With the spectre of the financial crisis that accompanies the coronavirus health crisis, companies must find concrete and quick solutions to put in place to get out of this situation without losses. Outsourcing is a perfectly adapted response, however, it is essential for decision makers to overcome the moral dilemma that can accompany outsourcing. One example is employee loyalty. More than ever, there is an urgent need to combine and optimise internal and external resources. It all starts internally, thanks to a controlled organisation.

Why is outsourcing an added value for companies?

Offshore outsourcing providers began to emerge in the late 1990s. On the agenda were effective but inexpensive solutions and resources capable of dealing with the so-called « Year 2000 bug » threat. Since then, outsourcing has rapidly transformed. It has grown to offer a highly qualified and multilingual workforce which is able to adapt to the foreign cultures of their customers. Today, these providers are able to offer mature and quality project management processes that match and even surpass the standards of what can be offered internally.

Today, outsourcing is gaining and bringing even more in terms of value. Among the world leaders is Mauritius, which has succeeded in supporting many Western companies in their development efforts through outsourcing.

Outsourcing is a specialty

Outsourcing is the most appropriate solution for a company that wants to keep growing despite the current health crisis. However, it is not a question for the company to transform its employees who are working from home into outsourced agents. Outsourcing is a strategy in its own right, but in which the employees of the client company have a major role to play.

By using outsourcing, the client company makes the choice to adopt a new organisational model which is balanced by a global workforce pool. So it’s time to ask yourself a question: in the era of outsourcing and the financial crisis, are your employees ready to become an essential asset?

3 elements to consider for a smooth transition to outsourcing

Finding solutions to reduce costs

The current economic slowdown is a major concern for most companies around the world. More than ever, the trend is to protect profit margins through cost reductions. Some companies are planning to lay off their employees or divest their loss-making assets.

To avoid this, many companies plan, or are in the process, to outsource certain services, such as satisfaction surveys to assess the quality of their services, remote secretary services, teleprospecting or telemarketing. This reflex will allow them to reduce their costs and to refocus on their core business, thus actively participating in the development of their organization, even in the context of health crisis.

It is a fact, cost reduction has always been one of the main reasons for outsourcing and this should not change despite the current and future complex conditions. As a result, outsourcing contracts will, in the very short term, offer customized, adapted cost control mechanisms. For this, as a customer, you will have to discuss with your provider. Together, you will be able to accurately determine the services to be outsourced and the applicable rates.

For cost-effective outsourcing, take the time to build a win-win contract, both for your company and your provider. With a fully implemented cost control mechanism, you will be able to build a sustainable partnership.

Evolve your teams

Whether it is human resources or marketing, it’s time to evolve your internal teams, be it managerial or technical. This action will have beneficial consequences once your services are outsourced, because the more an employee occupies an important place in the organisational chart, the more efficient and loyal he will be to the company.

By increasing their skills, your employees will also be able to contribute significantly to your outsourcing project.

A flexible outsourcing contract

In the face of the current economic uncertainties, it is essential for any company to react quickly to changing market conditions. In the context of outsourcing, it is important to have a personalized contract, therefore one that is flexible. This flexibility will make it possible to adapt to any changes that may result, for example, from restructuring or withdrawal of investors or from changes in the volume of services, the geographical scope of services, etc.

To achieve the writing of a contract in your favour, do not hesitate to stipulate that the provider will have to continue to provide its services even if your company transfers an entity under the same conditions and for a minimum period after the transfer.

A flexible contract must at all costs avoid strict contractual clauses and foster a clear and workable change control mechanism. Thus, both parties will be able to agree and implement any changes quickly.

Each issue must be carefully considered. This will allow your company to determine whether to outsource one or more services in the current economic climate. Involve your financial, technical and legal teams at the beginning of the negotiation process with your provider. Allow enough time to write a clear and unambiguous contract. Outsourcing should not be seen as a lifeline, but as a winning strategy. The Covid-19 health crisis is no doubt an opportunity for your company to bounce back intelligently and efficiently, whereas the competition will find it difficult to regain a solid place in the market.

It is a fact! The coronavirus pandemic has forced companies and their employees to protect themselves by adopting an approach that involves confinement and working from home. This change naturally affects several outsourcing providers and their clients, regardless of where they are across the globe. Let us take an extreme example: India. Within 21 days of confinement, the country managed to put in place a complex logistics. Back to outsourcing, the industry has also been able to modify and adapt its security aspect to protect more than its customers’ data.

Containment has led to the emergence of additional concerns and considerations for both clients and outsourcing providers. These are the key questions that outsourcing providers are able to answer for business continuity. Thus, suppliers and customers can circumvent the limitations and realities of working from home during the containment period.

Collaboration: the key to rapid and effective adaptation

Outsourcing providers are not only service providers. For their customers, they are in fact partners; collaborators. Thus, the provider and also his clients must work seamlessly together so that each decision made is relevant. Each party must be able to understand and keep in mind its legal rights, obligations and recourses, while accepting the idea of having to deviate from contractual norms on a temporary basis.

It is possible for both providers and clients to enforce related legal clauses in case of major concerns. But today, many of them have managed to find common ground. The idea is each party comes out of this complex situation winning and satisfied.

In addition, both parties must understand that certain services may be exempted from the containment policy, as is the case for those known as essential services. Taking the example of India, the government has exempted some services related to the IT sector from the containment. In this regard, clients of outsourcing providers must ensure that their business and operational priorities are clearly identified. The objective is to work closely with their providers to ensure that contractual requirements are met. For their part, providers must make every effort possible to meet the most pressing needs of their clients. For this to happen, there is no secret: they need to communicate in clear terms about achievable needs and those that are not.

The importance of documentation

In the following scenarios:

• When an outsourcing provider wishes to make a change, an exception or a relaxation of the requirements stipulated in its contract;
• When a customer is working to redefine its priorities or extend the responsibility of the service provider due to increased security risks,

There are two important aspects that must be considered:

• Changes must be discussed and understood by each party,
• Any deviation from the terms stipulated in the contract, whatever its extent, must be discussed and laid down on a formal written document.

Example: customer data security

The outsourcing provider and its clients must be realistic about what is possible or not in the context of telework. It is therefore essential to write down every detail essential to this state.

Each stakeholder in the outsourcing project must participate in the drafting of this amendment to the contract, including IT security, legal, compliance, audit and sales. Indeed, the addendum to the contract must benefit from the knowledge of each essential department.

Outsourcing clients and providers also need to understand and find solutions that can mitigate the impacts of telework on the service provided and what is foreseen in the original contract. Does this mode of work involve liability insurance? How will telework impact companies subject to audits and reports? What are the impacts of teleworking upstream and downstream when the client needs to comply with agreements, obtain permissions and send or receive notifications?

Customers and outsourcing providers should think carefully to avoid delays in production. To do this, customers must be able to recognize that their providers are likely to offer limited services. Why? Due to issues related to bandwidth, laptops, other physical resources and personnel.

Outsourcing providers are aware that their clients have quite legitimate and relevant concerns and questions about teleworking. Everything is therefore planned to provide a quick and constant engagement with their clients so that they understand and can assess the implications of teleworking on their goals.

Today, outsourcing is a tool; a solution. Given the current context, clients and providers strive to work together quickly to minimise delays in decision-making. This involves negotiation and clearly expressed agreements. The current circumstances are complex, but they require more precise contractual documentation.

In these unprecedented times, it is essential that clients and outsourcing providers work hand in hand, without wasting time while clearly prioritising what they can do. As the situation evolves, each actor takes care to continuously monitor the evolution of the containment, to communicate closely and to anticipate further changes, including a return to more normal activities as soon as possible.

For a company, managing customer calls can be a real burden for a few days or weeks, that is, during peak periods. This is especially true at certain times of the year or during the holidays. Outsourcing is without a doubt the most relevant solution, especially if you lack internal resources or when it is the peak season for your company. Entrust your overflow management service to our call centre to manage these flows and satisfy your customers while offering them quick and relevant answers and above all by controlling your costs.

Quick and easy implementation

By choosing to outsource your overflow management service to ProContact, you will benefit from an easy and fast set-up. As a result, your business will offer customer service and support that is available even outside of its regular hours. Whether you choose this solution for operational or strategic reasons, this outsourcing is the guarantee that your customers will always have an interlocutor at the end of the line.

In a competitive business environment, your company must be present for its customers, even when internal resources are not available. The goal is to retain your customers for the benefit of your brand and your product or service. ProContact offers a customer service that is indistinguishable from your internal team and provides first-class customer support.

Glossary of important terms

Overflow Management: a team too busy to answer the phone within three ringtones or within a certain time (specified by you) can rely on the agents of our call centre.

Rush hour management: with a reduced number of employees during holiday periods or on weekends, it is highly advisable to outsource the overflow to relieve the pressure on your employees during peak periods.

Call logging integration: our overflow service can integrate with your own system quite easily. Thus, you will be able to consult the notes taken by our agents during calls made on behalf of your company. In the event of an unresolved or urgent call, our operators may also transfer your customer in accordance with your guidelines and procedures.

The many benefits of outsourcing your overflow management

A clear improvement in call quality: it is essential for your company to offer a high quality and uninterrupted customer service. Through outsourcing, customer wait times and frustration levels are reduced even during peak calls. Our qualified agents are trained to handle overflows, which increases the level of service and quality of exchanges with your customers.

Business continuity and disaster recovery: if your business is unavailable, for example, during an epidemic, bad weather, a long power outage or IT glitch, consider outsourcing! With ProContact, your business is finally able to deliver a transparent and seamless customer service. By accessing your database, our agents will be able to track calls and queries from your customers until your business resumes.

A clear reduction in the call dropout rate: today, customers do not like to wait, especially when it comes to getting in touch with a customer service ! However, it is quite impossible to meet this expectation during peak periods, which makes it impossible to respect your processes and standards. Unfortunately, a frustrated customer can simply turn to the competition. Thanks to our overflow management offer, you will be able to retain your customers and especially reduce your call abandonment rates.

An improvement in the level of customer satisfaction: outsourcing your overflow management will allow your employees to focus on their core business. In return, your company will always be able to provide a qualitative customer service, including during peak periods. There is no more need to manage large volumes of calls. Positive experience for your customers and interaction with your company: these are the essential factors that make up the complex equation of customer satisfaction.

Savings for your business: outsourcing will allow you to reduce training costs and all the expenses involved in hiring new employees while continuing to increase your sales which implies higher call volumes. This also applies to the hiring of part-time employees or temporary workers.

By outsourcing, you will attract prospects, and significantly increase the following:

• Sales conversion rate,
• Advertising channel- ROI analysis,
• Requests for information entered,
• Customer orders processed on a 24/7 basis,
• Customer profiling, database creation and management

Outsourcing overflow management can be the perfect solution if your company launches a service or a product in promotional periods, or simply when you lack internal resources. Faced with the amount of calls received, it can happen that your teams can no longer cope, which may lead to many inconveniences. This negative for your image and figures. Avoid long waiting times, lines which are always busy, lost communications and most importantly, stop having to deal with the frustration and dissatisfaction of your customers and prospects.

At ProContact, our overflow service allows you to maintain and increase your customer satisfaction rate. Your emails and calls will always be answered, regardless of your schedules and procedures. Moreover, to this effect, our call centre has only qualified and flexible operators.

It is essential, as a company, to have an adequate knowledge of your customers and prospects. Conducting surveys is an essential tool today. However, if you do not have the skills or resources to set up such a service, outsourcing with ProContact is « the » solution you need. Here are the reasons why outsourcing your studies and surveys department is a good idea for the development and sustainability of your business.

What is a survey?

The outgoing survey is a statistical method which has for goal to study the behaviour of a specific population from a sample. Survey results are the results of a study. As a company, you will need to determine a margin of error, also expressed as a percentage, with your outsourcing provider.

Why conduct surveys?

Conducting surveys is an exercise commonly practiced by companies, for example, when they are creating a new product/service and one wishes to obtain the opinion of the targeted public on already existing products/services.

Do you have the right tools to successfully complete studies and surveys?

Does your company have all the necessary tools to conduct surveys and surveys? Does it have the resources required to exploit the data collected after delivery? To conduct a study, you need the right software so that you can gather the information that your business will need to draw effective and tangible conclusions.

Let’s add to this relevant questions, to which the targets will gladly answer, and operators trained for this task. For example, if your studies and surveys are conducted over the phone, it is important for the agent to master conversational codes, not only to hold the attention of the respondent, but also to subtly convince him to « play the game ».

What are the benefits of outsourcing your studies and surveys service?

Benefit from professional management: your company needs professionals for all its departments, including when it comes to taking charge of the studies and surveys part. Thanks to outsourcing, your company will be able to offer surveys conducted by professionals who master the best practices in terms of studies, collection, data management, etc.

Benefit from rational time management: studies and surveys require time, but also attention. Outsourcing these tasks will save you time, which you can spend on your core business.

Benefit from a tailor-made and complete team: It is difficult and useless to free up the budget necessary to hire several people dedicated to studies and surveys when you are a company. Thanks to outsourcing, your company always has a trained team which is able to conduct your studies and surveys at any time according to your needs.

Setting up a survey campaign

Several parameters are to be taken into consideration when setting up a survey:

The context: why does your company need a study or survey? What exactly do you want to know? Is it a question of knowing the satisfaction level of one or more clients? Is it about launching a new product or service? Depending on your answers to these questions, your outsourcing provider will be able to set up a custom survey or study, which fully corresponds to the needs of your company. While the basic method may remain the same, it is essential to calibrate the questions, which vary according to different situations.

The target population: which sample of the population will have to be interviewed? By answering this question, your provider will be able to choose the most appropriate method to produce results that reflects the reality, thus reducing the margin of error, even if it exists.

The channel: whether by e-mail or telephone, the mode of administration of your study or survey will have to be adapted to your needs and your goal. Once the questionnaire is in place, it will need to be communicated in the most effective way to the defined population sample.

Choose the right time to launch the survey: rely on the experience of your outsourcing provider to agree on the perfect time frame to launch your survey. For example, if your company intends to launch a new service, the survey will need to be done before the production process of the new service in order to measure the interest of your customers.

Telephone survey through outsourcing

As part of the development of your products or services, consider entrusting the completion of your studies and surveys to a specialist. Outsourcing will allow you to quickly know the behaviour and needs of your customers. Thanks to the information collected by the agents of our call center, your company will be able to adapt its work and resources.

If your company does not have the necessary human and technical resources and the essential skills to conduct a study or survey, outsourcing is the perfect solution to assist you, even if your deadlines are tight. ProContact conducts studies and surveys that will allow you to better understand the behaviour of your customers in order to implement the appropriate strategies.

Objectivity, speed of execution, advanced technologies, rational and improved use of resources, increased accuracy; thanks to these outsourcing will provide you with better visibility on your next moves. Our call center does not lack assets: location, experience, human resources, flexibility, we take in hand your studies and surveys and customise the service to provide you with relevant results.

For the smooth running of your company, for its evolution and so that your different teams can focus on their core business, it is essential to know how to delegate certain tasks/ certain services. By outsourcing your « order taking » department, you will be winning on many levels. Use the time saved to focus on consolidating your position in a sufficiently competitive market and gain skills. Discover an external partner who will help improve your company thanks to this major project that is outsourcing, even if it is to turn to a foreign country!

Being at the head of one company, it is important to know how to delegate certain tasks and to learn to trust another company. This is what outsourcing offers, a concept perfectly applicable to the order-taking service.

Outsourcing your order-processing service: how it works

Order-taking is now an integral part of the services offered by any good outsourcing specialist. Throughout the past few years, this type of service has enabled many companies to become more efficient.

In the outsourcing context, the order taking is processed by phone, more specifically by taking incoming calls during which agents will accompany your customers during their purchase journey. Trained in customer relations and having a huge knowledge of your company’s offerings, operators will help customers choose the products that will most accurately meet their needs.

How can they do so with such accuracy at a distance? The agents selected for your mission are constantly trained and always up to date on the products, services, rates, means of delivery, promotions, etc. that your brand offers. Even better, these agents are able to redirect and help customers in case of difficulties, thereby preserving the image of your company and leaving no room for the competition to make a move.

All of this takes place in a timely, synchronized, organized and efficient space that is rid of waiting times that are too long. Added to this is a tracking service to ensure that requests, demands and orders have been delivered on time.

The importance of an error-free order-taking service

There should be special mention to the importance of error-free ordering. When turning to your company, the customer will provide information essential to the proper processing of his order. Any lack of attention on the part of his interlocutor will lead to an error in the overall process. If this type of failure occurs repeatedly, it can permanently damage the image of your company.

Outsourcing providers take meticulous care to train agents in conversational techniques. Listening, entering information and even using specialised software, you must put all the chances on your side to build customer loyalty and especially so that they are happy to go through your company!

The benefits of outsourcing your order-taking service

Outsourcing order-taking service involves many advantages:

• Lower shipping rates,
• Reduced operating costs
• A wider reach to help your business grow in new markets,
• A better focus on other aspects of your business, so you can grow serenely.

Reducing your shipping costs

Many suppliers have facilities locally, but also abroad, which provides a strong enough basis for lowering shipping prices. According to specialists, companies that have chosen to outsource their order-taking service save an average of 15-35% on shipping rates.

Reducing your operating costs

Exit extra costs! It is well known, delivery services charge a fixed storage fee on the products that they store for their customers, regardless of the quantity of orders.

Growing in other markets

Thanks to outsourcing, your company will finally be able to cross its borders by accepting orders from abroad.

Significant improvement of your customer service

An essential part of running a successful business is reliable customer service. Outsourcing will allow you to take orders 24/7 not only by phone but also by e-mail. Let’s add to this, the after-sales service which will take care of returns, exchanges and refund requests.

A state-of-the-art outsourcing provider

By choosing the outsourcing of your order-taking, your service provider will benefit from the latest technologies in the processing and shipping of your products. It will integrate a system which will allow your e-commerce business to streamline orders through:

• Better inventory management,
• Better item tracking,
• Increased security,
• Better shipping and handling costs,
• The ability to select the operator
• Better payment processing

A more efficient business

Outsourcing your order-taking will allow your company to gain efficiency. This is especially true for developing companies. Faced with the increasing number of orders coming from the various existing channels, your company may find itself wasting working hours. By entrusting this task to an offshore provider, your teams will finally be able to focus on their core business, create new products and services, improve and market existing ones and propose new ideas.

What to remember…

Outsourcing is not just about cutting costs and saving on your business expenses. It improves and increases the efficiency of your employees while helping you gain positioning in the competitive market. It also allows you to gain flexibility thanks to a reliable and trained workforce which available outside your company’s hours.

Thanks to outsourcing, your company will no longer have to worry about the administrative aspects related to hiring employees for your order taking service or to invest in specific hardware or software.