Offshorers - How To Keep U.S. Clients Happy

Service providers, we’ve got the scoop on what U.S. clients are really looking for in Indian offshore outfits. Here’s what makes an offshore service provider attractive to prospective U.S. clients.

1. A “Night” Watchman
Someone who is reachable in a genuine emergency when it’s lights out in India, but still business hours in the U.S.. Urgent matters (like a system crash or a security breach) come up more often than anyone would like to admit. Someone has got to keep the torch lit.

2. Time Gain (Not Time Pain)
India and America 9-12 hours apart can be a gift, allowing a 24-hour operation.  Yet this arrangement is not without its challenges.  Teams have a very short window of time to communicate in real time, or else risk days of lost productivity.  When extended work schedules become unavoidable, share the burdens with your client.

3. Responsiveness
The single most common gripe among state-side managers? Slow turnaround of emails and calls by the offshore team. Keep productivity and morale high by showing you can give a quick answer from across the continental divide.

4. Tooting Your Own Horn
Clients are willing to trust that you’re not spending your days playing cricket, but they’re not exactly on the scene to witness you being productive on a daily basis either. It helps if you document your progress.

5. Knowledge Transfer
U.S. clients are often wary of India’s chronic high employee turnover, because who wants to train an endlessly revolving door of replacements? Keep this from becoming a problem and you’ll have your pick of engagements.

6. Business Skills
One U.S. exec we interviewed received a time-critical, 42-page fax from offshore as 42 separate faxes (all out of order). Don’t pitch your fax machine, but do recruit people with business as well as technical skills.

7. Paperless
It may all be part of the cost of doing business with India, but the less your clients in the U.S. see of your mandatory government paperwork, the better. If you must present it, make sure you’re quick and organized.