Every day, more and more companies follow the trend of outsourcing integral roles to BPO companies. This outsourcing tool has completely overtaken the corporate world today – so much so that even smaller businesses and startups are jumping on the bandwagon. It is an extremely lucrative practice due to the fact that costs are shared by multiple businesses, thus minimizing each company’s personal investment.
With all the positives of employing a BPO company, there are also some questions surrounding their functioning, particularly where near-shore and off-shore BPO are concerned.
Let’s start by clarifying what near-shore and off-shore BPO mean: fairly self-explanatory, off-shore refers to BPO companies in countries located overseas, in vastly different time zones which are operated by agents who very likely speak different languages. Near-shore, however, refers to BPO companies located in different countries which are in a similar or the same time zone and operated by agents who are often multilingual but very much fluent in your first language and that of your company’s. Generally speaking, companies prefer near-shore as there is more certainty in the way of communication and productivity for their business. As well, just knowing that there is more of a closeness in proximity gives owners more confidence in the whole idea of outsourcing services to a BPO company located in another country.
Some business owners are fearful of the possible failures that may accompany outsourcing jobs like data entry, telemarketing and customer care to third party contractors. As a result, they will sometimes resort to hiring in-house for these roles – however this can be an extremely costly procedure and it’s not often a startup or small business can afford to develop, hire and train an entire in-house department. This is where outsourcing is particularly useful to startups trying to get their companies off the ground. For more on in-house versus outsourcing, please refer to our previous blog on this topic.
When it comes to that fear surrounding the credibility and reputation of BPO companies, this is often a case of misinformation. Established companies are trusted by large, multinational corporations – and there is good reason for this.
There are many benefits to hiring a near-shore outsourcing company for things like customer care and telemarketing – specifically in the way of multilingual services. For example, if your target demographic is predominantly Spanish-speaking, you’ll want to ensure all employees hired for these jobs are fluent in Spanish. This is something our company specializes in. We are Mexico-based and our employees are proficient in both Spanish and English, so you can dismiss any concerns associated with customer communication or cultural barriers.
Another key benefit of opting for near-shore is that you can feel more confident in prompt communication between yourself and the BPO company. Often, businesses will forego off-shore BPO companies due to the delayed response times that go along with a substantial time difference. If there are changes to your company’s policies, practices or you have general management or procedural notes which are time-sensitive, you’ll want to address them immediately – this is much more doable with near-shore.
At Anexa, our staff is trained extensively for quality control – whatever the task, our roster of skilled agents is readily available to assist in keeping your business’s wheels turning without interruption. Contact us today to learn more.