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.