Customer Success

How to Match Customer Messaging to Their Behaviour

Message personalization is often done in emails by adding the customer’s name to the subject, adjusting send time based on user location.

Personalization has become a buzzword in marketing and service industries, but oftentimes what’s being offered is information that can be captured by age and location data.

True personalization is not just about the static data that you can collect from someone's identity. It also includes their behavior in your product, as well as tailoring your messages around them.

But as your company starts to scale, and more and more people start using your product, the number of behaviors grows exponentially.

Here’s our best practice advice to getting behavior-based messaging right.

DECIDE WHAT ACTIONS WARRANT A MESSAGE

Different actions require different responses. For example, if the user adds 5 teammates to a project it may be appropriate for you to immediately notify them that new team members have joined the group.

If you're unsure of what your product should do to be more successful, start by asking yourself these two questions: What do customers consider the ideal end state? What is their ultimate goal when using this product? These are the actions that your products should encourage.

PRIORITIZE YOUR MESSAGES

You might be tempted to sign up for a new productivity app in addition to inviting your first teammate and creating your first task not long after.

Like a falling chain of dominoes, sometimes messages repeatedly hit your inbox until they run out. To end the chain, you unsubscribe.

Rather than sending messages for every single action, directors may find better success by following and engaging with new users.

When designing an email drip campaign, event-triggered emails can miss the mark. They're not responsive enough to how customers use your product in different ways or recognize people's nonlinear journeys from point A to B to C.

When sending multiple, behavior-based messages in a row, make sure their priority and do not send them close together or you risk overwhelming your users.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FEATURE USAGE DATA

To deliver meaningful 1:1 personalization at scale, leverage all available context signals.

When working with this customer, ask yourself: What else do we know about them?

» Have they seen previous messages?

» Do they often visit the knowledge base?

» What size are they?

» Are they no longer receiving marketing communications?

When delivering relevant messages to customers, it is important to take into account both qualitative and quantitative data. For example, if you are trying to reach a high-value customer who has contacted customer support many times already this month, then your message will have to correspond with that information.

Proper segmentation becomes the key to sound customer engagement strategies, regardless of your company size. "Spray and pray" messages are no longer needed as soon as you properly identify segments that would be most receptive or needful of your product or service.

by Costi

Better Customer Service by Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of organizing your audience based on shared characteristics in order to customize your messages and engage them accordingly.

Targeting your recipients makes the messages you send more relevant and consequently, people will be compelled to take action.

For every product, here is what you should consider in the market research process.

ENGAGED USERS

These are the people who are logging in to your site and using it.

For example, if you run an app to generate invoices, your active users might only log in and use the app once a month. If you're building a photo sharing app, however, it might take more activity—like sessions, likes or shares—before we call them highly engaged.

Treat your most loyal customers with the utmost respect and don't pitch them things they already bought or are uninterested in. When you deal with an engaged customer, focus on what he or she needs to know or will find useful.

INACTIVE OR DISENGAGED USERS

These are the users who have not engaged in meaningful use of your product for a certain amount of time. This is natural and common among most businesses dealing with SaaS. People get curious, try it out, shrug their shoulders and leave without saying goodbye.

It's not uncommon for your average user to feel like they've upgraded. If that is the case, there may be confusion because their impression of you or the product is probably outdated.

Content that does not mention what the customer will or can gain from your product, what news you have about yourself to share with them, or why they should come back is unlikely to be read.

You can take this even further: Not all of your disengaged users are the same. Some were power users before they stopped using your product, while others had only been using it for a few days. Some added their team, some never finished onboarding. Segment accordingly and you will improve the effectiveness of your messages.

FREE

Over the past decade, “freemium” has been the dominant business model among SaaS businesses. The goal of freemium is to attract new paying users, so your messaging strategy should be about getting people to upgrade.

It can be difficult to figure out when your company's free package is being useful for the customer. The goal should be to see that it has become worthwhile and then clearly articulate the value of a premium product.

Free users are important sources for feedback and beta testing new features, but these customers may not be as invested.

PREMIUM

Customers who pay you a lot of money deserve to be treated differently than customers on free or $9-a-month plans. Depending on your business model, you might want to further segment your paying customers based on if they are currently entitled to use the new feature announcement that is going out.

Rather than risk a feature uniting with its target audience, it is better to craft a message to users on your basic plan about what that feature can do for them and why they might want to consider an upgrade.

Take some time to find out which customers are your most profitable and offer the free tickets, swag or office hours.

SLIPPING AWAY

When customers stop using a product, it often doesn't happen instantly. Instead, they gradually fall out of routine with the product and stop purchasing it altogether.

This is your “slipping away” cohort, people not active in 30 days or more.

When reaching out to a customer, you should focus on reminding them of the improvements your product has undergone since they last visited it. You are seeking to persuade them that by using your product now, they will receive significantly more value than when they previously used it.

RECENTLY CANCELLED

The issue these group members have with your product may not be fixable, but at least you can prevent this from being a deal breaker for other potential customers.

And no matter how much you want to convince them that your product or service is great, the best time to do that is probably not immediately after they have canceled their account.

In order to segment an audience for engagement, it's important to understand your marketing goals and how much data you have access to.

You can tailor your messages to individual customers by looking at data that is more granular. For example, you might start tailoring your message to a specific individual rather than just sending out general demographic messages.

by Costi

Listening Techniques of Great Customer Service Leaders

As a customer success leader, you are no doubt well-versed in the importance of listening to your customers. When done properly, listening builds strong relationships and without this skill, trust suffers.

There are countless books and resources focusing on the importance of listening in all aspects of life. While there's many skills to learn, listening is one of the most important ones we should be aware of.

Our focus is on how customer success managers should listen to both clients – those inside of the organization as well as outside clients that are paying for a product or service.

1. Listen First, than take action

Customer success management professionals talk to customers in several ways that may include, but are not limited to:

• What is your opinion of XYZ feature?

• What is the problem you have with X?

• Why are you contemplating abandoning us?

Customers will often share feedback with you if you lend them an ear, but even when they do there may be information that's left off the table.

Asking questions allows you to guide the conversation and learn what they want to talk about.

Rather than starting with a barrage of open-ended personal questions, write them down so you can come back to them later. Open your conversation by asking one closed question that begins with “would you …”

By asking your customers a simple question, you can steer them towards the problem they're experiencing.

Many customer success leaders are required to have many phone conversations in their job. This can be hard even though you cannot read facial expressions from a distance, like with video or in person meetings.

If you have to use your phone when assisting a customer, make sure you are actively listening and following along by responding with simple words such as “Got it”, “Okay” and “Makes sense.

2. Ask for Clarification

As soon as the customer starts talking, take some notes. The customer will love knowing you're actively listening to their story and taking down their words.

When the customer has let you respond after asking questions, refer to your own set of questions.

Make sure you fully understand what the customer has confided in order to be of better service.

3. Repeat Back

In order for your customer to know you understand their needs, make sure you ask questions clarifying what they are asking before just giving a response.

Too often, we believe we understand the situation and take action when it's not yet clear what the problem actually is. Taking action on a problem without examining the data can have disastrous results – even if our intention is good.

Once you have repeated the necessary information back to a customer and they acknowledge that you understood them, let them know what will happen with their input. Make sure they are aware of your plan for future use so that it doesn't feel like their valuable data is disappearing into a black hole.

4. Take Action

If you told the customer you would take action, now is the time to do the task. Not all data points are important, but each deserves attention and tracking for future reference.

When you have a calendar reminder to bring up information in your next CS team meeting, or need to pick up the phone and act on something more urgent, do it immediately.

Waiting to take action can simply create dust and lose you trust with your customers if they begin to notice nothing happens with the information they entrust.

Most CEOs of companies don’t have time in a day to focus on the bigger picture (i.e., not just responding to fires). To overcome this, put your thoughts together each morning--review everything from yesterday and try to address problems or act on deadlines. Use that hour every morning as sort of a gut check for how your company is handling clients.

5. Report Back

A forgotten step that often gets overlooked is reporting back to the original creators. So much helpful feedback can be given in this way. Information might help fix a bug, streamline business, or create more seamless experiences for clients.

This customer input is gold but, unless they know it's being taken seriously and considered, they'll stop sharing. Reporting back in this way takes time away from their job so you want to say thank you for their input.

Employees should be reminded of their positive contributions as well as warned about forthcoming changes.

Send an over-the-top thank you when someone provides valuable information to your company. Since these gestures will be memorable and people know you’ll care about their input, they’ll continue to share good ideas with you moving forward.

6. Seek Input & Repeat

Use this technique to create the never-ending feedback loop that will push your customer engagement and ultimately make them a much happier customer.

Ask them what they think could have made the process better or what else is on their mind.

Customers will likely provide more feedback when they feel that you are listening, so it is important to reward open and honest communication.

Customers will be more willing to work with you when they know that you are listening and responding to their feedback. They will feel confident in your products or services knowing that you value them enough to take the time to help.

The outcome: Greater customer trust

by Costi

Chat Support Outsourcing

Have you ever been on a website and gotten completely lost? You’re wondering through the price options or product displays and have a pressing question that needs answers. Who do you go to? 

Chat support is becoming a widespread tool for companies to provide assistance and support to their online customers. The era of the telephone operator and the busy hotline is over. Now all of your questions are a simple text exchange away from being answered. 

But who should operate your chat support line? Should it be an in-house employee? Can this type of this be outsourced? What’s cheaper? You’ll find everything you need to know about chat support outsourcing in the article below. 

What is chat support outsourcing?

First of all, what is chat support? Chat support, also known as live chat support, is a support service for an online webpage. Instead of your online customers needing to call a specific number when they need help, an online assistant can answer their questions in real-time immediately. 

Today, this is a much more accepted and popular customer support method because a chat support agent can handle multiple cases at a time and thus solve problems faster. However, this job is often not handled in-house.

To outsource chat support means to sign up for an external service to handle your customer support via text exchange. Chat support outsourcing is the most common form of chat support because it’s almost always less expensive than hiring a chat support agent of your own, depending on the service you choose. 

When you outsource your chat support, you will be assigned an agent or enter into a multi-agent service. Then this person will be your on-call assistant for all your customer support needs. 

When to Outsource Your chat support?

If you’re a small business, you should consider outsourcing chat support to be the best option for your online store. In-house chat support assistants can cost another full-salary, and your company might need to save money.

It’s also a good idea to outsource your chat support if you have had lousy chat supporters or customer supporters in the past. Chat support outsourcing companies have a quality guarantee and their assistants are well experienced. 

Finally, you’ll also want to outsource chat support if you have more than six help requests per hour. More than six requests in an hour overloads the average chat assistant, and hiring multiple assistants can get expensive fast. By using an agency, you’ll automatically be able to handle any support volume. 

Pros of chat support outsourcing

Let’s look at the positives of outsourcing your chat support.

It’s cheaper: 

Since chat support agencies work with multiple customers and their agents work with various companies, their price per company is much lower. Hiring a person who is only responsible for your company will almost always cost more. 

How much more? The average salary for a chat support worker is $12/hr. If they work roughly 50 chats a day at six chats an hour, that’s $105,000 a year. We’ll get into how chat support agencies charge later in the article, but it’s much less than that. 

Chat support outsourcers have better experience. 

Sure, if you hire an in-house worker, they will eventually become more knowledgeable about your specific company than a freelancer. However, it takes time for them to acquire that information, and unless they have experience with chat support, they will also have to gain that experience on-the-go. 

An outsourced chat supporter will usually have experience with hundreds of different clients for different companies. They are adept at customer interaction in general with a diverse technical skillset that makes them adaptable to most industries.

Cons of chat support outsourcing

Now let’s look at some of the negatives of outsourcing your chat support. 

They might not be able to answer very specific questions.

Since they’ll be working for multiple companies, chat supporters hired through an agency won’t have as in-depth knowledge of your business as an in-house employee would. They will do their best to learn and research the information they need but will never be as knowledgeable as a permanent employee.

The real problem comes when an outsourced chat supporter can’t answer a question. They will need to contact your company and ask the question directly. This question will cost you time and person-hours. 

They can feel impersonal. 

Outsourced chat support agents can come off as impersonal to customers because they deal with many different issues and customers every day. 

It’s difficult to sound genuine to Erin in Myrtle Beach with her connection problems when you’re also on the line with Louise in Cincinnati tracking his order shipment. 

In-house employees will have more time and focus on issues individually, making them more understanding and compassionate. 

Chat support outsourcing Pricing Models

There are a few different ways an outsourcing agency can charge you. 

Chats per month

Under this type of plan, you would get a limited number of chats per month that different agents from the same company would handle. The chat support agency would control your support system and respond to a defined number of support requests every month.

Agents will tune in through live support, meaning it may take some time for them to respond to a request. 

Pay Per Service 

Other companies will bill you the number of agents you use. Under this plan, your company would choose a certain number of agents you want available and pay per month based on that number. For example, you can request to have three agents on stand-by and pay $20 per agent. 

Pay Based on Traffic 

With this plan, you will pay based on your website traffic. Websites with giant traffic volumes can expect a higher price, up to $600 per month. 

Pay Per Lead

If you want to pay only for success, then this is the payment plan for you. Under this plan, you can only pay when a chat support agent leads to a sale. Companies with this structure will have agents trained in sales as well as support. 

How to Choose a Chat Support Outsourcing Services Provider

The correct provider will have the payment plan you prefer. If your site has high traffic but not many requests, you should avoid the traffic payment option. If you want your chat support to generate revenue, then the “Pay Per Lead” option will give you the best return. Overall, it depends on your company, what you want to pay, and what service you expect. 

Do your research and make sure to read reviews about an outsourcing agency before starting a partnership with them. Some of the biggest chat support companies are Olark, Zendesk, Livechat, Zoho, Apexchat, and Ngage. Go to their websites and choose the right one for your company. 

by Costi

After Hours Support Outsourcing

Good customer service is the cornerstone of any business. It allows you to retain your customers, build a loyal following, enhance your brand and, of course, generate more revenue. However, your business hours are fixed and so are the timings of your employees. Does that mean your customers will only need your support when your office is open? Nope.

Your customers may need help with your products and services at any point in the day. A good company would definitely not want to keep its customers hanging whenever they need it the most. Here is where After Hours Support outsourcing comes into play. 

What is After Hours Support Outsourcing?

You can outsource your email, phone, and chat support services to a company that steps in after your regular work hours. It will ensure a timely resolution of issues and a positive customer experience. 

As per Microsoft’s Global Customer Report, 97% of customers consider customer service a critical factor in their brand choice & loyalty towards a company. Ensuring your customers can access support round the clock is a great way to pave the way for a solid, long-term relationship with them.

When to Outsource your After Hours Support?

There are a few instances in which it makes more sense to outsource your After Hours Support, such as:

International Clients

If you cater to customers in different time zones, it is possible that a big chunk of your customer support requirement arises after your regular work hours. In such a scenario, it makes sense to outsource the service to a third party. 

Budget Constraints

If you need to hire more people and train them to meet your customer support requirements, it may be cheaper to outsource your After Hours Support to another organization. It also holds true if you need to pay a significant amount of overtime to your current employees.

Scaling Up

If the lack of a dedicated customer support team is stopping you from scaling your business and bringing in more clients, it may be a great idea to outsource your After Hours Support to a reliable organization. It will allow you to focus on growing your business while your partner organization takes care of your customer support needs.

Competitive Advantage

If your competitors are offering customer service only during the regular working hours, it may be a great way to differentiate yourself and gain more customers by providing After Hours support services.

Pros of After Hours Support Outsourcing

Outsourcing your After Hours Support services offers many advantages to your business. Let's take a look at a few:

Cost-Effective

Outsourcing After Hours Customer Support is usually much cheaper than hiring full-time staff and training them. You don’t have to pay a fixed salary or offer any benefits like health care and transportation costs, thereby lowering your operating cost.

Flexible

You can choose the hours you need support on, the days of the week, and even the number of people you require. Outsourcing gives you the flexibility to find a solution that is tailored to your requirements.

Take Pressure off your Team

With a dedicated team of experts managing your After Hours Support needs, the rest of your team can focus on other essential areas such as improving your product or services and the growth strategy.

Expand your Business

With your After Hours Support in good hands, you can expand your business, take on more clients and explore newer geographies without having to worry about your team’s capacity or your budget.

Cons of After Hours Support Outsourcing

Though outsourcing your After Hours Support offers its benefits, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Requires Training, Monitoring & Quality Control

Outsourcing your After Hours Support does not rid you of your customer support responsibilities. You will have to regularly communicate with your service provider and ensure they have the information required to offer a quality service. If you leave it to them to figure things out, your customer support quality can deteriorate quickly.

Requires Research & Due Diligence

It can be time-consuming to find a company that meets your requirements. It will require research, and you will have to spend time and effort on finding the right support partner. It is also important to consider legal and security risks before outsourcing your After Hours Support, particularly if you provide sensitive customer data access.

After Hours Support Outsourcing Pricing Models

Each business has unique support needs, and therefore, the level and degree of support it would require are also case-specific. However, there are a few standard pricing models that companies widely use, such as:

• Per Minute Model: If the volume of calls, emails, or messages your business receives After Hours is low or inconsistent, the company may price it per minute.
• Pay Upfront: If you have a fair idea of the volume of customer support requests that come in After Hours, you can also pay upfront and purchase a set amount of support time each month.
• Pay per Staff: For a high and consistent volume of incoming requests, you can also choose to pay for a fixed number of people who will be assigned exclusively to your company.

There may be other models based on your service provider. Sometimes you may also be offered a combination of the three models or a package that provides greater flexibility.

How to Choose an After Hours Support Outsourcing Service Provider?

Firstly, you need to determine the kind of support you need. Do you need someone to answer the incoming calls or answer emails? Do you need help talking to customers on chat, or you need a mix of all three? Various companies specialize in providing different kinds of services. Once you determine your requirement, you can look for companies that offer that specific service.

Next, create a rough estimate of the budget you have for this and the work volume you are looking to outsource. You can use these two filters to shortlist companies that meet your requirements and budget.

Research the companies properly to understand the kind of services they provide, their pricing structures, and where they are based. Look for reviews and testimonials that give an insight into their services. You can also speak to some of their clients to get more detailed feedback.

Have a detailed discussion with a couple of companies to compare and evaluate the services and pricing they are offering. You can then decide on who works best for your needs.

Customer support is a vital function, and your brand image rests heavily on it. Ensure you choose the right outsourcing partner that enhances your brand image while you focus on growing your business.

by Costi

5 Industries Where Customer Service Is Everything

Every business has its priorities. Identifying and allocating resources towards what matters most is key to growth, especially on a tighter budget. Some companies will put marketing at the top of the list. Others might want to hire more talent and build a better team. Then there are businesses where customer service is everything.

Yours might be one of them. And if it is, you need to adjust your strategy accordingly, as it can make-or-break your ability to build and maintain relationships with customers. There are benefits to having solid customer service, too. 

Happy customers mean happy employees, which can improve productivity. Loyal customers mean more repeat buyers and lower acquisition costs. You can also take advantage of insights to improve your product or service, while testimonials can be used to strengthen your marketing strategy. The list goes on. 

But should customer service be your top priority? Here are five industries where that’s certainly the case.  

Retail

Both online and traditional retail is just as much about the experience as the products. In fact, experience is a bigger factor in turning a casual purchaser into a loyal customer. Successful retailers know this. That’s why Zappos is revered for its kind gestures and why T-We Tea, a tea store in San Francisco, hands each customer a personalized note. 

Good customer service is at the foundation of a memorable retail experience. It’s what motivates shoppers to keep coming back to your business instead of the competition. It’s what helps you accumulate optimistic reviews and a positive brand perception that encourages new customers to visit your store. 

So, if you’re in the retail industry, be sure to invest some time into building your customer service infrastructure. 

Weddings

Take a hint from LVL Weddings and Events, which describes themselves as a customer service company that happens to be experts at weddings. Simply getting a potential client onboard, one that is willing to spend (what is usually a fortune) with your business, requires being able to provide a great experience. 

From there, you need to listen to requests, understand requirements, source the right decorations, stay on top of deadlines, keep in touch with customers, and so forth. Doing any of this requires good customer service. 

Financial Services

One place where you can rely on customers to have high expectations is financial services. After all, you play a role in managing or facilitating the management of people’s money, which is incredibly important to them. 

Here, promptness and transparency are a must. You need to be able to react quickly, be it when a customer’s card is stolen and they need it canceled, or when someone needs assistance opening an account. You also need to prove that your service is trustworthy and that your customer’s money and details are safe in your hands. 

Restaurants

You can have the most delicious menu in town, but it will be of little use if the people serving it don’t know how to make the people eating it happy. Of course, that’s not always easy. Even an experienced waiter can be quickly overwhelmed by a large table where too many unsatisfied customers are seated, which is usually when the manager comes in. 

Both need to know how to work under pressure without losing the smile on their face. This extends all the way to the kitchen, where staff need to uphold the highest possible standards when preparing meals, especially if it gets busy. It’s getting this right that brings people back. Just hire a charming waiter and see what a difference it can make. 

Startups

A major factor when launching a startup is building trust with your target audience. You need to make potential customers feel confident in your business, and good customer service can help with this by putting curious customers at ease and providing compelling reasons to open their wallets. 

Moreover, good customer service helps you build a better reputation, which can assist with talent recruitment. It can also reduce marketing expenses by bringing in more repeat customers. As we touched on earlier, happy customers also mean positive feedback and a better public image, which in and of itself serves as free marketing. 

The Importance of Customer Service to Any Business

While customer service might be of utmost importance in the above-mentioned industries, it’s worth noting why investing in your customer service team is a good idea regardless of the type of business you run. 

Here are a couple of reasons why customer service is important to any business. 

• Retention vs. Acquisition: Increasing your number of return customers by just 5% can cause a 25% increase in profit. This is partly because customers who come back spend more than new ones. Retention also costs less than acquisition, and customer service is in favor of the former. 

• Brand Image: Consumers want to support businesses that care. Having strong values and a mission that speaks to your customers will win them over. Customer service is an ideal avenue for representing your brand image and values. It relays to customers what makes your business worth supporting. 

• Referrals: Happy customers tell their friends and family about your business. Then those people will tell their friends and family, and so the chain reaction continues. Good customer service is essentially free advertising. 

• Paying More: According to one report, 86% of customers will spend more money at a business to get a superior customer service experience. It’s safe to say that there are several businesses out there charging more for their products or services purely because of their top-notch customer service. 

• Valuable Insights: Customers are your leading source of information about how you can improve their experience. A good customer service team will be able to relay useful insights that can spare you the cost of having to constantly survey customers and perform other types of market research. 

This is by no means an extensive list, but it highlights just how important customer service is in any industry. 

Now that you know why customer service is imperative to the success of your business, it’s simply a matter of how you can make yours better. All that’s left to do is to make it happen. 

by Costi

8 Causes of Miscommunication and Misunderstanding

Effective communication is paramount to building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. Whether you’re dealing with clients, customers, coworkers, or companies, failing to get the message across can be a costly mistake. 

In one study of 400 organizations with 10,000 employees each, communication blunders were responsible for an average annual loss of $62.4 million. Companies with 100 employees fared no better, losing an average of $420,000 per year for the same reason. Where did they go wrong? 

Understanding why miscommunications and misunderstandings occur will help you prevent them from happening. The following are eight causes to consider. 

Word Choice

If you’re a software developer, terms like API, CMS, CRM, and FTP are part of your vocabulary. But to anyone else, they’re just a bunch of letters. Some legal documents are filled with technical language called legalese. The words are often complex and confusing enough that people hire lawyers to interpret the information. 

Acronyms, jargon, and buzzwords are used within their respective circles to communicate quickly and efficiently. However, they can have the opposite effect with outsiders, which is why you need to adjust your word choice. 

Competitive Conversation

A surefire way to make any conversation less productive is to ignore the speaker and focus on what you’re going to say next. Your attention is on your argument, which can prevent you from understanding the other side, and changing your stance on the issue may require losing face. 

Here are some examples that highlight how common the counterproductive phenomenon is: 

• One-Up: A story is told, and instead of it being acknowledged, the listener tries to tell a more extravagant tale. 

• Waiting to Speak: Thinking about jumping in and having your say while someone is speaking. 

• You Know Best: The discussion is less about learning and more about having the winning point of view. 

Misaligned Meaning

Sometimes, the intention behind our message is clear. That means it’s explicit. But the subject or situation might lend to framing the message in a way that doesn’t directly convey the intention behind it, making it implicit. 

In the latter case, the message is left open to interpretation and, consequently, misinterpretation. This is especially true if the communication occurs via text, email, or another medium where the tone isn’t tangible. The recipient may have to read between the lines. And if you don’t know them well, it’s better to be clear with your intentions. 

Granted, some circumstances require a more implicit approach for the sake of politeness. Knowing who you’re dealing with and being mindful about how they could interpret your message is key to ensuring that it’s understood.  

Medium

Similarly, the medium or channel used to communicate the message can also cause issues. We know that verbal mediums are more suitable carriers for implicit meaning, while written messages are clear if they’re explicit. Something as simple as the word “no” can be interpreted in countless ways when it’s being read. 

A potential solution comes in the form of emojis, which might be suitable in some customer service settings. It can also be used in more casual emails. 

Negative Perception

Here’s a fun experiment: Next time you hear a noise in another room at night, reach your hand into that room before turning on the lights or walking into it. Chances are that your imagination will conjure up all kinds of monstrosities. Our minds naturally tend to interpret ambiguity in a negative way first. 

This comes with a side-effect, which is orienting towards the negative when something obscure is mentioned. It’s especially pervasive with implicit written messages, as they’re open to more interpretation. Your best bet is to assume misinterpretation before malevolence and to keep negativity bias in mind when sending implicit messages. 

Information Overload

The key points of a message are easily missed when it’s buried under a mountain of arbitrary information. This can result in misunderstanding later down the line when the wrong steps are taken in accordance with the message. 

A reliable solution is to ensure that you only include the most important points, keeping the intention clear. The recipient is then less likely to become overwhelmed. 

Communication Skills

One of the root causes of information overload is a lack of communication skills. Not everyone finds it easy to keep their messages clear and concise. This can make them difficult to follow, which inevitably leads to frustration on both sides. Fortunately, there’s a pretty simple tip to keep in mind here: 

Speak with structure. Start by addressing the problem or subject matter. This requires properly understanding the problem yourself. Then mention why it’s currently relevant. From there, talk about the solution or what steps should be taken to solve the problem. 

Mental Models

Perhaps the biggest reason for miscommunication and misunderstanding is a disparity of viewpoints. In other words, the two parties can have a different idea of what the subject of the conversation means. 

This is due to mental models. There are a few of them that are particularly susceptible to causing misunderstandings. 

• Cultures: We largely make sense of reality by using cultures or subcultures. They influence the way we see the world and are usually difficult to change. It’s easy to see why culture can cause miscommunication. What’s considered rude in one can be completely polite in another. Culture can determine our views on things like business as well. 
• Confirmation Bias: This term explains our natural tendency to accept and focus on what fits our current beliefs while ignoring and avoiding anything that challenges them. 
• Déformation Professionnel: Being confined to a specific profession or expertise can narrow our worldview, making it difficult to discuss issues with someone who has a different perspective. 

With any mental model, it takes being able to view the problem from the same perspective as the other person to resolve it in a mutually beneficial manner. 

As long as we have our own opinions, miscommunication and misunderstanding will always be a part of human interaction. At the end of the day, you can’t expect to avoid it entirely, but keeping an open mind will certainly help. 

by Costi

Tips to Increase Productivity within Outsourced Teams

Outsourcing has become a common practice in the business world. Companies have become reliant on the skills and expertise of people outside their business more than ever before. Talk about IT outsourcing alone –in 2018, it was at its highest percentage in five years. Interestingly, businesses not only assign tasks to large corporations but also to mid-sized and small service providers. 

A business may choose to outsource a project or section of its business operations for various reasons. The main purpose of hiring external sources for one or more operative functions is to reduce cost. For instance, instead of establishing an IT department within their organization, a business may outsource IT and hire tech-savvy experts.

Moreover, outsourcing allows businesses to focus their attention, time, and efforts on the core needs and business operations. While outsourcing offers many benefits, a major concern among businesses is how to keep the outsourced team motivated and increase productivity. Managing an outsourced team is more challenging than leading the internal workforce. 

The problem arises because of a lack of communication, trust, relationship, and project management. This means you are giving work to the most qualified person but not creating an environment for them to use the exceptional skills.

With little things like respect, encouragement, motivation, and communication with them, you will see a sudden boost in their productivity. This can build their trust in you, and they feel happy to work for your company's betterment.

So to achieve an increase in the productivity of your outsource team, you can take help from the following tips.

Tips to Increase Productivity within Your Outsource Team

• Choose Task Wisely

Before you outsource any project or department of your business, make sure to devise a plan. Do not outsource large tasks as there is an increased risk of delays, and your production may come to a halt due to several reasons.

For instance, it is difficult to define and provide each detail of such projects to the outsource team. The missing information and lack of communication can overwhelm the team members to the point where they deliver below par work or not meet the deadlines. 

Break down the tasks and create to-do lists as it will help members focus on their work with increased energy and productivity levels. 

• Ensure Your Teams Is Aware With the Big Picture

Every single member of your outsource team should know about your goals and objectives. Share the important aspects of your business, like process, customers, and people, to align your outsource team with your business goals. Develop a solid mission statement or one-liner purpose for each project. 

The statement must clearly define the purpose of the task and how it will help the company. When everyone is on the same page, the outsource team will feel more connected with the organization and its future vision.

• Do Communication with Your Team Regularly

Communication can do wonders to shoot productivity if you are working in the office or working remotely. It can raise employee job satisfaction, improves productivity, and cut down turnover rates. However, communicating with your outsource team is a little more difficult since you can’t run to them to discuss any looming problems in your organization.

But technology makes it a little easier. There are multiple tools to communicate with your team. You only need to make a process accessible to everyone. 

Moreover, it’s wonderful if you can try to know the other person before giving them projects. You can do this by having a Skype call or any other way. Also, ask them to contact you by any means such as through texts, email, message, and others so that you both can always track each other when you are in need. 

• Always Reward, Recognize, and Respect Them 

Who does not like appreciation? Little words of recognition like “Well-done! Great work" and receiving a reward can become one of the greatest motivations. 

You can communicate with them over phone calls or email your team members to show that you acknowledge their hard work and tell them that they are giving good results more than the expectations. This is the fastest and effective way to boost your team’s productivity.

Treating your outsourced team with respect is essential. If your team is doing work in another region or setting, that doesn't mean you have the right to disrespect or burden them with work. Do remember that you need these team members, and they are valuable and know that you can't sustain the position you have in the market without them. Let them know what you and other team members think about them. 

• Try To Remain Flexible With the Deadlines

Yes, it’s important to work on deadlines because of the contract, but you need to be flexible with your team. Do realize that some of your team members are living in different time zones. For instance, you can’t expect outsourced team members to follow the eight-hour work shift as your in-office staff. Flexibility is crucial to ensure a smooth workflow. 

Moreover, be aware that when your team members are more productive and any life problems they have at the moment, which is preventing them from completing the task on time, such as a power outage or software problems in their laptop. If you know these things, both of you can sit together and can find a solution to know the best hours of working for both. 

• Resolve Your Team Problems

Handling the stressful circumstances and problems can either make the bond between the company and the outsource team stronger or result in budget overturns, missed deadlines, and frustration.

Try to solve the problems before they come in your way. Also, keep your employees, management, and stakeholders aware of the risk to confront any issue. Moreover, don't throw the blame on a single person to take it off from your head. This can reduce the trust of other team members on you. 

• Use the Technology 

Keep your outsource team connected by using collaboration tools such as Dropbox, Google Docs, Slack Skype, Zoom, or Google Chat. This will also help to keep them up to date and aid in creating a solid relationship and report between you and your team.

Choose any virtual tool that is easy for you, and that makes your project communication simple by keeping it in one place. It gives a way to your team to communicate and collaborate in real-time. It gives way to increase productivity because the operation will run smoothly.

• Build Trust in Your Team

Trust and credibility is the key to increasing productivity within your outsourced team. You hired them because you had trust in them after checking their references or resume, asking questions, checking online reputation, and undergoing testing. Now it’s important that they also trust you.

Trusting your provider is essential. Regular meetings with your team members can help you to monitor the projects' progress and make corrections where necessary. However, dictating them in every matter can lower their productivity, slow them down, and kill their creativity and initiative.

So, if they trust you, they will don’t face any of these problems. In this case, you can make a relationship with your outsourced team, motivate them to do work, and recognize and acknowledge their work. This will go long and encourage your team to do hard work for the future betterment of your company.

• Arrange Regular Meetings

You cannot run into your outsource team members every time a problem surfaces. Therefore, managers have to be proactive about giving them a specific forum for communicating and collaborating to remain linked to other team members. Emails are a great option, but nothing can replace the face to face or voice to voice contact, which you can achieve by Skype or other tools. 

As a manager, you need to include every single member of your outsource team in your regular meeting. Also, make sure that everyone is on the same page. If you organize a meeting with only on-site team members and don't include the outsourced team, then it can surely lead to miscommunications. Excluding the outsourced team members can lead to sacrifice essential feedback you need and can impede team cohesion.

• Keep Transparency in Your Relationship

Building a trustworthy relationship among the outsourced team members who may have never met the on-site workers is a challenge. Therefore, it is more important for their manager to be as transparent as possible about the changes and developments, such as changes in the entire strategy, changes to team personnel, and an increase in team member performance. In this case, frequent communication on a single forum regarding performance, whether informal or formal, can be helpful.

On the other hand, you also need transparency in return from your outsource team. Ask your team members to disclose their level of engagement with their work. Give them opportunities to share their feedback and discuss the problems they are facing.

Bottom Line

If you are facing any problems keeping your outsource team at the same pace, and creating a cohesive team, then you might be doing something wrong or even not taking essential actions at all. Moreover, if your outsource team is not as productive as you think they can be, it must be your fault. So to evaluate the productivity of your remote team, you need to consider the tips mentioned above.

Once you start following these strategies, you will see the chart of accomplishments of your organization going up. Not only will you feel proud, but because of the new and strong relationship with your outsource team, they will also feel remarkably happy and try to work even harder. 

by Costi