Outsourcing has been effective for multiple businesses across various industries. What has been the key to success? Finding the right outsourcing provider.
With increased demand for outsourcing solutions, a lot of outsourcing companies have sprung out to respond and meet the needs of businesses. The large number of outsourcing companies available puts the burden onto you, the business owner, to do the proper research and due diligence before choosing the insurance outsourcing company you will work with. By selecting the right outsourcing partner, you avoid issues in the long term, reducing risks and ensuring a smooth working relation.
Here are some steps to help you choose the right outsourcing provider:
Before even looking for an outsourcing provider, it is important to clearly define the business goals that you want to achieve through outsourcing. This can help you prioritize and rule in or out specific tasks, services and providers.
Make a list of the items you want to outsource and how you want them to be handled, what areas do you need help with, and how the outsourcing will connect to your current business process. This will help you outline the services you need and ensure that the insurance outsourcing company you are reviewing can meet your needs.
Ask questions. What is their history and experience in the insurance outsourcing industry? How long have they been in the business? Where are their offices located? The right outsourcing provider will have a certain degree of familiarity with other companies, regardless of how positive or negative the experience was for either of them.
A good way to determine a provider’s quality of service is to ask for customer references. They can be either current or previous customers. Have a quick talk with them and find out their experience and if the outsourcing partner was able to achieve their goals and standards.
One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing is the cost. The lower labor cost will lead to improvements in your business bottom line. However, you get what you pay for, and it is not always a good idea to go for the cheapest vendor. Compare the different services available, what it includes, the type of employees you will get and where they will be located, and how they stand against other companies. This is not to say that the cheapest option won’t be the best, but it is important to look at more than just the price.
Great leaders do not just tell you what you do, but also guide you and teach you. Look at an outsourcing company’s management team to know if they have the right mix of experience and work ethic. This is critical to success in insurance industry with a plethora of challenges for both agents and customer sales representatives. The right outsourcing provider is very likely to mention this and probably has a properly established culture within the company itself.
Also, it is important to assess the work culture of the outsourcing company and how it will fit with your company’s own culture. As Peter Drucker mentioned,” Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Get culture right first, success will follow”.
Communication is critical to success. It is beneficial to look for an outsourcing company that is looking to become a partner and work towards the success of your business, rather than a company that is only interested in task fulfillment. For example, would they be proactively reaching out with regards to improvement initiatives, ideas on how to reduce costs further, accomplishments, internal controls, and other analogous actions?
Working with an outsourcing company that shows care about the success of their customers’ customer, just as you do with your own customers, will lead to a happy and successful business partnership.
Outsourcing enables companies to focus on their core business function while ensuring that secondary, repetitive, and/or menial tasks get done. It can be a cost saving solution that will help your insurance company’s overall performance. If you can take your time and consider what you really need from an outsourcing partner and do your due diligence, you will increase your chances of success. Keep in mind that the best outsourcing partner for you is the one that understands your business, prioritizes to accomplish your needs, and gets the most output and efficiency for your business.
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Keep in mind that there are several US companies that outsource to stay on top, such as Apple, Nike, IBM, and Pepsi. An estimated 68 percent of all companies in the US are outsourcing parts of their business to third-party providers.
