Why outsourcers can frustrate you
By Gavin | June 3, 2007
Here is a section from an e-mail that I received yesterday
from Ginny in Australia
I have similar messages on a daily basis so
I know this is not an isolated problem.
This is what she had to say …
—————————————–
So far, I have been a bit frustrated with
the VA and outsourcers I have hired
- I spend as much time emailing back and forth
asking them to correct little, obvious
inconsistencies and trying to suggest ways to
get the site looking good as I used to spend
trying to work out how to do it myself!
—————————————-
and my response
Anybody who has used an outsourcer or VA will
have had this problem at some point
OK the truth is this is less about the VA and more
about you.
I came to this realisation myself when working
with the English web designers that a client had
already started with. Up until that point I had thought
that it was just one of the drawbacks of dealing with
outsourcers form a different culture. DUH how wrong I was.
The tasks that I thought were obvious and needed
little explanation were not obvious to the
English designers and they either did not
do them or to the level of that I required.
It is frustration at this point that leads people to
fall into the trap of.
** learning how to do it themselves
** doing it themselves if they are capable
** moan about outsourcers from different countries.
As I was having the same problem with Indian Outsourcers
and experienced English web designers the common problem
factor had to be me.
It was my failure to accurately
· describe what I needed doing and
· what my expectations were
that led to the break down in communication
and my subsequent frustration.
If your truthful the same reasons cause the same
frustrations in all relationships not just
those with your outsourcers.
I’ll share next time how I manage these
situations to get better results now.
Gavin Allinson
P.S. I’d be interested to know what else
causes you frustration with Outsourcers
Topics: outsourcing, FAQ |
2 Responses to “Why outsourcers can frustrate you”
Comments
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January 20th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE
all the time Mr. Allinson! Most of the outsourcers I’ve hired from rentacoder just are total screwups. It’s that simple. Although I do admit I first just thought it was Indians until I hire a couple American retards and one Canadian basket case. It was like an international multicultural muppet show!
So I’ve fallen into the trap of:
** learning how to do it themselves
** doing it themselves if they are capable
** moan about outsourcers from different countries.
but over time I got a lot better at:
· describe what I needed doing and
· what my expectations were
one thing I always mention to people is your idea of doing a camtasia vid of instructions. That has saved me tens of thousands in hard costs and headaches already.
BUT HOW DO WE KNOW YOUR PEOPLE ARE ANY BETTER?
I’m on the edge of trying your service, but after all my bad experience I really question if it will be different with you.
#1 what sort of guarantee can you offer?
(I spent thousands with Richard East’s OMS3 or OSM3 trafficassistants.com and bwiredin.com and they refused a refund when they only performed 10% of the hours -and screwed even that up really badly)
#2 If I’m not happy, will you just blame me for giving bad instructions?
I’m the biggest challenge you will have as a customer. I won’t be surprised if you just don’t want to deal with someone like me, or if this post never shows in your blog.
~Victory Darwin
September 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I too have had major problems with outsourcers.
I use camtasia videos with a flow chart and they still seem to get it wrong.
Some of the conclusions I have come to is…
1. If you are not prepared to fully teach them the background of why you want something done then don’t bother half teaching them and expecting them to do exactly what you want.
2. Create a checklist for them to fill out and tick off. using Google docs or some other sort of sharing document system.
3. Really it comes down to getting the right person for the job you want done. You have to interview people and ask them questions to test if they have the right knowlege to do the job to your standard.
Hope that helps!!!!