I have talked with numerous agents all across America in the past year and many of the top producers are outsourcing parts of their BPO work.
One thing that they outsourced (that surprised me) was the data entry part. Many would outsource this work to someone else. Some outsourced the data entry side of their BPO’s to people in India. They would pay a ‘VA’ (virtual assistant) a few dollars an hour and they would do the data entry for them on any BPO’s the agent had coming in. (Unfortunately, I was sad to learn that some BPO and REO agents would let their ‘VA’ go into their MLS, pick their comps and some would even let people in an unlicensed person [both those that live in the US as well as those that live in a foreign county) decide on the final value on a BPO order.)
I personally don’t believe in this option. Call me ‘too proud’ to outsource to a third world, but I believe in keeping work here in the US. If someone is trying to save money because people in the states charge more than I think that there are better options.
When talking to these agents most times it is because they are clients of BPO Automation Group. They are wanting to automate their BPO work. Most times this means doing away with their ‘VA.’
I praise them on this decision and fully support this choice…and not just because this means that I get their business. From my own experience with having my own team helping me with my BPO’s, I found out that it is better to rely on automation software as my ‘VA’ then on a person…no matter where they live.
When your reputation is on the live and many times a means to have a livelihood, then I personally feel that it is critical to be in control of many important aspects of your business. To me this means making sure that you are the only one involved in picking all of your comps for each order and overseeing the data entry side.
p.s. I realize that this blog posting may be contraverial. Please be warned that it was not my intention to offend anyone.
What are your thoughts on this?
