You Will Really Never Be Happy With Your Outsourced Service

Unless you put in the work!

It’s been a while since part III of my series about how I changed my outsourcing game. Mainly because I have been on vacation. And yes, partly because things have been a little crazy in the US in the last couple of days. No headspace to talk about things not happening, unless you put in the work. Though it would have been quite fitting.

But here we are, finally about to conclude the series. Starting with the fact, that you will never be really happy with your (outsourced) service, unless you put in the work. To those that are still with me, thanks for your loyalty or curiosity on this topic. For those of you that are joining just now, please check out the previous posts in my blog first. It will make more sense that way. Here they are:

• Really Not Happy With Your Outsourced Customer Service
• Still Not Really Happy With Your Outsourced Customer Service
• Actually Never Been Happy With Your Outsourced Customer Service

So in order to improve your success and happiness with your (outsourced) customer service, there will have to be some effort. And unless you put in the work, you will likely never be really happy with it. Today I want to put some emphasis on the fact, that this work and effort has to happen on both sides.

Throughout my career I have definitely had my fair share of attempts of “being more a partner than a client”. And while I maybe never fully lost my client attitude then, the other side also never lost their “vendor attitude”. Typically the reaction to a more supportive approach was, that it was absolutely welcomed. Whenever it was about waiving penalties, offering additional rewards or being open to increasing the base pay that is. Not so much, when it was about simply offering knowledge and experience.

Knowledge and experience, that can be turned into revenue, if used the right way, I might add.

So to my colleagues in the BPO space, support and partnership in an outsourcing relationship can’t be about “paying money” only. And being supportive really does not mean to waive penalties all the time. Just imagine you are a parent – do you want to teach your children how they can avoid or resolve their own problems or do you want to solve them for them forever? Right, that’s what I thought. Ownership is key and it has to happen on both sides.

I know many of my BPO peers have made the experience, that support is rather a word than an action. And that in worst case scenarios it usually does not hold up. However, if someone tries to show you the opposite, you should try to see it. And don’t be the reason for it not to work. In my last article I shared, that this partnership only works both ways.

As a BPO, you need to do your part and accept the support and expertise. Remember, I shared with my partner management peers that they are the only expert, when it comes to how they would like their customer service to be done? So I asked them to move away from being a vendor manager and become a leader to their BPO partner instead. Let me tell you the same!

Leadership never happens without authority. If you are not willing to accept the leadership, which includes guidance how they would like you to do their customer service, it won’t work. They will try for a while, until they get really tired and give up. And then things might continue to be ok for a moment and then usually the relationship and the project go south rather quickly.

As a leader, my approach would always be to think, I do not know it best. I would contribute my part, that I am sure I know better (i.e. internal politics, how it’s done in internal peer teams etc.) and listen to proposals. I would highly encourage my partner peers to bring up different opinions, thoughts and ideas and make sure they are discussed and the best approach is aligned. And that is more often than not a totally different one than anyone had in mind. Because open and candid discussions tend to create even better ideas.

What I have seen a lot in my outsourcing relationships, including present ones, is, that one side tries to encourage discussions. And the other side does not or only hesitantly participate. And sometimes I am missing the unspoken cues. Which leads to me thinking that there is an alignment. But it actually was just silent disagreement. Worst case people turn around and do it the way they wanted to, anyways. Just avoiding the alignment and discussion. As a leader that is super frustrating, no matter if it is in an outsourcing partnership or in the relationship with a member of your internal team. Face value is an important but rare currency.

I recently had a colleagues challenge me in my several attempts to drive change. They said “things are not going to change, why bother?” Here’s the deal- things won’t change, that’s correct. They won’t change until WE change them.

I am not one to give up easily, but some might. So I really encourage my BPO colleagues to open up and try to actively participate in the partnership. It might be worth it and what do you have to lose? Are you really afraid, that the “client” won’t take it well if you share your opposing thoughts? Or is it rather the comfort zone that has you avoid discussions? Think about it, because success happens outside our comfort zone.

You think you are the customer service expert and the client should stay in their line? Sure, but it will mean your project is going to, maybe, bring you short term success and then for sure mid to long term headaches. Your choice. A partner that never tried co-owning your success and never invested in making you successful too, won’t care. But your project with them was not great to begin with. A partner, who invested a lot of energy into support that is being refused (openly or more often silently), will be disappointed. Not many great things grow out of a state of disappointment, I can tell you that much.

So how can I become really happy with my outsourced customer service? To be honest, 100% satisfaction is not guaranteed nor likely. Having lost my client attitude has made me a lot happier with the partner relationships I am managing. There is still the occasional struggle and frustration. It’s called life. Work life in this case. And it’s normal.

Genuine care and radical candor have been part of my leadership style since I dipped my toes into people leadership. Only last year it dawned on me, that I should maybe use the same style with my outsourcing partners as well. Be a leader to them, instead of a client. Consider them colleagues, not vendor employees. I did put in the work of caring and being radically candid. And I continue to share my care and candor each day, for example with..

• …regular check-ins (weekly /bi-weekly) with all main stakeholders. And those are never only Business focused, but help me understand each stakeholders unique situation and need.
• …providing open and honest feedback, especially when I know it’s going to be uncomfortable. To me honesty and transparent feedback are a token of care.
• …giving praise as detailed as I am providing feedback. As a leader, in any relationship, providing positive feedback with the same effort as sharing improvement opportunities is critical for growth and development, satisfaction and loyalty.
• …transparency. I do not believe that tactics and keeping information to myself is the way to go in my relationships. Not with my internal team members nor with my partner colleagues. Information is power – if shared the right way at the right time, so that everyone can be knowledgeable. Not if kept to yourself (sharing IS caring).

Care and candor are critical, sure. But they do not work without integrity and ownership. In fact, without these two, care might not actually exist and candor would just be being offensive and blunt. And I don’t know about you, but there have been some rather public examples of just how well that approach goes..

Losing the client attitude means acknowledging, that goals need to be joint goals. And hence their achievement has to be equally owned by both sides. Just a reminder to my BPO friends – both sides includes you. If things go wrong, own up, be open to the partners feedback, learn and improve. Do not try to cover, hide and hope no one notices. It ain’t going to work. Literally never have I see it go over well, when a client detected a problem instead of having been pro-actively informed. If you call your client your partner, it definitely should not happen.

Integrity should be a given in business as well as in personal life. For me, anyways. It can still be a tough thing to do. Keep trying! Even if you can’t walk the entire walk as your competency and “power” (for the lack of a better word) ends at some point. Be transparent and candid about that fact and keep supporting with the right message.

For example your company could decide to reduce the outsourcing presence for any number of reasons. It might not be your decision to change that. Being as transparent as possible with the partner about the (temporary) shift in internal strategy will go a long way. As will continuing to advocate for your partner and contributing with ideas and thoughts on how both parties could get what they want and need.

This will require you to know your partner well and if you do, you can actually influence internal decisions beyond the point you thought you could. I have made the experience that more often than not we are driving the narrative, that we would like to avoid, ourselves. And, following the rules of logic, that means we can also drive the right one instead.

You will of course only do so, when you care (to collect the knowledge and insights and for the partner’s future), own their success as much as you own yours (by co-owning great results and problems alike) and have integrity as one of your most important values.

And if you have the energy to do so. Because you have chosen your battles wisely. And made sure all involved parties are clear about your choices and the “why”. But most importantly your partner supports and rewards you with openness, transparency and putting in the work themselves, too.

For my own journey I can say there is still work to be done and ways to go. Isn’t there always? I think, I am on a good way with my approach. I know for sure, that our results as an outcome of this approach are much better than they have ever been before. So I will continue this path, hurdles, obstacles and all included. Why?

Because I want my customers to be really happy with my outsourced customer service. It’s a people’s business. And I really care – deeply. Do you?

Want to learn more about me and my experience? Check-out my LinkedIn profile here.