Why nearshore is important and what are the benefits?

Thinking about a nearshore team

I remember the first time I contemplated the idea of utilizing a nearshore team. As an operator of our energy company, I was hesitant due to many concerns I had because of my lack of experience with working with such a team. Some of the questions were, what quality of work would they provide? How would we stay aligned? Will the agents provide quality support? How would their language proficiency measure up? After researching and understanding more about this service, I concluded that the benefits outweighed my concerns.

Talent in LATAM

I used to run a call center out of Houston and one of the main challenges we encountered was the ability to recruit quality candidates. About 80% of the call center agents were high school graduates and 20% had a college degree or enrolled in college. The employees with the college degrees stay for less than a year and then leave to pursue a career based on their studies. In contrast, call centers in LATAM employ mostly people with college degrees. The BPO industry pays well in Latin America, and that encourages highly educated candidates to pursue a career in nearshore supporting roles.

Communication

The world is smaller than we think thanks to the advancements in communication. During COVID we learned that we could work efficiently remotely and working with a nearshore team is no different. The key, in my experience, is to develop a consistent communication plan between your team and your nearshore team. At Blu Power Solutions, we encourage clients to have a Weekly Performance Review to adapt or pivot to meeting critical KPIs and a Monthly Performance Review to understand the previous monthly performance and to review expectations for the upcoming month.

Business Continuity Plan

Businesses can benefit from a nearshore team during a natural disaster. In August of 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought devastation to the Houston’s metropolitan area. We were able to maintain business continuity despite a 14% increase in call volume during the impacted week thanks to the support of our nearshore team. During this time, we were able to meet our normal goals for average speed of answer and service levels. Do you have to move your entire operations to nearshore? The answer is simple, no you don’t. You could benefit from having a secondary team to support your operations.

Cost Optimization

The best way to understand cost-optimization is by focusing on two factors.

1. Eliminating overhead cost

a) Our hourly rate eliminates your overhead cost by an average 25% to 40%

· Let’s look at one example: employee rate $15.00/hr. plus overhead costs is about $18.75 to $21.00 per hour. Based on these numbers your savings could be between $3.75/hr. to $6.00/hr.

· Yearly savings per employee using the previous salary range could be between $7,800.00 to $12,480.00

· If you have a team of 20 agents, your potential savings per year could be between $156,000.00 to $249,600.00.

2. Volume savings

a) Depending on the number of personnel and the position profile we could reduce our hourly rate bringing additional savings

b) Set a multi-year price lock to secure rate and plan for financial forecast

There are many benefits when considering a nearshore company for your business. Blu Power Solutions can be your partner finding beneficial solutions, if you would like to learn more about nearshore support, please feel free to contact us and we can help you answer any questions you may have.

Yoriko Carreon

CEO, Blu Power Solutions?

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