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What Is BPO And 5 Top Ways A “Boutique BPO” Insulates Leaders Amidst Uncertainty

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Most companies use a form of 'œbusiness process outsourcing' (BPO) or 'œoutsourcing,' tapping someone else to perform operational, logistical, service, support, or sales-related functions as a primary or supplementary resource vs. depending solely on in-house infrastructure. Nearly every individual with a pulse is also well acquainted with outsourcing aspects of their personal life.

This could be the CPA, attorney, marketing agency, or consultant that you retain, an answering service, mechanic, your dentist, dry cleaner, or nanny. The list goes on.

So why 'œNiche or Boutique BPO'? You might think of it as the 'œGoldilocks' fit for small to mid-market organizations, new ventures, and secondary or emerging corporate divisions.

The following are (5) ways 'œNiche or Boutique BPO' scales perfectly, delivers exceptional service, and uniquely insulates and equips mid-market executives to pivot amidst uncertainty.

1.A You instantly become a big deal. Specializing in serving small of mid-sized organizations, expect a luxury service experience WITHOUT PAYING MORE.


throne

Have you ever anticipated a luxury purchase? If so, you appreciate the sensory EXPERIENCE of stepping into an exclusive store to interact with an exceptionally made product, refined staff, and brand that places immense importance on your mere presence, affinity for their brand, and investment. Every detail anticipated and carefully addressed in a polished fashion to help you acquire an enduring product, perfectly tailored to your preferences, delivered with an exceptional customer experience, followed by unwavering and responsive AFTERCARE, continuing the exceptionalism after your purchase.

As you consider appointing added resources to supplement operations or upscale your customer journey, expect a luxury experience with amenities such as:

  • Direct access to the C-suite and executive leadership before and after forging a partnership
  • A team of industry specialists assigned and dedicated to serving your organization with comprehensive functions in quality assurance, workforce management, recruiting/sourcing, training, process improvement, analytics, and excellence in customer experience for internal and external customers
  • A seat at the table to contribute input in the design and perpetual execution of your service program as a consultative and collaborative partnership
  • A partner that shows up to earn your business every day, every month, every year

2.A Your organization gains the agility of a race car. Quickly stand up and call on flex infrastructure when you need it, whether on demand, seasonally, or as part of your ongoing service team.


racecar

It is an understatement that our times are very uncertain, yet most organizations simply do not have the resources or specialization to scale infrastructure up or down quickly as headwinds or new demand come unanticipated, and the business climate grows more complex with factors such as:

  • A pandemic-induced transition to WFH and a workforce that has grown to expect it. Bringing with it new employee workplace demands, resignations, difficulty with recruiting, training, retaining talent, and the challenge for organizations to overhaul infrastructure to accommodate virtual or hybrid operations while ensuring excellence in their customer experience.
  • A worsening economic environment that has manifested into hiring freezes followed by layoffs and other capital-preserving measures. Businesses face fallout from quickly escalating costs, missed earnings estimates, declines in consumer spending, supply chain interruptions, legacy real-estate costs, etc.

If pressures call for quick moves to transition front-line to mid-management from W-2 to 1099 in their respective roles, move brick-and-mortar service and support to 100% virtual or a hybrid of the two, supplement in-house resources with on-demand flex staffing, or upscale the customer experience altogether, 'œBoutique BPO' tailors full-time, part-time, or quick turn gig back office, service, support, or sales activities to deliver results.

3. Serving you becomes personal. Expect a fully personalized, intuitive, and adaptive service delivery process and tech stack to execute around your specific operational and customer experience objectives.


running man and gears

'‹If it''s your style, bring-your-own operational process flow, training curriculum, and tech stack, and consultative experts will leverage high-visibility BI and analytics with professional recommendations to dial efficiency and service excellence into your operations.

Or go part or full custom with a hand-tailored customer journey, onboarding, training process, and tech stack from a suite of proven technology options, formulated by industry experts to deliver prompt, professional service, well-received self-help options, and speed to resolution, delivered by highly engaged agents, personally invested in customer care.

4.A You get to be choosy. Every service agent is hand selected for dedicated service, chosen to reflect your brand, community, and the experience you want to create.


Man on laptop working customer service

Want representation from users of your product, those who already have an affinity for your brand, or that fit the demographic of your target audience? You decide who you want on the end of your service and support line, engaging and serving your customers.

5.A Pick the culture that reflects yours. Agent care is a core value that emanates service excellence.


people and gears concept

A supportive team surrounds every front-line agent, fostering a distinct service culture with high engagement, willingness to go beyond the expected, passion for the work, and personal pride in winning customers for your brand, taking initiative, proactively problem solving, and delivering a positive customer engagement.

In a sea of uncertainty, insulate your outcomes from the unanticipated with your own 'œBoutique BPO' operations, service, and support team who stands ready to cater and dynamically adapt to your business needs as other internal or contracted infrastructure cannot.

I''m Lynn Holland, an 18-year business development, sales, and marketing executive helping corporate boards and executive leaders to solve gaps in the customer journey, dynamically manage new and uncertain demands, seamlessly reappoint staff on a contract basis, upscale the customer experience, and deliver operational excellence. Like or follow me on LinkedIn.


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Executive Spotlight: How To Influence Key Stakeholders
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Executive Spotlight: How To Influence Key Stakeholders

As a professional, the ability to influence key stakeholders is an important skill to have if you want to achieve success in your career and help your company reach its goals. It’s not an easy skill to master, but with practice and a few helpful tips, you can learn how to successfully manage and influence key stakeholders in your line of work.

We recently asked our executives for their expert advice on how to influence key stakeholders.

Here are their responses…

Ana Smith, Talent Architect & Global Learning Strategist

Influencing top stakeholders can be a real challenge, but it’s not impossible. It just demands focus, strategy, execution, and follow-up.

For this article, I wanted to bring forward some of the most common yet not as well-known frameworks that can be used to influence top stakeholders. Some of the most common frameworks include:

  • The Power/Interest Grid: This framework helps you to identify the stakeholders who have the most power and the most interest in a particular issue. The stakeholders with the most power and interest are the ones who are most likely to influence the outcome of an issue.
  • The Stakeholder Analysis Matrix: This framework helps you to identify the stakeholders who are most important to your organization. The stakeholders who are most important are the ones who you need to focus on influencing.
  • The Stakeholder Engagement Framework: This framework provides a step-by-step guide to engaging with stakeholders. The framework helps you to identify the stakeholders, understand their needs and interests, build relationships with them, and influence them to support your goals.

These are just a few that can be used to influence top stakeholders. The best framework for you will depend on the specific situation and the stakeholders involved.

Some additional concepts that we should not forget about the topic are:

  • Be clear about your goals. What do you want to achieve by influencing the stakeholders? Once you know your goals, you can tailor your approach accordingly.
  • Build relationships with the stakeholders. The more you know about the stakeholders and the more they trust you, the more likely they are to be influenced by you.
  • Be respectful of the stakeholders’ needs and interests. Don’t just try to force your agenda on the stakeholders. Instead, try to find ways to meet their needs and interests while also achieving your own goals.
  • Be (very, very) patient. It takes time to build relationships and influence people. Don’t expect to see results overnight.
Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the “red thread.”

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive

Business partners talk to a key stakeholder while meeting for coffee

A stakeholder in sports is an individual or organization whose attributes and actions influence the success of the NFL. Influencing stakeholders should be in every NFL executive’s toolkit—the art of building a partnership that buys into your company’s ideas and culture. In the sports arena, I have identified three types of stakeholders to influence.

1. Participants

Participants are the players, coaches, team staff, and others fundamentally linked to the team and the NFL’s success.

Players at all levels look to a well-regulated sport to offer them opportunities to participate in the game safely with the security of good medical care, salary, and benefits to last them for a long time.

2. Spectators

Spectators influence the financial success of the team. Teams raise revenue from the spectators through ticket sales, concessions, merchandise, and apparel sales. The NFL needs spectators to consume the games in person or on television. Networks pay the NFL a lot of money for the rights to air their games.

3. Financial Stakeholders

The NFL has financial stakeholders to influence to keep revenue flowing in. Major NFL stakeholders are the TV networks covering the pre-season, regular season, and postseason games.

Also, the NFL has significant sponsorship agreements that provide game-day equipment and supplies, and also commercial advertising revenue.

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M – $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

Lynn Holland, VP Sales & Business Development

Two business partners walk together and discuss key stakeholders

​As a businessperson, you are in sales. You may be selling your team on an idea, convincing your boss to champion a new tech tool to make your business life more efficient, or you may sell a product, service, or technology to a buying committee.

Executives want to participate with low-risk, high-results initiatives so how can you achieve buy-in?

As a SaaS tech seller who helps founders get to market and build early revenue, here’s a 9-step framework I use:

1. Do your research to know the need, how it’s solved, your audience’s selfish desires and motives, and how you will co-sign with accountability to achieve the proposed outcome.

2. Prime your audience so they know what they are going to hear in the context that you want them to act and why.

Example: “I think we have an opportunity to fill a gap in our (fill in the blank) process that if we address it, we’ll add/improve (fill in the blank).”

3. Express why this matters.

Example: “Today this is a problem in that we’re (fill in the blank).”

  • Exposed to potential risks
  • Operating with unnecessary time, costs, errors, etc.
  • Missing an opportunity for profitability
  • Creating friction in the customer/employee journey

4. Illustrate the problem and a solution with a story with statistics to create emotion/care.

5. Personalize.

  • W.I.I.F.M (what’s in it for me – your boss, DM)
  • W.I.I.F.T (what’s in it for “them” – the greater good of teammates, the division, market served, etc. )
    • How
    • How much
    • How quickly this helps them directly (return)
    • Steps for accountability to achieve the outcome

6. Outline major steps and timeline for how you’ll optimize/execute.

7. Give a case study as proof – an example of implementing it and the results (i.e., efficiencies, fewer errors, lower turnover, etc.)

8. Give the top 2-3 risks to the success of the ask and how you’ll mitigate to address likely questions you’ll get asked.

Example: “Here are the potential risks if (fill in the blank) doesn’t work, but here is the backup plan.”

9. Ask “When can we get started?”

Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.

Carla Biasi, Personal Stylist

Business people in a meeting discuss key stakeholders

Success is all about relationships. Find out the key stakeholders in your organization and establish a healthy rapport with them. Find out how they became major players and look for similarities in your own work.

People love to talk about themselves so be genuine and ask questions. Learn from the best. Many top-level professionals love to help up-and-comers in their careers so show sincerity when getting to know these people in your organization.

One day you can be a key stakeholder and help others along their way.

Carla Biasi is a personal stylist living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She currently has her own business and works part-time at an upscale women’s boutique and as a virtual and kit stylist for a women’s specialty brand.

Kathryn Marshburn, Music Program Manager

Two business partners shake hands after discussing key stakeholders

Who is a stakeholder?

A stakeholder is someone who is affected by or will be affected by your brand.

Roadmapping stakeholders and how to build your key stakeholder relationships will be solidified by mapping and identifying what level of interest they have, which will help build your brand. When you think about how you interact with your stakeholders, you remember that your brand and your reputation are at stake.

There are two different types of stakeholders: internal and external.

Stakeholder mapping in this example will look into internal stakeholders.

It’s important to ask yourself a few questions:

  1. What are these people responsible for?
  2. What do they care about when considering my brand activity?
  3. Do they provide advice or funding?

4. Examples of internal stakeholders: receptionist, marketing team members, sales director, or board of directors.

Start by listing people and departments. Although each project will have a different approach, identifying where each stakeholder resides is useful for organizing and maximizing your time.

  1. Rank stakeholders by interest (1=Most Interest, 2=Some Interest).
  2. Plot key stakeholders with where they rank.
  3. If they have high interest, manage closely.
  4. If they have some interest, keep them informed.

To grow your brand, building a stakeholder map is essential for effective stakeholder management.

Kathryn Marshburn has spent 12+ years in the music and gaming industries guiding teams on identifying targeted goals with an agile approach resulting in driving revenue and reducing risk.

Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive

Businessman shakes hands with a key stakeholder

To be effective in organizations today, it’s more important than ever to be able to influence others because of the increased pressure on driving results. Here are 10 tips to influence key stakeholders:

  1. Build Strong Relationships: You can achieve this through personal connections, regular communication, understanding their goals, offering personalized solutions, and aligning with their interests.
  2. Be An Expert: To establish yourself as an expert, keep informed on the latest trends, technologies, and news. Share your expertise through thought leadership content.
  3. Keep The Bigger Picture In Mind: It is essential to understand the broader business objectives and how your department’s efforts can support them. This approach helps you make decisions that align with the organization’s goals.
  4. Listen Before You Persuade: You must listen well and make your key stakeholders feel heard. Listen to their concerns, opinions, and feedback. Use this information to tailor your solutions to their needs and perspectives.
  5. Body Language & Tone Is Essential: Be mindful of your body language and tone of voice, as it’s critical to conveying the right message. Use confident and positive body language to get your message effectively communicated. Ensure that your tone is friendly, respectful, and professional.
  6. Find Common Ground: Going out of your way to find areas of agreement and using them as a starting point for discussion will go a long way. This approach can help build a relationship of trust and cooperation.
  7. Provide Data-Driven Insights: Key stakeholders are looking for tangible results. Provide them with data-driven insights that demonstrate the overall effectiveness and impact on the organization and how they align with the overall business objectives.
  8. Give People What They Want: People are more likely to be influenced when they feel their needs are met. Offer solutions that align with stakeholders’ interests, preferences, and values.
  9. Employ Reciprocity: If you give something, it’s more likely that you’ll receive something in return. Offer value to stakeholders through personalized solutions, insights, and expertise. This approach can help build a relationship of mutual benefit.
  10. Map A Strategy: Identify key stakeholders you need to influence. In some cases, you can influence a stakeholder directly, while in others, you may need to identify other stakeholders who influence the person you want to influence.

Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.

How do you influence key stakeholders? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily’s Executive Program.


How To Write A Vacation Request Email (Examples Included)
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How To Write A Vacation Request Email (Examples Included)

Crafting a thoughtful and professional vacation request email is absolutely essential. Not only will it help you get your time off approved, it will also help your employer prepare for your absence. This guide goes over how to write a vacation request letter that checks all the boxes. Table of contents The Importance of Writing […]

The post How To Write A Vacation Request Email (Examples Included) appeared first on Career Sherpa.

4 Critical Adult Learning Mistakes Your Organization Can’t Afford To Make
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4 Critical Adult Learning Mistakes Your Organization Can’t Afford To Make

As an educational consultant, I facilitate teacher professional development across the United States and, sometimes, internationally. While there might be consensus in the education field on the importance of using rigorous learning standards to guide instruction, exactly which standards should be used is a matter of heated debate. So, when I once accidentally mentioned in Texas the Common Core State Standards, an eruption of anger ensued. It turns out, Texas passed a law banning it! It was as if I had crossed the Rubicon; there would be no going back. From this point on, no one in this training session was listening to how to break down standards into daily lesson objectives—a process applicable to many standards frameworks. I learned a valuable lesson that day: know one’s audience when training staff.

Across many industries, there should be standard practices to ensure the effective planning and delivery of adult training and development. Staff training facilitators take heed. Failure to adhere to these practices can derail the best-laid professional development plans!

Why should we care? On average, companies spend $1,252.00 per staff member each year on training and development. Training can also be a time investment black hole with 33.5 hours of training per staff member per year being the norm. Despite this investment, 44% of new staff leave within the first six months of a new assignment. To replace these staff members, an organization also can expect to spend 21% of that staff member’s annual salary to replace them.

Here are four critical adult learning mistakes that are common missteps and strategies for steering staff training around these dangerous shallows:

I – Neglecting To Set Learning Outcomes

Man takes notes during staff training and development meeting

How do you know your training achieved its goals if an end target is not established? Although it might be nice to go off-grid and take back roads while driving on vacation, organizations don’t have the luxury in terms of time or money to let staff training go wrong. Like when teachers plan lessons around a stated learning objective, clear success criteria should be established in every staff training. Let participants know what the success criteria will be up front. Better yet, tell participants what they are going to do, do it, and then tell them—or have them tell you—what they did.

During training, monitor how well participants are learning the training material. It is easier to rephrase concepts and to reteach “in the moment” than to have participants leave trainings unprepared thus requiring follow-up staff development down the road. Consider using strategies such as signaling, choral response, and cold calling as checks on understanding. At the end of training, revisit/summarize with participants how the success criteria were met. Be sure to define/record the next steps.

II – Thinking Too Little About Personalization

Woman facilitates staff training and development

Recognize that participants are people who come to staff training at various content readiness levels and with different backgrounds and cultural knowledge. Participants also might be used to learning in a particular way, even if research is now telling us we learn best using multimodal approaches, and/or interacting with internal/external stimuli dissimilarly (introverts vs. extroverts). Facilitators of learning need to meet participants in the zone where they are ready to learn and in ways that engage them in learning.

Provide a story or models when presenting your content that will interest your participants and of which participants have background knowledge. For participants less familiar with the content, training facilitators can provide scaffolds and/or learning supports so that they can meet the established success criteria. For staff who are already knowledgeable about training content, provide different options for professional development.

III – Undervaluing The Impact Of Collaboration

Team collaborates on a work project

Rather than expecting training designers and facilitators to serve as fonts of knowledge, these people should act as learning guides and as curators/collectors of knowledge being acquired during training. Embed collaborative learning activities within the body of any staff training. To focus trainees during collaborative activities, provide training participants with the analytical questions with which they are to engage up front. Determine the discussion protocols that will be used to allow for equal representation of voice and that create collective knowledge around the training topic. Jigsaw activities, Inside-Outside Circle discussions, and quick Think-Pair-Share conversations are three easy ways in which to engage participants in collaborative discussion. There also are more formal discussion protocols out there.

IV – Limiting The Learning Environment

Professionals attend staff training and development meeting

Post anchor charts for tasks, important links, text, infographics, etc. around the room, on Padlet, and/or on Google Drive. Extend learning and support to training participants by using 24/7 virtual discussion boards. Also, consider which training content can be delivered through online courses. Online courses, for instance, that culminate in one earning a digital badge can go some way in breaking down training content into digestible parts, allow people opportunities to complete training on their time schedule, and help organizations validate that staff has met a certain knowledge threshold.

Don’t Be Taken By Surprise

Man and woman talk during staff training and development

Staff training disasters cannot always be prevented. However, staff developers do not have to be blindsided by common staff development pitfalls. If thoughtfully planned out, in the ways discussed above, staff training can be an impactful way through which to increase staff knowledge around their roles and responsibilities as well as your organization.

Please feel free to reach out to me at John Schembari, Ed.D. | LinkedIn.