Ensure that you have clearly defined objectives and goals

Make sure that your potential African BPO partner has a clear understanding of what it is you want to achieve with your impact-sourcing initiative.

• Clarify your business objectives. Before you reach out to any potential BPOs in Africa, it’s important to understand what you aim to achieve through impact-sourcing. Are you looking for cost savings, access to skilled labour, or enhanced corporate social responsibility (CSR)? These are things you’ll want to share with your BPO partner and align on success measures.
• Set social impact goals: These are the goals that are going to best help you determine which BPO is aligned with your CSR vision. The more clearly you define the specific social outcomes you want to achieve (e.g. job creation for disadvantaged communities, skills development, empowering women and poverty alleviation), the easier it will be to determine which BPO will be the best fit. We have experience in creating an effective impact strategy, and can help you translate your own priorities into goals.

Assess your potential BPO partner’s experience and reputation

Some information will be readily available online, though you may have to do some digging.

• An established track record in impact-sourcing. Evaluate the BPO’s history in impact-sourcing. Look for case studies, client testimonials, and industry awards.
• Reputation. Research online reviews and forums to gauge the BPO’s reputation among clients and employees.
• Overall industry expertise. Ensure the BPO has experience in your specific industry to provide relevant and effective services.

Evaluate the BPO’s social impact commitment

Impact-sourcing strategy. Does the BPO have its own impact-sourcing strategy? If so, how does their strategy align with your own social impact goals?

• Community engagement. Assess the BPO’s involvement in local communities, including outreach and training programs. What impacts have they already made in the communities they’ve served?
• Employee development. Check for programs that provide career development opportunities and skills training. If empowering African women is one of your goals, what processes or programs does the BPO have in place to ensure that women are considered for leadership positions? How many of the BPOs already have women in leadership roles?

Analyze operational capabilities

• Scalability. Ensure the BPO can effectively scale their operations to meet your growing business needs.
• Technological infrastructure. How reliable are the BPO’s technology capabilities? Evaluate their IT infrastructure, internet availability, data management, and cybersecurity measures.
• Service offerings. Review the range of services offered by the BPO to ensure they meet your business requirements.
• Language Capabilities:  One benefit of working in certain African countries like South Africa and Kenya is that English is the native language, so don't be surprised if you are regularly seeing C1+ capabilities, which is not the norm in India or the Philippines.  Check with the BPO on other languages as you may find unexpected capabilities in German, Spanish, French, etc. 
• Channel:  While you may think that written channels such as chat or email might be the safest channel to start, some African countries have surprisingly good voice capabilities with accents that are very pleasing to the ear. North American customers will instantly recognize India or Filipino accents with negative reactions at times, however the South African accent is, generally, favourably accepted by customers happy to speak with a person in a country they’ve never communicated with before.
• Scope:  Africa is a young continent and will continue to have a very low average age for at least the next 10 years. With more facility and acceptance of tech advancements, Africa is a wise choice as your complexity in servicing methods grows. Even though outsourcing BPO work is still at an early stage, don't assume that agents are unable to handle the level of complexity in tech that your company may need.  Many African countries have high university graduation rates, countries have high ownership of smartphones, which can lead to easy adoption of your servicing tools.

Financial and legal due diligence

• Financial stability. Assess the financial health of the BPO to ensure long-term viability.
• Legal compliance. Verify that the BPO complies with local and international regulations, including labour laws and data protection standards.
• If you work in a highly-regulated industry, your BPO partner should have a solid understanding of your own industry’s legal and compliance requirements when it comes to communicating with your customers.

Site and facility evaluation

• Facility conditions. Conduct site visits to evaluate the physical condition of the facilities, including information security, backup power, and accessibility. Additionally, sites with more social activities factored into the physical plant making it a great place to work will help from an agent retention perspective.
• Geographic footprint. Consider the BPO’s geographic presence and its ability to support operations in multiple locations to mitigate risks.  Consider a global footprint that will ensure your network has the desired uptime.  India and the Philippines are subject to serious seasonal weather impacts, which doesn’t exist with the same frequency in Africa.
• Employee environment and morale. Assess the overall atmosphere and employee sentiment within the facility. Sites with more social activities factored into the physical plant making it a great place to work will help from an agent retention perspective.
• Does the facility offer open and collaborative areas that encourage team interaction?
• Are there break rooms or relaxation spaces that promote well-being?
• Are there visual cues (e.g. posters or displays) that speak to positive motivation, employee recognition or celebrations of achievement?

Cost analysis

• Get detailed pricing. When obtaining quotes from potential BPOS, ensure that they’re providing a detailed estimate that includes all costs and fees so you can accurately compare providers.
• Look for value beyond cost. Does the BPO offer intangible benefits such as employee engagement and retention? Are they supplementing the agent experience with BPO-led tools to make the agent more efficient?

Cultural and ethical alignment

• Cultural fit. Ensure the BPO’s corporate culture aligns with your company’s values and mission.
• Ethical practices. Verify the BPO’s commitment to ethical business practices, including fair wages and working conditions.

Performance metrics and KPIs

• Define your KPIs: Establish clear performance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of the BPO partnership. Communicate often about results and don’t sit back until things are not going well. Establish levers and triggers for action when results are not meeting expectations so you can close the loop on performance issues as they happen. No BPO tries to do a bad job, and your customers expect excellence.
• Get a commitment to regular reporting and a clear management interaction model: Ensure the BPO provides regular performance reports and is transparent about their impact-sourcing outcomes. Know who you should be dealing with, expected turnaround times for requests, escalation paths within the BPO teams for everything from the day-to-day challenges to site outages, process breakdowns, etc.  And remember, this goes both ways – the BPO should also have that same clarity from your organization.