How BPO Companies Can Benefit Businesses in Times of Crisis

The topic of crisis management is on the minds of many business owners recently. Although market conditions and the state of the economy can’t be changed, companies who make clever choices, like partnering with BPO companies, are more likely to not only survive the storm but to emerge stronger and develop after it.

 

When in a crisis, you have to reconsider your usual methods of operation and change your strategy. The difficulty lies in getting to the bottom of the issue while remaining nimble enough to keep up with the volatile market conditions. Despite working with limited resources recently, many companies have increased their efficiency in a variety of ways. The advantages of outsourcing are most apparent in this situation.

 

Business process outsourcing (BPO) can help your organization gain the competitive advantage it needs to stay on top of the game as you strive to navigate difficult times. Here’s a brief look at how BPO companies can benefit business in times of crisis.

1. Offering Continuity

 

Historically, continuity has normally been discussed in terms of natural disasters. Buildings can easily be damaged by a fire at a business, a blizzard, or a hurricane, or they can simply be rendered impassable to employees traveling to work. COVID-19 taught many businesses the painful lesson of how quickly an organization can go offline. 

 

Customer support centers can go down, which can lead to subpar service and lost opportunities. Mailrooms can go out of business or be understaffed and slow, which prevents businesses from getting the money they require to exist and disrupts communication. Accounts receivable processing failures and increasing late fines are also possible consequences of disappearing accounting departments. 

 

A BPO provider can provide continuity in a number of ways, including by using the cloud, dispersing their employees, and automating tasks.

 

2. Improving Organisational Efficiency

 

Harvard researchers found that the companies that concentrated on organizational efficiency, rather than just making cuts, were those who survived the Great Recession and prospered in its aftermath. This is essentially what a BPO business does. It improves the effectiveness of business operations like data entry, mailroom services, customer service, accounting and more.

 

3. Conserving Resources

Enhanced effectiveness has several advantages. Firstly, your team can accomplish more with less. You can cut back on chairs without overtaxing your staff. Secondly, it’s crucial for lowering operating expenses. Organizations can further decrease costs by outsourcing specific tasks offshore or through nearshoring, though the efficiency improvements result in higher profitability for those who outsource onshore or even on-site.

4. Organisations Can Focus on Their Core Business

Unquestionably, a crisis causes stress, and stress has a significant impact on how individuals behave. According to research, stress actually causes physical changes in the brain. People struggle to recall things, experience brain fog, make more mistakes, among other problems. 

 

This poses enormous challenges for any organization dealing with a crisis. But when businesses respond by cutting staff and piling on additional responsibilities, it’s a prescription for disaster. BPO companies allow CEOs to concentrate their efforts on formulating plans that will move the business forward without all the noise that comes from handling peripheral duties by letting the core team concentrate on what they do best.

5. Built-In Accountability Measures

If your internal team doesn’t achieve its objectives, your business is responsible for finding a solution and covering any costs involved. Service level agreements (SLAs) can be incorporated into your contract when working with an experienced BPO business, meaning accountability is never a problem. SLAs give you some peace of mind that a crisis won’t ever disrupt your continuity, effectiveness, resource conservation, or focus.

6. Streamlined the Workforce

Many companies had to reduce their workforce to cut costs during the pandemic, but this did not necessarily equal a reduction in workload for the employees. Despite the flexibility of working from home, this left staff fatigued to the point of burnout.

 

Companies can lessen the workload on their remaining staff while still ensuring that the work gets done by outsourcing some duties. One advantage of outsourcing is that you can change the volume of work being done by your outsourcing company without having to worry about fixed-term commitments with full-time staff.

7. Bringing About Digital Transformation

In times of disaster, technology has been crucial to ensuring corporate continuity and survival. But since it is dynamic and frequently necessitates large-scale changes, successful digital transformations are frequently carried out in concert with outsourcing businesses. This can involve anything from creating new software to interact with your clients to rolling out productivity solutions that facilitate seamless remote working on a large scale.

 

Depending on your company’s demands and the needs of your industry, you can outsource the IT help desk, software development, or network administration. It’s crucial that you take full advantage of outsourcing for your digital transformation.

8. Accelerating Recovery

A long-term, sustainable recovery from a crisis depends on returning to and strengthening your core competencies. You can free up your own staff’s capacity from non-essential tasks with the help of outsourcing, allowing them to focus on their core talents and boosting your company’s competitive advantage.

 

Data entry is one such task. A company needs accurate data entry, but this can still be done by a third party with the tight supervision of key workers. The core team can then concentrate on making strategic decisions and helping your company out of a crisis.

 

Final Thoughts

Your best allies in overcoming a crisis are BPO companies. They can perform the duties of full-time employees under flexible conditions and boost the productivity of your business. They may offer a different viewpoint while you work to recover your balance.