[tweetmeme]Service continuity is more than mere continued existence. You want your business to last longer and want your associates and service providers to stay along as well. Business outsourcing is a strategic decision and choosing your vendor carefully is the real key in making this decision count. One important factor to look for is the stability of your vendor in supporting you with the agreed services on a healthy and continued basis. Considering service continuity, these guidelines can make things easier for you when choosing your outsourcing vendor.
Existence of the vendor for long is no certificate
Service continuity is not same as the existence of the vendor. It is the continued support for specific and customized services that best suits your requirements. A vendor can exist but may lift some of his services which may have proved useful to you. So look for the vendor’s service chart and check for his continued support for the services in the past. If you can somehow track the list of services offered by the vendor since their inception, you can get a fair idea of the expertise that they have at offer. If you see a track record which illustrates frequent changes in the list of services offered you can consider the vendor to have lack of faith and ill planning in designing his services. So go for vendors who have built a stable and formidable service support for businesses like yours.
Check with their existing customers
This is an easy and credible way to base your decision on, without burning your fingers. Existing customers may give you clearer picture of their satisfaction index which will empower you to make a better decision
Gauge the vendor’s growth plan
Look where the vendor is heading. If he has plans to diversify into other businesses, it is advised to look for other vendors who are really keen on stabilizing outsourcing as a core business service. You should find a vendor who can grow with your business, add more people when you need them, and has the infrastructure in place to support your business in case your needs grow.
Assess enhancements in services
If the outsourcing vendor is really keen on delivering you the best he will come up with more value additions to his existing services. So it’s suggested to check how often he is coming up with value additions to his services and delivering more to his existing customers. This is a good KPI which speaks about the seriousness of the vendor in giving you the best.
Refined knowledge transfer process
Small businesses run into higher risk of losing trained resources without adequate knowledge transfer. Entrepreneurs must ensure that they plan accordingly and do not fall in a situation where only one person is responsible for critical processes. Building process documents and following pre-defined protocols eases knowledge transition during employee turnover.
These are some of the key factors that you must consider while choosing your outsourcing vendor. Remember these vendors become your extensions and you absolutely cannot afford to let your business go down with inconsistency.
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Spot on article! The vast majority of successful first movers and stellar performers in their respective business industries have found that the definitive answer to success in cost reduction and quality performance enhancement in their business models has been through outsourcing their non-core competencies. The key is that they outsource their non-core competencies such as their back office work (A/P, A/R, Customer Service, Internet & telephony response, inbound, inbound/outbound sales, procurement, H/R, etc.) in order to maximize focus on core competencies. Businesses who effectively outsource, realize dramatic cost savings, flexibility, scalability & experience through outsourcing; but, interestingly, they are also discovering they can not only benefit in these areas but that the quality of the services they outsource to a reputable, experienced outsourcing provider are actually enhanced, a benefit that inures to the benefit of their client/customers. For Case Studies, informative white papers and further information definitively demonstrating how these benefits are realized, please visit http://www.PremierBPO.com and/or call Reese Bagwell at 931.551.8888.
We are dedicated to developing effective outsourcing services with clients in order to reduce their IT costs, improve process management and reduce time-to-market for new product ideas.
I think your tips here make perfect sense and I’d like to add to check just how the outsourcing vendor of your choice handles data. I believe that data security is overlooked by many businesses who outsource and they later realize this mistake that cost them a lot of money. I guess, trust is relative these days and doing a background check is simply not enough. A fine print can define the scope of the project but unless you know what exactly you’re getting into, you might as well fall into a trap with your blindfolds on. Just my two cents here.