In today’s world, it is almost impossible to find a small business where everything about the business process is done in-house. For most small businesses, running full-time employees for every aspect of their business operations is expensive. These expenses include the cost of work equipment, office, and overheads, even the cost of recruitment, all of which may be too much for a small business to handle and make a profit.

This is where outsourcing comes in. Outsourcing allows businesses of every size to handle everyday business processes in a cost-effective, professional, and easy manner, so that they can focus on the primary running of the business, leading to faster growth. Unfortunately, when it comes to outsourcing parts of your business operations, there is a tendency to make costly mistakes that can lead to business failure.

If you are looking to outsource your business operations, here are a few mistakes you should avoid making.

1. Outsourcing functions that affect the customer directly

Customer experience and fulfillment is a vital part of any business, and how you do this can determine the success or failure of your brand. For this reason, it is never a good idea to outsource customer support.

When a customer calls your business support line, they want to speak to someone who has a very good knowledge of how the business works, and who knows the best way to solve their problems; unfortunately, most of the remote customer service agents don’t fit this role.

If customers don’t have a good experience doing business with you, they are less likely to come back.

2. Not doing complete research on the provider company

This is definitely the biggest mistake you can make when considering outsourcing. The purpose of outsourcing your business operations is so that you can get things done professionally and in a cost-effective manner. But when you fail to check out an outsourcing provider properly, you are bound to make the mistake of choosing the wrong one.

When you outsource administrative tasks, the project management company directly represents you and your business, and whatever impression they give out is assumed to represent what your business stands for. Therefore, it is vital that you confirm to make sure that you can trust the person or persons you choose to represent your business. Do a comprehensive check out of the outsourcing providers you have on your list to make sure you end up with one that properly reflects the values of your company.

3. Having unrealistic expectations

When outsourcing your business operations to a provider, you should have realistic expectations of the service you will be receiving.

That you are paying a provider to handle certain aspects of your business for a particular period is no reason to expect that they will perform miracles. Of course, a provider is expected to go over and beyond to make sure that the client is satisfied, but in a situation where your in-house talent has caused several years’ worth of damage to one particular aspect of your business operations, you should not expect a provider to fix it overnight.

Unrealistic expectations put pressure on the provider, and this can lead to mistakes, some of which can have far-reaching consequences on your business. It can also cause friction between your business and the outsourcing company. When using outsourcing services, clearly communicate your expectations and get guarantees that the provider can meet these expectations.

4. Hiring the cheapest service and hoping for a miracle

It goes without saying that one of the benefits of using an outsourcing service is that it helps save costs; however, you cannot choose the cheapest service and expect the workers to perform miracles in your business.

Most times, the cheap services you come across have a huge workload, because they have many customers due to the cheapness of their services, in trying to meet the ever-growing deadline, they tend to make mistakes, some of which can be expensive to fix.

While it is a given that you should look for cost-effective outsourcing options, don’t be tempted by rock bottom prices, as this may mean shoddy work.

5. Failure to communicate properly

As already established, hiring an outsourcing agency does not guarantee automatic success. You must still establish clear lines of communication so that the workers can understand your requirements. This is the only way to get the kind of results you require.

You should also request constant progress reports and updates, so that should there be a mix-up in communications, you can detect it on time and make corrections.