Is It Time To Break Up With Your BPO Provider?
Written By: Randy Arellano, VP of Sales and Marketing
I recently talked to a friend of mine in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in Europe. He had recently attended a conference hosted by the British Call Center Management Association focused on improving resilience. This event featured many companies that outsource customer service processes to BPO suppliers.
They ran a live survey at the event, and more than 80% of these corporate customers were unhappy with the service provided by their BPO.
Imagine if this were a discussion about an online e-commerce brand – let’s say Amazon, as everyone knows them. Would customers keep returning to Amazon to buy more products if 80% of them were unhappy with the service?
Highly unlikely!
Although the survey respondents were European companies, I suspect that American executives have just as much dissatisfaction with their BPO as the Europeans.
Most BPO contracts are designed to operate for several years. This is why executives can be extremely unhappy yet unable to do anything about the situation. It’s almost impossible to pay the financial penalties required to exit a five-year service contract, so they feel they must sit back and tolerate it.
But contract renewals do come around periodically. If you are working with a BPO supplier and unhappy with the service they are delivering, what kind of partnership would you really like to explore?
Datamark is different from most BPO companies. We don’t grab every possible contract. If a potential client does not share our values, we will not try to win their business. We insist on getting to know our clients, truly understanding their needs and building a valuable partnership – valuable for both parties.
You might think this is typical BPO “sales speak”; talk about partnership, get the contract over the line, then deliver only the bare minimum because it’s a long-term agreement.
But look at our client tenure. This is undoubtedly one of the most vital indicators that our approach differs from the BPOs not delivering above and beyond expectations.
Our average tenure with clients is more than 15 years and is increasing. One client, a large well-known logistics firm, has been with us for more than 30 years. This is why we would rather walk away from a client we are not certain about. Once we enter a partnership, we understand that Datamark needs to earn our client’s business daily.
We have never lost a single client due to a lack of performance.
How many BPOs can say that? How many BPOs take partnerships so seriously that they will not do business with companies that don’t feel like a good fit?
Is it time to break up with your BPO provider? It sounds like 4 out of 5 executives might already be thinking about it.
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