Beyond Borders Podcast Episode 004: Overview
Don’t miss out on our latest episode featuring John Maczynski from PITON Global, a renowned consultancy in the BPO sector dedicated to forging strong connections between corporations and top-tier BPO providers in 35 additional countries. Their specialization lies in nurturing partnerships that seamlessly blend customer service, technical support, and back-office operations to elevate overall customer experiences.
As intermediaries between businesses and a diverse array of BPO providers spanning 37 countries, PITON Global appreciates the unique contributions of each region to customer experience solutions. They assist businesses in selecting partners that embody a harmonious fusion of technology, strategy, and personalized service, recognizing the Philippines for its empathetic customer care and India for its technological prowess.
Aligned with the shift towards a holistic, customer-centric approach, PITON Global utilizes its vast network to connect businesses with BPO providers excelling in customer-focused services. By leveraging their profound understanding of the global technological landscape and regional expertise, they empower businesses to establish optimal partnerships, enhancing overall customer experiences.
PITON Global doesn’t just facilitate transactions; they strive to foster meaningful relationships, transforming customer interactions. Through their expertise, businesses can select BPO partners capable of efficiently resolving issues while enhancing brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Their vision entails revolutionizing businesses’ approach to customer relationships by promoting collaborative, engaging, and empathetic experiences, setting new standards in customer care on a global scale.
Guest Bio
John Maczynski is an accomplished executive within the BPO sector, boasting an impressive 38-year track record of leadership. His extensive experience spans across more than 30 countries, with involvement in BPO projects exceeding the value of US$1 billion. Serving as the Co-CEO of PITON-Global, alongside over two decades of executive leadership at one of the largest global contact centers, John possesses a rare depth of outsourcing expertise within the industry.
Throughout his career, John has spearheaded outsourcing initiatives for numerous Fortune 500 companies, employing a consultative approach to counter the prevalent “one-size-fits-all” model in the BPO landscape. Recognized as a thought leader, industry authority, and staunch client advocate, John brings invaluable insights to the table. Leveraging his vast experience in managing countless BPO RFPs and selection processes, he excels at discerning meaningful distinctions among companies. His focus lies in aiding clients in making well-informed decisions tailored to their specific needs.
Interview Transcript
Neal: Hello and welcome to OutsourcingFit. I’m your host Neal Howard, thank you so much for joining us once again. We’re going to be speaking with Mr John Maczynski. He’s joining us here from PITON Global. Welcome to OutsourcingFit.
John: Thank you very much Neal. Thanks for having me.
Neal: I understand that you have quite a varied background from Tech to biotech to finance to Pharma. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to be associated with PITON Global and your role there as well.
John: Sure, absolutely. Yeah, I’ve been uh actually in the BPO industry back before it was called BPO so 38 years. Starting out as a supplier, I was a client. I worked for the largest BPO in the world and for the last several years I’ve been working at PITON Global as a CEO. So my role here is to help clients to be able to make smart sourcing decisions as they try to find a BPO provider.
Neal: Are you a BPO counselor to your clients?
John: Yeah, that’s exactly right. So I’m a sourcing adviser. Typically what happens is I’ve got clients who’ve got an interest in doing some outsourcing or they’re just starting to kick the tires and figure out good from bad and what they should be thinking about and is this right for me and that’s where I come into play, trying to take advantage of the fact that I’ve done this a number of times with a number of folks from Fortune 100 global companies down to small startups and you have been in their shoes and can provide that guidance for them in terms of companies that they could be looking at geographies that they could be looking at where’s the right place to be and what’s the the right overall model for them to be able to use. And the nice thing about what we do then as well is that since things are paid for, the fees are paid for by the suppliers that as clients seek to engage us in as well there’s no initial upfront cost here for any of the things that we do for them and we could just be their trusted adviser all along the way.
Neal: Is any business a candidate for successful outsourcing?
John: Yeah, it’s interesting. None of this is a one size fits all so there’s never going to be the one perfect company to be able to use as you’re trying to figure out an outsourcing partner nor is there going to be one absolutely perfect always location to use or a model or whatnot. So the nice part about that is that regardless of the company that you have and the kinds of things you’re trying to get done that there is going to be a perfect partnership for you that isn’t necessarily the perfect partnership for somebody else and because it’s not a one-size fits-all it usually takes a little bit of understanding in terms of being able to figure out what exactly you should be doing that again is right for your business, right for your situation.
Neal: Basically you vet a client or help them decide what is best for them as far as outsourcing is concerned.
John: Yeah,the key is to understand what your current state is. What you really are looking for in terms of future state and what are your real reasons for outsourcing as well so is this strictly a cost savings play and oftentimes that’s clearly the starting point. But the other thing that people I think sometimes think is that if you were going to outsource that automatically there’s some kind of a tradeoff. So if I were to move my calls and my contacts somewhere else that I would then have to sacrifice something to be able to get that done and realistically if you do things right, that’s actually the opposite of what you should find so you should be able to save cost because you’re working with somebody that’s in someplace else that has some labor arbitrage. And frankly that even works in a domestic environment so you don’t even have to leave the states in order for that to happen but no matter where you go, you will find various geographies that provide various levels of savings but that’s just table stakes so once you’re able to do that, you’re now working with a company that’s got BPO as a core competency and so as a result of that they’ll be able to bring things to the table that you may not even be aware of.
Neal: So best practices in terms of technologies and processes whether that’s workforce management or Performance Management, quality control – those kinds of things and your ability to be able to perhaps service your customers in new ways that you’re just not able to do internally just based upon your own restrictions or your own backgrounds. So if you do this the right way, you should be able to outsource and have this be not only a positive in in terms of your bottom line but in terms of also the way that you’re servicing your customer customers and being able to bring up that experience level outsourcing is simply setting up a call center someplace out of the United States. Is that a misconception and if so are there any other misconceptions about BPO that you can clear up for us?
John: Yeah, absolutely. Well so it is a misconception in terms of again necessarily having to go offshore. Now to be clear, you’ve got that as being pretty typical here these days and I think the main reason is that you can do that save a considerable amount of money and again not have to sacrifice anything so your performance, your quality and whatnot don’t have to be sacrificed because you go to other places but you’ve got for a variety of reasons companies that still elect to be able to do their work onshore and whether you do that in let’s say a remote setting or an incenter solution using resources, all sorts of various considerations there you’re able to get that done. Whether you do it for regulatory reasons and need to stay domestic for that purpose or you’ve got some other reasons that are very specific to you, then entertain that as being your best option. You can also go nearshore for instance and go and pick up some other opportunities as far as being able to do Spanish language servicing and various other things that you’re able to do very very well where you have to pay a premium for that within the US. You can do that very cheaply in other places and still stay pretty close but as you’re doing all of those things overall and again have that cost benefit there’s various other things that you gain out of that. And as an example in the US generally speaking, the call center jobs are typically considered to be very blue collar and perhaps something that you do until something more career oriented comes along. And so as a result, you may not attract all of the right people that you would hope for and your attrition rates for those people do tend to be a little bit higher than what you might be comfortable with. But as you then flip that and go into some other geographies, that becomes a white collar kind of position and as a result it can be coveted as compared to other alternatives that those people have and then from there people do tend to stick around longer is this becomes a career becomes an aspirational position in other places. So the whole way that you’re able to work within that contact center dramatically changes from an insourced domestic type of a solution to an outsourced solution.
Neal: Whether you do that within the US or someplace else, several different types of outsourcing firms, is that something that you tackle as well? If there’s a company whose scope is so broad, is this outsourcing expertise for that particular department another company’s outsourcing expertise for another department of that company, is that something that you tackle as well?
John: Absolutely. So you really need to be able to understand the landscape and understand the type of company that’s going to be a best fit for you so to your point, you may find that in your case you’re looking for an organization that can do a little bit of everything. And as a result then, they’ve got competencies in all the various functional areas. You might need whether that’s straight customer servicing sales inbound and outbound collections technical support and a variety of back office practices could all be part of the mix as to what you may be interested in. And some of those may be back office supporting your customers and some of those may be administrative functions payroll and HR and benefits administration and all the various other things you do just for your own business. So with all that being case depending upon what again is right for you and the overall size of the engagement, language needs, all the various other components you may find that it’s best to be able to find individual agencies that have that specific area of expertise. So you may want to use one company that does collections work, you may find another company that’s much better at customer service and go with the company’s strengths or in your case it may be best to be able to have all of those functions all over one roof.
Neal: Talk about how your leadership team there at PITON Global can help businesses build and improve with your leadership and then tell us where folks can learn more about PITON global.
John: Perfect. So our typical engagement is going to be one where we listen to your needs as a potential client of an outsourcer. So understanding what your objectives are, understanding your current state, understanding what we can do to be able to help you make your business better as a whole and perfectly solve your problem. And so what we’ll do is based upon our discussion with you, we will go through that whole sourcing effort which may include an RFP or maybe it takes some other kind of a form to be able to make sure that we’ve got your needs specifically being addressed so we’ll go from the initial discussion all the way through selection of a supplier. Help them with contracting if needed, implementation if needed and then away we go. Anybody that works with PITON Global will be working with me personally as I engage the rest of the team here to be able to provide those support services but you can rest assured you’ll be working with the CEO every step of the way.
Neal: And a website where we can learn more.
John: So the website for PITON Global is www.piton-global.com. You can also give me a call if you’d like. My personal number here 402 598 8740 and I’d be happy to have a discussion with you about what you need.
Neal: John, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much for lending us some of your time here on OutsourcingFit.
John: Neal, thank you so much as well.
Neal: You’ve been listening to OutsourcingFit, I’m your host Neal Howard in conversation with John Maczynski. Learn more about our BPO services at www.outsourcingfit.com
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