How to Keep Your Brand Identity Intact while Outsourcing

Outsourcing is an attractive option for your business. But will this come at the cost of brand identity? Let’s find out.

Companies often turn to outsourcing to streamline operations, reduce costs, and access specialized skills. While these benefits are highly attractive, there’s a major concern your business should think about: jeopardizing your brand identity.

Which is why today, we’ll uncover some ways of maintaining your brand personality even when you have a third-party partner. Let’s talk about different strategies and measures that will help your outsourcing partner be a true extension of your business.

The Significance of Brand Identity

But before we look into the complex relationship between outsourcing and brand identity, let’s first understand how important the latter is.

Your brand identity is the DNA that sets you apart in a crowded marketplace. It encompasses your brand voice, brand personality, and brand values. Hence, they should all be carefully cultivated to resonate with your target audience.

Your brand identity is where customer trust is built. When done right, it forges an emotional connection with your audience. It’s the reason why people choose your products or services over those of your competitors.

The What and Why of Outsourcing

Now, let’s shed some light on outsourcing itself. In the broadest sense, outsourcing is when you delegate certain tasks or functions to external service providers. This can encompass anything from customer support to back office operations. But why do companies opt for outsourcing in the first place?

• Cost Efficiency: Through outsourcing, you reduce operational costs. This comes from various factors including lower labor costs in certain regions and reduced infrastructure expenses.
• Specialized Expertise: If your business lacks the in-house expertise required for specific tasks or projects, you can outsource them to external firms.
• Focus on Core Activities: If a team of experts is already handling your outsourced tasks, you are free to concentrate on your core activities.
• Scalability: Through outsourcing, you can expand or downsize your operations in response to changing market conditions, project demands, or seasonal fluctuations.
• Improved Customer Satisfaction: Highly trained customer service representatives can handle inquiries efficiently and professionally, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Access to Advanced Technology: Outsourcing partners often have access to cutting-edge technology and tools which you can use to stay competitive and innovative.
• Global Expansion: Outsourcing providers can offer local expertise and support in foreign markets. This can help your business deal with regulatory complexities, cultural differences, and market-specific challenges.

The Dangers of Outsourcing to Brand Identity

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: how can outsourcing potentially undermine your brand identity?

1. The Disconnect

   First off, your outsourcing partner may not mirror the tone of voice you developed for your brand. This problem could become a reality if the outsourcing firm doesn’t understand what your brand voice is about.

   When this happens, your brand’s clarity gets distorted. Your customers will notice the inconsistencies between your brand persona and the content you present. Consequently, it makes customer trust harder to earn.

2. The Risk to Quality Control

   Another issue you should address while outsourcing is the lack of rigorous quality control measures. Without it, the output generated by your partner may stray from your established brand guidelines.

   If your partner deviates from the quality standards you have set, then the purpose of outsourcing is defeated. Making matters worse, subpar service may result in a declining business reputation.

3. Data Security Risks

   When you outsource, you are sharing some sensitive customer data and proprietary information to a third party. Unfortunately, your partner may not possess the same level of data security commitment as your internal team.

   A data breach is catastrophic to your business not just in terms of your image but also in your operations. Besides the distrust from your customers, recovery from a cyber attack takes so much time to accomplish.

4. Negative Public Perception

   Not all outsourcing firms are created equal, which is why you have to be careful when choosing your partner. There are companies that are notorious for controversies or unethical practices; avoid them at all costs.

   While public perception towards the outsourcing partner may often be underestimated, its consequences can still be impactful. In particular, terrible outsourcing partners may sabotage the way you connect with customers due to discontent employees.

How Open Access BPO Maintains Your Brand Identity

The good news is that it’s entirely possible to mitigate the risks associated with outsourcing and safeguard your brand identity. If you have a partner like Open Access BPO, outsourcing and brand identity will go hand in hand towards success.

• Comprehensive Onboarding

  Comprehensive onboarding is the critical first step in integrating an outsourcing partner into your brand’s ecosystem. As such, you must organize in-depth training sessions, presentations, and workshops that will help your partner understand your brand.

  For us at Open Access BPO, being fully immersed with your brand’s identity is the first step towards customer satisfaction. We take every guideline seriously so we can be the best frontline representation for your business. In other words, our commitment to your brand messaging is our own brand messaging.

• Clear Communication

  Effective communication preserves your brand identity despite the complexities of outsourcing. To that end, you have to make sure that your partner understands your brand values. Detail the dos and don’ts of your messaging so that agents know exactly how to deal with your customers.

  We at Open Access BPO are great examples of effective communication at work. Our hyper-customizable solutions allow you to be more hands-on with how you want your service to be. This means we can talk together about ways to improve your messaging without straying from your brand identity.

• Quality Control Measures

  It’s not enough that you share what needs to be done when you outsource. You should also implement stringent quality control processes to maintain the consistency of your brand identity. Make sure your outsourced tasks match the standards set by your brand.

  Quality control processes are part of the reason why Open Access BPO is a trusted name in the industry. Regular reviews of performances from support staff keep our output at high quality. Additionally, we have an abundance of constructive feedback loops that fortify your brand identity no matter what.

• Brand Ambassadorship

  Want to know how you can bring your outsourcing partner into the fold of your brand identity? Make the partnership become more than just a contract. More specifically, encourage a sense of brand ambassadorship with your outsourcing team.

  Brand ambassadorship creates a sense of ownership and encourages agents to align with your overall identity. It has also become the reason why partnerships with Open Access BPO have lasted a long time. For decades, we have become faithful representatives of our clients’ brand identity.

• Legal Safeguards

  To better maintain your brand identity, you need to have some safeguards in place. These come in the form of legal measures related to the use of your brand assets and intellectual property. Make sure you and your partner discuss this with your legal teams so that terms and conditions are valid and clearly defined.

  Some of the measures Open Access BPO has include non-disclosure and confidentiality clauses to safeguard sensitive information. They serve as a deterrent against potential breaches and keep your proprietary information safe during the partnership.

• Cultural Alignment

  Cultural alignment is also an important aspect of maintaining brand identity. Take a look at your partner’s corporate culture and see if their values align with yours. Are they just as meticulous with quality as you are? Do they welcome diverse opinions on how to serve customers?

  Open Access BPO assures this cultural fit by promoting a collaborative culture between us and our clients. In fact, the spirit of collaboration even shows in our operations, helping us manifest a better cooperation with your brand.

• Flexibility and Adaptability

  If you want your business to stay relevant, your brand identity has to be flexible. See if your outsourcing partner can keep up with trends that shape your brand’s ideals. They must not be afraid to embrace changes that steer your business towards a better direction.

  Take Open Access BPO for example. We are willing to pivot alongside your brand, especially as you respond to changing preferences. Plus, we make sure our expertise in various outsourced tasks remains in touch with what your business truly needs.

Outsourcing can bring efficiency, cost savings, and specialized expertise into your operations. But if you’re not careful, it can also compromise your brand identity.

The key lies in meticulous quality control, clear communication, and unwavering commitment to your brand values. You don’t have to strip away your brand’s identity when you outsource. With the right partner, you can propel your brand to the next level.

Open Access BPO is a leader in the outsourcing industry specializing in customer support, back office solutions, and content moderation services. Our inclusive hiring practices enable us to tap into a pool of experts from various cultures for our multilingual and multichannel solutions.

Through our core values, we ensure our cultural fit with your brand, and we commit to securing your trust by providing hyper-customizable packages and high-quality output that you and your customers deserve.

Contact Open Access BPO today to take advantage of what we can do for you.

Brands know that outsourcing customer service can help them manage their core functions better. But is it always the right choice?

Most brand managers are hesitant to entrust their services to an external provider for fear that it can take away the company’s unique identity. Indeed, outsourcing services are becoming highly commodified, especially because most of the tasks being outsourced are the highly repetitive and time-consuming ones. It’s understandable that many managers are worried that outsourcing companies would fail to embody the company s identity as they interact with customers.
However, dismissing outsourcing from your options can be a counterproductive move, since it’s a rich source of opportunities. If you’re worried that it might compromise company branding, you and your outsourcing partner must share the responsibility of delivering services that reflect the brand’s voice.

Acknowledge your weak points.

Deciding to outsource some of your services doesn’t mean that you have to give up control over your business processes. It just means delegating all tasks necessary to keep your firm thriving. Often, this means you have to focus on the things you do best and hand over the other processes to a team that can execute them better.

It may sound a lot like cheating, and maybe that s why “outsourcing” has become a dirty word across industries. Businesses would sure take pride in being able to handle everything on their own, but to be fair, outsourcing is nothing short of collaboration. It’s about sharing and combining different types of expertise and using those competencies to achieve a common goal.

Find a credible provider.

“Credible” is a vague term, and it s impossible to discern whether a call center can meet your needs upon your first encounter.

It helps to take a close look at the presence they project online so you can gain a good sense of who they are and how they manage their reputation over social media and other channels. But more than this, a credible outsourcing company understands that you re not just looking for cheap labor. They know, before you even tell them, that your expectations are a lot more valuable than these things. This allows them to adopt a strategic perspective when it comes to accepting clients.
Partnering with an outsourcing company is, in many ways, just like how you usually hire in-house employees. You have to find someone who is not only qualified but also supports your goal and places your inputs at the center of their strategies.

It all comes down to relationship building.

It’s not only time differences and long distances that can hinder you from building a good relationship with your prospective call center. You have to stop thinking of your business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider as an external team and start treating them as part of your own organization.

So how do you ensure that this happens? If you want your outsourced agents to perform well, keep them updated about the latest changes so they can make informed decisions at all times. Your customers will appreciate receiving accurate information directly from your agents, and this will help you stay true to your brand’s identity. Besides the fact that this proves your willingness to be transparent, keeping your outsourced team in the loop builds solidarity.