Outsourcing
Interview: GoGet CEO Tom Davey shares insights into offshore outsourcing
A success story of the “sharing economy”, GoGet Carshare has grown to be a household brand on the east coast of Australia. CEO Tom Davey gives an exclusive interview to Matchboard on the role of its offshoring strategy and high-performing team in the Philippines.
What led GoGet to outsource its customer operations offshore?
GoGet is a carshare business. We give members hourly access to a vehicle near them without the hassles or costs of ownership. We have thousands of vehicles in local neighbourhoods across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, shared by hundreds of thousands of members. GoGet is proven to reduce private car ownership, free up parking, and improve sustainability outcomes for the whole community.
In 2016, GoGet was growing rapidly, requiring member service operations that could run 24/7, 365 days a year while also scaling with the business. Delivering a flexible, always-on contact centre in Sydney was getting operationally much harder. We could see the growth would add too much future cost, which would ultimately push up prices for members. It wasn’t sustainable.
We had a very rapid start to our offshore operations. It took about three weeks to get up and running. We then managed the transition through a multi-year hybrid period where the Sydney and Manila member service teams operated together. Today, the GoGet Manila team operates independently, with oversight and advocacy from Australia.
Matchboard originally introduced GoGet to our BPO partner. We needed someone who could move fast, work closely with us on a complex service and, crucially, was happy to operate as one team. We deliberately call the team GoGet Manila. Other than working in a different country, and technically being employed by a different company, the team is no different from the GoGet teams in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. This was, and continues to be, fundamental to our approach.
What has surprised you the most about working with a team in the Philippines?
I’m not surprised, but I am always impressed by the team’s commitment to delivering the best possible service for our members and their engagement in the overall mission of the business. I suppose one unusual element is how long many team members have been with us. That stability makes a big difference in a complex, always-on environment.
The team handles an incredibly wide range of situations. Every call or contact is unpredictable. They could be helping with basic admin, supporting a member with a serious issue, or anything in between. One of the things that surprises me is how resilient and adaptive the team is – and I don’t mean “for a team in the Philippines”; They deal with curveballs as well as I would hope any team could.
How do you think about the cost benefit of offshoring?
It is important to understand that we are an operationally lean business. We work hard to keep the costs of the service for our members as low as possible, without compromising service quality. The GoGet Manila team is an essential part of our service. For us, this move ensured we could keep growing the team and delivering the service sustainably and cost effectively as we grew.
It’s worth noting that office space and fit-out costs are an underestimated factor in the onshore comparison.
A growing contact centre has changing space requirements and needs the right setup. Not having to maintain an office that meets those demands has been part of the overall benefit.
Apart from cost, what do you believe are the advantages of going offshore? Are there any disadvantages?
The key advantage for us has been meeting our members’ needs in a way that was increasingly challenging onshore: reliable 24/7, 365 support, the ability to scale the team and operations more easily, and the flexibility to inject short-term resources when needed.
Another advantage is access to a broad talent pool of really capable people. If you hire and develop well, you can strengthen your operation. One example is execution speed and quality. When we agree on a process change, the team executes quickly and consistently follows it. This consistency is crucial in an operationally complex service with lots of regulations and edge cases.
I wouldn’t call this a disadvantage, but it is something to be aware of: In our case we want people to use judgement, challenge processes, come up with ideas, and give strong, direct feedback to the Australia-based team. That’s not the case in every offshore model, so it’s important to hire and develop the right people and leaders who can create that culture.
It is also worth being aware of the impact extreme weather can have on operations and on individual team members in different locations. You need to understand backup plans and how they will operate through disruptions. With strong plans and team commitment, we managed well through these events.
Do you have any tips for others struggling with an offshore operation, or outsourcing for the first time?
First, decide the model upfront. Do you want the offshore team to be part of your team, or do you want a more transactional provider model? Both can work, but you need to be clear. For us, the one-team approach mattered, and so did finding a partner that was aligned.
Second, have a balanced set of metrics, with a clear review and communication cadence and an action focus. This is something we have improved over the last few years and it has made a big difference.
Third, whichever model you select, have someone in Australia responsible for advocating for the overseas team, not just managing a supplier.
Fourth, ensure People and Culture, Technology, Finance and other relevant functions include your overseas team in core processes and communications where possible. It can add some complexity, but the payback is high. We did not do enough of this initially, and it is something we are strengthening now.
If we started again, we would give the GoGet Manila team even more accountability earlier. We would also invest more consistently in structured in-person connection and collaboration. For the last three years we have brought senior or emerging leaders from Manila to Australia for a week before Christmas to spend time with the whole team.
My final suggestion is to focus on the same things you would for any team: continuous improvement, delivering a great customer experience, and developing people across the organisation.
