Better Customer Service through Updates

Updates and alerts about the progress of problem solving at the customer service desk increase the loyalty of the consumers. When a caller calls up with some problem that needs to be fixed over a period of time, the call center must provide the caller with regular updates. It may be that the BPO is not wasting a moment in working towards a possible solution, but unless you inform the caller about your progress, the caller will think that you are sitting on it without doing anything. This will increase the caller’s impatience and invite more calls to the inbound call center desk. That way, you are handling a higher call volume without any productive purpose.

The BPO unit must put together a framework to update the customers and callers. A call from the outbound call center desk would be ideal. An email would be adequate as well. Callers feel paranoid when you are completely out of touch. The problem may be one of many that your call center handles in a day. But for the caller, the problem is one that occupies the mind every waking moment. The caller cannot be at peace unless the issue is resolved. Hearing from your end assures them that they are in good hands.

Cloud Call Center Services

Cloud call center services serve some very basic functions. One of them is the reduction in costs. When call center services are being conducted by agents from their personal spaces, there is very little overhead cost involved. The BPO company need not pay for the office space or the infrastructure costs. They can work with the employees by an online method of synchronization. The reports for telemarketing services can also be prepared and updated through web-enabled means. Clients can also take a look at the progress report whenever they want to. It brings about a much-needed transparency in telemarketing projects.

The cloud call center services help to get better quality manpower onboard. Experienced agents often like to work from home because of flexibility in work timings. Call centers cannot employ them because they don’t like rigid timings, or the commuting to the office. When BPO companies employ them in the cloud system, they are able to devote more time and energy. They also put in additional amount of work because they have the time on their hands. This form of customer service works well, too. Business firms having a global clientele often have to work at different time zones. An inbound call center working on the cloud mode is able to tackle these calls round the clock, across time zones, if the managers can schedule their shifts accordingly.

Role of Emails in B2B Lead Generation

Emails are effective ways of communicating for B2B lead generation. Emails become necessary in this context because the call center is contacting with busy professionals. Telemarketing calls may not do the trick as you may never get them on the phone. You will have to email your call center services offer and other details. This email is just the opener. You will have to make follow-up calls, preferably on the same day that you send the email. Delays will make way for the email to be buried under piles of emails that they receive on a daily basis.

The emails that you draft for lead generation in B2B projects have to be well-written. The design, the template and the copy have to be professional. It’s the brochure that can get the call center sector the project. Make sure you personalize the email for the contact. Keep special attention to the kind of message that you are drafting. It must be written in a way that can grab and keep the attention of the reader. To make the email more authentic, include links to credible sources. You must pack the email with information that is relevant to the needs of the project. Include easy-to-find contact numbers so that they can easily get back to your inbound call center agents.

Websites for Lead Generation

Websites can be really useful as lead generation beds. But are the BPO units getting the most out of them? Seems that the answer is no! Let’s take a quick look at the ways in which call center units can work towards better sales lead generation through websites. To begin with, get the content right. Content drives not just traffic into the website, but also makes it possible for you to get repeat viewers. When the users like what they see on the website, both in terms of writing and designing, they will come back to know more. Keep adding fresh content every other day to keep the interest soaring.

Other ways to get lead generation going on the websites is to check up on what other features you can support. You can get online chat facilities that pop up on the website’s more popular pages. Your BPO agents need to be vigilant at all times to answer the chat enquiries that come in. Pack your website with action words like ‘Download Now’ and ‘Free Trial’. These help sales lead generation in that they call the user to action. You can also upload white papers and case studies of work that you have done in the telemarketing services chapter. These case studies are often the main reasons why a company would hire your call center services.

Tracking Metrics for BPO

The BPO industry has to develop flexible metrics for tracking their progress. For the traditional call center services like lead generation and telemarketing, they can continue to use the tried and tested formula. But for the new additions to the kitty, like online sales lead generation and customer service satisfaction, they have to work out different metrics. For example, you cannot measure customer satisfaction by checking out how many calls were received at the inbound call center desk. To estimate that, you will need to check for the number of first-call resolutions and hold time, etc. In other words, you will have to look at fresh perspectives to old processes.

As the case is, online lead generation is another area where the BPO units are not using their usual stringent tracking. It could be because the call centers are not comfortable with using the tracking tools like Google Analytics. However, the fact remains that much of the traffic coming into the websites is not being tapped to their potential. Similarly, the sales lead generation team is also losing out on more leads because they are not responding to the trends that work. It could be that there is a pattern that can get them more users, but the pattern lies in the wilderness because no one is keeping track of it.

Call Center Services on Different Channels

There are different channels on which call center services function these days. It’s not about the voice calls anymore. Telemarketing is now just a division of the call center. It’s not everything about the business process outsourcing. Non-voice methods like online lead generation and marketing through websites and emails are also prevalent. These new methods are taking BPO service towards fresh new territories. Clients want this multi-prong approach because that brings down the rate of failure. If they cannot tap the customer on one medium, they always have a second and third chance.

The ideal way to conduct call center services across the different media is to bring them all on a single platform. Make the different media complementary to each other. If you are making telemarketing calls for lead generation, back it up with the use of websites and emails. Similarly, when you are using websites and search engine optimization (SEO), you can direct the calls of the customers towards the inbound call center. When all of these different divisions are working in tandem, you have a better chance of generating rich revenues for the firm.

BPO Question Keeps Popping Up

The question of America’s attitude towards offshore BPO outsourcing kept popping up during President Barack Obama’s visit to India. The Indian contingent was much interested in knowing what the President had in mind about offshore call centers in India. If you rewind the clock back, Obama was primarily vocal about banning any form of telemarketing outsourcing to offshore destinations like India or the Philippines. He was compelled to take such a step because he wanted to bring back jobs to the American shores. The unemployment percentage is now just under 10% after alarming riding over that panic button.

During the President’s visit, the Indian call center delegates were much interested in knowing how things are going to change. The protectionist measures of Obama were severely criticized by the Indian businessmen because they thought that the telemarketing services sector would be hit hard by such measures. In the coming months, the BPO sector across the world is looking forward to the developments in USA. The primary reason for their concern is that the American market is the single largest provider of telemarketing and customer service projects. The European sector has provided only sporadic work over the years and is always regarded as a sort of bonus. The bulk provider being USA, these measures set off alarm bells for call centers across the globe.

Call Center Trends for 2011

Call center trends keep changing with the times. This is one industry that has never stagnated, nor ever will. The BPO sector has changed its approach towards similar goals with the times. For 2011, the hot trend in the telemarketing services is to invest in technology. The coming days will see some improvements in the technology that these units are using now. As the lead generation sector moves towards online methods, they will be investing in quality manpower. Generating leads online will mean that the call centers hire professionals that don’t really belong to the telemarketing sector. They will be other professionals like web designers and even writers.

Manpower is the prerequisite for the new-age call center. With the right kind of equipment, BPO units can do what the clients demand off them these days. Web 2.0 is in and for that the call centers would need software and other investments. In the context of outbound call center agents who will work on the projects, they have to be suitably trained. It’s a different ball game altogether on the online scenario. Agents have to be responsible and restrained when conducted sales lead generation online. If you go by the current trends, you will find that there is a conscious shift towards more quality call center services.

Security Concerns: Virtual Call Center Agents

Call center agents working from home can become security concerns for the BPO unit hiring them. In case they are hiring freelancers, the risks of danger can be quite high. To avoid getting into sticky situations, the call centers must take care to conduct checks and verifications before hiring anyone. Criminal records must be looked into as well. You can never rule out the chances of a scam hitting home when you are working with employees that don’t show up in the office. You read about telemarketing agents duping people all the time. You wouldn’t want that to happen when your brand name is associated with the matter.

Call center recruiting managers have a role to play here. When you are planning to hire someone, check out on the professional references. Make calls to previous BPO units that this prospect has worked in. Talk to the managers who hired them on previous occasions. Once you have established that they have clean records in telemarketing services, you can go ahead and hire them. Even then, you must take care always to monitor them. There is no certainty that telemarketing scams won’t happen or your data will not misused. In this context, call centers have to be vigilant because their reputation depends on this as well.

Special Customer Service

Customer service doesn’t always mean getting billing information or other enquiry details. Sometimes people call the answering service department to resolve serious issues that need a thorough knowledge on the part of the call center agent. For example, if the BPO is handling a tech support project, the agents have to be aware of the domain. They have to know the innards of a CPU well. Since general telemarketing agents will not know such technical matters, call centers hire technicians that double up as agents. They receive calls and resolve the issues of the callers on the first call itself.

There is a simple business sense in recruiting technical professionals for these projects. When the calls made at the answering desk are passed around to get someone capable to answer the call, the callers get frustrated. Their time is valued and the BPO unit has to respect that. That is exactly what happens when you hire technicians as customer service personnel. They resolve the issue immediately, making the caller realize that your phone answering desk is efficient and capable of attending to complicated issues. Clients want this sort of a professional behavior at the inbound call center desk. Call center units, on their part, pay a higher salary to these technicians and get them onboard.

Customer Services through Twitter

Twitter is one website that offers multiple opportunities on multiple fronts. Just when call centers were thinking that this micro-blogging site could be the ideal launch pad for online lead generation, experts have found out a way to use it for customer service. When you are creating a Twitter page for your client or the brand, you will have customers on the list of followers. When they have certain issues with their purchase, they can leave tweets on your page. The proactive BPO team can source out these tweets and act on them instantly. A simple phone call would make a lot of difference to the disgruntled customer. Once you have made the connection, try to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Such methods of customer service do a world of good to the brand loyalty of your customers. They know that you are around to help them whenever they need you. Call centers have to work hard to establish this bond of trust. That comes from action rather than just promotional material written by your BPO writers. To make the right kind of brand loyalty, you will have to be there for the customers. Twitter is just another way to do it. If you have the intent of doing so, you can source more ways.

Wanted Telemarketing Calls!

Most know telemarketing calls to be something that you avoid and sometimes learn to tolerate as you would accept nightmares! What if the customers actually wanted those lead generation calls? Then the BPO agents would have more ground to make a sales pitch. They would also have better listeners on the other end of the receiver. But can that really happen? If you can create the right buzz through call center services and brand promotion, it is possible. You have to find out what makes the customers curious. You can go online and create something of a positive impact through social media channels and discussion boards. When you are popular among the netizens, you will be noted and the aura around your brand will attract them.

The cardinal rule of marketing is that when you push something under the nose of people, they tend to reject it. However, when call center services tease the users into believing that your brand can actually provide them something unique, they will surely come to you. They will call your customer service department and ask questions. They will write emails and leave comments on your client’s website. It will be a different ball game when you will be leading the way. The impact will be more significant and the consumers you are telemarketing too will be willing participants in the loop.

Email Lead Generation Debacle

Lead generation can be quite a disaster if you are depending on purchased email lists. When call centers are buying email databases from sources, they are making a mistake. It’s true that the BPO agents will get some email ids to write to, but writing to them won’t be of much value. These email ids have been subjected to several marketing campaigns conducted by call center units over time. They are now saturated with these newsletters and offers. They are done with the whole system! They will sooner than later reach out for the ‘Mark Spam’ button. If you are looking to do some quality sales lead generation through emails, you will have to try a different track.

Call centers can track the users visiting the client’s website and pick up email ids from there. It makes more sense to lead generation if you are writing to people who actually care about your products/services and your brand than rank strangers who know nothing about you. BPO agents can track these users and try to convert their curiosity into sales. You can direct your newsletters and other promotional material to these email ids. Come to think of it, the outbound call center agents can use these emails as reference as well. It makes the telemarketing calls more justified when they are preceded by emails.

The Recovery of BPO

The BPO sector of the third world countries are expected to recover from the recession faster than their counterparts in USA or Europe. The reason is simple: the cost factor. Business firms in USA, the prime revenue generator for the business process outsourcing industry, are looking at ways to cut costs. They will not be able to hire the expensive call center services offered by the domestic call centers. No matter what the government says about bringing back jobs to the American shores, that will never be a reality unless the cost factor comes down to the same page. Offshore destinations of outsourcing have this advantage that will never be undermined by shrewd businessmen.

The government may be worried about the political compulsions of having to deal with a two-digit unemployment rate. But that does not worry the business firms wanting to get some call center onboard. Their only criteria to decide the BPO unit they will hire is the bottom line of their business. Tax burden will not be a factor when the business firm sees that even with taxes the option of using offshore call centers is still economically viable. In this sort of a scenario, the Obama administration can do little to hinder the recovery of business process outsourcing organization working out of the third world countries.

Offbeat Call Center Services

Call center services doesn’t always mean that it has to be voice calls or customer service. There are other call center processes and departments that are making themselves felt. For example, the lead generation team is increasingly depending on online methods for their leads. The various telecom authorities have pulled the plug on telemarketing calls in a big way. They are getting more leverage out of search engine optimization and social media marketing. Though social media is a far tougher nut to crack than search engine algorithms, BPO units are now doing it the right way. The promotion and branding of products/services on sites like Facebook and Twitter is fast catching on.

Offbeat call center services are the order of the day. Clients want these new methods to be used to promote and market their products/services. They are requesting BPO units to try out Web 2.0 tools for their lead generation online. The shrinking telemarketing database has a lot to do with these fresh inroads into offbeat tracks. However, these new approaches will be crucial for greater innovations in the future. Call centers have to find out these paths so that they can go on to do something fresh, something different from what their competitors are doing.

Analyzing Customer Service

It is important for the call centers to analyze their customer service. The reason is simple. Most consumers complain about the kind of after-sales service that they receive. Many of them turn to other brands because they are not happy with the answering service department. The clients need every consumer on their database now, what with getting them onboard getting increasingly more difficult. Analyzing this department is not easy. You have to take various aspects into consideration. For example, if you follow the speech pattern of the customers, you can find how just how satisfied they are with the call center services. If you find that they are not responding to your service favorably, it’s time to ask questions.

Where do you think your customer service is not performing? Is it because your call center agents are not being able to solve their problems on the very first call that they make? Or is it because the caller is being transferred around too many times? When you get the answer to your question, it’s time to resolve those issues. Check with your inbound call center team if they are aware of these issues. Ask your team leads and supervisors to get your agents and work on these weak links. It takes a while to fix an issue on the BPO front, but it’s necessary that you make the effort. Once you are done, keep analyzing to check if things are running well.

BPO between USA and India

The thorn in the bilateral talks between USA and India is the issue on the offshore BPO outsourcing. The President of America, Barack Obama, will be visiting India next month. The call center industry is gearing up to meet and find out what the President has to say about the offshore outsourcing business. The American shores are politically active about the question of using offshore call centers for their projects. The Obama administration has already banned the use of such centers to get government work done. The President has categorically stated that he is not keen on allowing the taxpayer’s money to be spent in generating jobs in other countries.

However, this protectionist measure of the President does not have the support of a clear majority. The Senate voted down the anti-offshore BPO bill. Because of some hard lobbying from the Republicans and the business owners who have high stakes in the offshore call centers, the bill couldn’t get the majority that it was looking for. When the President comes to the bedrock of offshore telemarketing services, that is India, he will be faced with some uncomfortable questions, that’s for sure. It remains to be seen what the President has to say about the issue when he walks to business persons holding considerable revenue coming from the USA.

Profit-making Call Centers

Call centers are no longer considered to be just service centers. They are actively trying to making profits. Making profits is important for any business firm, just not for a BPO unit. Call center units are paid by clients for the services that they render. There is very little chance of the telemarketing unit to make money out of these projects. The cost of call center services has to be kept down to be on par with the international standards. However, the price of getting technology and manpower is rising higher than ever. Inflation is taking the cost of production higher and competition is bringing down the bill that is paid by the clients.

Burning the candle at both ends is proving to be a bother for the call centers. But they realize that they have to make profits to sustain themselves. The technology and processes used in call center services is changing form every day. They have to keep pace with the times and obsolete methods and processes have no place in BPO service. Moreover, they will need money to expand their range of telemarketing services. They may have to divert their resources to online methods as well. Money is a very important contributor to change. Unless the call center makes profit, they cannot make any significant changes.

Striking BPO Deals

There’s some sort of process and method that is followed when your BPO strikes a deal with a client. The representatives of the call center would like to hard sell their call center services. The problem is that when they try to do that, they often tend to go overboard. They give off this impression that they can achieve more than they actually can. This spurs the client into thinking that they can expect some major hauls in their business because of telemarketing services. While this is true, in the short term parlance, it’s quite impossible to attain. When clients find that out through practical experience, there is a growing mistrust between the business partners, something that is not ideal for growth and progress.

The ideal way to negotiate BPO deals is to keep things straight. Talk it out with your client and set realistic targets on telemarketing services. When you spell it out how the project is going to phase out, clients are grounded about their expectations. The lead generation department needs to be careful about their targets as well. It is advisable to set targets according to the technology you have on board and the manpower at your disposal. Bite off only what you can chew. If clients come out of the partnership bitter and disillusioned, it’s bad for your call center.

Healthcare Bloom for BPO

President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms can spell good revenue for the BPO sector. That is the buzz from the healthcare sector at present. It learnt that the volume of business in this sector will shoot up sharply when Obama extends his healthcare facilities to about 2 million Americans. However, the call centers that are vying for the job have to careful about the licenses and certifications that they will need from the health department. A call center cannot just barge in and demand a healthcare project! You need to have expertise, training and permission from concerned authorities.

Healthcare is tricky domain, too. Call centers have to extremely careful about the kind of agents that they have on board. Your BPO agents have to skilled in medical matters if they want to work on such projects. The call center has to be vigilant about their data because people are generally paranoid about their medical details. They flip the moment they come to know that some answering service unit outside the country is working on their medical data. Libels and trust issues are not uncommon. But the main thrust area is the expertise. Agents cannot transcribe nor do other kinds of work unless they are well-versed in the medical aspects of the job. Extensive training is needed and the BPO service providers have to ensure that first.

Training Costs: Justifiable in BPO?

This is one question that the BPO units often ask themselves: how justifiable is the amount of resources that they spend in training? The answer is simple. It depends on how efficient you want your call center services to be. If you want your telemarketing agents to go for the jugular right from Day 1, you have to train them well. Agents have to be acclimatized with the project, and they have to know exactly what their role is going to be. To make them conversant with that, call centers need to impart training. Training modules have to be extensive and all encompassing. You cannot curtail the days of training because you want those agents to start working on the floor. The time spent in the training room will be beneficial in saving resources on the floor.

In the present day, you cannot afford to send your call center agents to training sessions and conferences that often. There are travel and other expenses to be borne. That is why more call centers are relying on in-house training facilities to help them get equipped with what is expected of them. Training modules can be project-specific or just call center services in general. When you hire fresh grads, you will need to put them under some generalized BPO training to bring them to the industry standards. No matter what kind of education they have received, working on a regular call center floor is a different experience altogether.

Telemarketing Agents’ Safety

The safety of the telemarketing agent is function of the BPO unit’s responsibility. Though you cannot directly take the call center to task for safety lapses, the firm has to be accountable for the issues related to getting the agent back home. Keeping this need in mind, several call centers have beefed up their security regime in the recent past. Countries like India are a cauldron for nefarious activities when it comes to travelling at night. For women telemarketing agents, it is a nightmare unless there are some stringent actions taken. Sensing this dire need, BPO units have boosted up their security cordon.

Some simple steps taken by the call center can eradicate several niggling concerns. To begin with, the BPO units are arming the drivers of the pool cars with GPS cards. These cards will help the call centers to monitor the movement of the cars at all times. They can immediately wave a red flag when they find that the car has changed routes. Telemarketing agents are also provided with plastic cards that they can swipe with the driver. This will allow the security experts to find out when the agent was dropped off. Many BPO service firms also advise their agents to call up the phone answering desk and report when they reach home. Such steps doesn’t just ensure safety, they also make the agent feel good about working in the company.

Virtual Call Centers Add Value to Workforce

Virtual call centers have relieved the baggage of an office, a desk and the long hours of commuting. In short, it has eradicated the aspects of BPO work that do not add value to the work that is done. On the other hand, virtual call center units have brought back a lot of value to the workforce because it is getting the telemarketing talents back in the business. Many of these experienced call center agents quit working because the projects were erratic and there was either no job or if there were, they were not stable. With the BPO service sector coming in to its own yet again, they are willing to come back into the work pool, fueled by the flexibility that work-from-home offers.

There are certain advantages when it comes to call centers that employ agents working from home. The telemarketing agents can devote more time to the process because they are stationed at home. They have little pressure on themselves because they are working in isolation. They are willing to put in an extra effort because they know their little steps are being monitored by the call center supervisors. Finally, they benefit telemarketing services because they are generally more experienced that regular agents are. They add value to call center services in a way others cannot.

Lead Generation Both Ways

As the ways of doing business changes, the onus of generating sales sometimes lie with the consumers! Yes, the consumers are the ones who often initiate the lead generation process. This is true for the call center units that rely on online methods to generate leads. The BPO units have the task of putting up content on the websites or on other promotional websites and directories. They don’t have the active role of contacting the users. The initiative lies with the user to call the phone answering service and ask for additional information or ask about purchasing the product/service. When they make the call, the lead is generated. So, in a way, the BPO service only plays a passive role in this cycle.

The same can be said about certain call center services, like finance or insurance. There are lots of customers out there who want to think over the offer made by the call center agent. They may wish to speak to some friends or experts that they know. In such cases, the BPO agents have to give them the due time. This is a sort of passive sales lead generation, too. If the customer is not interested in the offer that you have made, then they are not going to call back or encourage follow-up calls. On the other hand, should they call back, the sales cycle is complete.

Business Swelling in BPO

The BPO business is comfortably hitting the high marks of success. The Republicans in the Senate shot down the bill to roll back tax evasions and other benefits that the American firms receive for outsourcing their work to offshore BPO units. The Obama administration has dubbed it as a move to destabilize the economic prosperity of the country. The bill was primarily prepared with the intention of brining back telemarketing jobs to the American shores.

However, the experts of the business process outsourcing in the third world countries feel that the swelling telemarketing services business would not be hurt even if the bill was passed.

These call center experts have their reasons. To begin with, the telemarketing projects can still get done with less amount of money if the business firms outsource them to the offshore BPO destinations. The American business houses are recovering from the dampening effect of the recession. They are cash rich today, but not enough to pay for the overpriced call center services that the domestic call centers offer. The delegates of offshore telemarketing services have lobbied hard against this bill. And now they have tasted success. This deals a heavy jolt to the Obama administration. At the same time, it’s good news for business process outsourcing.

Telemarketing Expression Matters

Communication skills are important for telemarketing. This fact was always known to the call center agents and to those who hired them. But surveys have revealed that it’s not just the communication skills that make a difference in telemarketing services. The agents have to be clear in their expression when they are talking to the customers residing in the USA and Europe. As it is the agents working out of call centers in countries like India and the Philippines have a problem with the accent. That makes it difficult for the customers to hear what they are being instructed. Without clarity of expression, call center agents have no chance of making a sale or even getting the customers to understand what they are saying.

The BPO units have to be careful about the training of these agents. It’s important for the call centers to offer voice modulation and speech training. The telemarketing agents have to get their voice intonation right so that they can speak to the customers in the language that they understand. It makes no sense in trying to fake the American twang! That is not the solution to the problem of the answering service. Experts also feel that the phone answering agents have to be careful about being relaxed. If they are worked up about pulling off the sale, they will only sound grave and desperate. Smiling is one aspect of telemarketing services that cannot be seen, but makes a mean difference.

Banned: Telemarketing SMS

After pesky calls, it’s now time for the telemarketing text messages to be banned by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The landslide of text messages on the cell phones of users registered on the national Do Not Call (DNC) lists has prompted the FTC to get strict with the call centers. Despite several warnings to stop the mass texting of marketing messages to users who don’t want to receive them, the BPO units working on projects to promote and sell are doing just that. They have ignored the laws and bypassed the restrictions. It’s payback time now for these BPO service units. They have to curb their habit of interfering with the privacy of the citizens before they come under the scanner.

The FTC has decided to penalize the faulty call centers in landmark judgments. However, the problem is that most of these guilty call center units are based offshore. They are technically beyond the rule of the land because they belong to foreign shores. So, the penalties are shrugged off easily. Even when they are imposed, the lack of a proper governing body with real powers has stalled the cases. The fines imposed on errant BPO units were never realized and there are thousands of dollars that the FTC is entitled to receive. The BPO service firms get away because the laws are not strict about extracting the payment.

Revised Telemarketing Debt Laws

The debt consolidation laws that were grossly misused by telemarketing firms have been revised. The governing authority, the Federal Trade Commission, has tweaked the laws a little to make the call centers more accountable. Henceforth, the call center agents have to more transparent in their dealings. They have to clearly give out how they are going to consolidate the debt and how much the customers have to pay. There are times when the customers keep paying a sum every month but it does nothing to improve their debt consolidation. Let alone work towards paying off the principal, the money is not enough to even see off the monthly recurring interest!

Customers are unaware of the situation and the ground reality. This allows the BPO units to make some money through shady deals. The FTC wants to put a stop to it. With the new rules in place, the call center agent has to declare just how much money the customer needs to pay every month and for what duration. More often than not, customers are not aware of how their debt consolidation will reflect poorly on their credit records. The BPO service agents have to inform the customers about it. In the same vein, the customers have to be informed about the ‘dedicated accounts’ that call centers often use to consolidate the debt.

Rise of Virtual Call Centers

As many other industries, the concept of the office is about to be relegated to the sidelines in the call center sector. Thanks to the rising costs of holding an establishment, several BPO units in USA are going for virtual call centers. This idea is one that can cut down on costs comfortably. You can bring down the overhead costs by a huge margin if you are able to run your call center services without having a designated office space for that. All the telemarketing agents on your team works out of their personal spheres and so do you. You can appoint team leaders and supervisors to check up on reports. Have online reporting structures and keep them integrated on a solitary platform.

Working from a virtual call center has its advantages, other than the cost saving factor. The agents who work from home don’t have to commute long distances against a killing traffic. They save up on a lot of time that way. This can be utilized in doing something productive. They can get to their telemarketing jobs without getting distracted because of coworkers and peers. The practice of working with other agents in tandem often brings about a tension-laden atmosphere that has to be overcome so that they can hit the targets. Moreover, they also feel more responsible about their work because they know that their work is being monitored and tracked by supervisors.

Picking the Right BPO

Picking the right BPO is often a challenge for the clients. These days, a lot is riding on the decision about which call center you pick as your business partner. Services like answering service and telemarketing can make or break a business. If you are a small business firm, these tie-ups matter a lot in the long run. This also involves a lot of money. For small business firms, assimilating the funds for this meet can be really a daunting task. That raises the concerns even higher. If they are picking the wrong call center services provider, they are wasting their money at a time when they should be using the same to consolidate their position in the market.

Let’s take a quick look at what you need to keep in mind while picking the right BPO. First up, check up for the body of telemarketing work they have done. If they have worked in diverse categories and domains, they will be able to provide variety in the call center services that they offer. In a similar vein, if the call center has been around for some time, they will have the required stability and market expertise. The financial aspect of the BPO service provider should be under the scanner as well. Without finances in the kitty, the telemarketing services provider cannot buy the required technology and manpower.

Converting Leads in Lead Generation

Leads can be helpful in building up a business. But if those leads are not converting into sales and adding to the revenue, the lead generation process isn’t working for you. Call centers are hired on the basis of number of leads that they can provide. In their haste to hit those numbers, the outbound call center agents often pack in half-baked leads into the kitty. These are not qualified leads and there are no verifications done on them. So, the in-house sales team of the clients may be in for a nasty shock when they call these leads to ink the deal! BPO units have to take care that they provide only qualified leads to the clients. Otherwise it reflects poorly on the call center services that are being done.

The percentage of conversion of leads is important to calculate the returns on investment in the lead generation procedure. Clients are not willing to spend anything unless they find some validation of their investment. Call center services don’t come cheap and they wouldn’t like to find out at the end of the sales lead generation campaign that the leads they got amount to nothing. A dismally poor conversion rate would mean the failure of the campaign. The call centers have to verify and follow-up on leads to ensure they stay warm. You can use a variety of media like emails, text messages and phone calls to check up on your leads.

Stability of BPO Market

Ohio has suddenly become the hotbed of interest for the telemarketing sector. It’s here that President Barack Obama declared that he will do what he can to curb the outsourcing of telemarketing services to offshore call centers. The BPO service experts in countries like India and the Philippines, along with some African and Latin American countries, are worried about the aftermath of this declaration. The Governor of Ohio has backed up this declaration with the announcement that they will not be outsourcing any projects to offshore call center services. While the twin blows may not be that serious for the business process outsourcing sector right now, one cannot drive away the speculation that they may have long-term consequences.

At the same time, the BPO experts are confident that these measures will not harm the prospects of the business in the long term. The call centers are aware that if the business firms in the USA decide to curtail the outsourcing to offshore destinations, the economies in these countries will dip dangerously. However, at the same time they are aware that the business firms are too deep into the business process outsourcing pie to pull back. The availability of the option to get their call center services done at a far lower cost is definitely something that they cannot refuse.

Graduates Unemployable in Call Centers

Graduates passing out of reputed marketing courses are not employable in the call centers. That is the ground reality in many of the call center units in the developing countries. The condition is an alarming state of affairs, especially at a time when the BPO units all over these regions are in dire need of quality manpower. The absence of that is harming their prospects of providing quality call center services to a global market. The standard has been lifted with such precision and continuity, these BPO service units are finding themselves at a strict loss for something that they can do. They want to have a fresh influx of talent but find themselves tied because of the lack of quality in what they are digging up.

Some factors are responsible for the sad state of affairs. Finishing schools of marketing are mushrooming at street corners of these countries. But they teach little about telemarketing or call center services. Many institutions claiming to equip the young students with BPO technology and make them industry-ready are nowhere near the mark. They have no equipment or gadgets that the students can practice on. They have no trainer who is on par with what the BPO service industry requires. One could go on. But the problem remains there: lack of quality professionals is not a good sign and it’s time for change.

SEO for BPO: The Leak

SEO efforts conducted by BPO units have not always borne fruits. There are several reasons why the online lead generation pie doesn’t really offer rich dividends to call centers. There are these times when the amount of traffic coming in to the client’s website because of SEO don’t turn into that much of leads. The amount of resources spent in conducted SEO operations to get higher rankings on the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, do not translate into successful sales lead generation. Call center managers would be doing a mistake if they assume that the online traffic is all they need to get better leads. A study of website statistics like Google Analytics or Stat Counter will show that users are coming to the website, but not sticking to it.

That’s when the call center needs to review their websites. Check for the content and the website design. Many BPO units often tend to clutter their website with too much on the head banner. White space is important for emphasis. Users may be repelled by the look of the website. Similarly, a lengthy lead generation form is another turn off! Online users pay for their internet time. They have no patience to fill up a form with information that has nothing to do with what they want. Make the forms crisp and the website navigation smooth. And keep studying the user trends to find out what work you need to do in the weaker areas.

Better Social Media for Call Center

Social media is now a distinct part of the call center. Almost every BPO unit now has a social media department handling profiles on Facebook and Twitter. Every client wants a pie of the social media pie. However, not every call center service can conduct successful social media marketing. There are reasons varying from lack of expertise to lack of experience. But the primary lack is that of interaction. Creating a profile on Facebook and Twitter and adding some random people on the page isn’t social media marketing. That’s more like spamming. To get leads or to promote the brand you are working for, you need to do more than just adding up people. You have to interact.

Social media networks are where people hang out. Users log in to Facebook and Twitter, for some fun activity that can keep them occupied. No one wants to read the literature that your call center puts up on the Wall or on the discussion forums. BPO firms need to promote their brands online. They have to speak for themselves. Similarly, users are not going to take a discussion forward unless the brand participates. Call center experts need to have social media personnel who can talk to these people online. You have to monitor other brands to see what they are doing. Organizing events and webinars is also a great idea to promote and market.

Climate Decides Call Center Location

An unlikely factor is deciding the location of call center units these days! It’s the climate! Because of the dominance of hurricanes and hailstorms, BPO firms are ruling out several locations for their call centers. For example, Verizon was really concerned about their upcoming answering service unit in Wilmington because of the weather concerns. The weather plays an important role because the working of a telemarketing unit involves a lot of infrastructure and they have to function at the top of their game every day. If they do not work on a single day because of inclement weather, they will stand to lose quite a bit of money. In case of hurricanes and other natural calamities, they will end up losing a lot of working hours. They may even have to reconstruct things.

Modern business leaves nothing to chance. Setting up a call center is the question of a lot of money. And money is more valuable these days because of the recession and the inflation. BPO investors are not keen on investing money where they will have to be at the mercy of the weather to do their call center services. The way things are, places where the weather is not really supportive of business growth, will miss out on call centers and other answering service units because of the weather. When they have to no choice about the location, they take extra precautions and make stronger constructions to stand the vagaries of nature.

Call Center Coaching

When the experts say that the location of the call center has got nothing to do with their call center services, they are probably more correct than they intended to be. The quality of work done by a BPO unit is measured not by the latitudes and longitudes, but rather by the amount of training that the agents receive. Training in the art of telemarketing and lead generation makes more of a difference to the productivity of the unit than any other investment. You may argue that technology is more important for BPO service but the fact remains that without training in that technology, the agents cannot really exploit its benefits.

But the sad reality is that many call centers shy away from conducting proper training sessions. They curtail the training days to the bare minimum so that they can get the BPO agents to start work. This does not cut down costs by any means. Rather this sort of an approach puts more on the call center agent’s plate that you intend to. Lack of training leads to mistakes and also stress for the telemarketing executive. The BPO service managers find themselves hand-holding agents because they are not being to cope with what is expected from them. Finally you find that your project is racing against an impossible deadline!

Voice Broadcasting for Lead Generation

The voice broadcasting scenario for lead generation companies holds a lot of hope and promise. Many call center units are not aware of using this procedure while some others are prejudiced against using this. They are wary that they will end up rubbing the telecom authorities the wrong way if they use voice broadcasts from the outbound call center desk. But that fear is not valid. Telecom authorities are not going after you if you leave the Do Not Call list aside. Make sure that the BPO agents are not sending out the broadcast to the registered numbers. That’s the only precaution that you have to take. If you can get that sorted out, this method can be a clincher for your sales lead generation method.

Voice broadcasting is the method by which you can send out a pre-recorded telemarketing message to thousands of prospective consumers at one go! It’s like a direct marketing ad spot for radio or TV, only that this is meant for telephones. The convenience of this lead generation tool is that you can reach out to a number of people at one shot. That’s something that saves time and also goes easy on the resources. When the interested consumers call your inbound call center desk, you can take the sales lead generation forward.

Canadians Brace for Telemarketing Surveys!

The Canadian citizens are preparing themselves to wage another battle with telemarketing calls in the coming year. The Canadian government is conducting the census as per their rule of having one every five years. But they have not made the survey mandatory! The citizens have to answer call center calls asking for their basic information like name, address, age and sex. But they are not liable to answer BPO agents asking for their education, ethnicity and other personal details. The Canadian government is likely to fine citizens who don’t answer the basic information calls. However, the ground is set for the telemarketing services centers to tap the citizens for information that is not related to the census.

That is the fear on the minds of the citizens. They are wary of call centers tapping them for information to build up their database. This sort of a mass survey will be extremely beneficial for BPO units who want to add some more columns to their database. The government is taking steps to ensure that fraudulent call centers don’t use the guise of the census to gather information for their business profits. The survey will be conducted across 4.5 million Canadian homes and the whole logistical arrangement will be nightmare for the government. It remains to be seen how the call center units hired by the government do their job.

Optimizing Websites for Lead Generation

It’s true that business firms need a website to give a shape to their online lead generation efforts. But the website has to be designed in a way that is conducive for sales lead generation. A hastily put up website will not serve any purpose for the call center team. No matter how much the outbound call center tries to promote the website, if the users don’t find much of value in the content or if the design is not attractive to the eye, the conversion of the traffic into sales will not happen. BPO web designers have to keep in mind certain aspects of the online marketing process when they are designing websites.

Let me give you an example. Call center units often design websites with flash introductions. That is a regressive step, especially in the context of lead generation. Users don’t like the long time that flash introductions take to upload on their screens. They don’t like the bandwidth that it consumes. When they find flash designs, they quickly close the tab down. So the BPO unit cannot utilize the traffic that they got through tough sales lead generation. Similarly, when the BPO service web designers use heavy images on the website, it slows down the website. That is another turn off for the users. Call centers have to keep these aspects in mind when they are designing websites to market and promote products/services.

Back to School Delays Answering Service!

The children are getting back to school in USA and thanks to frenetic calls from parents the emergency answering service desks got blocked. Authorities manning the phone answering desks in the 911 call center units of different parts of the country faced the heat. The call volume shot up rapidly because of the parents trying to call the inbound call center to make enquiries about the long serpentine lines to pick their children up. Some are calling up because parents parked their car on private driveways to run and drop their children off to school. Though the state governments have separate call center services for the traffic cases, people still prefer to call 911.

The supervisors of the 911 call centers are appealing to the citizens to leave the emergency answering service free. Because of the call volumes generated at the inbound call center desk, callers who need the emergency phone answering agents cannot get through. There is an elongated hold time for the agents. And that is very dangerous if the phone number happens to be an emergency contact line. The authorities in charge are now requesting parents to call a different number for their needs related to schools. These cases again highlight the importance of the inbound call center teams in the context of smooth running of any system.

International Conference on Call Center

The International Contact Center Conference & Expo was held in the Philippines recently. The conference was one of the many steps that the country has taken in the recent months to promote themselves as the epicenter of call center activity. The conference was scheduled to help the country and the participating BPO companies to fight the challenges that the business process outsourcing community was facing in the recent times. With the rise of the profit line in the country, it was time for the call center services units to brace themselves for greater profits in the second quarter of the year. The emergence of new technology in the BPO service was another point of discussion.

Such conferences that bring the telemarketing business firms together are very important in chalking something out for the future. The Philippines was the ideal destination for such a call center seminar because the country is finally in the running to beat other destinations as the hub of BPO activity. This was an opportunity for the delegates of business process outsourcing units all over the world to gather and discuss their business on the sidelines. Such conferences are also ideal for lead generation for BPO service firms. They can contact business heads and clients and show them what sort of telemarketing services projects they are capable of handling.

BPO Business Booms in Philippines

The BPO business in the Philippines is seeing some great days now. After successfully challenging the growth percentage of the BPO giant India and beating their growth rate convincingly, the call center industry in this country can only get better. The support of the government and the constant faith of them in the capabilities of their telemarketing manpower to generate enough business are the pillars of their progress. The telemarketing services of the country see their delegations as part of every major business process outsourcing conference. They like to place themselves in the thick of things. These representatives are also not wary of taking on the political legislations of a country like USA.

For those not in the loop, the BPO experts of the Philippines were in USA a couple of months back to protest against the anti-offshore call center outsourcing bill of New York Senator Charles E. Schumer. The delegates told the Senator that they expected better steps from an economic super power like USA because such legislations affected the economies of countries like theirs. Their argument was to allow telemarketing outsourcing to their country as usual. If there was something to be done, they requested for higher tax cuts. It remains to be seen if their efforts actually stalls the bill, but not every government would go to that extent to nurture the business process outsourcing industry.

Call Center for Overseas Workers

The Indonesian government has set up a call center to tend to the needs of the overseas workers. Indonesia, especially Jakarta, is a preferred destination for many overseas workers. Some of them also look for employment in the BPO sector. They rely on dubious sources for their information about the country and the employment scenario. The call center services will be able to guide them get through to the right employment pockets. Countries across the world are relying on these answering service units to bail them out of issues that need a knowledge sharing process. Such cases are best handled by the phone answering units. That is why governments build up an inbound call center desk or simply outsource the work to a BPO service unit.

This initiative will address a serious issue that prevalent among the overseas workers in the country. It is also a move that will make the country more suited to attract quality manpower. The BPO sector in the country is still in its nascent stages. They still have a long way to go in call center work before they can match up to The Philippines. The infrastructure and other facilities may not be looking good at the present for the country to do some world-class work, but if they can push their efforts, they can be right up there.

Auto Dialers Save Lead Generation Resources

Despite the amount of flak that the robotic lead generation calls have received in the recent times, there is a steady demand for call centers that take to auto dialers with enthusiasm. Auto dialers help the outbound call center teams in a big way. With the help of this software, a high number of numbers can be dialed automatically. The call center agents need not sit at their desk and spend time dialing the numbers. The software dials the numbers of their behalf and also keeps a close tab on the agents who are busy on calls and those that are free. The calls are passed to the free agents as soon as the receiver receives the call. The receivers cannot make out that they have been auto-dialed. So they don’t complain about this sales lead generation process.

Auto dialing methods save time at the lead generation campaign. Because the whole process of dialing numbers is done by the software, a lot of time is saved in the process. The outbound call center agents have a tighter schedule as well. There is no problem of checking the numbers and then dialing them. Moreover, the auto dials are able to check the availability of the receivers. If the receiving doesn’t take the call, the call center agent need not attend on it. There are no false alarms as such and agents are only put on calls that have found a voice at the other end.

Call Center for Entrepreneurs

Sensing that India continues to be the trusted choice of entrepreneurs when it comes to hiring call center services, the Ministry has decided to do something about it. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) board has decided to kick-start a BPO service that goes by the name ‘Udyami Helpline’. The purpose of this initiative is to provide entrepreneurs with an option to choose from the registered call centers across India. This will be a toll free answering service that the business heads can use at their convenience. They can compare and avail BPO service without having to scourge around for a suitable phone answering network. Such initiatives help the business process outsourcing sector as a whole. The country has to make certain allowances to woo investors into investing in the industries of the country.

The Udyami Helpline is the first of many initiatives that related ministries will take to bolster the BPO sector in the country. It would be no surprise if they have been inspired by the government back-up that the call center sector receives in countries like The Philippines. Though India has a long way to go when it comes to government initiatives to promote a particular industry, BPO or otherwise, the country continues to grab those cherry telemarketing projects. The Helpline is a good step forward. Entrepreneurs will be interested only if they find convenience. And such answering service can only mean that investors will know the ground reality of BPO service in India.

Politicians Not Telemarketing Agents!

Politicians in the USA are entitled to call numbers registered on the Do Not Call (DNC) list. These calls do not come under the violation of the telemarketing laws. The laws restrict the calls made by call center agents who are selling some product/service. Politicians and charity institutions do not fall under this law. Several citizens in the USA are pestered by the BPO agents who call to convince the citizens to vote for one candidate or the other. Generally hardcore supporters of one party issue complaints against the other for breach of privacy. But there are no laws to condemn the call centers making these calls. Insiders are happy that it is so, or fake complaints would have flooded the guardian body, Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Very recently, the FTC had slotted advisors and counselors under the telemarketing laws. If they call their clients at times of the day when the telemarketing services law prohibits them, they will be fined. Moreover, the FTC also made it clear that call center agents cannot ask the customers to pay for services that they have not rendered. This is particularly true for the debt recovery BPO agents. They demand payment even before the customer has been relieved of his debt. Their fake call center services add to the debt of the customer instead of relieving him! The question about the politicians calling for votes has been part of the American electoral process for decades.

Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation

B2B lead generation is different from the other processes in this genre. Here the call centers have to deal with the business heads of firms that your client wants to do business with. A new way to approach them is through professional networks like LinkedIn. Creating a profile and interacting with the entrepreneurs through such networks builds up a professional attitude. BPO firms that have quality B2B projects are sizing up their option more than ever. Let’s find out how call center agents can do a good job on LinkedIn. Step 1 would be to create a profile. Experts suggest that you spend considerable time on this. Key in authentic information and try to cover all the fields. Your profile is going to be a sort of a CV for your business. Do it with the due diligence.

Call centers need to take care in providing easily accessible means of contacting the inbound call center desk. Provide phone numbers, IMs, blog and website links. If the call center agents are using emails to communicate, make sure they have the right signature line with the same information. No entrepreneur has the time to hunt out a contact address or email id from the website. The BPO agents have to ensure that they have access to contact data at their finger-tips. Finally, try to talk to the entrepreneurs through emails and LinkedIn mails. Unless you network actively, you are not going to achieve much.

Advertisers Come Under Lead Generation Law

Advertisers who make calls to customers will come under the lead generation laws, according to a new directive from the Canadian telecom authority. The rules mention that advertisers making telemarketing calls have to register themselves with the government as telemarketers and they will be legally subjected to the same laws as a telemarketing services firm. The new rule was necessary because many advertisers was making use of this loophole to contact prospective customers as call center agents are more likely to do. Their violations of the laws were being held against the BPO sector.

As a matter of fact, several call centers have been fined by the Canadian government for violating the telemarketing laws. However, because of any teeth in the law, the authorities were not able to realize any payment. The BPO units are still withholding the fines that they are supposed to pay. Insiders of the business process outsourcing industry feel that it’s important for the authorities to ensure that the guilty firms pay the fine. Without a proper procedure to get these fines extracted, the telemarketing services sector will not pay heed to the laws. That, in turn, would harm other BPO service units in their drive to offer only industry-recommended lead generation procedures.

Advantages of Cross Selling in Lead Generation

The lead generation processes of many call centers revolve around cross selling. This is the procedure of offering the existing consumers some related products/services. This sales lead generation process has numerous advantages, both for the call center as well as for the consumer. To begin with, the telemarketing agents can sell products/services to existing customers. This is like tapping the same consumer base and coming up with a fresh set of revenue earnings. Cross selling works particularly well in the retail sector. Telemarketing services receive a considerable boost when the BPO unit tries out the process of cross selling.

From the perspective of the consumer, cross selling works well because the lead generation agents tap into their latent demands. They may not be aware of certain products/services that can make life easier. It’s the job of the telemarketing agent to poke at that demand and offer them something that they need but didn’t realize that. Sales lead generation, in this case, acts in favor of the consumer as well. Clients, who have a chain of products, often ask BPO units to help them out with cross selling. It’s a nice way to have revenues coming in from your existing group of customers. There is a little risk as well. If the new product doesn’t live up to what the consumer expects, it reflects badly on the brand identity of the client.

Call Center Employees Go Cheap

Call center employees in the USA are ready to work at slashed pays. The percentage of unemployment is so high that the BPO agents who have been given the pink slip during the recession sees no other option but to take up a job with whatever pay they get. Call centers in the country cannot afford to pay them high wages because they have to contend with the BPO service units of the developing countries. If the domestic telemarketing units cannot keep their prices low, they will lose their projects to the offshore business process outsourcing destinations. They have to keep their prices at par with the global rate. Hitting that rate despite being in an expensive economy is not working out for them, yet they have no choice.

The situation is not too bleak as well. There are high chances that the domestic call centers will gain from the model of cutting down on prices. Call center units in developing countries brought down their prices to get more projects. It worked for them. Business firms, just out of recession, decided to try cheaper BPO units because they couldn’t afford the expensive ones. The quality of these call center services has become infinitely better because of all the training and quality control that is being done these days. The pay cuts of the employees are just a fall-out of their attempt to bring down the cost of production so that they meet the price tags that are globally accepted.