4 Tips On Building Great Back Office Support Teams

From admin to payroll to data entry, a lot goes on in the background in modern businesses to keep them functional. But everyday tasks in these departments are likely draining your resources when you should be converging on your core competencies.

While these back office tasks are undoubtedly important, spending too much money, time, and resources on them won’t help your business keep pace in today’s fiercely competitive market. 

That’s why outsourcing and building your back office support teams should be grounded in a structured approach. Without adequate planning and preparation, outsourcing back office projects can be unsuccessful and impact your business’s bottom line.

What Is Back Office Support?

The term “back office support” refers to all roles within an organization that improves the overall customer experience without relating to it directly.

For instance, payroll, HR support, and data entry support, along with other administrative duties are critical tasks. Without them, your customer base will not be able to interact with you the same ways they usually do. 

However, at the same time, it is essential to remember that these functions are essentially behind the scenes and aren’t felt or seen by consumers.

Back office outsourcing support functions require a considerable amount of resources that enterprises need to spend on them. Fortunately, there is a viable solution – outsourcing back office support teams.

To help you with it, here are some on the tips to build strong back office support teams:

1. Define Your Scope of Work

Before you start searching for an outsourcing service, you must know precisely what goals you aim to achieve with them. Start with a clear and well-defined scope of work. If you find it too technical, which is usually the case when it comes to back-office functions, start by addressing a few straightforward questions. For instance:

·         What back-office tasks do you want to outsource?

·         What can be the optimal potential solution?

·         What are your expectations and quality standards?

·         How much can you invest?

Prepare a precise roadmap to outsource particular back-office tasks but don’t make it too intricate to be practical. Remember, outsourcing doesn’t have to be a daunting process. Naturally, your partner will not have the same level of awareness and familiarity with your functions as you from the beginning, which is why you need to be comprehensive and transparent with your needs. 

Depending on your industry vertical and your requirements, an outsourcing partner should help you provide customer support 24/7 or as needed. You need to ensure that your vendor allocates a dedicated, committed team and a relationship executive who is your primary point of contact (POC). After all, your back office outsourcing teams aren’t complete without full customer service.

2. Prioritize Expertise And Assess Infrastructure

Once you are through your scope of work document, you can begin by searching for business processing outsourcing firms according to your requirements. Once you shortlist the most suitable ones between two and four vendors, you can gauge them depending on the following aspects:

·         Skills and talent

·         Technical competence

·         Ability to meet your needs

·         Access to technology

·         Experience with intricate projects

While most often overlooked, it is imperative to prioritize your provider’s technical expertise to ensure a successful outsourcing partnership. Avoid collaborating with companies that are proficient with merely a few technologies – specifically if they have obsolete or outdated technologies—the more software programs they (reasonably) know how to leverage, the better. 

To build holistic back office teams, your outsourcing vendor should invest in high-end infrastructure. So, make sure that they have enough power backup to deliver uninterrupted backend services and sufficient security infrastructure in place.

In addition, they should have infrastructural assets and consider including high-end servers, recreational facilities for employees, and office equipment. Above all, make sure that they use accredited software programs.

3. Check Their Credibility And Market Reputation

This may be the last thing you would want in your outsourcing partner – continually failing to meet the deadlines and not able to build high-performing teams.

That is why it’s vital to assess your preferred outsourcing partner’s market reputation and credibility before you sign any contracts. And today, it is simpler and easier than ever to do so in this internet-connected world. For instance, you can use platforms like reviews and research of IT and software companies.

To learn more about your provider, their expertise, and dealings. You can continually sync up with your business processing outsourcing firm’s customers that have worked with them in the past and ask about their journey and feedback. 

The reputation of your provider plays a central role in your search. Naturally, nobody wants a partner who not competent enough to manage your back office support functions. You can leverage different platforms to research your potential partner and get their customer’s feedback. 

You can quickly check with their existing and previous customers to know about their experience and track record for any doubts that you have.

4. Ensure Data Security And Protection

Data security and privacy are the main concerns for businesses in today’s digital realm, irrespective of their sector. When outsourcing a partner for building your back office support teams, it is essential to ensure that they have implemented the proper measures to keep your critical information safe. It is good to draw up a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) for your vendor to sign. 

Apart from this, make sure your partner conducts frequent network and security audits on-premises and that they leverage the latest software and tools that can help you safeguard your sensitive data from any compromises or leaks, both of the external and internal kind. 

Most importantly, ensure that you measure your ROI using several tools to see if there has been an improvement in your automated workflow process. You should expect increased efficiency and productivity.

Partner With The Right Vendor For Business Success

The success of your back office teams depends on various factors. It includes the vendor’s expertise, their infrastructural capabilities, etc.

However, it is also partially contingent on your ability to decide on an efficient outsourcing partner after careful deliberations and considerations and maintaining consistent and seamless communication throughout. After all, for any given project to be successful, it takes two to tango.

The advantage of back office support teams is that they can handle and efficiently manage all your backend tasks. You have the flexibility and option of outsourcing the entire back office or for some specific functions.

Building support teams with accuracy enables you to achieve cost efficiency and productivity simultaneously.

Find a BPO with a High Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net promoter score helps businesses gauge the quality of service the outsourcing company is offering. In a way, this represents the primary capabilities and expertise they provide to their clients through result-based surveys on how satisfied their clients are in providing IT support services. It also showcases how well the outsourcing partner is performing, how often they resolve technical and IT-related issues, and if their clients are satisfied with the overall experience of their service. A High Net Promoter Score results in a sense of security and peace of mind for the client.

When you’re aiming for business stability, team up with a solutions partner that makes your process, their process. The right outsourcing partner ensures:

• Operational excellence
• Having a great back office team
• Industry experience
• Operational cost savings of up to 70%
• Information and data security
• 71 Net Promoter Score: Sense of security and peace of mind

Infinit-O is the trusted customer-centric and sustainable leader in Business Process Optimization to Small and Medium businesses in the Financial Services, Healthcare and Technology sectors by delivering continuous improvement through technology, data and people.