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The cost savings of outsourcing low-level work overseas to countries like India, China, and the Philippines can look pretty attractive. But it's folly.
The lack of language skills among the outsourced employees can lead to misunderstandings, lost credibility, customer service complaints and missed opportunity.
I learned this first-hand. I tried outsourcing some of my personal work to a virtual assistant firm in India. I wasn't so much concerned with saving money as I was in freeing up the time I spent responding to email and performing other tasks that did not necessarily merit my personal involvement.
Just like all of those companies that outsourced their call centers, I saw the error of my ways after seeing the difficulty my virtual assistant had with basic email communication. One of his emails to me, with the subject line of "Results can be even worthier than you pay!" sounded like spam and I almost deleted it by accident! His email continued "I am really exicted about our newly build relationship." Egad!
It's not that delegating and outsourcing are bad or wrong -- on the contrary, as I wrote in a recent MarketingProfs article, farming out tasks that you don't absolutely have to do yourself is the key to greater productivity and reduced stress. The more work you can assign to others, the more time you have to concentrate on issues that genuinely need your attention. But be careful whom you outsource to. Do you really want someone who can barely speak English to answer your phone or handle your email? (Though it's not meant to be funny, this podcast interview with a Chinese virtual assistant company CEO amusingly illustrates this point.) In fact, do you really want that person to do anything of importance for your business? I sure don't -- so much so that I recently fired my India-based virtual assistant.
The issue is not the country that you outsource to; it's the quality of the people doing the work, or at the very least, the quality of their language skills. Outsourcing to a country where the native language has to go back four branches to find a common ancestor with English is, I have found, rarely a good idea. I shudder to think of the aforementioned guy acting on my behalf, replying to my business-critical emails in Borat-speak. I realize now I could have avoided this whole debacle by taking some common-sense precautions, namely the ones recommended by Tim Ferriss and outlined in my above-mentioned MarketingProfs article. These are:
- Make enough inquiries to receive 20-30 proposals.
- Look to hire multiple virtual assistants; never hire a single individual -- you don't want your project to fail because someone got sick, took a vacation, or quit on you.
- Immediately delete any boilerplate form responses when evaluating initial responses.
- Test your VAs by assigning easy 20-30 minute tasks to the top 3-5 candidates. This will eliminate around 50% of them.
- Next, test them further by taking a longer project (20-30 hours), and assigning it to all three. Ask them to stop after three hours and send you what they've completed, and you will know who performs best.
To reiterate, I'm in no way against VAs -- the concept is wonderful! But I needed to be a little more picky about which company and which individual VAs I chose. So with the above points in mind, I was able to find a much higher quality company based in Canada. The VA I chose there costs a lot more money, but I'm getting a lot more value out of her work. Now if my credit card company would only follow the same advice, I won't need a translator to talk to them...
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Comments
Thank you for bringing to light the positives of contracting with a Virtual Assistant who speaks your language and is genuinely concerned about the quality of work that is produced for you.
Posted by: Deirdre Shockley | 05.08.08
The more you outsource, the weaker the economy will be for the U.S.
Posted by: MarketingDeviant | 05.08.08
Spencer: I just spent a day on the phone with Lenovo, who make a huge effort to say that they, "... are now connecting you to our technical support team, located in Atlanta, Georgia..."
And they are in Atlanta. Amazing. PC doing fine now, too.
Posted by: Stephen Denny | 05.08.08
Hi, Stephen. I guess we had similar thoughts this week. Check my post.
I always believed that you get what you pay for. It's much more difficult for someone outside the continent to manage client relationships with the same manner that someone on this side of the ocean can. It's about language, idioms, expressions, experiences, etc.
Posted by: Elaine Fogel | 05.08.08
I'd like to add that business people in, say, China or India, would want fluent speakers and writers of their own languages as assistants as well.
This logic applies to business people the world over...
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 05.08.08
That's why it's IMPORTANT to seek Virtual Assistants in the right places! There are professionals associations out there that have virtual assistant directories and professional members who will look after you well, irrespective of what country they are in. They had to meet criteria in order to join these groups. There are over 20 of them worldwide.
With respect to having only one VA - why not? It depends on the work you want done. Some clients work with multiple VAs and some with only one. My longest term client has been with me 11 years and I have been her only VA for the majority of that time. But one MAJOR difference. I am backed by the VA group I belong to, and if I should fall sick, or go on leave, I have a back up team who look after all of my clients for me in my absence.
Also, if you go through the professional associations you eliminate the need for testing.
http://vanetworknews.com/va-organisations/ will steer you in the right direction!
Posted by: Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary | 05.08.08
This is a very timely discussion and one of the issues professional VAs adress regularly. If you are curious about the potential of working with professional VAs, accept our invitation to attend an "Introducing the Virtual Assistant Industry to Savvy Business Owners" series.
Savvy business owners understand the value and advantages gained over their competition by working with dedicated, experienced, professional assistants focused on their business growth and development. Virtual assistants save entrepreneurs time, money and sanity, and allow them to concentrate on income producing responsibilities that fuel their passion.
To learn more about working with professional VAs, attend the first, No Admission Fee, Internet-based "Introducing the Virtual Assistant Industry to Savvy Business Owners" series. Click here for details: http://www.oivac.com/intro.htm.
These complimentary sessions occur during the annual VA industry online convention, Thursday, May 15 through Saturday, 17, 2008 (US).
The agenda will include a short presentation, followed by a roundtable discussion led by veteran VA industry experts eager to answer your questions. Attendees can learn how to select the right VA, tasks VAs can perform, etc., ask niche-specific questions, and much, much more.
If you ever considered working with a VA or are curious about exploring the potential, be sure to attend online.
Select the session that best fits your schedule:
Session 1 - Thursday, May 15, 2008, 1 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. US EDT
Session 2 - Friday, May 16, 2008, 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. US EDT
Session 3 - Friday, May 16, 2008, 3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. US EDT
To learn more about this exciting, one-of-a-kind activity and to reserve your complimentary seat at one of the three (3) sessions, visit OIVAC http://www.oivac.com/intro.htm.
Attend from the comfort of your home or office; via computer and headset mic. Mark your calendar for this informative event. We look forward to seeing you.
Please contact info@oivac.com or call 1-410-521-7001 (United States) if you have questions.
Posted by: Sharon Williams | 05.08.08
Thank you for writing about this experience. So many people look at cost as the only factor in deciding on a VA but there are so many more, especially their grasp of the English language if thats what you will be communicating in.
Posted by: Louise Pack | 05.08.08
There are many languages and many strong economies, the key issue here is that one must have an assistant with whom one can work. It is simple as that.
We should not presume that English is the only language on the planet! I as a an American, have done a lot of traveling and am humbled by this world.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 05.08.08
What you are referring to in this post isn't Virtual Assistance, it's simply hiring remote secretarial workers. That's not the same thing.
The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce is a fantastic resource for business owners seeking qualified and competent Virtual Assistant professionals. Of particular interest:
Client’s Guide to Virtual Assistants:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/client-guide.htm
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant.htm
Virtual Assistant Directory:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/directory/
RFP Center:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/rfp-center.htm
Get to Know Our Virtual Assistants:
http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/subscribe.htm
Posted by: Danielle Keister | 05.08.08
Incorrect information abounds about what a VA is and does. VA's are business owners, not employees. If they are willing to take a "test" then you are not working with a VA that understands the business model! Seriously, would you even consider asking your plumber or attorney to take a test before hiring them? Educate yourself about what a Virtual Assistant is and is not. Read http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/client-guide.htm to bring yourself up to speed AND find a vetted VA!
Posted by: Cheryl A. Harless | 05.08.08
Taking the service of professionals’ expert at outsourcing in India & China companies can make their existence felt to new markets which opens a brand new world of earnings with nominal struggle.
Posted by: outsourcing company | 05.13.08