Outsourcing Service Review Criteria
The following explains the criteria we use to review each online outsourcing service. Please note that existing assessments reflect the criteria earned at the time these services are reviewed. Depending on the date of publication, parts of them may no longer be applicable. Helpful insight into how these services may affect what you want to do can be obtained through our growing outsourcing articles library.
1. Contact
In our opinion, outsourcing services that make expected contact information available to the public are more serious than those that don’t. We don’t believe a sole email address or phone number is enough, and we certainly don’t believe a contact form is sufficient.
Services that provide support email addresses and a physical address and a phone number are the services we label serious. To us, these items indicate a degree of transparency that’s expected from any valid and trustworthy business.
Each point of contact, therefore, earns the following values:
1.67 points for providing support email address
1.67 points for providing a physical address
1.67 points for providing a phone number
2. Fees & Payment
A money back guarantee is the biggest priority here, however, a sensible fee system and payment method is important too. So we place the strongest emphasis on the guarantee when available, and then award values to services that demonstrate a means of earning a profit. Businesses that can earn a profit are businesses that suggest sustainability.
We award half a value to services which (1) disregard fees from both outsourcers and providers, or (2) charge fees that are so outside the norm, it would be impossible for them to profit. In addition, we award half a value to services that offer a minimal number of payment methods (such as PayPal only, for example) as opposed to several payment methods (like PayPal, credit cards, check, Western Union, etc.).
Each payment structure earns the following values:
1.67 points for providing expected fees
1.67 points for providing expected payment methods
1.67 points for providing a money back guarantee
3. Security
An awful lot of credit card numbers fly through online outsourcing services every day, making security a number one concern. Criteria for this section, therefore, centers on items that not only encourage a feeling of security among consumers, but also foster financial exchange as well. Outsourcing services are thus rated accordingly:
1.67 points for working through a secured server
1.67 points for being in the Better Business Bureau directory
1.67 points for having a Norton safe site
4. Disclosure
No online outsourcing service (or any online service, for that matter) is ever obligated to make content public. However, like with disclosing full contact information, making a Terms of Service page or Privacy Policy page available to the public displays a quality of transparency that reads as honesty. So in a sense, you could interpret the following criteria as a measure of honesty.
1.25 points for providing a FAQ
1.25 points for providing a terms of service policy
1.25 points for providing a privacy policy
1.25 points for opening these documents to the public
5. Buzz
A successful online outsourcing service will generate a lot of buzz internally and externally. The following criteria, therefore, takes into account whether a service facilitates internal buzz via ratings and feedback, and whether that buzz leaks offsite in the form of back links. Internal ratings and feedback may not seem like appropriate buzz criteria, but when a service is abundant with highly rated contractors, word gets out as recommendations (i.e. links).
It’s important to note that a high buzz mark isn’t always indicative of a great service. Some people will recommend a service as something to avoid!
Each buzz factor earns the following values:
2.5 points for providing a ratings and feedback system
2.5 points for owning a high number of back links
6. Support
Accessing help is extremely important — especially to new online outsourcers. So we hold outsourcing services that provide assistance in high regard. Criteria for this section includes:
1.67 points for providing phone support
1.67 points for providing email support
1.67 points for providing an extensive, onsite help section
7. Presence
Serious outsourcing services make earnest efforts to promote themselves. It simply shows they care about what they do, which is a beneficial characteristic anyway you look at it. That’s why, here, you’ll find criteria that indicates (1) the lengths in which a service will go to in an effort to inform the public about what it does, and (2) how well those efforts attract and keep business.
Each effort earns the following values:
1.0 point for having a high Alexa rating (indicating a busy website)
1.0 point for having a high number of contractors (indicating high usage)
1.0 point for having a company presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (the number of followers, friends, and connections may play a role)
1.0 point for being mentioned in Wikipedia (bonus for having an exclusive section)
1.0 point for publishing at least one significant press release
Sites not reviewed:
1. Sites that display AdSense ads. We believe outsourcing services that are serious about their own development as a lucrative business model don’t need or want to advertise companies that compete against them.
2. Sites that are academic paper mills. Buying academic papers and passing them off as your own is an ethics and school violation that we don’t support.
3. Sites that don’t foster employer – employee working relationships. Some of the “services” we encounter appear to foster outsourcing relationships, but are really classified ad sites or directories. Since we’re not evaluating classified ad sites or directories, they aren’t included.
4. Crowdsourcing or competition sites. Crowdsourcing and participating in competitions aren’t the same thing as outsourcing.
5. Sites with a job board. Our A – Z Site Review focuses on sites that focus on outsourcing/freelancing services only. Sites that discuss one or more issues and provide a job sub-section are not reviewed.
If you get an epiphany that what your doing or listening to, just doesn’t seem right, you need to open the mental “book of common sense”, because nobody will start waving a ”red flag” unless its you.