Category Archives: Outsource Marketing

In the world of business, there are different approaches. There is the distant approach with uptight secretaries, sleazy salespeople, and anti-social technical managers. And then there is the more friendly approach. Do you want to do business with strangers, friends or enemies? Think about that!

1. Friendly Reps, Salespeople & Technical Assistance
The friendly approach is to have informative and engaging reps on the phone. You should have technical managers who are a little less uptight and trained to be folksy. I would not expect the same level of sociability from a technical person as from a customer centric person like a CSR, but you can still get them to the 25% level with a little coaching. You can have salespeople who not only deliver reliable information (instead of lying) but who are very nice and interactive.

2. Wine & Dine
It is common for higher level business people to wine and dine each other. But, what is the purpose of this? Isn’t that just a waste of money that is purely for a tax write-off? The write-off doesn’t hurt. But, business relations are smoother and last longer when you go out to eat with each other regularly. The closer the relationship, the better quality work you get out of them and the longer it lasts. In short: wining builds trust; dining builds longevity!

3. Talk more on the phone
It is good to keep in touch with clients. You could even call without a purpose from time to time. It is important not to be intrusive or a bother to them. Most companies only bug you when they want to sell to you. But, good companies keep in touch with their customers in the long run. The Japanese call this “Afta-sawvice” which is their pronunciation for “after-service.”

4. Keep in touch more by email
You can email information about what is going on with their account. You can email graphs, charts, information about what happened with particular customers, or anything else pertinent. The fact that you are communicting useful information on your own initiative matters a lot.

5. Company parties
At Filipino call centers, they are famous for having parties. It raises morale. But, what if you invite your American clients to join via web-cam, or even in person?

6. Newsletters
I have a newsletter with 5000 subscribers. I keep in touch with lots of people and keep the troops together. My newsletter tells people what is going on with us, and in our industry. We have tons of very interesting articles.

7. Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are the next best thing after great customer service. They can really keep your customers around longer and have them retain a closer relationships with your company doing a larger quantity of business.

8. Referral Programs
You can reward customers for introducing you to others — but, only if they are completely satisfied with your work otherwise it will backfire.

9. Online Portals
This is an impersonal way of interacting, but if a client can access information about what is going on with his/her account online, many will value this.

10. Office Visits with lots of small talk
If clients come to your office, this is a great way to get to know each other. You can invite people to come when you have a slower day. You can have samosas and chai if in India, or more American snacks if in America. Nothing beats a good snack session at the office to get to know people. You will get to know people walking down the hallway, and get a great sense about the company. Even if it requires an overseas flight, you should really get to know who you are doing business with for a long-term relationship!

Here is a long list of companies that outsource work. If you look up the company names, you can see where they are headquartered and how to contact them. You will need to SCROLL after you click the link below to see the long list. There are many companies you know of on the list such as Accenture, Google, AOL, Quaker Oats, etc.

http://companiesthatoutsource.org/
Good luck!

“To be precise our only avenue to clients has been simply our standards and practices that we adhere to on a daily basis. It is critical from a client’s point of view, that he/she does not worry about his non-core activity and spend too much time and resources in grooming a outsourcing services provider because that is the sole purpose in the first place when it comes to choosing an outsourcing services provider. Binfex is meticulous while approaching a client for an engagement, we believe without the right research and knowledge about the customer’s core business one cannot deliver customer delight and enable the customer to be free of worries with his non-core activity.

There are key ingredients which as a team we always believed that would separate us from the lower quality service providers.
Our unwavered focus and commitment to service delivery, strategic knowledge about customer’s core business function and most importantly a strong and effective campaign management strategy for quality driven performance.

A list of methods that we apply while working approaching.

1. A Strong corporate brochure explaining why we are a value addition to the customer

2. A service portfolio that give absolute clarity on service delivery standards

3. Our quality culture, performance management, employee development practices, data security practices

4. Strong Core Team with in depth knowledge and experience

5. Effective and secure technology infrastructure with high availability.

6. Constant interaction with probable clients who need our service.

These are some of the methods follow and have inculcated as a culture at Binfex and we feel these standards and methods are critical for any service provider’s success.

Many people advertise on 123outsource.net. Many claim that they get great leads from our directory as well. However, most companies do not describe their specialties clearly and do not write a good notes section for their advertising profile. So, what should companies put in their notes section? There are actually many points that a company could put. Many introduce their company and talk about their lofty corporate mission, but fail to give you even a vague clue what the company actually does which makes it unlikely that they will get any calls. Other companies have bullet points and go point by point what they do and all of their respective specialties. While a third category of companies writes about themselves as an individual and redundantly mentions their cell phone at the bottom of their notes as well as their address which is already in the contact information section of the listing. In any case, here are some winning ideas of what to put.

(1) Services & Specialties:
Examples: Inbound, Outbound, Telemarketing, Order Taking, Collections, Product Support, Technical Support, Help Desk, Medical Billing, Medical Coding, Custom Software Development, PHP, Java, .Net, etc.

(2) Training
How do you train your workers? What is unique about them?
Many companies create long paragraphs about how great their workers are without mentioning any specifics about how they are trained and what metrics they focus on. There are often vague claims about how they deliver more “value” to the client, or how they focus on training, but the nitty gritty would add some substance to the notes. Uniqueness and specifics sell while vagueness is a waste of the reader’s time.

(3) Management
What is unique about your management?
Once again, being specific about your uniqueness is much better than talking about some lofty mission goals that have nothing to do with your daily functioning.

(4) Other
Do you offer 24 hour service?
Are you international?
Does your staff speak American or British English?

(5) What is better about your BPO or call center?
Is there a way you can prove that your BPO operation is better without resorting to bragging? Some companies give compelling reasons why their company is better. Perhaps they have an impressive list of clients like IBM or Intel, or perhaps they have been in business longer, or have a larger staff. Others might hire better trained workers, or do a better job of training them in house. There are many reasons your company could be better or worse. Knowing how to express this is the difference between looking inexpensive vs. professional.

(6) Date of incorporation or inception
How long has your company been in business?

(7) What is the process of getting started and choosing your reps?
How hard is it to switch a rep if you don’t like the first one? I often don’t like a particular call center worker or programmer and want to switch them. Companies are often very sluggish about letting me swap workers.

(8) Who are some of your best clients?
Such as international companies like IBM, Burger King, Walmart, etc.

(9) What are your rates per rep for different levels of service?
Do you make prospective clients pull teeth to find out what their options are, or do you lay the various choices and price breaks on the table for them to choose?

(10) If you have a mission statement, that is not a bad thing to add.
Sometimes mission statements can sound very cheesy, and often they are used instead of much needed specific information about your services. But, if you have a legitimate mission statement and company goal, that might be valued by prospective clients.