Monthly Archives: October 2011

BPO Projects – How to get them and what they entail

Categories: BPO, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

BPO Projects
BPO = Business Process Outsourcing.  BPO companies typically do data entry, call center, payment processing, and other repetitive back office services.

There are many types of BPO projects out there.  Some are voice processes while others are non-voice processes.  It is important to note, that when communicating with prospective American or Australian clients, they might not understand what you are talking about if you use the term, “non-voice process”.  When talking to Westerners, it is more clear to mention a specific type of process or work such as data mining or telemarketing for example.

What do projects entail?
BPO projects might include a call center or telemarketing project, data conversion, image processing, payment processing, data capture, or a wide variety of other types of work.  It is important to note how many seats will be involved in the work, and how long the work is expected to take unless it is intended to be continuous work on an ongoing project. 

Getting work
Getting BPO projects is not always easy.  Established companies have a steady clientele that might refer them to other overseas companies.  So long as the quality of their work stays intact, they would normally continue getting regular business.  There might be economic cycles that would effect their work volume, but a steady flow of BPO projects would be normal. 

Newer BPO companies, especially those that have weak marketing skills, will find it much harder to get steady work.  Additionally, I have found that inexperienced start-ups have management that doesn’t always have a good command of English.  If your marketing materials are in broken English, it will be hard to attract data entry or call center work, since those lines of work are language intensive.

In the beginning, you should have someone help you with your marketing materials to make sure they will attract foreign clients.  Once you establish a reputation for doing good work for a reasonable price, then business will begin to be more steady. 

How do I get initial work?
You can contact companies overseas that might need your type of services.  Making personal contact is a very effective marketing technique.  You can advertise on alibaba.com, or on 123outsource.net to gain worldwide exposure for your company as well.  The basic trick is to find companies who need your BPO services, and to make them feel confident about using your outsourcing services. Offering them a little bit of work at a discount or for free with liberal terms is the easiest way to get BPO projects fast! If you make life easy for your new clients at a great price, they’ll be very enthusiastic about your company!

More ideas for getting work
Have a website, call companies that might need your service, create a Linked In profile, advertise on large outsourcing directories, use PPC advertising on Google, network with other companies, do email blasts, etc. Please read our more up to date articles below for more thorough information.

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You might also like

Marketing your BPO outsourcing company from A to Z
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/05/22/marketing-your-bpo-outsourcing-firm-from-a-to-z/

How to get more clients for your BPO or Call Center (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/20/how-to-get-more-clients-for-your-bpo-or-call-center-compilation/

What is the process of setting up a BPO company?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/02/04/what-is-the-process-of-setting-up-a-bpo-company/

How to get clients for call centers — contracts!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/04/05/how-to-get-clients-for-call-centers-contracts/

Best Outsourcing Articles (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/04/02/compilation-of-best-outsourcing-articles/

Outsourcing was first used as a business strategy in 1989
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/02/outsourcing-was-first-used-as-a-business-strategy-in-1989/

Getting new clients and nurturing them correctly
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/04/17/gaining-new-clients-and-nurturing-them-correctly/

Why Indian call centers fail
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/16/why-indian-call-centers-fail/

From 100 Indian call centers down to 1
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/21/from-100-indian-call-centers-down-to-1/

Get more clients for your BPO by having better TRAINING
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/05/how-to-get-more-business-for-your-call-center-better-training/

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Training for Outsourcing Jobs part 2

Categories: Getting a Job | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

I’m sitting here reading an article on HRO today.  It is about training process outsourcing.  The article claims that many American corporations have no idea what their expenses are for training employees.  A VP named Ed Trolley of a large American company was interviewed and gave some interesting answers.  Ed claimed that training was one of the most under-managed, under-leveraged, and under-valued, not to mention misunderstood functions in a corporation.    Training is often viewed as something you have to do.  But, how much emphasis is put on results.  Outsourcing training can help a company focus on what their core competencies are instead of stumbling, trying to train their own employees.
 
When I work with outsourced companies, I am always very aware of how their employees handle situations.  There is always a loose screw.  Some are good workers, but can’t communicate.  Others refuse to answer emails even if their life hinges on it.  Many do their work in a mechanical way without insight.  There are so many things to pay attention to in any type of job, it must be baffling to train people. 
 
Thoughtlessly picking a program
Getting “a” training program doesn’t seem to be a great idea.  Looking at the costs of training programs and saving money by outsourcing them seems to be missing the boat as well.  I believe that the key is to understand the various levels of training that need to happen.  In any type of task, there is a mechanical aspect.  If you do call center work, you need to punch in some numbers, or press a button so a computer can do that for you. You have to read a boring script, and try to be polite when answering questions.   So, there are different levels in the training here.
 
Levels of training
The first level is purely mechanical. How to make the call, what to say, how to answer commonly asked questions, what to do when the customer gets upset, or acts inappropriately.  But, what about the next level of training?  Ideally, in any call center, your manager should be looking over your shoulder from time to time and should be looking to see if you are gracefully handling all of the tasks involved in interaction. The manager should give you pointers from time to time and even write up a review about your work from time to time. So, we can say that reviewing and nitpicking could be level two in the training scheme.  But, there is yet another level! What could it be?
 
Sophistication and nuances? 
The individual who trains your employees how to make calls may likely be very unsuitable to teach nuances.  It is really on an individual basis who is good at teaching the different facets of any job.  Someone who is what I like to call, “Tuned in” can easily find all types of ways to refine an employee’s skills.  There are very subtle differences in the way you can answer a question that make the person on the other end of the phone much happier.  There are differences in your tone and amplitude of your voice that can make people think you are a nice person instead of a jerk — even if you say exactly the same thing.  The bottom line here is to pick the right trainor for each level in training.
 
Data entry training?
Data entry requires different types of training too.  Making sure information is complete and well formatted is key.  So, if someone can assess how well an employee deals with the trickier situations where answers are not so clear cut — is very important.  If you can spell well, you can catch other people’s spelling mistakes.  If you know what type of format is desired, you can correct formatting errors in the data input.   But, some employees do not catch the subtleties of the job, and some managers do not catch which employees can learn, and which should be let go.