In today’s business world, the most successful organisations are the ones that are able to operate in an agile manner, adapting to changing circumstances without becoming distracted or losing momentum towards their goals.

Ultimately, it’s about having the right business processes, systems and services in place that can adapt to the surrounding environment both internally and externally.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is becoming increasingly popular among organisations that are looking to stay agile, without sacrificing how they work, including the UK property industry.

If done properly, with the correct research and smart implementation in the right areas, outsourcing certain functions can help your business to remain agile, freeing up time and resources to put back into your core functions. BPO also enables you to bring expertise into other areas of your business more effectively.

What is business process outsourcing (BPO)?

Business process outsourcing or BPO is the act of contracting a specific business function to a third party with particular expertise in that area such as IT, HR support, payroll, marketing, telephone answering and call management.

Typically, an outsourced function is one that would largely be carried out the same across any organisation and doesn’t require any specific expertise in the outsourcer’s industry (although there are some industry-specific outsourced functions).

There are several different types of business process outsourcing:

Front office BPO: the outsourcing of ‘front’ or customer-facing services or processes

Back office BPO: engaging a third party to handle non-customer or client-facing processes

Onshore BPO: the outsourcing of key business processes to an external provider based within the same country. This is also sometimes known as local BPO or domestic BPO

Nearshore BPO: this involves hiring a partner from a neighbouring country or locale to manage some business processes

Offshore BPO: this is when an overseas provider is hired to handle some processes

The need to be agile, lean and focused on key property industry services has been thrown onto centre stage.”

Each type of business process outsourcing has its own pros and cons. For example, offshore BPO may be cheaper, but onshore BPO will have the advantage of more local market knowledge.

Business process outsourcing plays a vital role in many organisations, but is particularly beneficial to those that require specific expertise, without necessarily having the budget or resources to bring them in-house. By outsourcing these important functions, businesses can put more focus on their core services and objectives.

In recent years, the need to be agile, lean and focused on key property industry services has been thrown onto centre stage. Focus on revenue-generating activities, business development, growth and future planning have become the order of the day for companies looking to survive the challenges of the next decade. Anything outside of those key functions is primed for outsourcing.

Five benefits of business process outsourcing

If managed properly, BPO can have multiple benefits for the property industry, from reducing spend to increasing agility.

1. Access extra resources faster

Hiring staff for specific business functions can take a long time, from advertising to interviews to waiting out notice periods before candidates can start – and that’s assuming you manage to fill the position successfully.

Outsourcing business processes means you can access additional resources quickly, without the need to undertake a lengthy hiring process.

2. Increase flexibility

Many outsourced services are highly flexible with the level of service you can get. If you need more, you just pay more and then scale it down again later on. At Face For Business, we only charge for the call answering time you actually use, so if you use fewer minutes one month, that’ll be reflected in your billing.

Hiring staff internally is much less flexible – you have to pay their wages regardless of how busy you are.

3. Reduce costs

Recruiting new staff can also be an expensive proposition; not just in terms of salary, but with all of the other associated costs and overheads too. Costs like sick pay, holiday pay, insurance, pension contributions and training budgets all add up when you hire resources in-house. This can take money away from your primary business functions, potentially putting your future growth at risk.

When you go down the BPO route, you also won’t have any of the admin that comes with having employees.

4. Focus your expertise

Outsourcing business functions you don’t have expertise or resources for – whether it’s call answering, accounting or marketing – means you can put more of your focus into delivering your primary business function.

While there’ll still be some oversight into the service you’re getting from an outsourced business, you can operate it with a light touch if you’re happy with how things are progressing.

5. Widen your talent pool

Although remote working has opened up the talent pool for many organisations, this can be very role-specific, and lots of businesses are still reliant on the talent pool within their local area, which can be limited.

Business process outsourcing opens your company up to a much wider pool of expertise, helping you to access the level of services you need to improve your business.

Common BPO challenges

It’s natural to feel a little unsure about business process outsourcing if it’s something you haven’t previously explored. Company owners tend to share some common worries, which we’ve broken down below to reassure you that these initial BPO challenges can soon be overcome.

1. Loss of control

One of the key reasons some business owners are reluctant to embrace BPO is because they fear losing control over a part of their company. This is understandable if you’re outsourcing a customer-facing function like customer service or marketing, as how your outsourced business acts reflects on you.

This is why you need to do your research to make sure you end up with the right provider with the skills and experience to match the service you expect. Remember that your outsourced company’s reputation is hanging on their service too, so you can trust them to deliver for you.

2. Hidden costs

Sometimes, you might take on an outsourced company and suddenly find yourself facing costs you weren’t expecting. Maybe they had a minimum monthly fee you weren’t aware of, or higher fees if you surpass your monthly quota for services.

This is why you need to do your research beforehand and be clear with your service provider exactly what fees you’ll be paying per month and what extras might come up. Face For Business’ telephone answering service is priced to the second and all of our packages are fully transparent, so you’ll simply pay for the time you use each month.

3. Security risks

Security risks can be a concern with business process outsourcing, particularly with the likes of IT service providers that might be managing sensitive commercial or customer information online.

At Face For Business, our call handlers will spend time getting to know your business and exactly how you need calls to be answered.”

You should always consider the privacy or security risks that come along with hiring a third party provider. For example, if they’re a customer-facing function, like business call answering, are they understanding of privacy requirements and confidentiality? At Face For Business, our call handlers will spend time getting to know your business and exactly how you need calls to be answered as part of your onboarding to put these concerns at ease.

4. Quality control

Quality of service is one of the biggest concerns business owners have when it comes to outsourcing, especially for customer-facing functions. How can you monitor the quality of the service coming from your outsourced provider, and what impact is that service having on your own reputation? Checking previous testimonials and case studies is one way to judge the level of service you’ll get, but does the company have any means of demonstrating success to you during the contract?

For instance, an outsourced marketing agency should be able to demonstrate the amount of leads they’re generating for you. Similarly, a call answering provider should be able to provide full recordings so you can listen and judge the quality of the service you’re getting.

If your potential BPO partner struggles with proving the quality of their work, maybe reconsider.

5. Potential disruption

There’ll come a time when you and your outsourced service provider will part ways – hopefully on good terms. But while relationships can last a long time in business, sometimes you’ll need to move to a new provider simply because your existing service got stale and you needed a change.

So what will happen when it does come time to part ways? Will there be any penalties if you decide to leave before the end of your contract? Will you get any support in transferring the service over a new provider or will you have to manage it all on your own? It’s worth asking the question to eliminate these understandable BPO concerns.

6. Lack of flexibility

Flexibility of resources is one of the key benefits of business process outsourcing, meaning you can simply pay more for a higher level of resource during busy periods and scale back when it’s quieter. However, not all third party providers are this flexible.

Check what your service agreement is and that you have the flexibility you need built in when outsourcing a new process – if it’s not there, look for a provider that offers the flexibility you need. For example; if you use a phone answering service, can you adjust your contract to a lower level during off-peak periods?

How to choose the right vendors for business process outsourcing

What’s the best way to find and choose the right vendors to provide your business with outsourced services you can trust? Here are five key points to consider:

1. Type of support required

Start by thinking about exactly what you need from your outsourced vendor, and assess whether each vendor’s services match your requirements. Be very specific, as this will determine whether you’re getting the level of service you need.

You might recognise that you need telephone answering support. But what kind or level of support? Are you in a niche where a specialist call answering service would be more beneficial? These are all important points to consider.

2. Case studies and testimonials

Often, the only way to find out whether an outsourced provider can deliver is to hire them. But you can get a good idea about the level of service you can expect based on the company’s testimonials and case studies. Check your supplier’s website or Google reviews, and bear in mind that if they don’t have any, they might be a new company, so take this into consideration too.

3. Specialist experience

Within your particular industry, there will always be areas of specialist knowledge and skills. If you need a particularly niche skill, can your outsourcing partner deliver or are they more of a general supplier? The answer to this will help you to determine the provider you bring in – although it could also affect the price.

4. Contract terms

Before you sign up to use any third-party supplier, make sure you understand exactly what you’re signing up for. This doesn’t just include the services you’ll get, but any clauses in your contract that could bite you later on. For example:

Do they have a minimum service level that you’ll be charged?

Do they have an automatic renewal period for services that you need to be aware of?

What are their terms for early cancellation of services?

5. Flexibility

Much like the contract terms, understand how flexible the level of services are that you can get as part of your BPO contract. Are you signing up to a fixed monthly service, or is there flexibility in the service levels you can get from month to month?

Look into whether you can scale up for seasonal peaks, or whether they offer ‘full service’ functions. Marketing is one example, with many services from SEO to social media to brand design falling under that umbrella. If you need more than one of these functions, consider bringing more services under that provider to save on admin and potentially reduce costs further.

Consider bringing more services under that provider to save on admin and potentially reduce costs further.”

However, be wary of any provider that tries to take over as many functions as they can. The best business process outsourcing providers will understand the benefits to you of keeping some services in-house and won’t just try to take as much of your money as possible.

Why many businesses outsource telephone answering

Call answering is a business function that’s ideal for outsourcing, arguably more so than ever. With more businesses ditching offices and physical receptions, it’s making less sense to have a full-time member of staff purely to answer the phone – particularly when full-time receptionists can cost around £30,000 a year in base salary. And that’s not to mention the benefits, taxes and admin that comes with having a full-time or part-time receptionist, who can only deal with one call at a time.

A virtual answering service can solve this problem, helping you to make sure you never miss an incoming call. At Face For Business, our call handlers can take messages and send them immediately to the relevant person in your company, or automatically forward emergency calls to you.

They can also act as a screen between your busy employees and unsolicited sales calls.”

They can also act as a screen between your busy employees and unsolicited sales calls that take them away from value-adding, revenue-generating tasks. If you need additional support with admin tasks like diary management, you can use your virtual receptionist to help you manage this too.

Want to start seeing the benefits of business process outsourcing from a provider that can easily deal with your customer enquiries when you can’t get to the phone? Face For Business’ professional call handlers are trusted by 100s of businesses to deal with their incoming calls. We also provide a virtual receptionist service to deal with other tasks like appointment bookings and full call management.

Stop worrying about missing calls while you’re running a business, and invest in a reliable outsourced answering service you can trust.

Contact us today for more information or to start your 7-day free trial.