Today’s business space is a fast-paced world where there is so much stress for organizations to offer superior customer support and quality. To achieve these goals, businesses have to keep their costs low. Also, more businesses, irrespective of their types are opting to outsource their non-core processes.
photo credit: Los Muertos Crew / Pexels
Every entrepreneur wants more hours in a day though it is something impossible to have. However, what if the owner could free up his/her significant time as much as 1/5th of their workday daily? They can utilize this time for their core business functionalities.
It is extremely crucial for every entrepreneur to distinguish their time-consuming routine tasks from core business activities. If entrepreneurs manage to do so, they can enjoy growth and success in their businesses. Outsourcing can play a big role to achieve this aim for such entrepreneurs to do so.
Outsourcing is an intelligent way for helping your business grow and save money. At the same time, the merits associated with outsourcing go much beyond simply slashing costs.
Are you contemplating outsourcing customer and technical support soon? Then, it is imperative to appreciate the associated merits for both your customers and you.
1. Focus on Core Business Areas
It is one of the top merits of outsourcing your non-important tasks. You can have your complete focus on the core functionalities of your business then. During the rapid growth stages, a business’ back-end operations grow and need high resource utilization. If you assign more resources to perform secondary activities, there will be fewer funds available to offer quality front-end or customer-facing services. The best part is outsourcing frees up plenty of resources that be used where you feel essential.
For a startup, outsourcing your receptionist is a good idea. Using the service of a business answering service might make sense. Others you might consider to be outsourced include data entry and product deliveries.
2. Cost Benefits
Cost-saving is the most obvious benefit of outsourcing. That’s because your business will not have responsibility for backend processes like customer service and technical support. It also means you will be able to focus on the core business processes at a lower cost. You will also have more resources and time to perform it well. Plus, the same kind of services and support will be done at a fraction of the expenses.
3. Flexibility in Staffing
If you outsource certain business processes, you can utilize additional staffing resources whenever you require them. There is no commitment on your part to keep them on the permanent payroll when you do not require their services. For instance, you may outsource your customer service during the peak months of the year. It will enable you to offer top-notch customer support without staff commitment or long-term cost. If there is an availability of a scalable team of resources, it will become easier to meet the needs of your customers with more flexibility.
4. Improved Efficiency
If you outsource your activities, they should be given away to only a dedicated partner(s). It will make sure that your business benefits from the domain expertise that they bring in. Outsourcing can be a complex process and is likely to include multiple projects. Thus, it makes sense to approach a service provider, which specializes in your area of operation. It will result in an improvement in productivity and efficiency that contributes to your business’s bottom line.
5. Better Services
In case you decide to outsource, you would be also enhancing your service offerings. That’s because you will continue to offer superior quality deliverables and decrease the lead time for your services or products to reach the marketplace. It is also good news for all your customers as it signifies you have the ability to provide higher-quality and faster services. It is great for you too as you are able to save money and allocate resources more efficiently.
6. Lower Overhead
There are certain situations when the back-office functions cost excessively high. Outsourcing transferable process, such as customer support helps your business to reduce the overhead and continue to offer high service levels to your customers.
7. Segregate Your Business Activities Into Simpler Problems
If it takes much more energy to utilize your consciousness then it can be avoided if you simplify your problems. It is possible to do proper time management by forming a process and then dividing it into atomic, small operations. Thus, each of these tasks will be easier to understand and does not need intensive resource consumption.
8. Develop a Roadmap for The Long-term
Planning is one of those repetitive tasks, which may divert you from your daily activities. It is alright to have independent tasks rising from your interactions in the business week. However, if you have an effective long-term plan in place, you would be able to concentrate better and determine whether the new tasks are in sync with your business goals.
How about revising your plan and including some key performance indicators. Allocate milestones to each of them and include these in your calendar. You should also have goals for a quarter or month-by-month basis for 1 to 3 years. How about jotting down your repetitive tasks, such as content production, partner meetings, and social media engagements in every slot? You can then take it forward from there.
If you define the key duties, which are important for your business success, you can ascertain the expected measure and outcome once/twice every month. It will help you to have proper clarity on your availability week by week.
9. Begin With an Easy and Simple Task
If you fail to complete a complex and broad task during the day, it can demotivate you. You may also see no progress in your weekly planning. To ensure that you do not go through an experience like this, you can start with a fast and trivial task that might offer you a much-needed head start. You can also be in a productivity model and be prompt. Once you get success with it, how about focusing on more complex assignments next?
Keep Improving your Strategy
Irrespective of how efficient a strategy is, there could be always scope for further improvement. Learning never ends for an entrepreneur. Make sure to always observe tasks, which are more time-consuming or need your attention too frequently. Finally, try to simplify or optimize them.
Using outsourcing service can be a good solution in redirecting your resources to critical business operations, while having someone else doing the low-priority but time-consuming tasks for you.