Updated
July 21, 2021
Written by
Merlene Leano
As a business owner, you know well how it is your responsibility to focus on your strengths to set your business apart from your competitors. To make this possible, there are several factors that you need to consider such as remarkable services, expert pools of manpower, and ultimately, building and maintaining excellent rapport with customers. Maximizing these factors is among the many ways you can exert your strategies and merit fruitful results.
However, this context does not apply to all types of businesses. If you are running a startup or a small business then that’s a completely different story. In most instances, there are specific areas in your business that your in-house manpower alone can’t cover. Assigning excessive tasks that go beyond their expertise compromises your business operations as a whole. This is where hiring a third-party vendor enters the picture.
If your company wants to hire a third-party vendor but has insufficient knowledge about this context, then this article might come in handy! It will serve as a quick guide about the definition of third-party vendors, their examples, their benefits, and how to hire one. To start off, here is a brief overview of what a third-party vendor is.
By definition, a third-party vendor is a person or a company that provides additional assistance to a company or to a company’s clients with or without a contract. They may be part of a partnership between two businesses, or manufacturers, or suppliers of resources.
Outsourcing third-party vendors comes with tons of advantages, despite the fact that business conditions vary and different scenarios may emerge. The most notable benefits of maximizing third-party vendors are as follows:
Outsourcing to a third-party vendor allows you to produce high-quality end-result and exceptional services. Let’s face it, when running a small business, your access to world-class and advanced facilities is limited. An external entity that is willing to partner with you in terms of supplying additional tools, platforms, or even staff to leverage operations is a smart choice.
One of the biggest hurdles of startups is the seemingly unavoidable path towards overworking employees and straining their skills beyond what they are tasked to undertake and expected to handle. Since you no longer need to allocate the outsourced areas to your in-house team, you will be able to maximize them by delegating tasks under their expertise thus improving your overall efficiency.
Your third-party vendors see to it that you gain full access to an exceptional pool of workforce to take on any area you may have outsourced to them. Consequently, you are guaranteeing quality results from taking advantage of the added boost in your operations.
Not only does hiring a third-party vendor help you gain impressive talents and extensive skills but it also allows you to use the latest tools and software to ensure the best service and quality of products possible.
One of the main reasons why businesses resort to hiring third-party vendors is to avoid spending too much on their end. With a third-party vendor, you don’t have to spend money on hiring new employees, buying operational resources, and adding facilities. Your outsourced third-party vendor has got it covered for you.
With a third-party vendor working in the background, you are now able to focus on honing your other business functions and campaigns. Labor-intensive tasks and duties are minimized, giving you more opportunities to delegate your time and existing staff to hone essential components needed to expand your services and keep customers satisfied.
Third-party vendors come in many forms, ranging from business partners and agencies to cloud-based software solutions providers, to accountant and payment services. Here is a breakdown of the most in-demand third-party vendors that you can outsource now.
Although contact center help desks should be —at all costs— present in every business, some businesses tend to overlook it. Luckily, a trusty 3rd party vendor support can come in handy to execute your contact center services. They can offer you multiple channels to stay interactive with your target users and existing customers, from offering platforms for live chat to supplementing your email marketing and voice support processes.
While most modern applications can do the job, most often than not, these apps are not optimized enough to handle long-form content and sometimes fall short of comprehending more technical areas such as medical and law-related terminologies.
Hiring 3rd party vendor transcripts specialists, however, guarantees that you provide a hands-free service that can accommodate and convert a broad range of audio and video recordings into usable and searchable text content which is otherwise instrumental in boosting your productivity as well as your overall customer engagement.
Customer support plays a vital role in nurturing customers in the long run. If you don’t have enough manpower and resources for customer support, then resorting to offshoring 3rd party vendors for customer service might be the answer.
Managing your social media accounts to increase your online visibility is rather a time-consuming task. A third-party vendor helps cross out that tedious task from your list so you can balance your digital presence with traditional advertising approaches. Your social media pages continue to generate engagement as you focus more on revenue-generating tasks.
Content moderation is an invaluable component to help you gain stability online. Thankfully, you don’t have to be the one on the lookout for unnecessary content on your online platforms (or your client’s website) when you hire a third-party vendor to handle all your moderation-related tasks.
Blogs play a vital role if you want to stand out among your competitors. But we have to admit that not all people possess the writing skills needed to create high-quality content. Outsourcing this to a third-party vendor guarantees that your website or blog page produces content-rich blogs and articles to help you leverage your online visibility.
Assuming there’s a sudden spike in the volume of users on your platform and your system can’t keep up, you need to keep your system up to date. However, hiring a skilled developer can be very daunting, considering that your platform requires a fixed set of expertise and know-hows that when disregarded may completely disrupt the fluidity of how people can use your services. Also, the money and time needed to find one is quite pricey. Meanwhile, a third-party developer company ensures you gain access to a team of experienced developers with the right knowledge to create and maintain an up-to-date solution prototype.
When making a decision on signing contracts for big projects that involve major investments, a third-party lawyer might come in handy. All the legal processes will take place on a third-party account. Employing legal counsel services also comes in handy in guiding your future decisions for your venture. It enables you to get a closer look at the limitations and conditions involved in practicing or expanding your services.
If you’re having a hard time finding a competent payroll employee or if you simply want to save time and money to find one, hiring a third-party company to handle all your payroll functions is also possible. Working with a third-party company diminishes the need for hiring an in-house employee as well as guaranteeing that the tools and software for the said task stay compliant with legislation.
Before you get to the onboarding process, the first thing you must do is to ask yourself the question: “Do I really need a third-party vendor?” It is important to know whether your business needs the service of a third-party company or not. Start this by reflecting on your company’s mission and vision and core purposes.
If you can see that your work setup and objectives are on the same page, you probably want to stick with an in-house workforce as it allows you to gain full control over your team. On the other hand, if your current business operations don’t seem directly related or aligned with your upcoming goals, then outsourcing is the answer.
There are some cases where hiring a third-party vendor is inevitable. Sometimes, there are areas in your business that are deemed unsuitable for you to take on internally. These tasks or areas include SEO, web designing, security service, and content writing to name a few.
If you have already made up your mind about resorting to hiring a third-party vendor, the next thing you need to know is how to find them. Here’s a quick guide to get you started.
This step is rather simple, but if not done correctly, you might end up wasting your money by outsourcing the wrong tasks or segments of running your company. Be very careful when stating your requirements. Are there specific deliverables you need? If there are, then inform them immediately. Do you need specific tools, products or services? Provide a concise list of it. If there is a specific work process you require, then you must also describe it aptly.
The internet’s wide space can help you find the perfect third-party vendor for your business. All you’ve got to do is conduct a deep dive. As mentioned, third-party vendors can be an individual or a company. For individuals, you can search freelancing sites to seek the right candidates. While for companies, the best avenue to find them is by searching on social media platforms and business forums. At times, they may also be found in B2B seminars and networking events.
Assuming you already found a potential candidate, you must have a prior familiarity with the said company. Do further digging on their credibility and efficiency by checking review sites, social media platforms, and their official website to see what people have to say about their services. Search for testimonials if there are any, and try to interview past clients to gauge what it would be like partnering with your chosen supplier, manufacturer, or partner.
It is important to identify what areas you should outsource, more than anything else. If you already have a concise notion of what areas you should outsource, it is easier for you to explain your requirements to the third-party company. It would help if you distributed surveys to your clients or customers to gain insight on how well you are meeting their expectations and demands. Are they happy about your customer service? Do they want additional updates or improvements with your services or product design? Do you feel as though your business is being left out and you need to catch up to the changing times as soon as possible? Are you looking to open more branches internationally? These are just some of the most typical aspects that entrepreneurs take time analyzing to help them have a better view of which tasks are best outsourced and how they can use it to augment their effectiveness in their chosen industry.
Evaluating your candidates is essential to ensure that your company is bound to creating excellent results. When evaluating, you must consider several criteria into the equation to help you determine the right third-party vendor for your business. Remember that each and every candidate has distinct strengths and weaknesses. It could be the price range, features, or both. This will vary from one area to another depending on what your business requires. Are their services customizable or will they be able to keep up with growing requirements moving forward? Are they well-versed with the most recent advancements involved in their platform or line of work? How about their level of professionalism and clarity when discussing quotations? Do you find it easy to communicate your expectations and ideas with them?
After careful deliberation, that is only the time you accept their proposal and start collaborating with them.
That is right.
The decision of whether to hire a third-party vendor or not will all depend on how you perceive the quality of the products and services you provide. Hiring a third-party vendor sure reaps tons of advantages not only for you but for your clients as well. With a flexible line of services that they can offer your business, third-party companies can help your business gain leverage on expanding its potential to withstand the changing tides of the market. But to make the most out of your business partner, you must have prior knowledge on the right steps on how to find and hire them.
Still don’t know where to start?
We might be able to help you! At New Media Service, we provide top-of-the-line, tailor-made business processing solutions that can help you thrive in this cutthroat landscape. We are equipped with smart solutions powered by both human and machine learning technologies that enable you to expand the breadth of your current marketing strategies.
Do you want to know how we take third-party assistance to greater heights? Talk to us!
Help us devise custom-fit solutions specifically for your business needs and objectives! We help strengthen the grey areas on your customer support and content moderation practices.
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