No business owner can do everything themselves. It simply wouldn’t be efficient. After all, your skills lie in entrepreneurship so that’s where your focus should be. As your business grows, you might recruit more and more employees to take on administrative, marketing, and sales duties. This gives you the breathing space to concentrate on creative ideas and business development. It’s all about delegating. So at what point do you have to source services from outside your own business?
Customer Service
Customer service is so important for any company. It only takes one mishandled complaint, and your business reputation can be ruined. This is why more and more companies are finding it necessary to outsource their customer service provision. A specialist team recruited for their excellent people skills can ensure your business inquiries are handled appropriately. Your customers will thank you for it, and you don’t have to worry about training or hiring.
IT
It isn’t very easy to understand everything there is to know about IT. After all, you have a whole business to run! Most company owners know that IT is the backbone of their entire business. If the computer systems go down, nobody can do any work. It might even prevent customers from reaching you. It simply isn’t efficient to have a team onsite at all times running your IT systems. They can be handled remotely by specialists who can usually resolve problems before they’ve affected your business.
Security
Very few businesses could survive if they lost everything they keep in their offices. And if you are in the business of product development, the loss of your research could spell the end of your company. Security is essential, but this is a specialist area requiring certification and training. Outsourcing what you need can save you time and money.
Office Maintenance
This is one service you need to have in place from day one. It is essential to the health and safety of your employees and any visiting members of the public. Most office cleaning company operatives come from a commercial cleaning background. The company can provide them with industrial strength cleaners and tools to make sure your premises is in great condition all the time. It makes financial sense to outsource this service.
Social Media
Social media is on twenty-four hours a day. Most of your customers use it out of hours. Let’s face it, nobody has time to sit there reading tweets that mention your business into the wee hours! Outsourcing your social media account monitoring to a third party company means that someone is checking at all times. Most customers want (and often expect) a reply to a tweet within ten minutes. Social media platforms have become the preferred way to contact a company, so you need someone there to respond.
You also need someone who can post positive responses to customers who are saying positive things. This boosts loyalty and is great PR. Most negative (troll) comments should be ignored, but some conversations do require an intervention. A social media expert will know when and how to do this.
How many services do you outsource? Are you ready to let go of the reins?
