Elevate Your Relationship With Your Outsourced Service Provider

Most nonprofits outsource some level of back-office services — typically payroll, accounting services, IT, or HR. Whether your decision to outsource was based on cost, technology, staff shortages, or other factors, there’s likely room for improvement in your outsourcing relationship. Here are a few key tips we’ve learned along the way in providing outsourcing to over 2,500 clients.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

You can say that again! Communication is a key to any relationship and your outsourcing relationship is no different. If you’re not hearing from your provider, have unmet expectations, or a project seems stalled, here are some tips:

• Set up weekly check-in calls until you are satisfied with the performance or project
• Consider using a weekly status email to keep track of progress on open projects
• Make sure you know who is ultimately responsible for the success of your engagement; firms may have several team members working on your account but there should be a single person that owns the success of the engagement
• Remember, providers welcome your feedback — they can’t change what they’re not aware of

Set benchmarks

At the beginning of your relationship, it’s helpful to have a short “imagineering” session. Spend a few minutes envisioning what it might look like two years into your relationship. What would be accomplished? What would you be celebrating? Take the time to define what success looks like, write down your answers, and turn them into goals and benchmarks. Some examples include:

• Financial statements delivered by the 15th of the month consistently
• Emails responded to within 24 hours
• Payroll processing errors no more than one per quarter and resolved quickly
• Financial dashboard built and delivered 120 days into the engagement

Collaborate on technology and workflow process changes

Significant changes in process and technology often have organizational impact and should be implemented intentionally.

• Take time to fully understand the technology platform and associated costs (one-time and ongoing) your provider is recommending
• Map out an implementation timeline that makes sense with your organizational calendar
• If process changes will affect the wider organizational team, request a documented workflow that can be distributed to your entire staff, and schedule time for your team to raise questions and get answers on how the changes will be implemented
• Share your ideas and things you learn in the marketplace with your provider — learning goes both ways!

Pricing should be transparent

Your provider should provide clear pricing on in-scope services, and you should have the opportunity to approve out-of-scope services before work is performed. Transparent pricing helps foster honest discussion about your budget and your provider’s billing practices. Also, be sure to discuss upfront how billing disagreements will be handled.

One of our clients recently raised a concern regarding a staffing issue and expressed reluctance to incur additional costs associated with resolving the matter. In response, we extended an offer to conduct meetings aimed at addressing the issue at no additional cost to the client until they were fully satisfied with the outcome.

How we can help

An exceptional outsourcing relationship is not achieved overnight, and both parties need to be committed to achieving your desired results. Following these tips can help you get there.

If your nonprofit is considering outsourcing, our team would love to discuss your needs.

Thank you to Andre Sadler who contributed to this post.