25 May Outsourcing is a client turn off

“My clients won’t like it if I do outsourcing”. That’s one of the myths that people constantly throw out.  Not true and here is why.

Topic – Busting the outsourcing myths

Mentor – Mark Engelmann

• Your clients don’t need to know
• So much is backend and support work
• Maybe that is where you should start

Transcript:

Kevin Turner: Good morning and welcome to the show. It is Friday morning. I’m Kevin Turner at REUNCUT presented each and every morning by Property Tree from Rock End, Print Force, Locked On View, and Beepo. Is there someone you’d like us to interview, someone you’d like to hear on the show? Well, just send me a message through the site, or email me at kevin@realestatetalk.com.au. Your questions, of course, and your comments, are always welcome. Locked On: get more listings, make more sales. Start your free trial today with the link, right here with REUNCUT to take you to Locked On. Let’s get under way with today’s show.

Speaker 2: More thoughts now from this week’s mentor.

Kevin Turner: My clients won’t like it if I do outsourcing. That’s one of the myths that people constantly throw out, that I hear all the time, and I’m sure our guest for this week hears, as well. Mark Engelmann from Beepo. Good day, Mark, How You Doing?

Mark Engelmann: Good. Thank you, Kevin.

Kevin Turner: Yeah, my clients won’t like it. The truth is that a huge amount of admin tasks need to be done by people who you would outsource with. A classic example, Mark, and I told you off air that this was a comment I had just this morning from someone who is a regular of ours, and she commented on the fact that Red, who does all of our work for us in Beepo, is just so good at keeping in contact, and this is one of the tasks that I wasn’t able to do before that we’re now able to do because we’ve got someone who can focus on that job for me.

Mark Engelmann: Yes, this is an interesting one. And, I’ve got lots of things I’d like to say about it, I guess. I think, firstly, clients won’t like it. Well, your clients don’t need to know that you’re doing it. There’s so much that happens in any business in the back, in that sort of realm of back office tasks and admin tasks that are not, that customers do not really have a feel for, and it happens in the background. And, that’s always a really nice place to start experimenting with how an outsource team member could work in your business. And, all your customer would see then was, hopefully, the flow on impact to their point of engagement with you, which would hopefully be a lot smoother and much nicer experience for the customer.

I think also that we’ve got plenty of customers at Beepo who have staff there that a client basing that are on the phones, that are doing live chat support on their website, all of those sorts of things. And, although a lot of them had the concern about their clients not liking it, after all was said and done and after they implemented it and they tested and trialled having additional staff member, the feedback use from all of the customers at Beepo that have actually tried it, that it’s had no negative impact whatsoever on their business. And, I think, more than anything, it’s a bit of a self-limiting bully on the customer’s part that it can’t work.

And, I think in Australia, it’s an inevitability anyway. I think the market needs to get used to the fact that they may be getting, they may have to speak to people in other countries, God forbid, in order to get things done in their life.

Kevin Turner: Yeah, and it is a myth that clients won’t like it because, as you said, they don’t necessarily need to know. But when they do find out, it’s a pleasant surprise for them. That’s been my experience, and as long as your telling your outsource staff exactly what it is you want to do. you can give them templates for their emails, you can give them templates for their SMS’ or whatever, and even scripts for them to read from if you’re concerned about them contacting your clients. So, there are lots of ways to work around this, Mark.

Mark Engelmann: That’s right, and I think with customer contacts and offshoring, one of the really big things that people don’t think about is that quality assurance piece. Again, technology today allows you to record all of the phone conversations your outsource staff are having with your customers. You can review all of them. There’s…we always recommend a weekly debrief on a Friday afternoon with the offshore team after listening to a number of conversations that they’ve had. We always say, “Listen to a good conversation, a bad conversation. Listen to as many of them as possible, and see if there’s any trends and give feedback.”

It’s not…it’s never a silver bullet that works straight away in any kind of task. Outsourcing doesn’t work straightaway. You need to put time and effort in. You need to train your staff. You need to make sure you put the right processes in place. And, that’s not just the case for outsourcing of tasks. That’s what happens in any business when you’re trying to change the way you do things.

Kevin Turner: Two things I want to pick up on what you just said, and one was feedback. And, I think you’ve got to be prepared to give that feedback. And, the other thing, too, Mark, is that when you give that feedback, by experience is that the people who work for us are so keen to learn, so keen to grow. As an example, Red, who I’ve already mentioned. We gave him a task he…which he wasn’t familiar with. He actually went away over the weekend, undertook a study course, did it himself, came back on the Monday and was fully equipped to get going with it. So, these are the sorts of things, experiences that I’m having that I’m sure a lot of people are having as well, Mark.

Mark Engelmann: Totally. Again, I think it’s a bit of a cultural difference between Australians and Filipino workers. I think I’ve not noticed heaps of differences over the years, but I think one is that Filipinos want feedback. They want to know if they’re not doing a good job, they want to know how to improve how to do the job the right way. And, I think…I don’t think that’s necessarily the case in Australia. I don’t necessarily think that Australian workers are great at taking feedback. I mean, that’s a major generalisation.

Kevin Turner: Yeah, it is.

Mark Engelmann: But, you know, I’m just talking from my years of experience. You know, Filipino workers are highly KPO driven. They love to be…to have their work measured and monitored. They love constant feedback, so that they can improve, so that they can learn. You know, it’s not…yeah, it’s very different too…if you’ve never worked in a sort of a cross-cultural team before, you’d be blown away by how engaged Filipinos are and how keen they are to learn.

Kevin Turner: And, well, here’s an opportunity for you to do just that. There is a study tour that will take you to the Beepo headquarters in the Philippines in Clark. It’s on June 12 and 13. Use any one of the links on any one of the pages on REUNCUT that will take you straight there and give you all the information. Call Mark and his team if you want a bit more information. All of those contact points are there for you.

We’ve had a great time this week looking at the five myths about outsourcing. Our guest has been Mark Engelmann from, Beepo, one of our supporters, one of our sponsors, and use the link on REUNCUT to make contact with him.

Mark, thank you so much for your time, mate. Look forward to seeing you soon.

Mark Engelmann: Great! Thanks, Kevin. I enjoyed it.

Jet Xavier: Thanks, Jackson Brown Junior, said remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, that those giving more. How do you need to give more today to increase your happiness. I’m Jet Xavier. Have a great day!

Kevin Turner: Thanks, once again, Jet. That’s it for today and for this week. Thanks to our contributors this week. Thanks to you for your company. Have a great weekend! We’ll catch you again on Monday morning.