How Mavlers Avoid Misaligned Expectations During Projects

So, you are either a brand or an agency owner and are considering partnering up with Mavlers for your upcoming offshore digital marketing. But there are certain clouds of doubts that loom over invisibly yet make you sit and think.

• Will I need to wait a whole day for urgent updates due to timezone issues?

• Do I get to have a project manager for me?

• Will there be separate project managers for multiple projects running concurrently or will they change continuously?

• Who will be responsible for the project communication, feedback, timely delivery, and on-point results?

• What about the data security and legal processes? Will the intellectual property rights of the deliverables belong to Mavlers?

We at Mavlers hold 12 + years of experience in collaborating with 600+ agencies like yours and empathize with the collaboration concerns you might have before you sign across the dotted line and choose to invest your time and precious data with us. 

We will be covering the processes we have in place at Mavlers to ensure a smooth offshore team alignment/collaboration, namely;

• Transparent, honest expectation-setting and management
• Flexibility in adopting agency processes and proper legal framework/documentation
• Single point of contact (POC) for all your offshore digital marketing projects with Mavlers!
• Ensuring cultural alignment and on-point communication by deploying English–fluent customer-facing executives
• We work in your time zones!

By the end of the following blog, you will stand to gain a clearer insight into our honest and transparent measures to achieve a smooth offshore team alignment/collaboration. 

1. Transparent, honest expectation-setting and management

Be it collaborating with brands or agencies, we stand by the following motto,

“Underpromise and deliver as promised (per industry standards) or overdeliver.”

Whenever a new agency/brand approaches us with specific digital marketing needs, we ensure we set clear and honest expectations on the deliverables during the quotation process stage. 

While offshore agencies tend to overpromise on the deliverables, we know exactly what it feels like to get your hands burnt by being promised certain numbers with little to no chance of being achieved in real-time. 

Therefore, before you sign the contract, we highlight the quantifiable deliverables clearly in the proposal upfront, considering,

• the current industry standards
• seasonal factors
• projected audience receptivity

For instance, we were recently approached by a client who wanted to witness increased leads/conversions.  

To manage and set clear expectations, we informed the prospect about the current industry standard, seasonal factors at play, and the receptivity of their audience to their product/service. 

We then arrive at an achievable figure and inform them of an expected gap of +/- 10% – 15% before you sign the contract.

In the above scenario, we also let the client know that we can make up for the deficit, if any, in the promised number of leads at a certain time in the future, such as Black Friday sales, when the audience shows greater interest in their offering. 

Once the NBD (New Business Development) team sets clear expectations with you on the proposed deliverables, we proceed to secure the legal aspects of our collaborative journey. 

2. Flexibility in adopting agency processes and proper legal framework/documentation

We make it a point to follow the processes of the agencies that want to partner with us so that we can serve their clients better. 

To illustrate this better, suppose an agency wants us to take up their client’s web development project, and they follow the waterfall or agile development methods; we adopt their choice of processes to ensure seamless alignment.

With brands who are not so particular about the processes and are concerned only about the offshore project’s success and end deliverables, we ensure to give regular feedback and updates on the project milestones as highlighted in the Scope of Work (SOW), 

Being an ISO-certified (International Organization for Standardization) agency, we are also very clear on the legal side of the engagement, such as,

• What would happen if something goes wrong
• If the client falls short of the promised level of commitment or we fail to deliver on the promised deliverables

Our Master Service Agreements (MSAs) and Scope of Work (SOWs before we sign the contract) are well-tailored to account for unforeseen circumstances. 

For clients looking to partner with us for white-label services, we have Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) in place to assure them of the project confidentiality and that we would never directly or indirectly approach their end clients. 

Such trust-building measures enable a smooth, frictionless drive down the offshore collaboration road. 

For enterprises looking for GDPR compliance, we ensure that all our executives maintain compliance with the GDPR norms in their daily tasks and project task accomplishment. 

You can peruse the legal documents we have in place to maintain a seamless alignment with our clients.

• Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA)
• Master Service Agreements (MSA)
• Scope of Work (SOW)
• Insurances such as ~ Commercial General Liability (CGL), Excess General Liability (Umbrella for CGL), Professional Liability, Workmen Compensation

The MSA highlights the following;

• Services decided upon
• Payment terms
• Terms of termination
• Confidentiality clauses
• Intellectual Property (IP): which highlights the fact that the deliverables are the IP of only the client and NOT Mavlers
• Warranties
• Insurance
• Non-solicitation 

To maintain data security, if the client/agency wants our resources to work on their physical assets (laptops), we are also flexible enough to do that!

3. Single point of contact (POC) for all your offshore digital marketing projects with Mavlers!

Once you feel comfortable and safe enough to sign across the contract’s dotted line, we at Mavlers go the extra mile to ensure a seamless transition from the NBD (New Business Development) executive to your assigned Account Manager (AM). 

Our sales reps stay on board with you for a fortnight or two until there is a significant rapport and coordination between you and the assigned AM. To ensure smooth knowledge transfer, the NBD executives stay on every call with your new account manager and are also CC’d in every email so that nothing goes amiss. This ensures a smooth onboarding process and knowledge transfer and facilitates good engagement as well as project execution. 

We understand the discomfort when you are asked to remember and reach out to different people, such as the Account Manager (AM), Project Coordinator (PC), and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). 

To eliminate this common client pain point, we have introduced a single point of contact, namely your Account Manager (AM), who will be the proverbial bridge between the different services at Mavlers and the client. 

Your assigned AM will be your single POC for all of the following scenarios,

• Coordinating your current project, future project, and business partnerships
• Meeting your billing, finance, and invoicing needs and concerns
• New project discussions
• Requirement understanding
• Project scoping
• Holds whole and sole ownership for project success, execution, timely delivery, escalation instances, if any
• Business growth and partnership
• Ensures seamless connectivity between different projects of one client
• Source the right SME for every requirement of the client
• Addressing post-delivery concerns and timely delivery 

This ensures that there is little to no scope for misalignment or miscommunication between the client and the offshore team. 

4. Ensuring cultural alignment and on-point communication by deploying English–fluent customer-facing executives

Achieving a hundred percent cultural alignment with our clients might be a far-fetched dream. Still, we try our best to train our customer-facing employees with the right knowledge and language skills to reduce communication gaps and ensure everybody is on the same page. 

We endeavor to give global exposure to our teams so that we iron out cultural differences to the best of our ability. 

5. We work in your time zones!

At Mavlers, we truly believe that time is money. 

Therefore, to eliminate delayed delivery or project miscommunication arising from time zone differences, we work in your time zones and offer 24*5 support. 

This simple step helps deliver projects and the right support as and when you need them!

Our chat function on the website can also help you get instant help when needed. 

Check out our business processes that ensure seamless offshore team alignment!

So, what’s next?

Setting honest expectations, maintaining clear communication, and seamless collaborations ensure long-term success for both you and your offshoring partner. 

We at Mavlers know the importance of selecting the right partner for your digital marketing needs. You might want to check out our guide on “When should an agency outsource to local vendors vs offshore vendors?”