Category Archive: Call Center Outsourcing

1. 3 Key Benefits of Call Center Outsourcing

   June 25, 2018 7:00 am Leave a Comment

   

   Businesses from the United States, UK, and Australia looking for affordable yet quality voice service solutions rely on call centers in the Philippines to answer their customer support requirements. Partnering with a qualified Asian vendor presents critical benefits of call center outsourcing.

   One of the nightmares many companies worry about (from a customer service standpoint) is for their call center to go down. What if the calls are not being answered? What if your customers form a negative impression of your organization and post those on their social media timelines? You know right away where this is going: your productivity suffers.

   Collaborating with call center service providers can afford you with cost-effective benefits – from reliability to structural flexibility, you name it. So, choosing whether to manage internally your call center or to outsource to a third party will surely depend on the context of your business.

   In this blog post, we’ll find out why investing in this business strategy could be the best decision your organization could take.

   Cost-effective

   The most obvious benefit your organization can derived from outsourcing your call center needs is … cost savings. For small to midsize companies, staffing and managing their own call center can be daunting, as well as costly. The outsourced partner usually takes charge of recruiting, training and retaining call agents, which could help save on these human resources management costs.

   The operational expenses of operating their own call center may not be worthwhile for companies that do not sell highly-technical products and services that require in-depth knowledge. Outsourcing to a call center can help you avoid the costs of capital investments, such as quality call monitoring systems, CRM software, chat support integration with your own website, and more, however.

   Seasonal Flexibility

   When you have signed up an outsourced partner, you know you have a support which really comes in handy during your peak season. When you have chosen a call center partner with established focus on providing contact support solutions, rest assured that you have a vendor that can handle the higher volume of calls during your peak seasons.

   Scalability for Growth

   Letting your outsourcing partner handle your call center functions give you extra liberty to focus on your company’s core components while allowing you to address crucial issues at hand. The other things you can do when you outsource is ensure more time and energy for you to develop your products, customer acquisition, marketing campaigns, and other critical success drivers. Outsourcing then can help you expand faster to cope with increased call volume.

   Why our Clients Outsource to Big Outsource?

   Our clients at Big Outsource often return to us with a good news. They often tell us the fast growth they experienced after outsourcing their call support operations to us.

   By outsourcing their inbound and/or outbound calls to Big Outsource, they cited couple reasons. Here are just a few of these reasons: that we’ll look in more depth below:

   • Cost and resource allotment. Just like any business, you spend money to make money and make sure you make every cent count. This is why we designed different contract options with our clients – from hourly billing or any specialized arrangement that suit our client’s business needs.Once our client signed a contract with us, we make sure that our transactions are transparent and let them their expenditures. This way, they can prepare their budget plans to support heir customer call operations.

     Another benefits our clients cited about outsourcing to a third party is that such allow them to put a cap from unexpected expenses (i.e., costly overtime charges) while giving them more freedom in scheduling.

   • Competition in the Labor MarketNowadays, there are so many international cities that experience labor booms and what challenges these pose to employers, such as compete for employees. When your business is located in larger cities, this can be a pretty expensive battle.

     Big Outsource is based in the Philippines yet we are situated in one of the country’s newest emerging economies, San Pablo City. Our clients save money by outsourcing their non-core labor in our company, a different geographical area. To ensure our call center agents are well-taken cared for, we offer our agents a full range of benefits and competitive wages, along with appropriate trainings, retention programs. We also make sure that from within employees get promoted.

   • Shared Philosophy on Customer ServiceHaving customer service goals you and your outsourcing partner share is crucial for long-term success. Companies would more naturally entrust to a vendor with trained professionals to handle their calls with care, and ones that can seamlessly emulate their internal customer service teams.

     At Big Outsource, we make sure that we scale our call support team to handle our clients’ busy periods, be available to make or take calls in the evenings, or be there to assist you on the weekends. Our strict quality assurance are in place to help evaluate the team and their performance.

     As a matter of policy, we make sure that we don’t let our agents to take a phone call and then they juggle helping two people at once. We can imagine how it feels to be that person calling in who reach for a live agent, then left on hold or leaving a message only to wonder if you’ll hear back.

   • Geographical DiversityWhen you outsource from a company based in another region or country than yours, this means you can often be in a different regions or weather patterns from your vendor. This can also allow you to split support between locations for additional coverage whenever necessary.

     This is most helpful when you are based in countries where during winter, you would expect to experience record-breaking snowfall. You can let your outsourcing partner from another geographical side pull together their resources so if you have in-house call support, you can let them go home before the storm hits.

   Finally, what does it all means

   These are just a few reasons we can cite as helpful benefits of outsourcing your call center work. Our hope is that this article provide helpful insights into the importance such business decisions are made. Our clients choose Big Outsource not only for our affordability, but also our flexibility while not compromising on quality so that you can focus on your internal efforts, such as while developing your new products while we handle your call volume.

   If you want a win-win scenario and why outsourcing works, consider the above-mentioned reasons discussed. By considering and asking questions why invest in outsourcing call center, you are a company which is planning for your future.

2. 7 Customer Service Experience Lessons to Steal from Starbucks

   May 22, 2014 7:01 am 1 Comment

   

    

   The pressure is high to be more customer-oriented if you want to thrive in a hyper-competitive, fast-paced, mobile, global economy. With this seeming newly-found focus to customers, brands who emphasize customer service experience delivery in their menu are looking at Starbucks for model.

   Starbucks is undeniably one of the most successful coffee chain businesses not solely because of the coffee it brew or the frappuccino it blend every single day.Starbucks founder Howard Schultz one time said what his company’s is. And it’s not merely about serving coffee. His business or what Starbucks’ line is experience business.

   Retail experts point to the Starbucks customer service as the secret mix that makes people willfully spend $4-$5 for a single cup of coffee. In-store customer service –the whole experience – has something to do with the success of the coffee brand.

   Perhaps it’s about the music. Or maybe, it’s the art or the furniture and lighting. There’s also the barista, those friendly, approachable partners who writes your name on a cup, maybe. This whole experience encompass everything there is to get when you visit a store.

   But definitely this points to one thing: it’s everything that customers get or experience that compel them to return and convince them why a cup of joe at Starbucks warrants the price.

    

   What is Customer Service Experience?

    

   The focus has shifted to satisfying customers. Especially in a customer-dominated midst that we’re in, customer service or customer care services trump your price offer, product and even promotion. But what is this really about?

   Book author Micah Solomon has advised about four elements that brands must focus on when thinking of customer service experience. These are:

    

   • The perfect product
   • Timeliness
   • Caring product delivery
   • Adoption of effective problem-resolution procedure

    

   Among the four, it is important to highlight timeliness because among new generation customers, it’s a big thing that they feel in control. Solomon cited an example: the tracker technology that lets customers check on the status of their order through delivery.

   Hiring the right people and providing customer care training are also crucial steps to address.

    

   Steal Away Starbucks Customer Service Lessons

    

   Today, Starbucks enjoys a rank near other global brands like Apple, Coca-Cola and Google.All of these companies are successful brands in the United States and across the world, and for a coffee shop to land a respectable place is nothing short of amazing.

   When you put up a coffee shop, your initial thought about this business may be about the selling. But what Starbucks has done successfully well lies in the customer service experience that they provide. So here are a couple customer service lessons to steal from Starbucks:

    

   Help customers decide by asking questions. Do you know what makes Starbucks different from other brands?They’re not just order-takers but solution-creators.

   Starbucks baristas ask questions and it’s a perfectly efficient system that guide customers successfully complete a transaction. So you’ll often hear them ask a new customer, “Do you like coffee or tea?” Hot coffee or iced?”

   By asking questions to help customers decide, you’ll let your customers back because they don’t know what they want.

    

   Know the name of your customers.A barista at Starbucks writes your name at your cappuccino cup and calls out your name at the bar. Whoa, you might ask, “Is that really my name the barista’s just called?” Knowing the name of your customers is just the start to knowing them more deeply and retaining them in the process.

    

   Know your customers more. At Starbucks, their employees don’t just know what their customers’ names are, they also know about their lives or what their businesses are. They know if Roger is a writer or Sally is meeting her friends every Friday noon to discuss their soiree on Saturday evening.

    

    

   Dissatisfied customers want you to feel responsible. This may seem unfair but believe me, there’s wisdom in taking responsibility to the outcome of your transaction with customers. Starbucks barista always ensures they’re creating better experience by not blaming customers who are at fault sometimes.

   Don’t prove the customer wrong or you’ll see them exit the doors with hordes of bad stories against you to spill to their friends. Resolve the conflict and not identifying who’s done right.

    

   Make your customers smile. At Starbucks, smiles seem like an infectious thing and this is one thing they’re doing perfectly well most of the time. Baristas make their customer smile with witty banters, dialogues or a compliment to a new haircut.

   When you deal with your customers, make sure to brighten up their day. Cheer up your customers and you’ll see that you’ll retain them.

    

   Allow as much customization and personalization as possible. It’s certainly impossible to not see customization and personalization at Starbucks from your orders.

   It’s like everything’s up to the customer’s picking whether he prefer his caramel macchiatto with less than one shot of espresso, iced or more caramel. So it has now becomes “Troy’s drink or “Amabel’s” drink rather than Starbucks’.

   Customization real-time or based from a barista’s recommendation gives a seamless experience. Be flexible, from product or service offering, to everything you deliver your customers to get and they’ll love you for that.

    

   Don’t neglect product quality.There’s never a chance that quality is not a priority at Starbucks. It’s also a thing they ensure with consistency and ease, as if it’s instinctively ingrained in their DNA. Of course, Starbucks being a global brand with high regard to quality adheres to a very efficient and systematic process that ensure every drinks they give customers meet certain quality standards.

   Do we consciously ensure that we care that customers receive our products in superior quality? Are our systems capable of meeting and delivering the same, consistent quality in our products or services every time?

    

   Takeaways

    

   Starbucks is an example of a successful company whose customer service practices is worth emulating. It doesn’t only say customer care or customer service for the sake of saying. https://www.bigoutsource.com/blog/customer-service-experience-lessons-to-steal-from-starbucks/it is a goal among the partners or the employees who work for it.

   As a proof that Starbucks understands customer service experience, the company carefully places efficient system and process comprised of multiple touch points: initial greeting, ambiance, product displays, baristas and check-out experience. They make sure that customers’ satisfaction is complete, from the very beginning to the end of the visit.

    

3. How to Provide Good Customer Service

   May 7, 2014 2:07 pm Leave a Comment

   

   Good customer service is good business.Whether it’s selling a product or offering services, no business can deny that they deal with customers even with today’s automated world.

   In a fast-paced world, the bigger challenge though is to not disappoint even a single customer.To bring new customers return and become loyal to your brand, pay attention to ensuring good customer service experience.

   Merely launching promotions or slashing your products’ prices are definitely not enough, especially if your customers are not satisfied with your offerings. Worst, they can spread fury and vitriol against you, which can snowball into a disaster.

    

    

   What is Good Customer Service?

    

   There’s definitely a lot of definitions to use when talking about customer service. But after distilling the messages, it all boils down to the actual practice of fulfilling your customers’ needs in a professional, helpful, superior service and assistance in all levels of transactions until your customers’ needs are met.

   From the start to the completion of a transaction, it’s inevitable that a customer neither feel neglected nor abandoned. Every single moment with you should feel special. That’s why delivering a good customer service is relevant in order to survive.

   And to offer outstanding customer service, money as well as time and effort are important. Keep in mind that your work’s not done until your customers are satisfied. It also helps if customers are passing their positive experience because a customer care specialist was present and helpful.

   Customer service is, by essence, the effort of establishing a relationship with your customers. Or the kind that is worth pursuing for a long-term. And to truly create a good, lasting customer service, this blog shares some key pointers:

    

    

   The Customer Service Debate: Cost vs. Result

    

    

   

    

   Sometimes, for lack of understanding, experience or misguided notion about customer care, newbie entrepreneurs’ notion of the practice all about cost, cost, cost with no return.

   This is then tendency among startup bosses who hold back hiring a frontdesk receptionist or help center staff with good customer service skills.Thus, they thought of customer service as a useless aspect of business that’s not worth pursuing.

   Here are some additional signposts to detect mediocre practices and help you question your own customer service practice if you’re doing it all wrong.

   Customer Service is not viewed as part of marketing.When it’s not considered vital by your marketing department, management rarely push or pursue customer service investments. But what’s forgotten is that customers can do a couple of things much better than you are.

   Positive word-of-mouth exposure, for instance, can bring tremendous support to your marketing effort. It can eventually draw more sales out of new customers who’ll line up to order your new product offering, even help you outperform the competition.

   When there are few complaints, the service is great. Don’t instantly assume you’re a genius if people don’t lodge a complaint about your poor services. Believe it or not, only a fraction of your disgruntled customers might visit your website and write a complaint or call you to report an injustice.

   When you’re viewed as small or a startup, customers rarely give time to report a problem or alert you that you messed up big time. Because why would they waste time composing emails when simply looking for a replacement can be a smarter move.

   But to get the whole picture, seek out from your customers feedback that will help you improve your service delivery. Generate a survey form and offer some incentives to those who will respond and give their genuine no holds barred feedback.

   Thinking that acquiring new customer is much important than retention.While it’s already a struggle to invite prospective customers to pay attention and be convinced that you’re worth checking out, but the stake’s even bigger with customer retention.

   When your customer service fail your customer, you’re a sinking ship, weighing down your business with huge amount of cost.

   Just consider losing a powerful customer who share a very bad experience before his social media audience, you not only lose that person but a couple of supposed customer.

   Too bad, all these misconceptions are hurting them so bad that these businesses are losing all important opportunities to succeed. And while customer service might be present, worst, theirs just plain sucks. And it’s important that you worry.

    

   Keys to Outstanding Customer Service

    

   After we’ve discussed that customer service experience is really important in propelling long-term business gains, focus on these steps constantly to deliver professional customer care with ease:

    

   Answer your Phone. If you can’t handle frequent phone calls from customers inquiring and seeking response from inquiries, hire an outsourced staff with good customer service skills. Read carefully, not an answering machine.

    

    

   Listen to Your Customers.When customers call you, let them talk. Your customers should feel like you’re actually listening by making the necessary responses. When you keep asking your customers to repeat, that’s a sure sign your focus is somewhere and customers are sensitive to instantly notice your inattention to the latter’s concerns.

    

    

   Be Helpful. When you offer some help to your customers and declare that you’re not charging him for a fee, that story will surely go a long way. When such story of yours, event if there’s not immediate profit that you’ll get out of going the extra mile, can bring more benefits that you’d otherwise imagine.

    

    

   Be Professional. This pretty envelops almost all good qualities of customer service work: keeping your promises to your customers, being knowledgeable, courteous, patient, and willing to take the extra mile in order to satisfy your customers.

    

    

   Train and Empower Staff. Whether it’s your in-house staff or outsourced call center agents, provide the necessary training either by doing it yourself or hiring someone to conduct the training. Give your staff enough information and motivation when dealing even with the smallest of customer-pleasing transactions.

    

    

    

   Final Words

    

   Today’s customers are more and more challenging to deal with, especially so, they’re very demanding and easily-distracted. The price of competition and a hyper-connected and informed society that we have.

   Here is why good customer service is important and vital to gain positive words from your customers about your products and services. You can just imagine when these good words about you gets passed around, you benefit profitably in the short to long-term, right?

   Where does this leads us? It’s high time that you pay attention to the relevance of providing and ensuring good customer service. It’s because taking care of the ones you have is one vital side of your marketing effort that’s going to generate you more revenue and then acquire more customers for you.

    

4. How to Setup A Call Center in the Philippines

   March 13, 2014 10:05 am 153 Comments

   

    

   Whether you’re into the business of providing customer care or someone looking at operating a telemarketing hub in Manila, operating your own call center is not an entirely bad idea. Here’s a few insights and a couple of tips when you set up a call center in the Philippines.

   Pretty sure at this stage you’ve conducted your initial research and feasibility analysis about call center processes and operations.Now that you’re more inspired to build your own call center office, it pays to give closer focus on your business goals.

   One absolute fact about setting up your own call center is the huge investment needed to launch even with an initial five customer care representatives. There’s also a hearty of commitment required and tons of bold risk-taking involved when you open up one.

   But even if the idea comes off with a couple of risks, challenges and negative impressions, things have gotten a lot easier now.With more streamlined processes and technology, it’s least expensive to invest in opening a call center.

   When you setup a call center in the Philippines, you’ll definitely be in to seize the critical benefits on customer satisfaction, and ultimately too, to your business bottom line. Just take the time to do the things right the first time you embark on your call center journey.

    

   Planning Your Call Center Operation

   

    

   Is it easy to set up your own call center in the Philippines? We’ll show you why it is in the affirmative and help you gain from the expert level of service often reserved for the more affluent, well-budgeted organizations.

   After learning what it takes to open your own call center, you’re on your own to decide whether to push through or simply hire a call center outsourcing firm to handle your calls. A couple of benefits come with employing an outside call center provider.

   A typical example of advantage is cost savings in the process of letting some third party service provider handle your telemarketing and sales activities or the customer service responsibilities in your behalf. With more time left for you, you can run your business better and make your customers happier.

    

   

    

   Now to help you prepare for your call center endeavor, follow these few steps when you’re at the early stage in setting up your call center:

    

   Start with the End in Mind

   
   Bug yourself with the this question, “Why do I need a call center?”, “What’s my purpose for setting up a call center?”, “Why setup a call center in the Philippines?”

   Knowing the answer to these questions is not only essential, but critical to your success. Is it generating sales that you’re after or making customers feel they’re your No. 1 priority? Once set, you can now determine your secondary goal.

   Once your goals and objectives – the primary and secondary ones – are set, you’ll have a much clearer path to thread or benchmark to measure your future successes.

    

   Physical vs. Virtual Call Center

   

    

   Sort of a reality check about which call center setup is feasible for you. If the benefits far outweigh your investments for a physical call center setup in the Philippines, don’t hesitate to push through with this idea.

   However, if a virtual call center with remote customer representatives would be fine initially, go for it.

    

   Determine Physical or Operational Limitations

   

    

   Can you simply integrate existing telephone system with the ones you’re planning to purchase? How about checking first with your client their needs and demands, which can influence your call center choices critically, before making any decision to buy systems.

   In short, discover if you really need to buy brand new or upgrade to the latest model if pre owned equipment would do.

    

   Determine Your Budget

   

    

   The perfect time to set a budget is when you’re about to start with your call center setup planning.

   Make it a point to map out possible minimum and maximum expenditures very early into the project. When you get this ready, you can determine how many agents can be hired and what kind of PABX or VOIP solutions can be used.

    

   Assemble the Best Team for Your Goals

   

    

   Partly, this will be determined by the goals you seat early on. If it’s generating sales that you’re after, then you’ll surely need a solid team of call center agents with strong sales expertise.

   Best of all, you will need to establish a team of college educated, fluent in the language your customers speak, polite, and professional agents.

    

   Define your Call Center Business Processes

   

    

   Get your processes documented or mapped right away. Make sure you get these aspects of your operations factual, accurate and effective.

   It’s highly likely you’ll benefit from getting this difficult process right because of the time you’ll be able to save from training and cutting uncertainties.

    

   Have a Future-Proof Plan

   

    

   While you may be setting up a call center for the now in the Philippines, planning for the future shouldn’t escape you. It’s important that you scale your business for future growth and such need to be seamless whenever changes in the market occur.

   Typically, customer demand is a big challenge among call center operators. Hence, make sure you know what to do whether or not adding new call center agents would help or not you achieve success.

    

   Have a Ready Management Information System

   

    

   While setting up a call center will obviously entail that you make logistics and processes readied before you start, don’t forget that you’ll need to keep track of everything you put or established.

   Is your information current, factual and easy to follow? Help yourself by ensuring a lot of your management information, live monitoring and key performance indicators are available. Getting these data available will help you improve your existing processes to achieve maximum potential of your investments and capabilities.

    

   Evaluate Success of Your Call Center Operation

   

    

   Once you’re operational, it’s likely you’ll need to make sure you’re making a stride in your business. One way to examine whether or not you’re progressing is by looking over your key performance indicators (KPIs).

   This way, all possible causes of problems can be analyzed before you can give the right solution and determine the perfect approach to optimize your performance.

    

   Final Thoughts

    

   It may be daunting to start your call center, but if you’ll follow these steps when starting to setup a call center in the Philippines, you’ll gain fair advantage over those who thought the whole process of opening a center is merely a game.

    

    

   

    

    

    

5. How Do Call Centres Work?

   February 26, 2014 10:59 am Leave a Comment

   

   If you’re planning to operate a call centre business, it must be very overwhelming just knowing where or how to start. Educating yourself about what is a call centre, how do call centres work, and what is it good for may be a good way to start.

   Let’s begin.

    

    

   What is a call centre?

    

   If you’ve ordered your new shoes or inquired about your Internet network charges over the telephone or the web, one way or another, the company you or who contacted you is operating a call centre.

   Simply, a call centre is a communication hub with centralized method of accepting, handling and dealing with customer’s incoming calls and queries. That purpose may be ordering of books or booking a flight.

   So here’s where ‘inbound’ and ‘outbound’ call centres enter the picture. The inbound call centre operates to handle incoming messages while its counterpart outbound call centre handles only outgoing messages or a combination of the two.

   The person or people who man a call centre are often dubbed as call centre operators or ‘agents’. They’re also sometimes called customer service representatives or CSRs.

   Through simple or advanced application tools, call centre operators are able to perform their tasks to ensure customer queries are logged, responded to, and completed orderly and efficiently.

   Agents are trained to use these tools and adhere to customer relationship best practices depending on the industry or market to ensure utmost satisfaction of customers.

    

   Who Can Use Call Centre Services?

    

   Modern call centres are companies that operate or sought to improve customer-related services while scaling down overhead costs.

   Sophisticated technologies and faster telecommunication network connectivity paved the way for many companies to setup their own centralized area to respond to queries and request for support about their products and services from customers.

   Another key use of call center is to provide a front line marketing facility for agents. For businesses offering products and services, call centre agents can be tasked to contact regular or loyal customers to ask if they need additional goods or want to upgrade to a service promotion.

   The need to address customer demands and ride out market competition are critical reasons that will compel companies to outsource call centre services, if they’ll not setup a communications centre themselves.

   Companies belonging to the banking, health, technology, insurance and financial service to manufacturing sectors are markets being served by call centres. The derived benefits of a call centre for these firms include increased efficiencies and competitive edge.

    

   How Call Centres Work

   

    

   There’s no secret formula on how call centres work but only different approaches.

   You’ll realize this reality once you’ve started talking to a vendor and learn that different call centre outsourcing companies have their own unique approaches in servicing customers. Just try it.

   Search for vendors about outsourcing customer support if you’re seeking a long-term call centre outsourcing partner. Then familiarize yourself about how call centres work to take advantage of the benefits.

   Once you signed with a service provider a call centre agreement, that’s the start of your account. Your line will be opened and your agents will be ready to receive calls. When a call comes in on your line, you’ll start hearing, “This is XYZ Ventures, how can I help you?” humming at your office.

   Those familiar with the system will tell you what call centres often do when a call comes in. These calls are routed automatically to “the floor”, which is another term you’ll hear often and only means the staff.

   At most call centre outsourcing offices, anyone on staff can answer that call. Is that good?

    

   The Big Outsource Call Centre Difference

    

   With Big Outsource, our approach takes customer relationship to another level. First, we make sure our professional agents of 4 to 8 operators attend to your account to render customer support. We add teams of employees for larger accounts.

   Since we’re committed to ensuring not only swift and accurate delivery of response, we are also passionate in resolving customer dilemmas without sacrificing brand experience.

   In order to maintain the quality of calls, we provide agents with all your business and industry detail. Our clients don’t feel exploited because we don’t charge them to learn about their business and brand.

   To ensure proper and careful handling of client accounts, we also conduct role-playing with them. This is to ensure that we meet customer expectations and specifications. More importantly, the purpose is to ensure that our operators don’t mispronounce your company name or ignorant of any facts about your business or market sector.

   We also require call centre operators to be available to work for you at your required time for them. If you want staff to be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., you’ll find them there, and will always be the same people.

    

   Tips When Outsourcing Customer Support

   

   Customer support outsourcing is perhaps the better option if you’re looking for an affordable way to ensure that all your calls are answered, no matter the time of the day.

   This service also needs to be provided by your outsourced professional customer care representatives who understand your sector and can explain your product well to your customers.

   Outsourcing your customer support should be based on the following factors:

    

   • Flexible service and contract terms are offered. This is necessary when your company requires to expand and to adjust your requirements without penalty.
   • Scalable and on-demand call centre operator resource that will allow you to pay only for the consumed time your agent performed customer support for your business.
   • Experience of your market sector, including other service types and industry, which means more flexibility in handling service inquiries and technical support needs.
   • Capability in handing simple to complex aspects of transactions.

    

   Call centre outsourcing is a strategy that more and more small businesses are adopting to improve efficiency and bring down the cost of overheads. However, it pays to first learn the basics of the approach, from learning the definition to understanding how does call centre work. In the end, it’s your business that’s going to benefit out of gaining the focus to respond to the challenges businesses these days face.

    

6. What the World Would Be Like if Call Center Outsourcing Didn’t Exist

   September 5, 2013 4:00 pm 1 Comment

   

    

   It’s precisely a hypothetical question to ask. And if you are already outsourcing call center services, you’ll quickly get the picture of a world where call centers are plucked out and help is not arriving any sooner. Chaos! Fast forward to our era and it’s barely impossible to ignore how the role of call center outsourcing has evolved. From its humble beginnings of performing the tasks of receiving calls and passing them on, call centers now play some really big and critical roles in the super-charged global market space.

   So what is the point that we’re driving at? The fact that outsourcing call center services remains up to this day, there is no doubt it will continue to carry on in the future, especially in delivering outsourced call center services for businesses across different industries. In a world that is gradually succumbing to the tempting offer of digital connectivity (e.g., emails, voice mails, texting, etc.), the human toll was huge: the dearth of direct human contact. Thankfully though, call centers preserve the sound of human voice albeit face-to-face contact, and can be a significant business asset in rendering customer support during business transactions.

   A powerful advantage for anyone starting up or established, outsourcing customer support services is truly the next best thing for any business in today’s digital landscape. For client credit card companies, for instance, outsourcing call center services allow for the efficient conduct of credit and transaction services. Among small and large enterprises, hiring and outsourcing their call center operations to a vendor from the Philippines, India or China is seen returning their investments in the form of value propositions of service, convenience and trust.

    

   Call Center Outsourcing, Where It All Started

   The Internet boom in 1990s was the spark needed to bring outsourcing to the attention of the world. But do you believe that even as far back as the early ship building years of America, outsourcing was already in use? Historically speaking yes, and we will no longer dig into the details about how the initial salvo of outsourcing in the eighteenth and nineteenth century era of America was like back then. Over the years, companies consider outsourcing as a business strategy that is suitable in increasing profits, as well as extend corporate base or market share offered by the ‘economies os scale’. Not until the rapid development in transportation and technology that outsourcing that we know of today was finally born.

   During the 1970s and 1980s, business competition has gone global, which as a result brought along major challenges for active businesses. Different organizations from many industries found that their management strategies are no longer enough, worst, it was exhausting their flexibility. What started out as a crises of sorts eventually convinced these organizations to shift their focus toward their business core processes. Technical advancement in the 1980s finally paved the way for offshore outsourcing but it was only in 1990s when companies shift their focus on cost-savings and want the real value of handing-off non-core functions that are indirectly related to the core areas of their business. Eventually, this opened a big door of opportunities for the customer support outsourcing sector.

   And the rest, so they say, was history.

    

   Should You Outsource Call Center Operations

   Before we proceed farther, let us first define what call center outsourcing is. Simply put, it is a business practice that involves the use of resources like a third party outsourcing firm to handle a specific task that’s essential for your business. In business parlance, it is the use of telesales or telemarketing company to handle a company’s inbound or outbound call center project.

   Call center outsourcing vendors that offer outsourced inbound and outbound call centers provide access to skilled telemarketing professionals, account management expertise, remote call monitoring, market testing capabilities and more. Outsourcing call center services are also cited for delivering the following support: improved market coverage, faster ramp-up, launch, and roll-out of campaigns, experience with programs similar to yours and many of the likes.

   In the great design of things of everything customer support outsourcing, there is little doubt you’ll reap the following benefits:

   • Improved sales and profit targets
   • Reduced operational costs
   • Improved operational efficiencies
   • Increased customer base and lead generation
   • Higher qualified leads and closed sales
   • Customer retention and loyalty
   • Increased market share

    

   How to Measure Call Center Outsourcing Success

   If your business is customer service-oriented, outsourcing call center services is one of the best options available for you. Choosing the right call center is important then. Consider especially if you have a high volume customer interaction where your call center representatives might handle hundreds of inbound or outbound calls on a regular basis from a variety of different companies.

    

   Here is a guide on choosing the right call center outsourcing vendor to help you make the most of your investments:

    

   Profitability – Always consider that your investment must be measurable. Often you can measure the profitability or feasibility of customer support outsourcing based on the volume of customer service that your business handles. Consider preparing a realistic feasibility study of just how much it will cost you to create an internal call center department and compare it with the cost of outsourcing. Include the following factors when preparing this document: employee compensation, training cost, equipment and supply purchases, as well as construction or rent costs and maintenance.

   Complexity – While it’s true you’ll be able to save out of customer support outsourcing, but it doesn’t mean also that such strategy won’t cost you money in the long term. If your company takes or expects to receive customer calls regularly on technical or complicated issues, an in-house call center who will handle your customer service needs may be a better idea.

   Time – If you consider outsourcing call center to third party vendor, weigh the impact that it will bear around your day-to-day operations. Will call center outsourcing free you or your management’s time from responding to customers that will require frequent expert answers? If you realize you or your employees’ time are better spent on other projects, offloading this aspect of your business process might be a smart move. So when examining the costs of outsourcing, include the benefits in your decision.

   Customer Needs – Your decision must be anchored on your resources as well. So if you find that your current resources are very limited and meeting or responding to your customer demands and requests become highly impossible, it’s high time to decide in favor of outsourcing customer support services. To make a better decision, crunch the numbers, draw up a comparison, and map out business goals.

    

   Final Words

   Call center outsourcing has plenty of benefits for any business who knows the trade, finds the right strategic sourcing vendor, and are conscious of the obvious risks and opportunities. Getting a third party to handle call center services requires higher degree of oversight.

   This means, the business which forges a partnership with a provider must allocate time or manpower to monitor the progress of such arrangement. Done right, outsourcing can make the business but disaster awaits those who played it all wrong.

    

    

7. Philippine Call Center Sector Reaches 20% Revenue Growth

   March 27, 2013 9:25 am Leave a Comment

   

   The year 2012 proved to be an upbeat year for the call center industry after the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) reported that the sector grew about 20 percent against the growth target of 15 percent.

   Despite the appreciation of the peso, the strong performance was considered a big news to an industry that is highly dependent to currency fluctuations. According to CCAP executive director Jojo Uligan, should the peso currency and dollar exchange will fall below P40, the call center industry will be hurt the most.

   “We exceed our target last year. We’ve projected conservatively a 15-percent growth last year, [but] we did end 2012 [with] about 20 percent,” revealed Uligan, adding that CCAP will maintain its conservative forecast of 15-percent growth for the next three to four years.

   Last year, it was $8.4 billion in revenues and 500,000 jobs that the industry were aiming last year. Uligan expressed his satisfaction to the accomplishment thus far, including the opportunities that are coming from areas that the Philippines don’t presently have a strong presence like in Europe, United Kingdom and some Asian countries. The growth drivers last year include healthcare, gaming, banking and the financial sectors.

   For the overall business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, Uligan announced that the industry exceeded its growth target of $13 billion and jobs of 722,000 last year. Based on 2011 figures, the BPO industry posted more than $11 billion in revenues and employed almost 640,000 workforce.

   Under the medium-term roadmap for the BPO sector, it is projected that the industry will register up to $25 billion in revenues and employ 1.3 million by 2016. Out of this target, the call center industry is expecting to post $14.7 billion and 816,000 of the total jobs to be created by 2016.

   In recent years, many American and Australian companies are outsourcing their call center operations in Asia, particularly in India, China and the Philippines. Recently, Manila was named the call center capital in the world with the continued rise of this industry due to various factors that include low cost of embarking on call center outsourcing, English-speaking agents and the flexibility to adapt to Western country’s timezones.

   Source: (http://www.interaksyon.com/business/56941/call-center-industry-surpasses-2012-revenue-goal-despite-strong-peso)

    

8. Philippines’ call center image is improving – Al Jazeera

   February 20, 2013 4:56 am Leave a Comment

   

   The Philippines continues to sizzle as a hot outsourcing hub favored by most companies in the U.S. and Australia. Al Jazeera cited the country’s stable geopolitical climate, skilled and competitive workforce, and low cost of doing business as reasons it deserve the new title – the Call Center Capital of the World.

   Not blind to notice the progress, the prestigious global media network featured the booming outsourcing sector in the Philippines through a documentary last January 22, 2013. Running a total of 25 minutes, the investigative report made by Drew Ambrose details the fast growing industry, the limits to such growth as well as challenges ahead.

   As one of the most prominent English-language Arab news networks in the world, Al Jazeera’s documentary is remarkable. For one reason, it is a growing evidence of the generally-positive reception given by global media. Al Jazeera is also known for its independent yet eclectic taste when it comes to the selection of issues and global affairs that it feature. In effect, the media exposure is a big boost to the Philippines’ new emerging industry of outsourcing.

   Outsourcing is a business strategy that many foreign companies are seeking to get the most out of their investments to low-cost countries like the Philippines and India. Other countries in South America are considered major offshoring hubs as well as those from Ukraine and Ireland in Europe.

   And call center services is just one of the many back-office operations that small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as multinational corporations, are getting from offshoring companies in Manila. Technically, the operation of a call center involves the setup of a workforce or a virtual office capable of handling non-core functions such as customer support, outbound sales, and marketing.

   With the unprecedented growth of the call center industry, Al Jazeera noted that the sector is helping pull the country’s economy up. Already established in the Philippines are prominent names like Accenture, Convergys, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, IBM, and ANZ Bank from Australia, among others. Call center operations can be found in the major cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Taguig and Cebu.

   Compared to their counterparts, Filipinos are well-versed in American English, as well as educated and skilled. While observers note that the English fluency of the Filipinos are exeptional, this is hardly a new phenomenon because the Philippines has formerly been a nation ruled by the Americans.

   Today, the call center industry is just a decade old but now comprises of more than 420,000 workers, accounting to five percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product or GDP, or roughly $11-billion in revenue.