Contact center outsourcing can save companies as much as 90% on labor costs. But it’s not without its challenges. Communication between your domestic teams and outsourced teams can be challenging. When it goes poorly, it could damage relationships with customers.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide. It’s absolutely possible to communicate effectively with outsourced contact center teams. You just need to implement the right strategies. We cover these in the sections below.

So, without further delay, let’s get started.

Understand what makes communicating with outsourced contact center teams difficult

The first step in overcoming communication challenges with an outsourced contact center team is understanding what those challenges are.

How, specifically, are you struggling with communication? Are you having a hard time communicating in a timely manner? Or is there a language barrier that’s causing issues?

Communication problems with outsourced teams can arise from:

• Differences between time zones
• Language barriers
• Cultural differences
• Technical problems
• And other issues

Understanding the specific problems that are causing your communication gap will help you determine the best path forward for resolving the issue in a lasting way. You have to know the cause before you can find the solution.

How to improve communication with your outsourced BPO

Once you have a better sense of what may be causing your communication breakdown, you can begin looking at some potential solutions.

Below, we cover many different strategies you can use to navigate communication challenges with an outsourced team more effectively. Some of these may be more impactful for you than others based on the specific issues plaguing your business.

Communicate during overlapping hours

If you have an outsourced contact center team in a far-away part of the world, their time zone may be very different than your own. However, you’ll likely still have at least a few overlapping hours per day. It’s important to use these hours effectively.

You don’t necessarily have to set outside the overlapping hours for communication every day. But you should get into the habit of at least taking some time during those hours to check in with the outsourced team and consider whether there are any messages you need to send for the day.

Communication problems arise when you wait until the last minute to try to talk to your outsourced team. By setting aside time each day for communication, you can avoid that happening to you.

Reduce the need for direct communication with project management tools

Another way to improve communication with an outsourced team is to reduce the consistency with which you need to do it. That way, you only have to get communication right once or twice a week instead of every day.

One of the best ways to do this is by setting up project management tools that you can share with the outsourced team. This includes platforms like:

• Slack
• Asana
• Trello
• Basecamp
• Monday

These platforms facilitate constant communication and make it easier to keep tabs on the status of different projects and objectives. They improve communication via the Internet, so there’s less of a need to contact the outsourced team directly.

Schedule communication sessions in advance

You may also need to start getting more proactive about communicating with your outsourced team. Instead of waiting until urgent communication is needed, consider scheduling those sessions in advance.

For example, it may be helpful to set aside time each week to have a video conference with the leader of the outsourced team. They can keep you abreast of any new issues the team is experiencing and give you an update on the progress they’re making toward your KPIs.

You can decide how often you need these scheduled communications. But try to keep the schedule intact, even if you anticipate not having much to discuss. Getting into the rhythm of communicating at a dedicated time each week will reduce the potential for communication gaps throughout the week.

Reduce the number of channels you communicate between

It may also be helpful to reduce the number of channels you use to communicate with your outsourced contact center team. If you’re using email, Slack, and other messaging platforms, information can be difficult to find.

A better solution is to use a single platform to communicate through. That way, you can always find information that you need if it’s already been sent to you, and you won’t have to urgently ask for it again when you can’t find it.

Try to avoid communicating one-on-one

Even though one-on-one communication may be the easiest way for you to talk with your outsourced counterpart, it may not always be the best option.

When you talk one-on-one, you’re the only one who receives the information. Someone else on your team may need that information, too, but would have to reach out to the outsourced team to get it, which could cause delays on their end.

A better strategy is to keep communication public. Project management software like Slack and Trello are great for this. They make it easy to share information across your whole team so that you don’t have multiple people asking for the same thing and causing unnecessary delays.

Set up dedicated servers for file sharing

Whether you decide to use project management software or not, it’s super important to have dedicated servers for file sharing. That may mean Google Drive or a specific platform like Trello.

The reason this is important for communication is that it ensures you’re not having to constantly reach out to get the same documents from the same person multiple times. It also keeps documents in a single place, so anyone on your team who needs the information will know exactly where to look for it.

Communication challenges with outsourced teams arise more frequently when information gets stuck in silos and lost. Using a single platform for file-sharing will help to eliminate a major source of this confusion.

Don’t over-communicate

Many people who struggle with communication are good at realizing the problem but bad at identifying the solution. This can lead to them going above and beyond to communicate as much as possible. But over-communication can be just as damaging as under-communication when dealing with an outsourced team.

Over-communicating is not an effective solution to communication struggles because it simply swaps one problem for another. Instead of not getting enough information from your outsourced team – you’ll start receiving too much of it.

This can make it challenging to zero in on what you truly need to know. It also creates more work for the outsourced team and could clog up communication lines, causing delays.

The bottom line is that you should only communicate with your outsourced contact center team when it’s necessary to do so. Don’t over-share or ask them to over-share, and you’ll avoid this issue.

Be disciplined about the rules you set up

Finally, you can set up all of the rules in the world, but they’re not going to be effective unless you follow them. That’s why it’s important to be disciplined about following the communication strategies you implement.

Make sure to explain the rules to your team and stay on them about following the rules. Otherwise, you may make some initial progress but will quickly fall right back to where you are now.

Improve communication with your outsourced contact center team by choosing a better provider

We’ve covered a lot of strategies for improving communication with an outsourced team. But we’ve also been neglecting a very important one. The quality of the outsourced team that you hire will play a huge role in how well you’re able to communicate with them.

Some teams are just better at talking with their U.S. counterparts than others. That’s why it’s super important to start thinking about communication during your hiring process instead of waiting until you begin experiencing issues.

If you’d like some help with finding your ideal outsourced team, The Cattalyst can provide it. We have decades of outsourcing experience and strong relationships with some of the best outsourcing companies across the globe.

We’ll help you find your ideal outsourcing companion so that you can accomplish your business goals without getting derailed by poor communication.

Get in touch for a free consultation and to learn more about how we can help.