Author Archives: 123outsource

Instead of asking people to like you on facebook and getting ignored…

August 12, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

30 people invite me to their FB daily & I ignore all 30.
Every day I follow over one hundred people on each of my three Twitter accounts. I get endless DM’s or what I call private messages from people saying, “Thanks for following, care to follow me on Facebook?” I ignore all of these requests for several reasons. First of all, I’m busy, and don’t have two minutes to even visit their Facebook page. If I did have two minutes, I would kind of want a reason why I should invest that two minutes in them looking at their Facebook. If their Facebook page was really interesting, it might be worth investing a lot more than two minutes. The basic problem is that they are inviting me to see an account that they failed to differentiate from the other 1000 bozos’ accounts who also invited me.

What is special about your FB account?
To me, their Facebook will be just as boring and meaningless as everyone else’s. Except that I haven’t spent time looking at anyone else’s, because I’m busy. They didn’t bother telling me what is special about their account, and that is their primary mistake.

Differentiate please…
But, what if they told me something about their Facebook that would make me actually want to click on the link? What if they told me they were having a discussion about bunjee jumping on the Sarangpodang river in Thailand. At least I would have some idea of what I was getting myself into by investing my two minutes in their direction.

How I promote my Facebook
I don’t just ask two thousand people to like me on Facebook. First of all, it doesn’t do any good, unless they will be active followers. I tell people a little about what is going on on my Facebook page. I let them know about the discussions, the links to blog article stories, industry news, etc. I give specific examples of what our last few posts were about and why they are exciting. There are many choices on the internet these days. My offerings are often interesting or exciting — or, at least I claim that they are! I also have a newsletter where I can mention what our best Facebook posts were along with our best blog articles, Linked In discussions, and more. Once in a while I will tweet about what is going on on Facebook or Linked in as well. I always offer specifics, and generally do so on a medium that reaches thousands rather than asking people one by one and getting blown off.

It is like India
In India, each morning, two hundred people will offer me chai or soda. If they happen to catch me in a chai state of mind, I’ll buy from them. Their products are generic, and I know what to expect. Your Facebook accounts are pushed on me just like the wallah’s of India push their products on me. Ten of them surround me offering identical products and they harrass me until I yell at them. Americans use the same equally ineffective strategy with Facebook. The bottom line is differentiate your Facebook account. Communicate what the salient features are. Entice people to visit on their own initiative, and make it interesting enough so that they will become repeat visitors!

A social media manager was taking a walk late at night.
A spaceship landed right in front of him and some little green men got out.
Manager: “Are you going to abduct me?”
Aliens: “No, but can you like us on Facebook?”

Sound familiar?

Should your call center invest in a cloud contact center?

August 6, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

When you are in the call center business, keeping costs in line matters a lot. But, investing in good technology can make you more popular which means better agent retention as well as being more attractive to clients!

The beauty of a cloud system for call centers, or for any type of data retrieval business is that you are not dependent on a single server for all of your needs. Clouds operate with multiple servers in a group. If your call volume suddenly goes up, or if your server suddenly has technical difficulties, a cloud system can handle it seamlessly.

Your clients don’t want to hear that you had technical difficulties on Tuesday. They don’t want to hear about how your technician is working on it. They want to know the following:

(1) You have state-of-the art equipment and systems
(2) You pick the best agents and then invest in regular coaching & monitoring
(3) You retain your employees longer than the other guys
(4) You don’t have breakdowns

Sure, it might cost more to migrate to a cloud, but the advantages could help to retain existing clients and get more clients which is the only way your international call center operation will grow!

Cloud systems are virtual.
It is not necessarily more expensive to invest in a cloud system. It might be less expensive than your in-house on-site system. Consider the security issues. If there is a problem in your building, or with the electricity or cables, your system could experience technical difficulties. Cloud systems are housed in data centers which have high security and redundant sources of electricity, data cables (not sure what the technical term is for that since I’m an admin guy, not a technical guy,) and redundant everything else that they could possibly need. Your data center is safe from most natural disasters, civil unrest, and power outages. Additionally, data centers typically have multiple system engineers on staff twenty-four hours a day! You get infrastructure and service all in one reasonable monthly fee.

Integrating your cloud
It is not difficult to integrate your cloud with social media platforms such as Facebook, chat, email, etc. Customer records can easily be updated and queries can easily be made with a cloud system.

What is bad about a cloud?
For my personal website I opted against a cloud. The reason may surprise you. I am personally in the online directory business. If my directory has faster queries, more people will want to use my site. We learned that there is a speed difference in a query from a server and a cloud system simply because the query would have to interact with a gateway, and then with a database server in a cloud, while on my server it would only go through one server. Interesting! The speed difference is only a fraction of a second, or slightly over a second in the worst case scenario. But, for me, that could mean losing 4% of my market share which has a large value to me! The tiny margins in life can sometimes make the difference.

Just remember: if you are not crazy about migrating your system into a cloud, every cloud has a silver lining!

How to be a better outsourcing company (so you’ll attract more clients)

August 3, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

There are several ways your company can do a better job in outsourcing.

(1) Be better at what you do.
Do you do web design? Try to be better at it. Don’t ask me. I’m not in web design. Just make your designs look better for lack of a better description for what to do. Hire people to train your workers to do a better job. It will cost, but you might get a good benefit. The experts sometimes can change your entire way of thinking with only a few hours a day!

(2) Be better at communicating.
Americans are amazing at communication, but very lazy about actually getting work done. I don’t understand how our country has reached such greatness with all of these lazybones. The only people in America who are useful are foreigners. They actually work. But, try talking to foreigners. Most of them can’t communicate, or just prefer not to — especially Asians. With Indians, the more educated types tend to be good at communicating while the working class has a dismally horrifying way of communicating. The problem is that as an Indian manager, you are too used to how things are, and don’t realize that it is a problem. People who mumble on the phone and speak inaudibly are a problem. People who don’t answer questions or don’t announce who they are when picking up the phone are a big problem. You either hire people who can communicate, or drill it into them. Communicate!

(3) Hire someone to do verification?
What does this mean? You need someone to check on your workers’ work. Make sure that when they say something is done, that it is done. Make sure they are not slacking off or being inefficient. Make sure they are not cheating on their hours, etc. If they can do training or motivation as well that is great. But, you can’t rely on workers to check their own work. Most people are sloppy and verifying is a niche profession. As a manager, you can double check verified work to verify the work of the verifier. It is like Russia. You hire someone to work, another one to watch him, and another one to watch the guy who is watching the work, and so on (comrade)!

(4) Make sure you are tight on deadlines
Nobody respects a company that doesn’t finish work on time. People like it if you are always done on time, and communicate that fact to the client. You might need someone to plan how you intend to get work done on time, and that person might be the one to force people to work overtime if work is not done on time.

(5) Interact
Do you give progress reports to your clients? I like to get an email every two business days stating what they did, what types of issues they encountered, etc. I also like friendly heads up calls or emails. I know a nice guy in Bangalore who sends an email to me from time to time. I like him and his partner a lot as people by the way. He is genuinely a great person! He even came to America to see some clients, and I gave him a tour of the town, took him out to dinner, and showed him where the multi-millionaires live in Los Angeles. Keeping in touch and interacting for business and social (small-talk) reasons with your clients pays off in a big way.

(6) Small talk
Marketing is a serious profession. But, what Indians don’t understand is that Americans culturally like small talk. Indians are a social bunch. Many of the older women are chatterboxes. They never stop talking. But, when it comes to business, people clam up. Don’t be like this. The reason I like Indians (when I say Indians, I mean nice Indians, because I don’t like the mean ones) is because they are more friendly than other nationalities. Try to be friendly with the people you work with. When you are marketing and trying to attract more clients, they will seven times more likely to work with you if you can make small talk with them. Instead of just asking what the requirements are, talk about the weather. Talk about your trip to the office. Ask them if they have any specific needs. If you just ask in a dull mono-tone what the requirements are, they will think you are very undesirable.

(7) Refine Your Marketing
Having a great website, and great ways to reach new prospective clients is very important. On the other hand, if you are the best company in town, you won’t need to prospect clients — they will come to you. I do marketing for a living. It is a little hard to describe how to be good at marketing in a single paragraph. But, to make it short and sweet, you need to be constantly interacting with new prospects every month. You need to be constantly refining the art of attracting and interacting with those prospects. Marketing is not mastered in a day. It is an ongoing process and it is an art form! I don’t know the details of how you should market your company, but try twenty different approaches and see where you get a return on your investment!

Do you know how to communicate what is better about your company?

August 2, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I wrote another blog entry regarding what is better about your company. This entry is similar in nature, but focuses more on the communication aspect. If you already know what is better about your company (most people don’t,) mastering communicating those facts in a graceful and convincing way is paramount.

Most of us are not salespeople. I am very awkward in sales. I am slightly better if I am selling a product that I sell a lot of. Normally, people want to buy listings from me. They ask why they should spend more on a listing, and will that help them get ahead. I tell them that many people who pay more for high placed listings do very well, but that there are multiple factors involved and I don’t want to make promises that I can’t guarantee. As you can see, I am very reluctant to make claims. My information is more statistical rather than a sales pitch. Fortunately, my reputation for delivering jobs to people via my directories speaks for itself, so I don’t have to do the bragging myself! I tell them that the customers who have high placement and do everything else according to my recommendations typically do very well, although a few who are unlucky don’t. It is worth the risk since 90% of the ones who do everything well, get enough jobs to pay for their investment. The odds are very much in your favor. But, enough about me!

You need to practice communicating. Interacting with clients is an art. If you don’t practice, you will not be smooth at it. When you interact with clients, take notes on what you did well, and what you need to work on. Fortunately for me, I do only 10% of the sales for my company. I have someone who is a natural saleswoman do the rest of the selling. She is not afraid to make claims and tell stories of people who got rich from doing business with us.

Obviously you need to have a memorized list of things that make your company better. When clients ask about your company, you need to talk about each attribute or aspect of how you are better. But, don’t stop there. See if they have objections or what they say. They might want to question you, or argue with you about something. Are you smooth at handling yourself in a difficult situation? You need to be in sales. You need to understand how the other person feels, and try to find a way to make them more comfortable without telling them a bunch of nonsense. Let’s do an example

Vikas: Hi, this is Vikas from VKS Web Design
Fred: Hi,this is Fred. I need to hire a Web Design company.
Vikas: We specialize in all aspects of Web Design. We are also very specialized in flash design.
Fred: I don’t like flash design, and the last guys I dealt with tried to sell me on some flash design.
Vikas: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Would it make you feel better if you meet our designers face to face and have them show you their work?
Fred: Hmm, that would be very nice. Instead of a sales pitch, I get to see the real deal!
Vikas: Exactly, and if you don’t want to have flash work done, we can accommodate you in any way you like. We cater to those at any budget.
Fred: I am liking this more and more. I get to have it my way, and you’ll be nice about it!
Vikas: Yes, that is how we like to do it. If you are happy, then we are happy.

See how nice Vikas was. He didn’t try to twist a stranger’s arm into signing a contract. He was just nice, helpful, and dealt with objections in a very kindhearted and smooth way.

In any case, make it an art form how you deal with prospects. If you do a good job, that can change your life. Remember, getting clients is no good if you lose them. But, if you can get them, and keep them, then you can become a large company and be rich!

Bathe and meditate before making business decisions

July 23, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Do you make business decisions at the office? Sure, most of us go to an office to work everyday, but offices are actually not the best place to work, or to make decisions. Hmm! Offices are good places to have meetings and to watch less experienced workers. If we all knew what we were doing and were trustworthy, we could all work at home, couldn’t we! So, when and where do we make our big decisions?

What are meetings good for?
Meetings are good for exchanging ideas, brainstorming, and meeting new people. The ideas bounce between different people and can develop as they go around the table. Some experts say that you shouldn’t have more than seven people at a meeting otherwise it undermines the efficiency of the meeting. Other experts say that meetings are usually an inefficient use of time and should be kept to a minimum. I can’t advise on that, but there are many blog articles on the topic! Meetings are good for what they are good for. After you have attained the benefit of the meeting, adjourn it and go back to work!

Sleep on it
But, for the actual decision, sometimes it is good to sleep on it. For complicated decisions, we need to be in a more spiritually pure frame of mind. Taking a bath and meditating before attempting to tackle a hard decision is a good idea. Late at night when it is hopefully quiet and there are few if any distractions might be the time to make that decision.

Thinking while walking & talking?
But, there’s more! I have made the best decisions of my life while talking on the phone during my daily walk. The best artists, musicians and philosophers often are reclusive people who take long walks — at least historically this is a true fact. I often talk to my psychic while I’m walking. He can sometimes give great answers to my questions. But, sometimes, I answer my own questions just by talking to him. Perhaps I’m subconsciously absorbing his thinking abilities, or perhaps, by talking about the issues even to my cat, the answer would come to me because I’m stimulating my own mind!

A final thought!
This might sound bizarre, and it is. I was in line for some pasta in my neighborhood. There is a place that has been in business since 1963 believe it or not. They are very inexpensive and often have a very long line for their pasta, vegetables, chicken, shrimp, and other specialties. I was upset that I was going to waste so much time in line. But, then I whipped out my i-phone and started writing notes in the notes section. I came up with thirteen really interesting blog ideas in only twenty minutes. Maybe I should have pasta more often!

Should your company have a pre-hiring training program?

July 22, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

You can’t really hire someone based on an interview. Some people are good talkers, but bad workers or vice versa. Talk is cheap, and I really don’t want to hear how well someone talks unless they are going to do call center work. You can test prospective employees out on various projects — that is a good idea. But, what about a training program?

Most people are below standard in what you want to hire them to do. Selecting the best of a pool of below standard people might not be an ideal solution for your company’s hiring needs. It might make sense to put them through some training, and then evaluate them.

Additionally, having a training program allows you to see if people stick with you when you are being demanding on them. It also lets you see if they are capable of taking instruction or learning. Third, you can see if they have a bad attitude before you hire them. Ability is only one metric in hiring people, these other metrics are equally important.

Large companies often spend tremendous amounts of money on analysts to assess the value of their employees. You need to know how good someone is, so you know exactly how much salary to offer them. You can’t really tell that if you just hire them on some basic preliminary tests. Knowing how they learn and if they stick around gives you more data to assess their value to your company.

10 ways to get more clients for your call center

July 21, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

We have written many blog entries on how to get clients for your call center. This entry will just summarize some of the better ways that work.

(1) Web Site
Have an attractive web site with pages that load fast. Make sure your specialties, contact information, testimonials, and hopefully a blog with some meaningful articles about your work are included.

(2) Linked In
Linked In is the best social media network around to reach professionals. They have the highest rate of decision makers of any social media site (by far.) Network with decision makers that you find in Linked In business or outsourcing groups — there are many!

(3) Lead Generation
Lead Generation outfits can help you find prospects for your business. Sure it costs, but they specialize in marketing, and you don’t. So get someone good to help you who can get you leads. Getting an agent is another way to handle getting leads!

(4) Craigslist.
America has a site called Craigslist.com where you can post jobs, or post that you are willing to do jobs. This is a great way to find a wide variety of services including real estate.

(5) Have a phone number in the United States.
People in America feel more comfortable calling a domestic number that they can call during business hours. You can forward the line to wherever you are, or have a representative in the United States, Australia or England do the sales for you.

(6) Answering the phone
Most call centers don’t answer their phone. They specialize in phone related work, yet they don’t answer their phone. How ironic. Then, when they answer, they don’t answer professionally, or you get someone who is poorly trained. Have intelligent people answer your phone if you want to get intelligent clients who will pay you.

(7) Training and monitoring
The call centers who monitor and train their workers regularly get ahead. Many have contests regularly to keep the mood up. They also constantly assess the work of their callers. Call centers who don’t do this might get a few temporary jobs from being cheap, but they will never get ahead.

(8) Contracts
Don’t have rigid contracts unless you have too much business and want to narrow it down to the big guys. Contracts scare people away. If you do have contracts, have less restrictive contacts that don’t bind your customer into a huge commitment. Remember, you are in business to help others, not to trap them into a situation that could turn into a law suit or a disaster.

(9) Professional emails
If you write very professional looking emails to your prospects and clients, you gain credibility. If you make lots of spelling mistakes or communicate poorly, or just don’t respond at all, that counts against you. Don’t use personal emails for business if you can help it. People want an email address with a suffix that is your website. steve@vksconsulting.com not steveb313@gmail.com

(10) Be flexible
You need money saved up, and a labor pool at your disposal. If you suddenly get a new client, you need to get labor in a snap. If you already know who the callers are and have them already trained, assessed and whatever you need to do to get them shipshape, then you are shipshape. If you have to scramble and hire strangers in a pinch who might not be that good, your client might not be too happy. It might make sense to let your client do the picking.

Okay, I fulfilled my promise. There are ten ways to get more call center clients. Happy calling!

Outsourcing 101 Course Outline

July 20, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

For a long time, I wanted to create a course for outsourcing companies. Rather than try to sell them something that they won’t want to buy, why not offer something for free. Then, if they get a passing score on my free test, they can go to the next level. I haven’t written the course yet, but will be doing so hopefully over the next several months.

The contents of this course will be:

(1) Communication
Answering the phone
Interacting with prospects
Getting back to people

(2) Double checking your work
Hiring people who can double check work
Training employees to double check their own work

(3) Meeting deadlines
Planning for deadlines: allocating labor resources
Managing deadlines and changing the course of scheduling

(4) Hiring
Selecting, assessing and training new workers

(5) Management structures
Having the right middle management to be able to handle interacting with your clients, and managing the workers to ensure seamless work.

(6) Having a good website
Good artwork, clear navigation, and substantial information are what is necessary.

(7) Marketing
Understanding the multiple channels in which you can promote yourself.
Social Media
Lead Generation Specialists
Agents

(8) Foreign offices and phone numbers
Is it better to have a sales staff in the country where the client is?
Or is it better to have an American number that rings wherever you are?
Either way you need to answer your phone during American business hours.

(9) Small talk
Prospecting clients is a real skill. Mastering the art of small talk is a huge topic that Indians understand in their social life, but typically avoid in business.

Create stories in your blog about the experience of your clients

July 18, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing, Popular on Google+, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

But, I don’t have a blog? Get one!

Most people just focus on acquiring clients. Their mentality is not far from a rickshaw driver’s who only wants to know, “Where are you going? Do you need a ride?” Prospective clients often want to get to know you first and don’t just want to start off talking about the work. Don’t hustle your clients, engage them instead!

Engage your prospects!
If a client talks to ten different companies, and one of those companies pleasantly engages them without any pressure, two months later when they make their decision who to hire, which one will they remember the most favorably? That’s a no-brainer! They will remember the one who engaged them, who told them charming stories about their clients, and about life in Dehra Dun, Mumbai, or wherever you might be.

Storytelling 101
Being a good businessman is more about understanding margins, numbers, hiring, firing, buying and selling. It is about engaging, and engaging with stories. Obviously, you need to be able to explain to others what is unique about your company and why they might consider hiring you. It’s good to keep in touch regularly just to remind them you are still there if you didn’t hear from them. But, tell them a story about something your client did and how they became successful using your service, or perhaps some other unrelated service. Tell them the story about how last week you had to go hungry because an elephant at a parade in Nashik grabbed your banana right out of your hand and ate it! Ask them if they have ever been to India and engage them in a conversation where they might tell you their stories too! If you want to get clients, get close to people. People will trust you more if you are nice, entertaining, and if they get to know you a little!

But, what about blogging?
You can’t tell someone a story if you haven’t met them yet, but you can blog a story to them! People find me on my blog every day. They like the crazy stories I tell on my notary blog. They like the tips and the nit-picky technical points I make. They sort of get to know me before they have ever talked to me. Blogging allows you to be personal, interact, and get people to know you, before you ever talk to them. Then, by the time they talk to you, they already sort of know you — or at least know a lot about you. So, think up some stories. Hire a writer to help you. Put your stories in your blog. Tell them how you had one client who came to you and he became a millionaire partly because of the help you gave him. Then, tell them about the time you had a head on collision with a cow while in a rick-shaw. Share, entertain — blog!

And remember, don’t sell by selling — sell by telling stories. It’s more fun and works better!

How many retweets do you need to get a new follower on Twitter?

July 15, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, Popular on Twitter, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On my notary twitter, we have accumulated more than 8000 followers. They seem to be very passive. We get some clicks on our links, but not that many. We get a handful of retweets per day, but nothing amazing. I figured if the number of followers kept growing, that our retweets might grow too. It sort of works that way, but not exactly.

Passive growth is anyone’s dream in social media. Imagine creating a Twitter or Linked In account that just grows on its own? Our Notary Linked In actually does just grow on its own and the discussions on it are fantastic too! What I learned from my new travel Twitter account, is that retweets only help you if you get a lot of them.

Our Notary Twitter gets one to eight retweets per day. We can’t measure how that helps us since we are doing PPC advertising and a lot of interaction. But, on my travel Twitter account which is new, we are not interacting with existing members. We are just getting new members, and there is no PPC. We follow others, interact, and retweet. There is a lot of activity on the account, but since there is no PPC, it is easier to guestimate the realities of the retweets.

On my travel Twitter we get retweeted generally 20 to 40 times per day. That is a lot of retweets. Our growth rate is 10-20 people per day. The growth comes partly from the retweets, but more from the following, retweeting, and interacting. I would estimate that we might get about four new followers per day from the thirty average retweets per day. But, it is more complicated than that. The size of the accounts that retweet you matters too. If you get retweeted by someone with ten followers, it really doesn’t help. But, if someone with half a million followers retweets you, then you are in business.

I actually did get a comment retweeted by a guy with 400,000 followers. I was curious to see if that would help. We got a generous amount of new followers during the following twenty-four hours, but not higher than we usually get in a way that I would measure.

My official guess, based on experience, is that — if you get retweeted in a way that reaches 15,000 Twitter accounts, you might get a single new follower. If what I call a “weak interaction” gets retweeted, you might need 50,000 people to get it in order to get a single follower. The quality of the tweet, and the relevance of the followers factor into the equation. Basically, to sum it up, if you want your Twitter account to grow from retweets, you had better get a ton of them daily.

I make it a practice to follow only those who either follow me, have top notch content, or those who retweet others regularly. If they retweet others, they are likely to retweet me, and that is exactly what is happening!

Good good, analytics are confusing!

You might also like:

Twitter analytics — click rates per 100,000 impressions
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/11/15/doing-some-twitter-analytics-click-rates-per-100000-impressions/

Learning to profile the accounts you follow on Twitter can triple your growth
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/07/12/learning-to-profile-the-accounts-you-follow-on-twitter-can-triple-your-growth/

9 ways to assess the quality of your Twitter account and/or social media agency
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/08/01/9-ways-to-assess-the-value-of-your-twitter-account-or-service-provider/