outsourcers to assist onsite with technical support)

-Training onsite visits (training personnel go onsite to train new key processes or products)

-Management Quarterly visits (audit of processes, review progress, live monitoring, sharing of strategic outlook, followup on new process)

Please continue to share your feedback! I'm sure there are others struggling with the same. The more the better.

Thanks again!

[OffshoreMGR]

Just wanted to keep this topic live. Always like to see everyone's best practices.

Thanks!