For Australian accounting business owners, sending out a critical part of their compliance business to an overseas outsourcing services provider is pretty hard.
It’s not only hard, but it’s soul wrenching, gut wrenching, and stressful. There are concerns about whether the quality is ok, whether the data is safe, whether the provider can be trusted to provide consistent quality, … and even then, not until the job comes back, can you be 100% sure that things are going to go ok.
At the same time, in order to manage the delivery, you have to engage with your client so they can act on the queries, and receive the completed work. Poor quality and multiple queries are an obvious sign that the outsourcing provider isn’t really doing you any favours!
So how do you go about “Trusting”, your outsourcing services provider?
The ground work for trust starts with a massively good due diligence. We’ve covered due diligence ad nauseam in our various blogs. If things don’t feel right when you are talking to the business owner before you’ve even started outsourcing, then it’s going to make trust that much more difficult.
Every stage of the process of on-boarding an outsourcing partner is important. Did they do what they said they would do? Did they send the contracts of engagement documents when they said they would? Are they available by phone or email when you want to get in touch with them. Remember right up front is when everyone shines. If your outsourcing provider isn’t shining up front, then trust isn’t going to come quickly.
Make sure you understand the process. In that way, you can check things are done when they are said they are done. If the provider promises email confirmations, jobs returns, queries, job completion (whatever is promised) on a certain date, then you should expect that to occur. If it doesn’t happen, then a good provider will let you know by email – especially as things do happen sometime.
After you’ve gained comfort in the initial trust, you should be in a position to really build on that trust and be sure you can ask at times for a higher level of service, and know what that entails. Can you ask the outsourcing providers staff to work on a Saturday or Sunday if needed (hey, we’ve seen plenty of our clients drop a ball from time to time, and it happens)…
What you should really be chasing is a partner who will help get you out of a sticky situation. And that’s trust!
What Australian accountants are really thinking about Outsourcing
What Australian accounting directors fear most about Outsourcing…
The history of Australian accounting outsourcing, and why finding quality providers is hard
Australian compliance outsourcing: a level playing field
How to determine the reliability of your Australian compliance Outsourcing company
An Australian Accounting perspective on Outsourcing
