How to choose a nearshore customer service and BPO partner

Quick summary

• Nearshore outsourcing should be evaluated at both the location and provider level.  

• Recruitment capacity should be assessed for the specific languages, skills and locations required by the operation — not based on total company headcount.  

• Recruitment speed and operational readiness are different. 

• Scalability means more than adding people. Demand patterns differ significantly between sectors and even between companies within the same industry.  

• Industry experience should be evaluated at process level: supporting a company from your sector does not necessarily mean managing the same type of operation.  

• Not every KPI is equally easy for an outsourcing provider to influence. SLA and answer rate can often improve faster than metrics such as AHT, FCR or NPS.  

• AI capability should be assessed by identifying where automation creates operational value — and where human involvement should remain.  

• The right nearshore partner should understand not only how to execute the process, but also what determines its performance.  

Start with the operation, not the nearshore location

Poland, Romania, Portugal, Bulgaria and other European nearshore destinations may all offer attractive conditions for outsourcing. 

But choosing the country first can lead to the wrong comparison. 

Start by defining what the operation actually requires: 

• processes,  

• expected contact or transaction volumes,  

• languages,  

• channels,  

• operating hours,  

• seasonality,  

• specialist skills,  

• regulatory requirements,  

• systems and integrations,  

• service levels,  

• expected business outcomes.  

Only then should you evaluate which locations and providers can support those requirements. 

A location that offers strong recruitment potential for German-language customer service may not provide the same access to Dutch or Nordic speakers. 

Similarly, a mature general customer service talent pool does not automatically mean the same location is equally suitable for complex banking processes or specialist healthcare support. 

Nearshoring should therefore begin with the operating model you need to build, not with a country on a map. 

Don’t ask whether a provider can scale. Ask what it can scale.

Scalability is one of the most frequently discussed advantages of outsourcing. 

It is also one of the easiest capabilities to oversimplify. 

A provider employing several thousand people may appear highly scalable. But total headcount does not tell you how many people it can recruit for your specific process, language and location. 

The relevant questions are more precise: 

• How many agents can you recruit for this operation?  

• In which location?  

• With which language and specialist skills?  

• How quickly?  

• What happens if the team needs to double?  

• How will quality be maintained during rapid growth?  

• How will capacity be reduced when demand falls?  

There is another reason to examine scalability at process level: not every peak looks the same. 

In e-commerce operations managed by Axendi, Q4 — particularly Black Friday and the pre-Christmas period — is typically the most obvious period of increased demand. But even within e-commerce, patterns vary. Furniture retail can experience stronger summer demand, while fashion businesses may see peaks around summer and winter sales. 

Healthcare follows a different rhythm, with higher demand typically associated with the autumn and winter illness season. 

Banking operations can be considerably more stable. Significant increases in contact volumes may be associated less with seasonality and more with events such as outages or mergers, while normal weekly demand can show relatively predictable patterns. 

Black Friday, flu season and a banking outage can all increase contact volumes. 

Operationally, however, they are three completely different scaling problems. 

Instead of asking a potential partner simply, “Can you scale?”, ask: 

“Have you scaled an operation with a demand pattern like ours?” 

Separate recruitment speed from operational readiness

Recruitment capacity matters, particularly when moving customer service or back-office operations to a nearshore partner. 

But the number of people recruited by a particular date tells only part of the story. 

A new agent still needs to learn the process, systems, products, communication standards and potentially several channels before reaching expected performance. 

Across customer service operations managed by Axendi, the learning curve for a new agent to reach the target QA level typically takes approximately 2–3 months, depending on process complexity, the number of skills required and the communication channels involved. 

This distinction becomes particularly important during rapid scaling. 

A provider may be able to recruit 50 people within a short period. That does not necessarily mean 50 fully productive agents will be available immediately. 

When evaluating a provider’s ramp-up plan, ask what the team should realistically be capable of after: 

• 30 days,  

• 60 days,  

• 90 days.  

Recruitment ramp-up and competence ramp-up are two different curves. 

A credible scaling plan should account for both. 

Look at the recruitment engine behind the numbers

For the same reason, overall workforce size should not be treated as a proxy for recruitment capability. 

What matters is whether the provider can repeatedly recruit the profiles your operation needs. 

For multilingual customer service, ask: 

• How large is the realistic candidate pool for each language?  

• Where are those candidates located?  

• How is language proficiency assessed?  

• How quickly can replacements be recruited?  

• Can team leaders, trainers and QA specialists work in those languages?  

• What happens when several clients compete for the same talent pool?  

For specialist BPO processes, the question becomes even more specific. 

Recruiting 50 customer service agents is different from recruiting 50 people who combine C1 German with financial-services experience and the ability to work within a highly controlled process. 

Talent availability should be evaluated at role level, not country level. 

Compare realistic onboarding timelines

Another number that should be treated carefully during provider selection is implementation time. 

“How quickly can you launch?” sounds like a simple question. 

It isn’t. 

Implementation depends on the process, sector, systems, training requirements, security, contracting and the number of stakeholders involved. 

Based on Axendi’s operational experience, onboarding for e-commerce and healthcare customer service operations can typically take up to approximately two months, depending on project size and complexity. 

In banking, operational onboarding itself may take around 2–3 months. When the entire process, including contracting and formal requirements, is considered, implementation can extend to approximately a year. 

That does not mean every project in those sectors follows the same timeline. 

It demonstrates why one generic “time to launch” figure can be misleading. 

When a provider presents an implementation timeline, ask them to separate: 

• commercial and contractual preparation,  

• recruitment,  

• technical implementation,  

• security and compliance,  

• training,  

• operational onboarding,  

• go-live and stabilization.  

A provider promising the same implementation timeline for a relatively straightforward e-commerce customer service operation and a complex regulated banking process should be able to explain why. 

Evaluate industry experience at process level

“Do you have experience in banking?” 

“Do you work with e-commerce companies?” 

“Have you supported healthcare clients?” 

These questions are useful, but they are not specific enough. 

Within one industry, customer service and BPO operations can vary enormously. 

An e-commerce operation may involve deliveries, returns, payments, disputes and complaints. 

Healthcare contacts may revolve around appointment booking, cancellations and preparation for examinations. 

Banking operations can involve card blocking, loans, credit cards, limits and many other processes with different levels of complexity and risk. 

The underlying operational environment matters as well. 

Banking can involve particularly complex interactions because agents may need to work across multiple systems. But a large marketplace operation can be equally complex when customer journeys involve sellers, buyers, logistics providers, payments and multiple internal processes. 

Instead of asking: 

“Do you have experience in our industry?” 

ask: 

“Which processes do you currently manage in our industry, and how similar are they to ours?” 

Then compare: 

• contact reasons,  

• systems,  

• channels,  

• volumes,  

• responsibilities,  

• regulatory requirements,  

• escalation paths,  

• KPIs.  

Industry experience creates value when it reduces the learning curve and operational risk — not simply when a recognizable logo appears in a presentation. 

Understand which KPIs the provider can actually influence

During outsourcing discussions, providers are often asked how they will improve performance. 

But not every KPI responds equally quickly to operational changes. 

Across Axendi’s e-commerce, healthcare and banking operations, SLA and answer rate are generally among the more straightforward metrics to improve operationally. 

Other metrics can be significantly more difficult. 

AHT, for example, cannot always be reduced simply by asking agents to work faster. Sustainable improvement may require better knowledge management, simpler processes, system changes, automation or greater agent experience. 

FCR introduces another challenge: the contact center may not control every factor required to resolve the case. 

Consider an e-commerce delivery enquiry. An agent may need information from a courier or depot before resolving the issue, making first-contact resolution impossible regardless of how well the agent performs. 

In healthcare, many appointment-related enquiries can be resolved directly, although niche examinations or limited appointment availability may require additional work. 

In banking, fraud-related cases can require investigation and escalation outside the frontline team. 

NPS is broader still because the customer’s perception may reflect the entire experience with the company rather than the interaction with the contact center alone. 

A mature provider should therefore distinguish between: 

KPIs it controls, KPIs it can influence, and KPIs that depend on the wider customer journey. 

Ask providers not only which metrics they expect to improve, but what operational mechanism will produce that improvement. 

Don’t confuse geographic proximity with cultural capability

Nearshoring is frequently associated with cultural proximity. 

But geographic proximity and cultural similarity are not the same thing. 

Countries located relatively close to each other can still differ in communication styles, hierarchy, approaches to feedback, expectations around formality and perceptions of good customer service. 

Multilingual operations add another layer. 

Speaking a customer’s language does not automatically mean understanding how customers in that market expect a company to communicate. 

Evaluate: 

• experience with your target markets,  

• language assessment,  

• intercultural training,  

• localization of communication standards,  

• tone-of-voice management,  

• multilingual QA,  

• cultural competence among team leaders and trainers.  

The objective is not to eliminate cultural differences. 

It is to build an operation capable of working effectively across them. 

Look beyond agents when evaluating multilingual capability

Many providers advertise support for 10, 20 or even 30 languages. 

But the real test of multilingual delivery begins behind the frontline. 

If 20 agents speak German but their trainer, QA specialist and team leader cannot evaluate interactions in German, maintaining consistent quality becomes more difficult. 

For every strategically important language, ask: 

• Who recruits the team?  

• Who tests language proficiency?  

• Who trains the agents?  

• Who evaluates quality?  

• Who coaches them?  

• Who manages the operation?  

• How easily can additional people be recruited?  

Multilingual customer service requires multilingual operational capability, not simply multilingual agents. 

Evaluate AI by where it sits in the process

Almost every BPO and customer service provider now talks about AI. 

The presence of AI itself is therefore a weak differentiator. 

The more revealing question is: 

Where would you use AI in our operation — and where wouldn’t you? 

The answer should differ by process. 

In e-commerce, repetitive enquiries such as parcel tracking or standard informational contacts can be natural candidates for automation. 

In healthcare, appointment booking, cancellation and information about preparation for examinations can offer automation potential. 

Banking may present a different opportunity. In some processes, the strongest use cases may sit behind the customer interaction — for example, AI-supported knowledge management or automated quality analysis. 

The right automation strategy therefore does not begin with: 

“How much customer service can we automate?” 

It begins with: 

“Which parts of this particular process benefit from automation?” 

A provider should also be able to explain which interactions should remain human-led because of complexity, risk, sensitivity or customer expectations. 

Examine the management structure around the operation

Outsourcing proposals naturally focus heavily on frontline capacity. 

But the quality of the operation depends on the structure around those agents. 

Who will manage the team? 

Who will train new employees? 

Who owns quality? 

Who manages workforce planning? 

Who analyzes performance? 

Who identifies recurring customer problems? 

Who communicates with the client’s internal teams? 

Who owns continuous improvement? 

These questions become particularly important as operations grow. 

A team of 20 people and an operation involving several hundred agents require different management structures, communication models and governance. 

When comparing providers, ask to see the proposed operational structure, not only the proposed number of agents. 

Decide how much process ownership you need from the provider

Two providers can offer almost identical services and still represent very different outsourcing models. 

An execution-focused provider may expect the client to define the process and then focus on delivering it against agreed KPIs. 

That can work very well when the operation is mature, documented and highly standardized. 

But not every process is ready to be transferred exactly as it is. 

Some contain unnecessary manual steps. Others depend on outdated workflows. Some could benefit from automation. Responsibilities may be unclear or knowledge fragmented across several systems. 

In those situations, transferring the existing process can simply transfer its existing problems. 

A more advisory partner may challenge parts of the operating model before or during implementation and participate in process design, automation and continuous improvement. 

Neither approach is inherently better. 

The important question is: 

Do you need someone to run your process, or someone who will also help improve it? 

Make that distinction before comparing proposals. 

Look beyond the SLA when evaluating governance

SLAs and KPIs define expected performance. 

But they tell you relatively little about what happens when performance falls below expectations. 

Ask potential providers: 

• How quickly is underperformance identified?  

• Who is informed?  

• How is root cause analysis conducted?  

• Who owns corrective actions?  

• How frequently is performance reviewed?  

• What data will the client receive?  

• Who participates in governance meetings?  

• How are improvement initiatives prioritized?  

• What happens when the same problem occurs repeatedly?  

Good governance does more than report performance. 

It creates a mechanism for identifying, understanding and correcting problems before they become structural. 

Evaluate security and compliance inside the operation

Certifications and compliance documentation are important, particularly when outsourcing processes involving personal, financial or health-related information. 

But they should be the beginning of the security conversation, not the end. 

Ask how security works operationally: 

• Who can access customer information?  

• How are permissions granted and removed?  

• How are activities monitored?  

• How is remote work managed?  

• What happens when an employee changes roles or leaves?  

• How are incidents handled?  

• How are subcontractors controlled?  

• How is business continuity maintained?  

• What audit trails are available?  

In regulated sectors, clarify which responsibilities belong to the provider and which remain with the client. 

A provider’s ability to execute operational tasks does not automatically transfer regulatory accountability. 

Understand the real economics of the nearshore model

Nearshore outsourcing comparisons frequently focus on rates. 

Rates matter, but they do not represent the full economics of an operation. 

A lower hourly rate can become considerably less attractive when accompanied by: 

• high attrition,  

• constant recruitment,  

• long training periods,  

• poor FCR,  

• low productivity,  

• quality problems,  

• inefficient workflows,  

• unnecessary manual work.  

Conversely, a higher initial rate may produce better economics if the provider can improve productivity, automate repetitive work or reduce operational instability. 

Instead of asking only: 

“What does an agent cost?” 

ask: 

“What will it cost to achieve the required business outcome?” 

The right nearshore partner should understand your operation, not just your RFP

Nearshoring can provide important advantages: geographic proximity, compatible time zones, access to multilingual talent and easier collaboration between internal and outsourced teams. 

But those advantages create potential. 

They do not create performance on their own. 

Performance depends on what the provider builds around them: recruitment, training, management, technology, governance, process knowledge and the ability to adapt as the operation changes. 

That is why some of the standard questions used to compare BPO providers are too broad.