Three Tips To Master Customer Experience With Your Sharing or Outsource Strategy

In my last post, I shared an intro on how the shared economy is an extension of outsourcing. Rather than outsource anything that is not your core business, the shared economy is essentially outsourcing your core business - you better do it well.

Here are three quick tips on how to master the shared and outsource strategy.

Process

Process design, management, and continual improvement is the only way you can provide a consistent experience at scale. Design your processes to be fool-proof. Include exceptions, reference links, a contact center number to call with questions, and quality assurance.

It doesn’t have to be fancy to start. In fact, it is best to nail down the process first with paper before implementing complex systems or apps.

Trust

Establish mutual trust, respect, understand expectations, and form a good relationship with the people that participate in your shared platform. Without trust, relationships can crumble - both personal and business.

I personally feel that face to face meetings and social gatherings make the biggest impact on trust. Get to know the people in the business. Understand their perspective. It makes a huge difference.

Learn more about perspective training in previous posts on my blog: Walk In Their Shoes and Motivate Winning Teams. 

A few people from a partner company came to NYC from India the other week to collaborate for a project. While we had several meetings over the phone, the time we had in one week was amazing. We had the opportunity to work in the same time zone, enjoy lunch, and learn about one another.

Schedule a shared community gathering. The value to both your shared community and business will be priceless. Partner conferences are common - do the same for your shared community to establish trust.

Knowledge

You can have processes galore and trust the people. In the end, knowledge is the power to support your product or service. In a shared economy or outsource business model, you must have the framework and knowledge sources to train the people to properly support the product. Misguided expectations cause a ton of pain and cost your business money.

Build a single source of knowledge articles for everyone to reference - with a continuous feedback loop for people to contribute information when necessary. Create a training platform with a curriculum that re-enforces your processes, re-affirms trust, and aligns with your values. Without a shared place for knowledge, process will fall apart, and ultimately ruin trust with customers.

Training is one of the reasons Shyp, an on-demand delivery service app, will begin hiring the delivery drivers versus contracting. While it is likely not appropriate for all, it will be interesting to see which companies embrace the approach.

Here is another great article about the shift in contract workers to employees.Several of the business drivers are based on the worker to consumer ratio. What is right for one business may not be right for the other business. 

In my next post, I will share my perspectives; as business operations leader , a shared community member of Closet Collective, and as a customer using a shared platform.

Do you agree with the three key tips? I would love to hear your comments perspective.

Yours Truly

The Pukka Panda

The Sharing Economy: The Method To Outsource Your Core Business

I have been in the UCaaS industry for 12 years in both customer service operations and product.

The pitch for Cloud.

"Let us manage your phone system in the cloud while you focus on your business."

Other words, outsource anything that is NOT CORE to your business. You 'Share' with others in the Cloud.

The sharing economy takes it to the next level - it is the opposite - you leverage external resources TO SUPPORT YOUR CORE business model. Physical services can not leverage the cloud to reduce costs; therefore, a ‘Shared’ community driven by apps in the cloud is the perfect opportunity.

Uber, Handy, and Lyft are just a  few of the  businesses built on the sharing economy, which is expected to hit 335 billion by 2025. Whether your business is backed with millions from VC, labeled as a ‘Unicorn’ with a valuation in thebillion dollar range, or a new startup with a small piece of the market - it is your brand and your responsibility to create a consistent experience.

You must carefully plan the desired outsource or sharing resource strategy to support the best customer experience - or it will fail.  The competition is fierce, and the bar set high by the best brands. You can win with the right strategy and focus.

Some companies like Shyp, for example, are already starting to hire contractors to overcome challenges like training (hint: one of the key areas of success I highlight in my next post). It will be interesting to watch how these businesses adapt their sharing and outsource percentage of business over time.

As a business operations leader, a member of a shared community, and a consumer that is keen to a great experience, my next post will highlight three quick tips that are key to success in the sharing economy, followed by comments from each perspective.

Yours Truly,

The Pukka Panda

I would love your feedback. Please comment with your thoughts.