2019 has almost arrived, and it is no longer a secret that many organizations use outsourcing services to assist their staffing needs. It has become a key factor for improved revenues and efficiency of the businesses.
However, with great endowments arrive great misconceptions. For some businesses, outsourcing or BPO services are just a complicated measure or an extra expense. On the other hand, many organizations are reluctant to invest in these services because they lack process knowledge.
We have gathered up 12 such misconceptions that you need to stop believing immediately. Here they are;
1. It is an expense
Outsourcing can be anything but an expense for your business. To be more precise, it is an investment that will benefit your business in the future. When you opt-in for some BPO service, you actually pay a very small price for a big cut-down in your administrative costs. These costs include job advertisements, hirings, and employee training programs.
By outsourcing, you get to have a specialized workforce that will help you boost your productivity without paying any extra cash for their payroll and other HR related expenses.
2. It is just like buying a commodity
Another misconception among most businesses is, they think their job ends after paying the outsourcing fee to the agency. However, that is far from reality. In some cases, you need to pay additional expenses to obtain the best service possible. The cost you pay for such operations is labeled as the transaction fee. Moreover, to fully optimize the outsourcing services for your business, sometimes you need to move their operations to your location.
In this way, you can not only gain process experience but you can also supervise the agency’s performance.
3. Only large firms can afford outsourcing services
It is a most common misconception among many new businesses that outsourcing is a game for big fishes in the sea. However, it is an absolute myth. Many small and medium-sized companies are outsourcing services to cope up with their needs and to maximize their potential.
You should know that despite the viability outsourcing offers, it presents an affordable solution for companies of every size.
4. It can disturb your organizational culture
Treasuring the productive culture of your organization is very crucial for your business. Provided this fact, many organizations fear that letting a third-party enter your workspace will lead to upsetting the corporate culture.
This should be kept in mind that it all depends on the agency you choose for outsourcing. Leading BPO companies would never let anything like that hinder their relationship with your organization. In fact, they will take care of your staff’s needs and place those resources that could fit in your company’s culture.
5. Having an in-house department is better than outsourcing
Maintaining an in-house department is far more expensive than hiring BPO services. The executives of the organizations have this mentality that spending on your own resources is more profitable than outsourcing a staff.
If you compare the expenses of having both you’ll know what’s better. Just think, while hiring a BPO service you can save the expenses of employee payrolls, workspace capacities, and the technical equipment for a lump sum and a far lesser fee. Whereas while maintaining an in-house department you bear all those expenses.
6. BPO agencies don’t align with your corporate practices
If you go for a leading BPO agency, it will help your business grow, not as a client, but as a partner. Good outsourcing firms invest their resources to learn about your corporate challenges and finding their best solutions.
For your assertion, it is the duty of an outsourcing agency to provide the latest technical equipment and recruiting the skilled and cultural fit staff. You don’t really need to ask for it.
7. Hiring the cheapest vendor is good
Even if we were to suggest that it is fine to get the cheapest vendor, that would have only been in the case of a common commodity. However, even then you may have to sacrifice many things like flexibility, customer service or delivery time.
But the corporate world is no longer that simple anymore. You have to deal with competitive products and you simply cannot compromise on quality with them. Moreover, if you depend on a cheap vendor, there will be no guarantee for a timely support or product supervision. In the worst case, the quality of customer relationship can fall down to a hazardous level. So, it is advisable that you don’t push down much when it comes to the standard of your BPO services.
8. You’ll lose control if you outsource
The matter of control always depends on your personal interests and management abilities. However, outsourcing means getting technical support like staffing, training, monitoring and responding to calls, not giving up control over quality.
The job of an outsourcing agency is to provide you with the best solutions possible as per your own outlined requirements. They cannot surpass your business decisions and control the quality as they like. Nevertheless, it is your responsibility to keep track of every support incident and aftermath reports to avoid any transgression.
9. Cost is the only reason behind outsourcing
No doubt that cost is a major factor behind outsourcing but it is not the only reason a business needs these services. The most important reason behind a business opting for outsourcing services is so that it can focus on its core competencies.
If you manufacture or distribute cars, you should focus on that, and let the experts handle the functioning of your smartphone app. Or if you run a software house, you should focus on the quality of your software products, and let the professionals handle customer contact.
10. It is the same thing as offshoring
No, it isn’t. Outsourcing means getting the technical support or customer service functions from a third party. It allows you to focus on your core competencies while you can save your budget as well. You just hand over a portion of your business operations (not the business itself) to the vendor that you know they can do better and at much less cost.
Now, the location of your vendor doesn’t really matters in this regard. It is all about your financial capacity and priorities. If there’s a better outsourcing agency available in your home country at less cost, you can choose them. However, if you can take advantage of the wage differences in a less developed county, it makes sense to go for it. It doesn’t make your business equivalent to offshoring.
11. It compromises your business secrecy
It is not a secret that BPOs can have access to a company’s sensitive information. However, the relationship of an outsourcing firm and a company is based on strong mutual agreements that involve privacy protection.
Going out to hire BPO services does involve the threat of privacy breach but it all depends on the agency you choose. So, you should do a strong research before finalizing an outsourcing firm.
Moreover, the concerned issue is also a threat to the outsourcing industry itself. If more agencies are held guilty for mismanaging their client’s data, the corporate world may discard this industry altogether. Therefore, many leading outsourcing agencies have strict guidelines for privacy protection and their market competition is based on it.
12. Outsourcing has diverse effects on the economy
This misconception is nothing but a hoax created via some uninformed individuals. They think that outsourcing involves getting labor from foreign markets which discourage domestic labor. This, however, is a very shallow reason for such a big claim.
When a company opts for outsourcing, it can focus on major in-house tasks that will further lead towards growth and development. When that happens, the efficiency of the company increases which allows it to offer goods and services at lower prices without sacrificing its profits. This all leads towards a healthy market, which further increases the overall investment and employment opportunities.
Now, you be the judge, if the markets of a country are filled with such great circumstances, how can that be a sign of a weak economy?
In the end, we would just say that outsourcing is a very virtuous opportunity for corporations to achieve business growth and efficiency. All the misconceptions mentioned above are just propagated via disgruntled businesses who got unfortunate at the hands of some bad eggs. If you want to avoid any situation like that, always choose the best outsourcing service provider among the rest.