Finding the right Hospitality outsourcing partner can be a daunting task. An outsourcing partner should be a natural extension of your business. As with any business partnership, or personal relationship, the key to success is a strong mutual fit and good communication. It’s in both parties’ interests to ensure they are compatible and well-positioned for a long-term relationship.
A good outsourcing partner will take the time to understand the unique needs of your business and tailor their services, including the pricing and staffing model needed to deliver the results you are looking to achieve.
If you are engaged with a potential outsourcing partner and they provide an
“out of the box” service offering, without understanding your business, you should proceed with caution.
Before providing a proposal or recommendations on staffing model and pricing, a good outsourcing partner will ask questions to understand your business, including goals, pain points and guest experience expectations.
To provide a tailored service proposal that will fit the needs of your business, an outsourcing partner should ask these discovery questions, at a minimum. The questions are designed to do three things: Understanding your Business/Brand & Guest Experience Expectations, Discovering Technology Needs and Determining Best Pricing & Staffing Model. Here are the questions:
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS/BRAND & GUEST EXPERIENCE
Do you have a current call center outsourcing partner?
- It’s important to understand if you currently utilize a contact center outsourcing partner or manage the volume in house. The answer will lead the conversation into completely different subsets of questions, including the one below.
If yes, what about their performance has been unsatisfactory?
- This will help the outsourcing company focus on addressing those areas and deliver solutions to improve customer experience.
How many properties are in your portfolio and where are they located?
- The outsourcing partner may have experience in working with properties in the same geographical location and identify areas where they can add value to improve operations.
What are your specific goals and objectives?
- Understanding your objectives will help the outsourcing company align their services with your goals and deliver the results you’re looking for.
What are your guest experience expectations?
- This will help the outsourcing company tailor their services to meet the needs and preferences of your specific audience.
DISCOVERING TECHNOLOGY NEEDS
What PMS / CRS are you currently using today?
- This helps the outsourcing partner understand if the business is using a PMS/CRS they have experience with and will provide them with access to service all call types. This information will also be used to determine the training timeline.
Do you have any specific technology/security requirements?
- This is important to ensure that the outsourcing company can comply with your security and privacy requirements and protect your customers’ data.
How many Toll-free or local phone numbers you will need?
- This is important to determine cost and timeline for implementation.
Are you currently using an IVR to provide self-serve functionality or call routing needs? If so, will we be required to rebuild the IVR in our ACD platform?
- This information is used to determine implementation costs and timeline.
Are you interested in our Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to transcribe and analyze your contact interactions?
- This information will be factored into costs and timeline for go-live.
What are your reporting requirements?
- This will allow an outsourcing partner to determine if custom reports need to be created to support your needs and factor this information into costs/timeline.
DETERMINING BEST PRICE & STAFFING MODEL
Do you have a preferred pricing model (Per Minute, Hourly Dedicated, Per Call or Per Minute w/ Booking fee)?
- This is all about finding a mutual fit. The outsourcing partner can provide pricing using your preferred model but also may make other model recommendations based on their expertise and may be a better fit for both parties.
Do you have any objections to a work-from-home model or do you require a brick-and-mortar site.
- Did I mention mutual fit? If the outsourcing partner is primarily utilizing a work-from-home model, they may not be a good fit for a partner looking for a large brick-and-mortar operation.
What channels do you currently use to communicate with your guests (i.e., Inbound/Outbound Calls, Email/Chat Support, SMS, etc.
- Without this information, it’s impossible for an outsourcing partner to understand if they have the technology and expertise to support your needs. It’s also a crucial piece for determining implementation timeline/cost and monthly recurring fees.
What are the service hours of operation? Do you require holiday coverage?
- Helps determine the best staffing & pricing models.
What is the expected volume and call arrival patterns (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly)? What are the peak hours, days, weeks, or months?
- Understanding the expected call volume will help the outsourcing partner determine the required resources and staffing levels, which will have an impact on pricing.
What is the expected Service Level Agreement… % of calls answered within X Seconds, Average Speed of Answer (ASA) or Abandon Rate?
- SLA requirements influence the pricing model and rate as higher service levels require additional resources and staffing.
What is your current Average Handle Time? What is your Average Handle Time expectation?
- AHT is one of the factors that is used to derive staffing needs. Understanding your AHT expectations versus our experience and industry standard will help ensure alignment.
What is your current Conversion Rate and how do you measure it?
- Coupled with call volume expectations, this data can be used to forecast booked reservations and determine pricing for models that include a booking fee.
What channels do you currently use to communicate with your guests (i.e., Inbound/Outbound Calls, Email/Chat Support, SMS, etc.
- Without this information, it’s impossible for an outsourcing partner to understand if they have the technology and expertise to support your needs. It’s also a crucial piece for determining implementation timeline/cost and monthly recurring fees.
What percentage of your calls are new Sales Opportunities vs. Existing Reservation?
- This helps an outsourcing partner understand, in general, why your guests are interacting with your guest services team. This information can be used to determine if the staffing requirements are more sales or service-oriented and can also be used to identify the best price/staffing model.
How do you measure success? What KPI’s will you use to determine our success?
- Alignment on how to measure success, and the metrics that will be used to make that determination, is necessary for a long-term successful partnership.
What languages would you like to support aside from English?
- This will help the outsourcing partner determine whether they can provide the language support to fit your needs and include pricing in the proposal.
What is the expected start date for the service?
- The outsourcing partner should ask about the expected start and end date, to determine the overall timeline and resource requirements.
Without answers to these questions, it’s impossible for an outsourcing partner to understand your business and present a tailored proposal to deliver the service goals and guest experience you desire. They certainly haven’t spent the time to determine if their organizational goals and experience align with yours, and whether it’s a good fit or not.
Great hospitality doesn’t come from a “one size fits all” model and a good partner will be sure they’re the right fit for you!
