So you’ve decided to proceed with outsourcing your contact center services. Now it’s time to actually find an outsourcer that’s the right fit for your company. Good luck because there are a lot of third parties out there to choose from — and they all take different approaches to customer service.
In part one of this series, we covered why companies decide to outsource and the factors that can contribute to imperfect outsourcing partnerships. Part two discussed how to go about drafting the overview section of the request for proposal, or RFP; while in part three we learned how to draft the second section of the RFP: The requirements.
Now that you’ve completed the process of drafting your RFP, let’s take a look at how to go about developing a bid assessment model.
A bid assessment model enables you to objectively assess each outsourcer’s response to the RFP. It mirrors all the criteria outlined in the RFP and evaluates each outsourcer’s ability to meet or exceed each requirement.
In the bid assessment model, individual items from the RFP are weighted to indicate their relative value to the company. For example, let’s say your company has a section in the RFP describing bid conformance requirements. Each item under the bid conformance section (e.g., length, content, format, and timeliness of response, etc.) is given a weight. The higher the weight, the more important the factor is to your company.
To better understand, take a look at the bid conformance example below:
Using the model
Once all individual items have been scored for each outsourcer’s proposal, the assessment model rolls the scores into a summary and returns a ranking of all proposals. Once you have built your bid assessment model the summary may look like the following:
Conclusion
If you feel that the web of outsourcing opportunities has snared you, don’t despair. Take the steps outlined in the previous part of this series by investing in a comprehensive RFP and bid assessment model.
Kathryn E. Jackson, Ph.D, is president of Ocean City, NJ-based contact center consultancy Response Design Corp.