How To Find Outsourcing Partners That Are Responsive
Recently I was asked a question about outsourcing partners. The person who asked me said that he couldn’t find outsourcing partners, who provide the level of responsiveness he needs. He thought that maybe his expectations were too high and asked me about the reasonable level of responsiveness one can expect. Read my answer below:
Whenever you are working with somebody, always give them a deadline that is at minimum a week before your actual date that you need it. Do not let them know that that is the case. Most often, the people you are outsourcing from have multiple clients and the challenge there is that their time is divided between all of those people and they tend to address the projects that are most current or that need the attention at that particular time.
It is vital that you state your expectations in the very beginning. So, the first thing you should clear is if your outsourcing partner has the time for your project or not and if he or she can take you as a client.
If the answers to both questions are yes, then you can start negotiating the turnaround time for the project. They will tell you when they will be able to finish it.
Then you want to follow that one up just to make sure you say, “Okay, so from my understanding, if I give you a project on Monday, it is going to be completed by XYZ date,” whatever their timeline may be. That way, you won their commitment in terms of they are the ones that have shared with you their timeline and they have agreed and committed to that.
My next step is to give a trial project. A trial project is meant to test the waters and to see how we communicate. So give them a project, which is not time-sensitive.
Another important question you need to ask is about their preferred ways to communicate. The choices are many – telephone, email, instant messaging. If they prefer instant messaging, which is the IM client they use most – Skype, MSN, Yahoo or something else? You can also ask them about their business hours and how many hours a day they are online.
The best time for communication is important to know because different people work at different times. Some people work mainly at night because then they work best. Other people work during normal work hours.
Work hours are really important and you need to clarify this in advance. If you have a vital question to ask them and they work mainly at night, you will be trying in vain to reach them during normal business hours.
Another trick I use when working with outsourcing partners is to eliminate all the quesswork for them. I don’t know if many other people do it but I really like it and it works for me because it makes our cooperation more effective.
What I do when getting a website created for example is I go through and I find as many different sites that I like and I want my webmaster to use as a source of reference when creating my own.
So I will find, say, five to ten different websites and I will say, “Okay, this is what I like about this site. I like the colors in this one. I like the font that they have used here. I like how they boxed this in,” and I will find all kinds of different examples.
As you guess, the process of picking sites takes a lot of time. However, in fact it does save a lot of time and effort because when your outsourcing partner has clear guidelines, less communication is necessary and their task is easier. As a result, this is a very effective approach and that’s why I use it with my outsourcing partners.
I have already stated that the most important issues you need to clarify are managing your expectations and getting commitment (including clarifying the timeframe) from your partner. Another very important issue is to discover the best way for communication and the best time to do it.
Then also, your first project with any Outsource partner definitely make it a project that for you is not time sensitive but you are basically using that project to test the waters. If you are not comfortable with them, do not give them any other work because there is something that is telling you that it is not right so move on to the next.
Sometimes it is one of those trial and error situations where you go through a bunch of them until you find somebody that you enjoy working with and produces great work. Once you find that relationship, you want to hang on to it with everything you have got.
Filed under: Small Business