Building Processes for Top Team Performance – with Ben Shipley of Trust The Process

In this episode of the Outsource Accelerator Podcast, Derek speaks with Ben Shipley, the Chief Customer Officer at Trust the Process. 

They discuss the nature of outsourcing processes, the Australian business landscape, and current perceptions of offshoring. 

Trust the Process

Ben begins by giving a short rundown of his company. 

“Trust the Process was essentially founded by a couple of former army veterans. [They] spent a decade plus in the Australian military [and] came out with an entrepreneurial itch to scratch and started their own business.”

He explains that their previous businesses had grown using offshore team members. When those began wrapping up, there was a need for new employers for the existing team. 

“It was from a love of working with Filipino teams and wanting to have roles going forward that Trust the Process was born.” 

As for the choice of name, Ben says that it ultimately comes down to processes when outsourcing. 

“We’re big believers that you should always outsource a process, you shouldn’t try and outsource a problem.

When you send something out into the world of outsourcing or offshoring that you don’t know how to do, and you don’t have a good process for, [if] it currently doesn’t work well, you just get a bigger problem. 

But when you’ve got something that’s nice and repeatable, then you can get massive returns and efficiencies.” 

Being process-driven

Ben reiterates that offshoring works better when you outsource processes instead of problems. 

“If you’re just picking things that you don’t like doing [and] giving them away to somebody else, quite often that’s where it doesn’t work. 

When you are actually delegating a process and you can inspect and support it rather than just avoid it, that’s where somebody else doing it will actually work.”

He’s seen great variety in creating processes for different roles and functions. 

“We’ve seen some roles that a lot of people would tell you are quite difficult to create processes for. [But] we’ve had clients that have been able to, and then that’s been a massive boon for them in terms of their ability to grow.” 

Ben heavily champions the use of thorough processes in work and business. 

“I’m quite a process-driven person. I like to see how one thing works into another and connects and how it all comes together to make things work efficiently.

The problem with not being process-driven is that you end up in a situation where you do everything yourself. So I think it’s super important for people at all levels of business to be relatively process-driven.” 

Opportunity in the Australian market

Like the rest of the world, Australia is feeling the effects of rising labor costs and a growing inflation rate. 

However, Ben sees this as an opportunity.

“I would say it’s a great moment for offshoring in large part because there is so much pressure. It’s pretty hard to be an Australian business owner, not use some sort of offshore cheaper talent, and still turn a profit.

It’s an interesting time in Australian business. I just hear from so many new customers that being able to scale with a significantly decreased wage bill unlocks so many opportunities.” 

Resistance to offshoring 

Ben agrees with the assessment that there is still a resistance and lack of awareness of offshoring. 

“There is some level of resistance, and I think that’s usually when people think of it in terms of contact centers and customer service-side things. 

They think that the role [can’t] fully be done offshore, when in reality, you can split roles too. Just because you designed it for that onshore member doesn’t mean that’s how it has to be done forever.

So sometimes it’s not just that you get cost savings. Sometimes, you can actually elevate the qualification of the role.” 

If you want to learn more about Trust the Process you may visit their website. You can also reach out to Ben via his email at [email protected].