The Moment of Truth: How BPOs Can Stop Getting Automated Away (And Start Leading the Change)

Milan Batinich 0:00
I was supposed to do ten and a half miles and my legs felt great. Oh I will, don't I? We're not recording oh we are recording.

Milan Batinich 0:06
Oh I was supposed to do ten and a half I was supposed to do ten and a half miles and my legs felt great. But stop it.

Amanda Quinn 0:15
Spit it down.

Milan Batinich 0:16
It was so hot and humid.

Amanda Quinn 0:18
You sound like stop it. You sound like Darth Vader with a Midwestern accent.

Milan Batinich 0:23
No, I thought Wisconsin isn't Midwest, you said.

Amanda Quinn 0:27
I mean the definition of like a miswed.

Milan Batinich 0:30
In my post I was gonna get super scientific, but I'm like, no, I'll just talk about humidity and dew points. But corn sweat is a real thing, isn't that crazy? You probably didn't even read the post.

Amanda Quinn 0:40
I just saw the picture of you running, and I was like, oh my god, he's doing ultra marathon. What is corn sweat? Why did he what is corn sweat?

Milan Batinich 0:47
So this time of year, right before harvest, in the Midwest, corn sweats meaning like human sweat. It's like perspiration, but on corn, like on a plant. And not to get too scientific, but because of that the sweat evaporates like all water, and it causes much more humidity in the air. So like yesterday was 89, but the real feel was 101 when I was running because of the corn sweat. And then today it's supposed to be 87, but like 99 because of the corn sweat. So this week we have corn sweat, which apparently is a real thing.

Amanda Quinn 1:24
Is that like a thing that your local news is showing? Like, hey, it's corn sweat season.

Milan Batinich 1:30
Yeah. Yeah, Madison News, Madison, Milwaukee, they're all showing it. Yeah.

Amanda Quinn 1:41
Welcome to Build a Better BPO, the podcast where we help business process outsourcers break free from the one size fits all approach and build stronger, more profitable businesses.

Milan Batinich 1:52
If you're a BPO leader looking to improve margins, reduce employee churn, and create long-term client relationships, you're in the right place.

Amanda Quinn 2:00
I'm Amanda Quinn, our principal at Quinn Growth Advisors. I help BPOs refine their positioning, market their expertise, and move beyond the outdated labor arbitrage model.

Milan Batinich 2:09
And I'm Milan Batinich, CEO of Milan Motivates. I help BPOs and CX leaders build stronger, happier teams by improving employee engagement and retention.

Amanda Quinn 2:19
So if you're ready to build a better BPO, let's dive in.

Milan Batinich 2:38
So I can't believe we're on our 10th episode. We have hit double digits for our Build a Better BPO podcast. It's insane. And what is it that you would like to talk about today?

Amanda Quinn 2:47
I would like to talk about what small and mid-sized BPOs should be doing right now. We're going to get strategic, we're going to get tactical, what they should be doing, how they can best capitalize on July, August, September this year, 2025, to be able to set up for success in 2026 and beyond.

Milan Batinich 3:10
Awesome. I love it. So if if there's one key takeaway, the most important thing, small to medium-sized BPOs that want to scale, that want to grow, what is the top strategy that they should be implementing right now?

Amanda Quinn 3:23
They should be, well, that's hard to ask. Say just one. But I want them, I want small to mid-sized BPOs to be thinking about how they can move from being just a labor arbitrage, order taker, execution-oriented work, and how they can become a solution provider, strategy, doing strategy, implementation, execution for their clients where they're solving the problems and using whatever means necessary, whether that's a human, whether that's technology, to help their clients solve their problems. So I want BPOs to be making that, it's a huge mindset shift. It's an operational shift, it's a go-to-market shift. I want them to be starting to think that way because the future is going to demand that BPOs are solving problems and not just doing low-hanging fruit execution work because we know technology will replace that.

Milan Batinich 4:28
That is so true.

Amanda Quinn 4:37
Yep. Yep. And it starts by just getting really clear on what problems you're solving. Where are you playing? Who are the clients that you have the most success with? And the reason that's important is because when I talk to BPOs, and all day I feel like I'm having this conversation where they're like, we have really great relationships. We're in with this client or these clients, and they view us as a strategic partner. But when I start unpacking the type of work they're doing, all that work is going to get automated away. It's all at risk of in the next couple of years of going away. And so the question is, are you going to be the one that helps your client automate it away? Are you going to be helping in that process? Or are they going to have to do it behind your back and steal that work from you? And so what I want BPOs to be doing is thinking about how they can help their clients from their perspective right now, kind of coming in. And if you're just doing appointment scheduling, or if you're doing tier one customer support, things like that, can you be looking at ways where you can help them build automations, build processes, maybe leverage AI, but maybe it's not there yet, to start deflecting some of those inquiries? Can you start taking some of your own work away and then show your clients that you're thinking of their best interest while you do so? And then use that budget to help them improve their improve their services or invest in additional technologies that will enable their clients to get a better experience or their internal team to get a better experience, or you guys collectively to get the insights that you need for that client to get to make smarter business decisions. And so it's like I said, I keep saying a mindset shift because I want BPOs to realize that this we're here. We're here at this moment. You know, the future isn't written yet, and you have the opportunity right now to decide what your what the future of your business looks like. And if you don't start making changes, you're going to risk depends on what you do, but there's a high likelihood you're going to risk your business getting significantly eaten away by further, cheaper um regions of humans where there are other centers or technology. And I don't want that to happen. So that's what we're talking about today.

Milan Batinich 7:14
And that's a great point. So it's not only how can a small or medium-sized BPO grow and scale, but then also even preventing them from uh reducing their revenue that they're getting from their clients. You know, you brought up a really good point that even if uh even if a brand doesn't go to another BPO for those technologies, all the brands out there have the same access to different technologies or different strategies. The same exact ones that BPOs have access to. So, yeah, what what would prevent a brand from take bringing it back in-house? Like, okay, be you know, say they're working with a BPO and the BPO isn't being proactive and taking the initiative to implement certain technologies or strategies. So there's nothing holding that brand back from just going out and doing it on their own and bringing it back in-house, taking that business away from that BPO. Because the brand can identify and demo technologies just like the BPO can.

Amanda Quinn 8:12
Right, right. What I would like BPOs to do, and like if I could have a um, I don't know why I keep saying this, so in my mind, I'm I'm banging a cowbell. Like I'm literally banging a more cowbell. Yeah, more cowbell. BPOs to be thinking about how they can be leveraging technology, especially right now, to improve their operations, to get better at things on their side, and then go into your clients and look at ways that you can improve their businesses. Like everything we're hearing from brands right now, and all the research says brands are being brands and stakeholders, your stakeholders, your clients are being asked to do more with less. And so if they're getting, if they're having reduced budgets on their side, if their CFO is down their neck saying, we need to add AI, because I need to tell the street that we have AI, that leader of the contact center, that leader of whatever function that you work closely with, um, isn't gonna have time to be thinking as strategically as they want. This is probably not their area of expertise. They're struggling to just keep their employees showing up if they have internal employees, they're they're struggling to make sure that they're motivating them, they have the sort of the right roadmap. And the more that a BPO can take advantage of that cognitive load that your clients are trying to carry and help shoulder some of that burden, it's gonna just make you so much stickier to that client. And when you start talking to your clients and asking those, you know, really deep questions of are you struggling with this? What's keeping you up at night? What do you wish you could accomplish that you don't have time to accomplish? And starts taking some of that work on, it opens the opportunity because most likely that work will be project-based work. And so now a BPO can start thinking about pricing in a different way, where they're not having to price based on just the hours that something takes. We've talked about this in the last podcast, like they can price based on the value of what that project will deliver, the number of tickets that will be deflected, the cost of this cost savings of that, you know, something along those lines. Something, especially if it's transformational like that. And now you have a case study, and now it now, like not only is your client going to be more indebted to you and want to work with you further on on projects. And I've seen this with my clients, like what they're what they're seeing, the client, the BPOs that do this are seeing that internally, the internal team at their client is slowly going away, and their BPO is replacing that internal team. Like that's a sign that you're doing something right. But what it also enables is you to get really good data, like qualitative data on what clients in that, you know, what the head of operations at a company like this is generally struggling, struggling with, thinking about what are the industry headwinds that are happening. And then you can take that to your other clients and be able to say, hey, are you are you also struggling with this thing? We just did this, we have this great case study, we just did this thing with your competitor. Um, I think that you guys would add it would be a lot of value for you. Now you're strategic with another client. And now once you do that kind of work a couple of times and you start getting some reps in, now you can start to automate that process. And now you can make your operations a lot more nimble and lighter on your side to be able to conduct this kind of like perhaps clunky one-off work. You know, you can start having a team, and then maybe you set up a person on your team that is overseeing these kinds of client relationships and can ask the right questions to be able to kind of pull out from your clients what are the softer asks, the things that they're not openly ready to say, I need this service. Can you give me a quote on it? But you guys can start being more consultative of here's how I would help you. Here's what we've seen other clients have had success with, and this is what I would recommend. And it's just a dynamic shift. Does that make sense, Milan? Is that resonate about what you're seeing too?

Milan Batinich 12:32
Yeah, definitely. And and a lot of times, brands, unless they have an internal technology person that is actively going out into the marketplace and looking for different contact center technologies or different technologies to improve on their customer experience. The brands don't know what's out there. So they may see advertisements or they may see different things on LinkedIn or other places where it's like, oh, there's this new type of technology that may help us, but they don't really know. So it's I think it's really important for BPOs as that strategic partner to understand, know and understand the different things that are out there.

Amanda Quinn 13:08
Right. Exactly. And that's such a great point to bring up, too, because you're completely right. Most of your clients, technology ownership probably falls on them, but they don't know what's involved in putting together a proper RFP and how to like put together requirements. And I remember that, like when I ran marketing and I was in charge, charge with picking a new CRM, I was so overwhelmed. Like I hated that and that that decision and the like process, and I we got completely duped because I did not know it's a longer story, but I I hated it. And I was like, I why is this part of my business? Like, why am I not getting the help I need internally to um make this decision? But anyway, if a BPO can step in and shepherd their clients through that process, and ideally what I would recommend to BPOs too is I don't want, I don't think the right move is for you to just be this reseller of all this third-party technology. What I think the right move is, is for you to, after getting really clear on your best clients and where you want to focus your business. I talk about niche, I talk about specialization, you should figure, you should figure out what is the right tech stack for that. What is the best QA tool out there for that use case? What for clients like that, what is the right, you know, knowledge base system or agent assist and what whatever. You should figure it out. You should implement it as part of your tech stack and should be making customizations to that because we know none of those SaaS products are they're catering to the wide market, right? All those companies are going for the biggest TAM possible, and so they're not building solutions that are bespoke to any given industry or really any given states.

Milan Batinich 15:00
It's not like it's specific to BPOs, right?

Amanda Quinn 15:03
No, they're going, you know, whatever, a mile wide, an inch deep. And so that's the opportunity for BPOs. How can you leverage that technology if you don't have an internal tech team? How can you leverage that technology and then make customizations to it or at like build on it so that it becomes almost proprietary? What your way that you're leveraging it at solving your clients' problems makes you become so much stickier because they can't go buy it off the shelf now. Like what you've done, the changes you've done and the value that they're seeing from those changes now, because you built the right processes and the right feedback loops and the right, you've trained it the right way. Now it's really customized to your clients. And now it makes it so much easier for you to be able to say, This is why, this is what I would recommend that you add into your stack, and here's why, and this is what we do for you. And when by the way, now when I'm gonna go try to win other clients in that space, I can leverage all of this great IP and all these great case studies to really show that I'm different from every other BPO that's out there, that's just white labeling and just reselling and trying to be everything to everyone.

Milan Batinich 16:23
That is a hundred percent accurate, is that differentiation because with 300,000 BPOs, and even if there's several focused on as a brand focused on that specific niche or that specific industry, there's be able to differentiate yourself and set yourself apart from everyone else is going to be huge in order for you to be able to scale and grow a lot faster. Because then you're not only known as the expert within that industry for that brand, but then you're also known as with your IP around technology, you're also known as the go-to that has your stuff together and can uh help solve for these uh different problems, and even solve for I think a lot of it is the brands don't recognize that there's ways to improve or don't recognize that there may be underlying problems that these technologies from their BPO providers can can solve for. So having that IP and being able to differentiate from a BPO perspective, I think, to your point, is gonna really carry them a lot further.

Amanda Quinn 17:22
Yeah, the way I kind of frame it is future BPO is going to be almost like consultative outsourcing, where you're more of a doctor. You know, you work with the same types of clients over and over again. And so you're able to act almost like a doctor and say, you know what, I think from what I'm hearing from you guys, sounds like there's a bit of a knowledge base project we need to do to get your data in order. And I think we need to add some workflows here, auditing the processes, training processes that you guys have going on, and we'll come in and do that, as well as hear some low-hanging fruit from a technology perspective to be able to improve your deflection, uh, you know, deflect tickets, improve your average handle time, improve your lifetime value as a result, because now this all seems so frictionless for the client, which is the goal, right? Um, the way in which you do it, whether it's a matter of we're gonna provide some humans that are gonna be prompt engineering the AI behind us to solve these problems, or we're gonna be providing humans that are gonna be offering that like really high empathy support for escalations, or we're gonna be helping you kind of take your tech stack from where it is now to where it should be and build that roadmap. All of that just kind of goes into your toolkit of how you solve your clients' problems. So you're not competing against technology anymore. Now you're utilizing technology in your delivery of those services. And it just reinforces that you really are experts at this, and that you, more than any other BPO out there, are best at solving that client's problems and why they would trust you to outsource to, or why they would, you know, especially if it's not a core function, they're like, hey, you know, a lot of the clients I work with, like they're they get to a point where they have a leader at the company that's like a director level position, and the entire, like I said, the entire team basically is outsourced. And that's that's that's the potential, right? That's the opportunity. And so that's kind of why I wanted to sort of frame this as this is the opportunity. This moment in time is the opportunity to really make big shifts in your business that set you up strategically to win and capitalize on the coming years.

Milan Batinich 19:52
I love that. So, Amanda, as BPOs are listening and watching to this podcast right now, um a question I thought of that they may be thinking, and maybe you can help us solve for it, is we've always been that labor arbitrage type of BPO, that type of company, where we're really focused on not outcome-based pricing, we're but we're based on labor pricing and based on geos and all of those things, you know, the old school way of thinking when it comes to BPO. And everything that you're saying makes sense. I love it. I need to move forward with this, I need to be pro take initiative, be proactive with my clients, and need to figure all of this out. How do I do that? So, what's the what first step? How do I how do I start figuring that out? Like BPOs are like, I want to do this, I've never done it before. So can you tell me how I do it or what's the first step I need to take? Because what do I do?

Amanda Quinn 20:44
That's a great question. I'm so glad you asked it. Yes, I think the the step the stepping stones in this process are first to get really clear on your where you want to specialize. Who are you serving and what are you doing for them? And what problems are you solving? Because that's gonna dictate everything else that comes. And if you don't make that decision, and that's a that's called positioning, if you don't make a positioning decision, what's gonna happen, and you just move on to the next step, you're going to end up being a reseller of technology or have broad, make your own technology that is broad and fits a bunch of use cases, but you're gonna get picked away by that by those technologies and those providers that are specialized at solving given problems. And so the first step, like I said, is to figure out that niche. And you know that I help with that, figuring out where you should specialize. Once you've kind of figured that out, then it then the kind of evolution is how can you start doing work that is not just labor arbitrage? How can you start doing project based work where you're Charging if it's not a outcomes-oriented or value-based pricing in terms of the value of this project to the to the client is X. So I'm going to charge half of X because I know that that's what they're going to get as a result. I want you to at least be charging project-based work. And I want you to put it at like consulting hours. That could be I want it to be $50 plus an hour, whatever that is. And then I want you to start start thinking about your the next kind of stepping stone is how once you start doing that work and you're starting to perhaps automate away some of your revenue or starting to maybe become a threat to yourself. I want you to be working with your clients and start figuring out the roadmap for them of how you can reinvest that budget the most strategic way possible with them. And so that is going to start usually looking like additional technologies that you'll invest in with that savings. So you're going to be starting to put together your own tech roadmap for your clients and where they should go, what's the first step? And I want you to be improving your own processes behind the scenes too. Like how can you leverage technology to the extent that you can afford it right now to get really efficient at whatever you can if you're not already doing that? And then once you're starting to kind of move along that journey, you're starting to add in third-party technologies, like I said, and your clients are starting to buy them. Then it's the question of how are you going to monetize that? What's the way you're going to structure that? And that is a broader, much more challenging conversation that I think is going to be different case by case basis. But I want you to be looking for ways to make it win-win where you're not just reselling and marking it up. I want you to be thinking about how you can, I don't know if it's going to be interaction-based, like the number of pings, API calls, whatnot, just like the way, sort of the way that a lot of technologies price it, or if it's the retainer fee for using this platform, platform fee. There's a bunch of creative ways to do it. And I think the market is still trying to figure out how to price it right now. So I don't really feel like there's a great answer on this is the way it's being done. I think it's that's in flight right now. And then eventually, where when you have this whole tech human plus tech stack for a given client, I want you to revisit your whole commercial model of how are we pricing to these clients? How can we make it so it's win-win? Now we feel confident in what we can deliver to this client. How can you get the upside? How, if you improve against that marker, that number, something that the client cares about too, not necessarily just handle time, like something that really is driving business for them. Because I want the goal for every BPO to be the work that we're doing with our clients is so foundational, even if it's not a core part of their business, that they're writing about it in their annual 10K. I want them to be like this work that we're doing here is changing the way. Like they're getting upside, their clients are happier, longer, staying with them longer, whatnot, that they're touting those results because of what we did this along this journey. That got a little bit esoteric, but um, yeah, that's where I, that's the opportunity. That's what I want BPOs to be thinking of right now. I think that's the where the future of the market is going. And obviously, I hope you can see that from the sales side, all of the in-marketing side, this will be so much easier going to market when you have that level of knowledge of your type of the industry, the clients, the problems they're solving, how you solve it. Oh my god, you can write so much content to bring in like inbound leads, should be flooding in because you can develop the engine that will lead to those kinds of leads.

Milan Batinich 26:08
That makes sense. And to your point a couple minutes ago, it all starts with that figuring out the specialization first. Yeah, I love it. I love it.

Amanda Quinn 26:16
Crawl walk run.

Milan Batinich 26:17
That makes sense.

Amanda Quinn 26:18
This is, I know, a very scary moment for a lot of BPOs that I talk to. Like they're this feels a little bit unprecedented in the industry. Um and that the reframe I offer is instead of kind of being overwhelmed by this moment, view this as an opportunity that you're excited about. This is your moment to completely change where your company is positioned in the ranks, to completely change how much money you're making, how well known your business is, what you're well known for. Like this is the moment. Don't squander it.

Milan Batinich 26:55
That's right. Yeah, don't squander it, don't miss it. Don't be like, oh don't miss it. Yeah, I'll just wait. Don't wait.

Amanda Quinn 27:02
Don't your competitors aren't waiting. I'll tell you that. Your competitors are not waiting.

Milan Batinich 27:07
Definitely. So Amanda, BPOs are listening to this and they're like, I want Amanda's help. I need Amanda's help in figuring all of this out and figuring out my specialization, how I can grow, how can I implement these different technologies, how I can be that thought leader, provider. All of this. I need all of the help. So, Amanda, how can they find you? How can they reach you? How can they do that?

Amanda Quinn 27:30
Yep, you guys can reach me on LinkedIn, Amanda Quinn. You can also reach out to me on my website, quinngrowthadvisors.com. I help with BPOs at any part of that journey. So some that are just trying to figure out their specialization, some that are trying to figure out their monetization strategy, anywhere along that journey, happy to help you and have a conversation with you and your team to figure out what your best best path is forward.

Milan Batinich 27:57
Awesome. Well, Amanda, as always, this has been amazing. I always learn something every time we talk, which is good because I love to learn continually. And appreciate all of your insights around BPOs and technology and how they can grow and scale.

Amanda Quinn 28:17
Thank you so much. Great talking to you, Milan. Have a good one.

Milan Batinich 28:20
Bye.