Outsourcing: How Businesses Are Getting It Wrong

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27 Oct. 2021. Outsourcing is a cost-effective way of getting work done by professionals. Many businesses are using it for things like customer services, IT support, human resources, accounting, and marketing. When done correctly, it presents many benefits for the business owner. Unfortunately, too many businesses are getting it wrong. They’re making mistakes when outsourcing, and these are some trends we’ve discovered:

Opting for cheap outsourcing

A benefit of outsourcing is that it will almost always be more affordable than hiring individuals to do the same job. This is simply because you only pay an outsourcing fee, rather than having to cover the cost of a full salary, benefits, and so on.

Nevertheless, many businesses try to save as much money as possible by getting extremely cheap outsourcing. What tends to happen is you end up with low-quality service. Ask yourself; why is it so cheap to pay this company to handle customer support or IT services? The answer will likely be because they use unskilled workers with little experience, meaning they can pay them less. As a result, you’re paying for a below-par service that reflects badly on your business.

Location-based disasters

Another problem that crops up is the concept of outsourcing to bad locations. Now, ‘bad’ doesn’t have anything to do with the country or the people in it. No, it relates to the geographical location of the country compared to the business. We often see businesses in the West outsource to countries that are in a completely different timezone. Not only that but there’s a language barrier to work around as well. It leads to instances where communication between the business and the outsourced company is impossible.

Consequently, a better way to outsource is by looking for companies or individuals in locations that align well with yours. There’s been an uptrend in Western businesses outsourcing to Eastern Europe for this exact reason. The time difference can be an hour or two for other European companies – if even that. Children in Eastern Europe often grow up learning English, so the language barrier rarely exists in the skilled workforce.

Dealing with bad reputations

It’s not uncommon for a small business to outsource services to an individual or company without conducting thorough research into their affairs. As it turns out, the company/individual might have a terrible reputation or be embroiled in some sort of PR disaster.

The problem with this is that it affects the small business as well. By doing business with a company that’s known to be quite bad or to have questionable working practices, it reflects negatively on you. The poor reputation of an outsourced company can impact the reputation of the main business.

If you own a business and need to outsource, make sure you avoid the problems listed above. The best way to outsource is to find a reliable and trustworthy individual/company with plenty of experience and a great reputation. Ensure they work in a similar timezone as you, so constant and real-time communication can be achieved.

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