Customer relationships built through experts and delivering upon the promise of customer experience excellence in Order to Cash.
Experts and Automation have changed the Business Process Outsourcing landscape away from chasing labor arbitrage. In Order to Cash (O2C) the relationship with customers and the ability to execute on their behalf locally shows an investment from your business to your customers. As a practitioner in Order to Cash, working with large and medium enterprises, we know the ROI in reducing DSO, improving quality though onshore delivery and increasing automation is continuing to prove the total cost of ownership is optimized and pride of ownership rewarded in overall cash performance.
Customer experience is a cornerstone of a successful business from all aspects of connection. In any economic climate, delivering exceptional customer experience should not be an aspiration but a necessity. For a growing number of companies, the partnership that they have with their solution providers or onshore shared services captive, brings the additional benefit of helping them drive exceptional customer experience. It begs the question, what is it about onshoring or closeness to customers that allows companies to maintain a consistently high level of customer service?
A Problem Shared is a Problem Halved...
As budgets tighten, so the need to reduce revenue losses takes on a greater importance. While some companies have resorted to rightsizing or downsizing, many more have embraced the outsourcing option and, in particular, onshore based Order to Cash (O2C) proposition. While O2C is primarily seen as improving a company’s financial position, the customer service function that underpins it is equally important. In the current climate, customer service goes hand in hand with stemming revenue loss and leakage. Both are critical components in delivering value to the bottom line. It should come as no surprise then that many companies look to their onshore partners to innovate and drive new ideas that will impact positively across their operations. The nature of an effective onshore partnership can be summarized in the adage ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ and it is this approach that allows us to work in tandem with our clients to deliver a consistent and exceptional level of customer service.
Customer service and the onshore connection...
Success is often predicated on meticulous planning, co-ordination and execution. It also benefits from original thinking derived from a mindset that is open to ideas and approaches. Outsourcing has many advantages but at its core, it is about trust, innovation and service.
For an onshore specialist solution provider such as ourselves, the investment and innovation that we have made and continue to make in our technology platform enables us to support a broad range of customer-facing functions with precision and clarity. Moreover, the way in which we deploy and use technology makes it a powerful enabler, allowing us and our clients to focus on the real issues rather than worry about the process and procedures.
Earning our clients’ trust requires knowledge of their corporate goals and a solid understanding of the nuances, needs and expectations that support these corporate objectives. By investing our time, expertise and industry knowledge in getting inside the skin of the organization, we are in a better position to anticipate the customer service demands and deliver appropriate solutions.
The changing nature of the customer service function also requires us to think and act differently. For example, lift and shift is a popular term used in the outsourcing sector to denote the removal of client operations out of the client’s premises and moved offshore. For us, lift and shift is about moving our onshore expertise and people into customer-facing services within the client’s base of operations. Going the extra mile, both metaphorically as well as physically, turns conventional thinking on its head and allows us to practice and deliver exceptional customer service.
Onshore - On demand, On time and On budget
At a time when every dollar counts, getting systems, people and processes to work together can be a challenge. As an onshore OTC specialist, this lies at the heart of what we deliver to global business. Our success lies not just in blending technology, customer-facing services and business processes together effectively but in forging a working relationship that is based on a partnership of shared values and responsibilities.
Consequently, companies continue to embrace onshoring not simply for the financial benefits, but also for the enhanced customer service function that it delivers. Locally-based personnel, with the appropriate language skills and expertise are better placed to deliver a consistent and exceptional customer service. For global business, the adage ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ neatly sums up the benefits of an onshore partnership.
Robert Sherman -
Chief Revenue Officer of VWi