Monthly Archives: September 2010

Outsourcing your blog while sipping coffee

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m reading someone else’s blog about blogging. He says you can outsource your blogging to freelancers and sip coffee while the profits come in. When I read business books written by others, the theme is often how to make money without doing anything. That is the goal. But, in real life, that goal rarely presents itself at the beginning of your endeavor — which is generally the time you would spend reading blogs for inspiration. Sure, once you have outsourced all of your work and have more time, then you might do more blog reading because you have the time to do so. So, what’s the catch?

To develop a successful blog takes years of hard work, and most blogs don’t “take” so to speak. Most blogs never attract mass amounts of regular traffic no matter what the blog manager does. If you do nurture your blog to fruition and have 100,000 visitors per month, you can consider yourself hugely successful. I am nowhere near that level, but maybe one day. I am in niche markets where big traffic is not possible. But, my new blog is a travel blog which is widely popular in all countries — so, that one has a chance.

After you build your successful blog, which very few people will be able to claim to do, then you can think about outsourcing the work. If you start the blog rich, then you can hire others to build it, but if you are building your way to the top like the rest of us (starting modestly,) then you start by building it yourself.

Building your blog yourself is necessary, otherwise you will not know how to assess the quality of other bloggers, or instruct them in how you want your blogs written. If you hire the wrong people to help you write blogs, you could lose all of your traffic in a few weeks or months. So, before hiring others, assess their work by measuring traffic patterns in your blog while they are posting regularly. You need to take into consideration what happens if your newly hired help quits, or stops caring. You might need multiple tested people to help you out with your blog so that you always have resources. But, if you build your blog yourself, and hire “tried and true” helpers to continue your empire, THEN, you can make money while sipping espressos on your yacht off the coast of the Riviera. Basically what I’m saying is that you can live the dream, but building up to the point where you are riding on momentum could take many years of hard work as well as luck (and good karma.)

Tweet:
(1) Building your blog yourself is necessary, otherwise you will not know how to assess the quality of other bloggers
(2) Building your blog yourself is necessary, otherwise you will not know how to instruct others to help you write.

Diversity — a personal story

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , | Leave a comment

This story begins in early childhood. It really has a lot to do with my family’s history. Both of my parents lived in very international settings and were a strong influence in my life. Most Americans only know American culture. Even Americans who have been living side by side with other cultural groups for years seem to know very little about their non-Anglo neighbors.

My father grew up in San Francisco and his entire family loved Asian cultures. As a child, I heard many stories about Japanese culture, Chinese cuisine, and my father even knew how to write many Chinese characters. He taught me how to count to ten in two different Southern Chinese dialects. I learned how to use chopsticks early on as well. I “forced” or coerced my father to teach me the ancient Chinese game of “Go” or wei-chi (baduk in Korean). He was an expert at the game, and after many years of struggle, I too became a fairly decent player — although not as good as he was even after 37 years of playing. It is hard to compete intellectually with a father who was an MIT graduate.

My mother incidently also had a lot of family members in the San Francisco area, but had a completely different cultural orientation. I learned about the Arabic culture, as she grew up in an Arabic speaking country. I also became acquainted with Indians (Hindustanis) and Indian spirituality which has been a huge plus in my life. Since my mother lived in New York for many years, she was living very closely to Spanish speaking people at a time where very few other parts of America had any hispanics.

So, the influence of the two sides of the family connected me to a wide variety of very rich cultures — and it was fascinating. As a child, I had the opportunity of meeting people from around the world. This really shaped my life in many ways. In my University days, I had even more opportunities to meet even more people from even more places. I had never met Africans before I went to college, and I have many fond memories of all of the African parties I went to, and how nice the music and food was too.

An interest, or a means for survival?
In the beginning, I thought that understanding diversity was merely an interest. Connecting with cultures that meant something to me was a passion, but I didn’t see it as being important for my life. I thought that America was 90% culturally American, and that the others just lived in separated areas, or were scattered throughout the mainstream. This was 30 years ago when I was having the thought that understanding diversity was merely fascinating. America has changed, and the world has changed. The world is very connected these days. People travel from country to country much more often these days than ever before. International travel used to be the leisure of the upper class, but now it is something even the poor do from time to time. The demographics of America have changed tremendously, and continue to change. When I was a child, whites were more than 80% of the population. NOW, whites represent less than 50% of the birthrate. The diverse people are now destined to be the majority — and understanding them is my key to survival in the world today. As an example, I went to a wine tasting yesterday in Los Angeles — not a cultural event — but, 90% of the people there were non-anglos. Without a thorough understanding of diversity, it would have been hard to interact with anyone there!

Additionally, for my future, my psychic has told me many times that he sees a brilliant career in international trade between various Asian and Middle Eastern countries. I hope he is right. We will find out.

It has not all been a walk in the park
The down side of diversity, is that I often feel lonely. I live in a very diverse place, but find that people are not so friendly to you if you are not from their group. This has been the case since early childhood, when I was often rejected by people from other communities…

My friend came up with a brilliant saying which I will remember forever. He said this to me…

“You like diversity, but diversity doesn’t like you”

BPO Bangalore – in the news!

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

BPO Bangalore in the news
 
 
On Dec 19th, 2010 it was reported on expressbuzz that a Dell Bangalore BPO employee named Payal Sureka was murdered.  The murderer has still not been found.
 
Infosys BPO now has a 24 hour reaction team that addresses their Bangalore BPO employees grievances in real time.  Routes are planned so that female employees are not picked up first or dropped off last for safety reasons. Security will also accompany female BPO employees when necessary. Self-defence classes are also available for employees for a comprehensive safety regime! 
 
Wipro has a transportation plan that is meticulously followed. Drivers are not allow to report to a female’s house without a security escort and may not deviate from their set route. Drivers who break the rules are fired.
 
My experience with India is that there is either complete chaos or fascist style overly stringent and overly enforced rules.  Moderation can never be found.  However it is relieving news to know that women are finally being protected in India, at least if they work for a BPO! Bangalore is wealthier per capita than most other parts of India, but unnecessary tragedies keep happening in the news regarding women traveling alone.
 
The problem is that enforcing rules in India is hard.  Managers at companies will easily overlook safety rules to save time unless they are forced to comply, so force is a necessary component of safety.  There was even talk from the women and child development ministry of jail time for executies who don’t comply with safety guidelines.
 
For safety its good to have the same driver every single day.  The problem is when they need to be replaced due to having a sick day, or leaving the company.  Replacement drivers account for a lot of the harrassment cases. Another issue is that many companies don’t check criminal records or background check employees.  The sensible thing to do is to create an online database of drivers so that input could be added by passengers as to the quality of their service.  The government or private enterprise could easily sponser such a program and hire a moderator for the database.  Databases are not expensive and are highly effective ways to share information on the internet.

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Can you buy initiative?

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

After trying to deal with company after company, getting people who won’t even return a phone call to save their own lives. I ask myself this question: How do you get people to take initiative? Can a good leader get people to take initiative? Can you bribe people just to do their damn jobs? It is unbelievable how difficult it is just to find someone who does their job. I am not talking about doing a great job, or even being nice about it.

I am surrounded by lazy and uncooperative people on all sides. There are people who do a good job, but will slack off the minute you stop watching them. There are others who rarely do what they said they would do. Then, there are the story switchers. On Monday they claim to have done x amount of work while on Tuesday the story changes.

Some companies feel that to get good workers there needs to be engagement, hope of advancement, fun, good salaries, and more. Statistically, these things work. But, what if you have a boring job with no hope of advancement because you run a small company. No matter how much you pay, it seems that nobody reliable will ever do that job. You will keep going from negligent person to negligent person until you finally offshore the job to Quezon City in the Philippines where at least you have a chance of getting your job done semi-correctly.

I hired programmers. I started with $100 per hour for a programmer who wouldn’t return emails or phone calls no matter what. Then he quit and I hired someone for $120 per hour who left me high and dry because he had another project. Then I offshored my project to India for $20 per hour and got people who couldn’t even function. Then, I tried an older American for $90 per hour who didn’t even start after six weeks. Next another younger American in Arizona for $85 who left four jobs half done and demanded payment. Next, I found someone in San Diego for $140 per hour who quit right after he began. Then, I found someone on Northern California for $145 who is really nice, but also doesn’t return phone calls or call at the appointed times.

For those of you who think that money motivates — money is only part of the picture. I’m not convinced I know what other factors are the other parts of the picture. I think that most people just are not motivated and there are not so many ways to motivate them other than fear of losing everything. Let us know if you have any suggestions for finding ways to get people to take the initiative and just do their job!

Tasty solution to employee turnover: Outsourcing (Apple turnover: Another tasty solution)

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Do you have a high attrition rate at your outsourcing company? Do you have more employee turnover than you can handle? Sometimes it is better to let an outside agency handle some of your hiring and firing. It makes your life easier, but, can also add a quality of elasticity to your company’s work capabilities.

I remember hiring several companies in India. Every three months, they would give me a new programmer. I didn’t like this. I want to know who I am working with so I know what to expect. But, imagine the hell I would have gone through if I had to hire these people myself. I would lose my mind! It is easier to let these other guys do the hiring and firing, unless you specialize in HR.

Remember, the rule of thumb in outsourcing is:
Figure out what your core capabilities are and do that work in-house
Everything else — outsource, outsource outsource.

When you calculate the cost of a worker, you need to have a formula. Keep this though acutely in your head. The cost of the employee is:

Salary
The office space they occupy
Management Costs
The cost of replacing them if they quit early
The cost of training them
The cost if they damage your relationships with your clients.

This formula clearly shows how it might be cheaper to pay workers more for their loyalty. By the way, loyalty is a word that dropped out of most dictionaries in 2011. Fooling around with new hires could cause you a lot of damage, not to mention what you invested in training them. If you outsourced your HR operation, it might cost you a few hundred or a few thousand to replace a single worker. In my mind it makes sense to remind people that they get a raise every six months whether they deserve it or not — unless they get fired. If your raises are good enough, and you keep a few seasoned senior employees around with salaries to boast of, your attrition problem might go away (by attrition.)

Speaking of employee turnover.
My favorite Tunisian restaurant has a lot of turnover too.
They call these potato and egg turnovers Brik.
“May I have some mortar for my brik please?”

Final Note
Instead of having your employees get fired or quit causing high turnover.
Put them in a large sheet of dough and make a turnover out of them to set an example for your other workers!

Is Southeast Asia where it’s at in business these days?

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Is Southeast Asia where it’s at in business these days?

I was watching a youtube video of Scott Eddy a few weeks ago. He is an American who likes living overseas. He’s lived in Spain, Michigan, Miami, a few other places, and now in Thailand. He is a serial entrepreneur, master Twitterer, marketing aficionado, and very inspiring as a motivational speaker as well. In any case, he is of the opinion that Southeast Asia is the best place to be in the world from a business standpoint. He sees a different mentality there, fast growth, and excitement.

India & Taiwan
I agree with Scott on this point. I see it in my own way of course. I have not lived in Thailand before, but I spent some time in Taiwan and India of all places. I have witnessed the economic growth, and I have seen the passion for business growth. Taiwanese breathe business. It is not something they do — they live for it and die for it. In India, every time I went, there were visible signs of economic improvement.

There were better cars, newer buildings, and people were trying new types of cuisines and even wines. I didn’t see the passion for business in India. India is divided by caste, and it is more the Gujaratis and Sindhis who are talented at business. I didn’t meet that many people from those communities as I was mainly with South Indians. But, in India, the quick rise in standard of living, prices, and the quick change in lifestyle was all around me.

America — the land of lost enthusiasm
What I will say, is that I see America as a place where there is not much burning passion for business. I meet a few people once in a while who have the love, but most people are just getting by and thinking small. People’s goals here are to grow their business, buy a nice house, and fly to Vegas for the weekend. Thinking big and being willing to sacrifice doesn’t seem to be an American way of existing.

The quality of the work in America has really gone down too in the last few decades. I don’t see America being a wealthy country for that much longer. The government will go belly up soon, and the people don’t have the drive to really recover from what is going to happen to us.

Dubai & the Arab World
The Emirates is a very unique part of the world. The Northern Arab countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq are divided by religious sects and their countries have been ravaged by genocide and war.

Meanwhile, the Gulf Arabs all have countries with huge expat communities from around the world. Instead of dividing themselves by sect, they seem to unite the world under their Halal umbrella. Although the Saudi’s are not quite as welcoming to their foreign guests, expats in the Emirates (which is where Dubai is) and other gulf countries report having a great lifestyle.

The think that attracts me to Dubai is that there is an atmosphere of business exuberance. There are many people with lofty goals who are passionate about growing their business to heights unheard of. The architecture of Dubai reflects this passion. The tallest building in the world is in Dubai. The Sheikh made sure it was much taller than originally planned so that they could out-do everyone else. Their airport is

one of the busiest in the world. New buildings are popping up all over the place. Those who are not financially responsible have to abort their construction half-way through which is disastrous. But, at least the passion is there. When I look around America, there is not much new going on other than what Apple and Samsung are doing — and a few new frozen yogurt places perhaps. There is always a new social media site that is hot, but that is about it.

Summary
Basically, Asia is bustling throughout the continent. Each country is growing and dreaming their own way, but they are almost all growing. America seems to have lost its passion and is going further into debt. I want to travel and spend more time in the countries where the action is. That spirit of business is contagious and it can rub off on me. Maybe I can rub off on them in a good way too!

As far as answering the question of whether Southeast Asia the best place to be in the world for business right now — I’d have to say that it is one of the better places. It really depends what industry you are in and where you gel the most. But, I will say that as far as business inspiration goes, America is definitely no longer the place.

The bottom line on Twitter = clicks & customers

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Many people think that the point of Twitter is to get more followers. This is not true. It is not bad to have followers, but you will gain more from having people who interact with you a lot. I divide the metric of how many followers you have into several categories: active followers (who engage you,) relevant followers who are in a similar industry to you, and total followers. The number of active followers or interactions is what really benefits your SEO if you use Twitter a lot. But, that is still not the bottom line.

The bottom line
If you use twitter a lot and accumulate a huge following, that’s great. But, the numbers don’t do you any good unless they click on your links. Imagine that one guy has 1000 followers and they each click once per day. That is 1000 clicks to his blog. The other guy has a million followers, but only gets 500 clicks per day. The guy with fewer followers and more clicks is the one benefiting more!

Customers
Some people use Twitter as a way to gain customers. You can contact viable prospects one by one on Twitter. You can get to know them a bit before your first phone call to them. Customers who pay you money are one form of bottom line on Twitter.

SEO benefits.
You also get a lot of SEO benefit when people respond to your interactions. So, even if you don’t get a single customer from Twitter, Google will reward you if you impress them with your Twittering skills. If you interact with others, and they answer you back in large numbers, Google will give you a lot more organic clicks.

4 Ways That Make Appointment Setting Work for Businesses

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Whatever maybe the business size or whichever niche you belong to, correctly negotiating a business deal is important. You have to make the deal in such a way that you gain win-win results at the end for both you and the sales lead prospects.

The problem, which the marketer faces in this present situation, is the competition. Well, if you sprang in the market with a similar kind of mindset, where the opposite has to yield what you want then you will hardly succeed in the appointment setting campaign. Now that is a losing proposition for your company, as you might lose all the possible prospects.

Another productive way to gain B2B leads is to engage prospects and partners in the business. This helps to create a conducive atmosphere for both the business and their customers. This makes it easier to talk to the possible prospects and sign up for a deal.

In such a situation, you might prefer to leverage the appointment setting campaigns to some outbound call centers. Yes, they can actually guide you through the right track, which you have missed at some point of your business.

Here are 4 ways by which business can gain repute through quality outbound appointment setting.

1. Research or Survey

Research and survey are the two most important roles that a person has to play while initiating an appointment setting campaign. When you have to talk with your customer, query about their problems and things which they want to achieve through your product. If you are able to sit on the same side as your prospect then you will be successful in generating quality leads. That is what an agent at the outbound call center does for your business. They present themselves as an expert to tackle the customer problem and thus convince customers.

2. Depersonalizing Your Problems

Yes, an outbound agent takes care of their conversational speeches. They remove the positioning statements like – ‘my solution is’. Since, it shows that the identity of your company is affixed and it will never change. Instead they use comments like – ‘if we do it like this, so that’… or ‘is this solution fine with you?…’ it becomes easier to adapt to the needs of the customers.

3. Solutions to Queries

Outbound agents on behalf of the company figures out the ‘why’ behind every ‘what’ that customer asks. Since, in every statement of the customer there is logic as they are going to buy a product from the company, so queries form an essential part. During the telemarketing call, agents dig deeper in the customers reasoning. Once you know their queries it will become easier to negotiate.

4. Have a Plan B

If you outsource your appointment setting campaigns at outbound call centers, then you do not have to worry about the plan B. Telemarketers never stick to one single business arrangement. To acquire leads and turn them into sales, they keep the proposal ready from beforehand.

Negotiations through outbound call centers are not a tough job. Moreover, it lets you improve the core services. This gives you a competent edge. You will come across numerous outsourcing providers. Do a little research and choose the reputable ones in the market.

Author’s Bio

Marie Claret is a contact center marketing manager, takes care of the outbound wing and their processes. According to her, outbound appointment setting is really bringing wide changes to B2B business approaches and quality call center solutions are largely accredited for it. Visit Fusion BPO Services

LPO India in the News

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

 LPO India News Issues
 
Pangea3, an India LPO company, has been sold to Thomson Reuters. Employees with stock options might be compensated well. The sale price is only known to be US$35-40 million, but no exact figure is available. Pangea3 has a US presence for marketing, but is now planning on building onshore delivery centers to emulate the Indian LPO centers.  The ability to offer 24 hour service was one factor.
 
LPOs and the Music Industry
An India LPO company in Mysore SDD Global Solutions has been able to participate in helping a non-profit organization called Fight The Power Foundation.  Fight The Power is an organization that represents music artists who claim they have been cheated out of royalties owed to them by large record companies.  Many record companies believe that the artists don’t have the resources to sue them.  SDD has also represented Ali G and Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen).  Fight the Power Foundation is being incorporated by rapper Chuck D.
 
Another buyout of an LPO in India
UnitedLex, founded in 2006 in the U.S. has purchased LawScribe, a Legal Process Outsourcing company.  Lawscribe has its main office in Los Angeles, CA with additional offices in New York and Gurgaon which is near Delhi. Lawscribe focused mainly on document review, intellectual property, corporate transactions and legal research.
 
Growth in the India LPO Industry
The Indian LPO industry grew by around 40%  during the global economic downturn, and is expected to grow around 26% per year for the next few years.

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The spoke system of transportation for a new Indian city

September 6, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

We all know that India has horrible traffic problems that debilitate the growth potential of their economy. Sure, India grows through sheer enthusiasm, but they could grow a lot faster if good infrastructure were in place. Like most other countries, India does things the same old boring way without looking for innovative solutions. Roads, planes, trains, more roads, more airports, faster trains. The trains are so difficult to get a ticket on, that the affluent Indians insist on flying even if it is a 200KM flight! Boring. Let’s think outside the box here.

The spoke system
Have I spoken of the spoke system before? Imagine a newly planned metro divided into quadrants. Imagine 49 to be exact. That would be seven by seven. Each quadrant could be a mile or more in diameter and have a central area reserved as a local transportation hub for trains, shared taxis, buses, etc. There could be a high-speed train that goes to the center of the 49 squares at some accelerated speed. You could then transfer and visit any of the other 48 squares. This is a simple system to plan, but you have to understand that not all 49 squares would fill up with a sizeable population overnight. Businesses would need to start, and as the economy grew, more people would come. The city would fill in gradually. Would there be roads? Sure! But, the focus of this type of city is to have a very comfortable transit system that is so nice and fast, that you wouldn’t want to drive. India is filled with dirty buses, rude bus drivers, crowded train stations, and every conceivable reason why you would want to avoid public transportation like a disease. But, what if there were a planned city where public transport was hygienic to the point of sterility, considerate to the point where the British upper class even feel they can’t measure up, and fast to the point where your journey is over just after you got on. High speed trains can go over 300 KM per hour these days you know — and a city filled with affluent high tech Indians might be able to afford such luxuries too!

Variations on the spoke theme
Another variation on the spoke system would be to have fast trains that could connect individual quadrants directly to other selected quadrants. Perhaps there might be a quadrant famous for shopping that people might want direct transport to, or another that had many industrial buildings. Certain quadrants could be directly linked to neighboring quadrants and other areas that the type of people in the quadrant might want to visit more frequently.

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Nursery rhyme music is not appropriate for when you are on hold

September 6, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged | Leave a comment

Unfortunately, it might be the phone system in India that is like this and not the fault of any individual company owners. When we call India from America, we get “on hold” music played with a computer synthesized tone. It sounds like music for three year olds. Not very professional unless you cater to the business needs of three year olds (people are learning about business earlier and earlier these days by the way). Actually we laugh when we hear this music and ask, “Is this music for real?”.

I hear the lone ranger theme played on a computer, London Bridge, and other nursery rhyme tunes.

If you want to attract sophisticated overseas clients, maybe you should have music that caters to their preferences of their age group. If they are 40 years old, then play music suitable to 40 year olds (preferably ones who don’t wear diapers).

If I hear 3 year old music when calling your company — I will be forced to assume that your company is functioning on the intellectual level of a 3 year old. Do you want me to get that impression? Exactly! Lose the nursery rhymes buddy!

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Flattering your boss can ruin his career!

September 6, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

I was just reading The Daily Stat, which is a blog run by the Harvard Business Review. According to their research, bosses who have been flattered too much by their employees or others, can increase their likelihood of being fired by 64%. The CEO’s who have received the flattery would be more likely to have inflated egos, and not be as likely to make the best decisions about change when corporate performance is less than desireable.

I decided to read this quick article simply because the culture of India encourages endless flattery of those above you. Unfortunately, people do not typically learn to be better, if they already think they are perfect. Good enough is the enemy of “could be better”.

My personal experience has lead me to believe that those who received endless criticism tend to become frustrated and hopeless. While those who never receive any criticism sometimes do not know their own faults, and settle for mediocracy.

I am not recommending that people in India go around insulting their bosses. You will end up on the street if you do that too much. But, if you don’t like your boss, and want him replaced, you could create a secret alliance of the workers to do nothing but flattery until the guy gets canned. There is no guarantee that this strategy will succeed, but the odds are that you will increase his chance of being fired by 64%. If you all do it, then maybe a new statistic would be merited on how likely you are to getting a new boss!