Category Archives: Management

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully — so should you!

October 10, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Popular on Google+, Popular on Twitter, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Just let the programmers do their work?
I am always being told to just let the designers do their work, and just let the programmers do their work. But, whenever I am not watching, they do things wrong and go off on expensive tangents that cost me hundreds in lost labor. They will fail to follow directions, or on a vaguely discussed point, build things in a way that I either don’t like or simply cannot use. Watching programmers can save you hundreds, thousands, or your life. So, why would people tell me to back off?

It is annoying to have someone looking over your shoulder.
I believe it is a nuisance to people to always have someone looking over their shoulder. But, if they would do their work the way I want it, I wouldn’t be looking over their shoulder in the first place. If a software developer generally does what they are supposed to, I don’t need to inspect their work that often or as carefully. But, very few of these software developers follow directions well. It has gotten to the point where I just won’t work with someone who has a track record of following directions any less than 80% of the time which is still a low figure.

So many people do not want me watching their programmers.
But, Steve Jobs watched his programmers much more than I watch mine. If you want to be successful, the evidence points to paying more attention, not less. I believe that I have been dealing with very negligent people who just want me off their back and don’t care much about the quality of the work.

Fire people who don’t want to be watched – immediately
The moral of my little article here is that if people want you off their back — fire them. Find people who are on your team, who are willing to be watched if necessary. Find people who care about following directions and getting things done on time in a reasonable amount of hours. Doing a long search to find good people might be difficult, but it is easier in the long run than hiring people who are evasive, dishonest, difficult, or who just don’t follow directions.

Good luck finding cooperative people
Unfortunately, to find a software development firm that generally does things right, they are less than 1%. Happy hunting! It might be better to hire your own programmers so that you are in control if you can’t find another company who cooperates 100%.

Tweets:
(1) If Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, why shouldn’t you?
(2) If your programmers don’t want u watching over their shoulders, watch over their butts as you kick them out of there
(3) Your workers won’t mind you watching over their shoulder as long as you give each shoulder equal time
(4) Watch carefully over your programmer’s shoulder, or shoulder blame for shoddy work they do on their own.
(5) If Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, so should U. Come back for upgrade of this tweet a year from now.

You might also like:

What are your work standards? When do you fire substandard workers?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/12/what-are-your-work-standards-when-do-you-fire-substandard-workers/

Hiring people with a good attitude does wonders!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/09/hiring-people-with-a-good-attitude-does-wonders/

How do big companies get big? It is not an accident!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/20/how-do-big-companies-get-big-it-is-not-an-accident/

The mindset of a millionaire!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/05/the-mindsetof-a-millionaire/

How good are you at estimating jobs?

October 9, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, Management | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

My latest business experiment was to give a bid to dozens of software companies. I was straight forward with them and told them that we gave this bid to many companies and not to take too long doing the bid. I was able to do a quick software development bid accurately in my head in a few minutes. I am not even a software developer, yet I was able to do this task quickly. What I couldn’t understand was how professional software development firms with decades of experience took hours and days to do a quick estimate and came up with double, triple, or quadruple the amount of hours that my local programmer (20 years of experience) and I thought were necessary.

It took me about four minutes to come up with a figure of 40 hours. I realized there might be small issues that I overlooked such as customizing pages for the different browsers, and what if there is a problem, etc. But, this project was very simple, and there was not a lot that could go wrong. I asked my current programmer (who is too busy to do much work, but is very smart). He took a few minutes and also said 40 hours. I was amazed that he got EXACTLY the same figure I did, and within minutes. Smart people think alike — either that or I made a lucky guess!

So, why did many other companies need 280 hours to do the job? Were they using complete beginners or were they cheating us? Or both? That is 7x the necessary amount of hours. Then, we got a lot of bids around the 80-100 range which is more reasonable, but still price gouging or overestimating.

There were several factors in my dismay. Only 20% of software development companies worldwide came up with reasonable sounding bids which is very disappointing. But, better than 0%. I was also disappointed that you have to wait and wait and wait for these companies to answer an email and get back to you. The average company took two days to do this four minute bid. Many never responded back to us at all, while a few even got angry with us. Unbelievable.

Many had more questions and wanted all types of details for a preliminary bid. All of the critical specifications were in the bid request paperwork. We also had programming companies start bidding on the artwork which was never mentioned in the paperwork. They ASSUMED that we might want artwork. Would it hurt to ask before you assume? They even threw in some artwork into their bid which we never asked for. If something is not written in a bid request, do not assume that someone wants it. Just specify that your bid does NOT include design work. Lastly, there were companies who started talking about pre-fabricated programming which we never asked for.

The bid experiment revealed that many BPO companies just cannot follow simple instructions and can not get simple tasks done. Many others expect you to just hire you after they give a criminally high bid. Some have endless requests for unnecessary clarifications. But, most bids were just completely unreasonable.

Software companies need to be efficient at doing bids. You will alienate your clients if you take too long to do simple tasks. It is proof that your company is inefficient if you can’t even bid without having the client pull teeth to get it out of you! Remember, what you do before you get a client on board matters a lot. If you blow it for some stupid reason like being a slow bidder, the client will easily seek greener and faster pastures!

You might also like:

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, so should you!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/10/steve-jobs-watched-his-programmers-carefully-so-should-you/

6 ways to be more in control of your business!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/25/6-ways-to-be-more-in-control-of-your-business/

Should you have slack in your schedule as a manager?

October 7, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Most managers are either busy, or not there. That makes it hard to do business with them. How many phone calls does it take to reach you if you can be reached at all? Personally, I have other people do incoming phones for me, so I am reachable by email only, unless you are someone who it is necessary for me to communicate with directly. I just have too much to do. If I answered insignificant phone calls about tiny issues all day long, I would have no time to handle bigger issues. Big things get priority with me.

But, if you are in management or sales, then client acquisition should be your biggest priority, with on-time delivery being equally important. If your schedule is booked too tightly, you will not be able to handle last minute phone calls that come in. You will not be able to deal with unexpected problems. The point is to be available just in case something important comes up.

Warren Buffet likes (this is based on a book I read 12 years ago) to have about two hours of work per day. The rest of his day is open just in case he needs to attend an unexpected meeting, or has an unexpected problem. He leaves himself open. The rest of the world does the opposite and is always too busy to deal with anything.

To have more free time, that means you need to hire more people, and more reliable people. It is not easy finding people who can handle their work perfectly with minimal or no intervention (as Warren Buffet likes). But, if you plan on having a more open schedule, so you can do a better job being available for bigger concerns like last minute new clients, meetings or unexpected problems, you need to be better at delegating. Farming out work to others is a very complicated skill. But, to make it higher on the food chain, it is one of the most important skills that you can master!

You might also like:

6 ways to be more in control of your business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/25/6-ways-to-be-more-in-control-of-your-business/

If your client criticizes your workers, who do you side with?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/19/if-your-client-criticizes-your-workers-who-do-you-side-with/

6 ways to be more in control of your business!

September 25, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I had a talk with the police about a small tampering case. They told me that since other people had my password that I was not in control of my business. I explained that in my business your programmers always have your password. He didn’t get it. He said I had a run away train. The point here is that someone else might have your passwords, but if they have been screened for reputability, then you are in control. If you don’t know how, or don’t have time to screen your outsourced software companies carefully, then you are not in control.

Here are some ways you can be more in control

(1) Watch what your workers and employees do. If they are not doing things the right way, teach them how to do it right. If they still don’t get it, then have someone watch them closely or fire them.

(2) Hire others to watch what your employees do, and make sure that the person you appointed sees everything and reports everything. A chain is only as good as the weakest link, so your “scrutinizer” needs to have no weaknesses in doing their job.

(3) Have screened backups. It is not always easy to have backups for every single task that you need done. But, if you don’t, then when you have to fire someone, you won’t be able to because there will be nobody screened to take their place. If you fire someone only to replace them with an untested person, you will probably have to fire the new one as well, only to have a 3rd person who also doesn’t do what they are supposed to. If you have a thorough interviewing and screening process BEFORE you hire anyone, you will have a much higher quality of workers and will not have to endure the emotional pain and financial loss of firing someone. These backups could be people in the Philippines or India who work for an outsourcing company. They don’t have to be wherever you are. Someone who can get the job done somehow — reliably is a good backup.

(4) Part time workers are sometimes a great way to get more of your less critical work done. They might not stick around, but if you have a constant flow of them, and someone reliable to watch them, you can always have your grunt work done on time which is critical. Having a relationship with a temp-recruiter can also be a similar solution.

(5) Keeping good analytics in a database or on paper about who is doing what, how fast and accurately they are working, etc., can really help. If you know who is on what project, what they will be working on next week, etc., you are in more control.

(6) Insubordination is a disease that spreads. The more you accept it the more of it you get. If you have one person who doesn’t follow instructions, you will get used to it and will end up with more of these types. You cannot be in control of your company if people disobey you. Americans don’t like the word “obey”, but try running a company where everyone does whatever they feel like. You will not be able to function. To be in control, gradually phase out insubordinate workers and replace them with very carefully screened people.

If your client criticizes your workers, who do you side with?

September 19, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

Generally speaking, when I criticize someone’s workers, the normal response from the manager is to defend the worker.

Gee, we never had a problem before (B.S.)
Hmmm, this is the first time that happened (Yeah, right)
Maybe you are the one at fault for not giving clear instructions (I have it in writing, do you want to read it?)

I have heard every excuse for defending mediocre workers. Honestly, nobody is perfect and we should not expect people to be. However, my rule of thumb is as follows.

If you side with your worker and against your customer — you will have more workers
But, with more workers and less clients, you will have no way to pay those workers, then you will eventually lose the workers, and then you won’t have a business if this pattern continues.

If you side with your client against your worker — you will have more clients.
You might lose a mediocre worker here or there, but mediocre people are replaceable. Just make sure you don’t lose your star employees or you will really be up a creek.

In real life your job is to please everyone. But, try to be fair with your clients. If they have a legitimate gripe, or you are not sure who is right, try to validate their point of view — if you want to keep them.

Mistakes & learning from them

July 24, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Popular on Google+, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Learning from your mistakes

Do you kick yourself when you make mistakes, or do you regard them as a valuable opportunity to learn? Sometimes the value of what you learned from a mistake can be much greater than the financial damage done by the mistake. But, the value of what you can learn from a mistake is directly tied to how much thought you put into thinking about the mistake, and how you can avoid similar mistakes in the future.

A lot of mistakes that I have made were due to a lack of experience in seeing the signs of people’s behavior. I worked with someone who started out being a little bit sloppy. Since my other programmers were also somewhat sloppy, I felt like I had no choice, but to work with people who were sloppy. But, the sloppiness got much worst over time. The types of errors became more and more serious. It got to the point where we had scheduled a server migration when the site still had bugs in it. Then, after a migration of another site, the logout feature was actually broken for a few days which was a huge security risk. So, what should I learn from all of this? It is difficult to interpret if you start looking at the situation from months back. But, it seems very easy to interpret now.

If you hire someone who starts out doing something sloppy, this is really dangerous. Generally, when you start someone out, you are watching them closely and not giving them critical work. But, after you get comfortable with them, then you are in danger. Comfort is dangerous and the worst mistakes I have made in business were when I got comfortable with someone who I shouldn’t have had. The innocent mistakes on things that didn’t matter — down the road translated into dangerous mistakes that risked the integrity of my data on two occasions down the road. My mistake was that I overlooked an obvious sign.

From now on, when I see behavior which is sloppy, angry, questionable, slow, or unacceptable in any other way, I will stop working with that person if the bad behavior is the norm. I can accept 80% good work/attitude and 20% mediocre work/attitude from someone. But, that is as far as I will compromise. When it becomes 60-40 that doesn’t work. Here’s why. If you get to a point in the project where they make more mistakes than good work — and that ratio continues for more than a month, the staff member will not be able to endure your criticism. So remember, that 60% good work doesn’t cut it, because in a bad month it will become 30% good work which means endless unbearable criticism, and the worker will get fired during the bad month. If you start with 80% good work, then in a bad month, the majority of the work will still be good, and on a good month it will be nearly perfect. If you can find 100%, then take it, but if you are offered 80% — that is not bad.

I worked with someone else who avoided me, and was rarely around to answer calls. Since I knew her for years, she was within my comfort zone. She got worse and worse and my project ended up being the endless project from hell. I learned my lesson.

Don’t hire someone mediocre you are comfortable with — hire someone who will get the job done no matter how hard they are to find!

I learned from my mistakes. I hope you learn from your mistakes too! Remember — it is not bad to make mistakes, it is only bad not to learn from your mistakes. If you are really lucky you will learn from OTHER people’s mistakes!

Tweets:
(1) Failure is more important than #success in terms of what you learn from it.
(2) Do you kick yourself when you make mistakes, or do you regard them as a valuable opportunity to learn?
(3) I made many mistakes in business from not being able to read people’s behavior.
(4) People start off w/their best behavior when you 1st meet them.
If their best behavior is sloppiness, you’re in big trouble!
(5) When you start someone out, give them non-critical tasks & watch them closely

(6) Comfort is the most dangerous feeling you can have in business.
If you are too comfortable with someone, you let down your guard.
(7) If I see behavior which is sloppy, angry, questionable, slow or unacceptable in any way, I will cut my losses.
(8) If someone at an #outsourcing company is avoiding you, avoid them back & find a better

You might also like:

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully — so should you!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/10/steve-jobs-watched-his-programmers-carefully-so-should-you/

What are your work standards? When do you fire substandard workers?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/12/what-are-your-work-standards-when-do-you-fire-substandard-workers/

Being LIKED is a huge factor in being an outsourcing manager

July 5, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I was reading the Harvard Business Review blog the other day. They divided managers into four quadrants according to how well they were liked and then discussed how their associated teams did. The findings were devastating to managers who were not liked. Managers in the lowest quadrant for likeability had almost no teams who were in the most successful quadrant. However, those teams with the most likeable managers on average performed on a much higher level. The finding was, that the more likeable the manager was, the more successful the team will be on average.

So, how does this apply to managers of business process outsourcing companies? India is where the majority of outsourcing is done these days with the Philippines and China catching up fast. Due to the culture in India: having a management position gives you status in society. It is hard to get a decent marriage without a management position as a matter of fact! The problem is that Indians think too much of their status in society and how to make a show of superiority to their workers. Some outsourcing managers in India are very nice, but many are overburdened and very rough with their workers. According to the likeability study, this is a serious problem.

If a manager of an outsourcing company has 20+ workers under them (often the case in India), and they are unavailable most of the time, and threatening the other part of the time, how will the workers perform? The answer is that there will be many issues due to the lack of guidance and lack of nurturing. My personal experience is that workers need interaction with their managers to keep on track with their work. They need encouragement and praise on a regular basis in the form of feedback. They also need to know what they need to work on and some validation that you think they can really do it (especially when learning a new skill). If you are just unavailable, then you can not give any guidance, feedback, or double checking of work. If you are mean, then workers will have a bad taste in their mouth about work.

In my experience, the minute an outsourcing worker gets a bad taste in their mouth about whomever they work with — they turn off. I am not speaking of every human being in this world, but many people are like this. I have had numerous experiences where I started out with an average relationship with an outsourcing worker (often outsourced from a different company). Work went fine. The minute we had some disagreements, their work became really bad, and stayed bad for the rest of the relationship. They either quit or got fired after a few months.

Since you are almost forced to be likeable as a manager, what do you do when you can’t accept a worker’s work? Some people are just plain sloppy, or give horrible answers to questions. How can you praise such people? You need to give at least five compliments for each criticism to have a good long term relationship in work or friendship. It seems that you need to fire people who you can not be likeable around, otherwise the negative environment can poison your relationship with others!

Do you boss people around or do you guide them?

June 14, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Do you boss, or do you guide? That is the question. A boss who everyone hates will soon get fired, or the workers will quit. So, as a boss, you have to be nice and personable. In India, it is fashionable to yell at your workers. Sometimes this is necessary if they are being stubborn or insubordinate. But, you should not yell at workers who generally try to do their best. With the moderate or good workers, you need to function more as a guide.

You guide workers, teach them, develop them and bring out their best. If you are a successful boss, putting aside how wonderful your salary is, your workers will say, “Wow, that boss brought things out from within me that I never knew existed!”. Bringing out the best in people will not only make people like you, they will respect you with awe. So, we all need to rethink our role as a leader, and become better at it. There is a lot to learn about being a leader.

So, the secret to being a good boss lies in knowing when to teach workers new things, or when to give them new projects. You have to know how much to guide them in their projects and when to leave them alone. Strategy exists at all stages in the road. Keeping a written road map of what you are doing with a particular worker makes a big difference. That way you can keep track with a glance. By my standards, a worker has to put in some hard time to deserve your scarce time and attention. But, once they have paid their dues, give them some teaching and coaching that will make them become an expert at some facet of your business, or at a particular task. Guide them to mastery and then complement them in a “wow” kind of way. “Wow, I can’t believe how good you are at that — just a week ago you could barely pick up the phone and look at you now!”. This type of “shock and awe” strategy is really a sales strategy. If you amaze prospective clients, they will be very likely to buy from you and only you. But, the same applies to employees. If you amaze employees with what you can bring out of them, they will hold you in a type of regard fit only for a guru or a king (or a god if you are in India).

So, remember, the goal is to take calculated steps that make everybody involved say, “Oh my god(s)”. If in a Muslim environment, a simple “W’allahi” or “Mash’allah” will do the trick as well when your worker outshines the group. If not, then you need to regroup, and come up with a better strategy for guiding your people! If you get really good at this, then your employees will flock around you like you are Jesus walking from town to town in the areas West of the Jordan! Imagine!

The Magic of Collaboration

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The miracle of collaboration

Larger companies get it. They know that collaboration is the secret of success. But, smaller companies do not often know how to put successful teams and networks together.

Blogging collaboration
In blog writing, we learned that hiring an outside blog writer is too expensive and not cost effective at our stage in business. They want $40-$150 per entry. But, how much extra traffic do their blog entries get? Enough for us to absorb this exorbitant fee? Not this year. So, what is the solution? I learned that I am a very fast writer, and have some creative ideas, but need someone to proofread my work for spelling errors. I don’t always get my work spellchecked since it is time consuming to do that. But, for more critical articles I do have them proofread.

I can write up to six interesting blog articles in an hour.
For the more thought provoking or longer articles I might spend 30 minutes to an hour, or in a few rare cases more than that. The professional bloggers want to charge me for more than an hour of labor for their perfected articles. What I learned, is that despite their better quality work, the cost:benefit ratio doesn’t work out in my favor. If my time is worth $100 and I can average four blog articles per hour, that is $25 per article of my time — not to mention that I LIKE writing blogs which makes the time spent more agreeable. When a professional writes the blog entry it might get 50% more traffic than my average blog, but is that worth paying $150? Or, when a less professional blog writer who charges $40 writes an entry for me, it might get 15% more traffic. Is it worth the extra cost, plus management time to get slightly better results?

The solution!
My solution is for me to write most of my blogs, but have a professional come up with ideas to ADD to my blog after it is complete. That is a very quick and efficient way of utilizing their expensive time. Also, I could have someone proof my work after it is done. This way I can have a professional “touch” on probably about seven blog entries for the same cost it would be to have them write a single blog exclusively themselves. This collaboration plan involves three people, but raises the quality of output significantly with very modest costs per blog entry.

IT collaboration
Many smaller software companies have good team members, but the members don’t come together to function as a team. They are not trained to work as a seamless team, and don’t have the personal habits to do so either. I have learned that certain people can crank out code, but cannot interact with others. Some people can strategize about perfect code architecture, but don’t get back to people on time (and don’t answer their phones). While many people have excellent communication and “get back to you” skills who can manage projects and timetables who can’t write code or create architecture. Additionally, there are those who are talented at sales and hiring who are also essential at a software company. If you put a handful of junior developers together with on mid-level developer, and a project manager plus an architect, you have a team that will deliver cost effective, fast, and quality results. The lower level people do the grunt work, but higher level people do the strategy, organizing and double checking everything.

IT collaboration failures
The problem I often see in custom software development companies is that they might have people of all levels and capabilities, but they work as individuals. Or, if they work as a team, they don’t communicate back and forth effectively, or don’t have time to check the work of the less experienced programmers. Failed collaboration results in F quality work. So, the secret here is non-stop coaching to get your whole team to work as a well greased machine. Yes, that is difficult, but it is the difference between business growth, and business failure! Just figure out how to collaborate — and do it masterfully!

You might also like:

Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, so should you!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/10/steve-jobs-watched-his-programmers-carefully-so-should-you/

Should you have slack in your schedule as a manager?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/07/should-you-have-slack-in-your-schedule-as-a-manager/

Tips for hiring bloggers who charge by the word

September 28, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

I talked to a blogger who wanted to charge me by the word. I had a few questions for him/her/it.

(1) What if the word is a really long word — perhaps a multisyllabic word, or a polysyllabic word?
(2) Do I get a discount if you use short words in a sentence such as:
He uses me for work a lot.
(3) What about hyphenated words? Any room for negotiation there?
(4) Do you charge extra for foreign words like Masala Dosa?

Jokes aside, to me the value of a blogger is purely based on what they can do for my stats.
Can they make my blog traffic spike?
Will their articles get many views per article?
Those are two great analytics in which to judge a blogger.

I’ll tell you a quick story. I wrote a bunch of blogs on a topic that my readers had been begging me for months to write. Quick articles on how their businesses could attract more clients. So, I thought of six sub-themes on the general subject, and published them a few days apart. My blog traffic spiked. It was the most wonderful analytics experience I have ever had as a blog writer.

No blogger will agree to be paid based on performance, so it is up to the business owner to know what their audience likes, otherwise they will get negligible traffic for their blog. Although you have to pay by the word, you can have someone write six articles, publish them all in the same week or two week period, and see if your blog spikes. No spike = no repeat business. Or you could just say that if there is no spike, that you get half off for hyphenated words! Either way, watch your stats and scrutinize people who want to work for you!

Are you bad at communication but good at work?

September 26, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Many people who are in Web Design, Programming, Data Entry, or other outsourcing professions are just not good at interacting. The boss of these people might tell you that they were not hired for their social skills. You can say that again. But, the problem is: to work with someone, you need to be able to communicate with them. If they just can’t function, or refuse to communicate, it is very difficult.

I have dealt with enough people, so I can guess the quality of someone’s work purely by how they communicate. I’m generally not that far off. Guessing if they will be responsible doing their work is another hurdle that I have not yet learned go gauge, simply because nobody I’ve hired for technical work has ever been responsible. I have no profile of a winner to base future analysis on.

The message that I keep sending managers and workers is that if you want to do well in your business, don’t be lobsided in your abilities. If you are good at Data Entry, but lousy at communicating, learn to communicate too. Hire a teacher to teach your workers how to communicate better. Teach people how to answer a phone. Believe it or not, answering a phone professionally is too difficult even for 99% of call centers in India. That is part of the reason the business is all going South — or East to the Philippines! Indians just don’t take business etiquette seriously, an India will remain a 3rd rate country until this attitude changes.

Elements of communication

(1) Answering the phone
Announce who you are in a clear tone of voice. Don’t make people guess. Don’t ask them a question to evade answering the question that they asked. Be helpful and clear in your communication when answering the phone.

(2) Answer questions clearly
Don’t just put people on hold without their consent only to get hung up on. Indians do this all day long and that is why most American companies don’t want anything to do with anyone in India. If someone asks you a question, try to answer it.

(3) Transferring
When transferring a call, make sure there is someone on the forwarded line who can talk. Nobody likes to be put on hold only to be disconnected as I mentioned in point two. Make sure that they get to talk to someone even if you have to try ten times.

(4) Being there
If you have a company where there is never anyone to talk to, it is time to hire some new people. Sure, nobody is around 100% of the time. But, if you have to call eight times just to reach someone who is intelligent, something is wrong.

(5) Giving feedback
Do you get back to people on your own, or do you wait for them to harass you to figure out what is going on. Good communication involves taking the initiative to initiate correspondence on your own initiative and getting back to people fast. Don’t keep people waiting or guessing.

(6) Discussing issues
Are you able to discuss complicated issues in an honest and helpful way? Some people can’t think clearly, evade, or just bull-shit their way through issues. Nobody respectable will accept this type of communication. Handle complicated issues in an intelligent way. Spend time thinking through the problems so that you can give good answers.

These are the main points regarding communication that many people need help with. Even those of us who are above average in communication sometimes omit critical information in our communications. Just try to be the best at what you do. On the other hand, if you are good at communication, but bad at doing your job, then learn to do your job!

Are Outsourcing Contracts Just Another Trap?

September 25, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Sometimes, people need contracts.

You need one if you are a millionaire and you suspect your wife is marrying you for your money. You need one if you are buying a property or an office and you don’t know the seller personally (or maybe even if you do). You should have one with an employee or an employer or an attorney or a contractor who performs a service .

What about outsourcing? How much contract do you need, and how much is too much?

We are living in a time when people do not trust each other, and even if they do, there is always doubt. Things seem to change in a moment. Even if you have known someone for years, some crisis may strike and you will need to have something in writing to document your original understanding and agreement. Also, people are under a great deal of stress and two parties do not always remember things the same way. Finally, if you are outsourcing, you may not be familiar with the other culture, and it is good to put certain agreements in writing. Actually, a contract can tell you quite a bit about the party you are doing business with. These are all good reasons to have a contract.

However, most contracts are too complex for a simple agreement, and are one-sided: they do not protect both parties equally. Such a contract may show that the outsourcing company just wants to make money, and isn’t really interested in a good business relationship at all. When you see a contract like this, you may get the feeling you would rather not do business with this company at all.

One company we proposed to outsource some IT work to insisted that we sign a contract even before we gave them a one-hour sample project, and one wanted a contract even before they quoted us on several projects. We felt uncomfortable; this seemed extreme.

If you feel you have a good connection with a company, they should be willing to do a few basic things for you without a contract so that you can see how they work. Of course, if it involves giving them codes or confidential information, you will want some kind of understanding in writing. But if you do not already have a good understanding with the company by talking to them on the phone or in person, no contract will make it better…and if you do have a good understanding with them, there is no need to put in writing anything more than that understanding of details you already have and maybe a few details you have questions about. If the contract makes both parties feel safe, it may work…but the best contracts are drawn up by the two parties together , after they have had a chance to work together.

A good basic contract should include the names of the companies, responsible parties (business managers, project managers, or whoever is communicating the information), the scope of the work to be done, the dates, approximate number of hours, the fees, and time frame in which the work is to be completed. If the contract is for a call center, it may include training procedures and specific dos and don’ts plus frequent conferences and feedback. But it is fruitless to create an extensive contract before you have had a chance to work with the company on a short project. If a company wants a huge time commitment at the beginning–until you see the results, it makes no sense to sign a contract that binds you to a certain number of hours or fees plus extra fees for circumstances you never even wanted to consider.

In our experience, lengthy and confusing legal contracts up front only serve to show that at least one of the parties has had bad experiences or has not fulfilled some part of the bargain in the past. If this is true, you might want to keep interviewing companies until you find one you have a good understanding with. Nine times out of ten, when you find the right company, they will be willing to do a test project without an extensive, constrictive contract. After a test project, you can sign anything you think is needed–because you will have an idea of who they really are and how the work gets done.

You might also like:

International contracts to watch out for!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/14/i-refuse-to-sign-international-contracts-to-watch-out-for/

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