Joining a Parade of Outsourcing for Small Businesses

April 13, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , | Leave a comment

In the past, it was almost exclusively large businesses that went overseas to capitalize on the abundance of inexpensive labor. These days through new technology and resources, anyone can do it. You don’t even need to be in business to hire a freelancer in a foreign country.

If your main office is in Topeka, Kansas, you are no longer forced to hire someone in your city, state or even your country. You can hire someone in Noida to build your new app. Then, you can hire someone else in Manila to do the phone calls necessary to find leads for your app. And finally, you can hire someone in Minsk to clean up the mess your Indian programmers created when creating the app (assuming you hired the wrong ones, and most novices do!)

Freelance sites
You can query all types of freelance sites to find people. Odesk is a popular service because they have satisfaction reviews for all of the service providers listed. You can’t get away with cheating your clients or delivering shoddy work on Odesk. After you have been in outsourcing long enough, you will realize that the #1 considerations is not price, not convenience, not personability, and not even punctuality — it is finding someone who will get the job done correctly. Most outsourcing companies hire incompetent staff members who screw everything up that they touch! Odesk eliminates a lot of that risk. There are other sites like Freelancer and Guru which also publish reviews.

Company directories like 123outsource.net
You can also hire companies to help you out. Although the quality of the reviews is better for the freelancer sites, for larger jobs or longer term work, you might be better off hiring a larger outsourcing company. 123outsource.net is a great place to find software developers, call center companies, data entry, medical billing, and more. There are other call center and web design directories out there. However, those other directories are not as adament as 123outsource.net about keeping their information up to date, and about putting quality providers near the top of the search results!

Here is what my buddy says
I have not personally hired freelancers outside of the USA, however, my friend does this all the time. He is always bragging about how he hired someone to do phone calls for $2.70 per hour in the Philippines or how he found a great PHP programmer in Argentina who works for $15 per hour. In real life, the average call center freelancer makes around US$4.00 per hour and the average overseas programmer makes around US$15 in India and around US$20-30 in Eastern Europe. Prices vary according to how good the freelancer is and market rates, currency exchange rates, etc.

American freelancers do not benefit from this
It is hard for an American to compete against someone charging US$5 per hour for freelance work. However, people will hire Americans at American wages if you offer a higher quality of service. Perhaps you are better at answering tough questions in an intelligent way. Or perhaps you make the customers feel more at home with you. American programmers are normally a lot more efficient, easy to communicate with, and use best practices more effectively than their overseas conterparts which is why the average software development freelancer in the USA charges about US$70 per hour while in India it is only $15. Despite how difficult it is for Americans to compete, it is very difficult to hire Americans. I personally find most Americans to be very stubborn, unreliable, and uncooperative. Maybe Americans don’t need work which forces employers to look East to Manila!

The #1 social media mistake people make & how to resolve it!

April 9, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

I fall into the same trap here that others do. I look most at my topline — my total number of followers. Unfortunately on social media, number of followers doesn’t do you any good. It is your ROI that counts, and that is not so easy to measure. There are many things that a marketing professional could measure when evaluating their social media presence.

(1) Total number of interactions.
(2) Number of “involved” interactions where there is a continuing dialogue (good for SEO)
(3) Number of shares, or favorites
(4) Number of clicks (my favorite metric as that gives me my bottom line social media goal of traffic)
(5) Number of form submissions

Measuring ROI
Most marketers do not measure the ROI of their social media investment which is a huge problem. If you don’t know which of your social media accounts is delivering the best results, how will you know where to put your efforts in the future? For me, I know that I get most of my traffic from my Facebook profile. I still invest in my other profiles, but the biggest investment goes to my account with the best ROI which is Facebook. Additionally, I would like to mention that my other accounts are still in the experimental stage and it is too early to judge them.

Setting Goals
Many marketers have wishy-washy social media goals. Perhaps they want to boost brand awareness or get more interactions. It makes most sense to put a dollar value on what each metric means to you, and how much of each metric you want to get. You can also measure what the dollar value is of what you are putting in and what you are getting out. Remember, that social media is like a snowball, and after you have mature large accounts, it is easy to get a lot more out while putting a lot less in.

Certain social media platforms such as Linked In or Google Plus allow for the creation of communities. You can set goals for how large your communities should be by a particular date. If you know the growth rate and how much time investment is necessary to reach that rate, then you can plan effectively. My current goal for my Linked In group is to get 200 new followers per month. If I hire offshore labor to help me with outreach, I could expand that to 2000 new followers per month since overseas labor is a lot less expensive (but, hopefully as good — we’ll find out.)

Allocating Hours
You know how you take a 45 minute walk once a day, and allow 1 hour for lunch? Social media needs to be timed the same way, otherwise it can get out of control. You need to decide how much time per day or week you will allow for social media. Then, break it down into accounts. You will spend thirty minutes per day on Facebook, but only ten minutes twice a week on Twitter. You will write one blog article per week as well. You might need to reevaluate your plan once or twice a year. But, see what works for your business and your life and adjust from there.

ROI vs. Estimated ROI
If you can calculate what your Facebook profile is worth to you with 4000 followers in terms of monthly revenue from additional exposure, then you might be able to guess the future value. The value of social media marketing is not constant over time. Empires rise, and empires fall making the future of your campaigns hard to predict. If you invest five hours a week into your Facebook profile and it produces $2000 of value to you through traffic, sales, or other more obscure metrics, then if your profile continues to grow, it might be worth a lot more than that once it has grown. On the other hand if you invest nothing but time in a particular profile, but get negligible results, it might be time to stop using that profile or just put it on the back burner devoting only a few minutes per week to post a few of your most critical links.

If you aren’t using social media right…
If you don’t use social media “the right way” then you won’t get any ROI to analyze. You need captivating articles, interesting discussions, and links to your important pages for SEO. If you only self-promote and bore everyone, you’ll lose followers. If you only post interesting articles, but don’t do anything for your SEO benefit, then you will not get the full benefit from social media. Learn how to get the most of all of your accounts. They all help, but in different ways. Using what I know now, I might be able to use Twitter for 20 minutes a week and get more benefit than you get using social media an hour a day!

How is the outsourcing landscape transforming?

April 7, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The outsourcing landscape and terrain is evolving as we speak. But, is it changing for the better? There are several factors to consider.

(1) Outsourcing providers are gaining skill at fulfilling their customers’ needs as the industry matures.

(2) There are more companies out there in more countries competing for outsourcing revenue giving the customer more choices.

(3) Rules and laws concerning outsourcing will continue to change. Obama might make it more difficult to outsource which could cause a huge disruption in the market. Regulation in the United States for example could cause a decrease in outsourcing.

(4) More companies are expected to take an interest in outsourcing as time goes on and the overall industry is growing worldwide.

Regulations
Politicians often talk about protecting American jobs by regulating outsourcing. However, by protecting American jobs you are shooting other American companies in the foot who need services. If you cannot find quality services in the United States for an affordable price, you are forced to outsource overseas. But, if there are laws restricting overseas outsourcing, American companies doing the hiring will suffer and their overall growth will be dampered. Job protection helps those with jobs but harms businesses and end-consumers.

India’s situation
India is famous for outsourcing. But, unfortunately due to the negligent behavior of managers and poor service at many companies, the market is turning away from India for a lot of outsourcing services. Eastern Europe is taking over a lot of the programming outsourcing while the Philippines has drained more than two-thirds of India’s former call center revenue. India is still #1 in the outsourcing world, but if their sloppy unprofessional behavior continues, they are likely to continue sliding downhill in the outsourcing world as other countries gain ground.

Technology
As technology continues to evolve, and human culture adapts to the evolution, we will see an increasingly mobile workforce and more remote workers who are likely to be outsourced from foreign countries. Cloud technology is a very common type of technology which aids mobility. You can access your information from an i-phone on a desert island with the cloud and conduct your meetings from a pool overlooking the ocean there if you desire!

Top Viral Images, and how they spread.

April 5, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Semi-Popular, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mastering the art of knowing what is viral and why is a fascinating undertaking. Knowing exactly the twists and turns it takes to spread is even more interesting. But, what spreads more — images, great articles, or videos? The answer is that images tend to be more popular, but the spread of various types of content depends heavily on the particular medium. Text tweets can do very well on Twitter, while a good vertical photo can do miracles on Google Plus.

Appeal to the general public
One thing to understand about viral content is that is needs to appeal to the general public. If you have a post about widgets, only people who like widgets will share that post. The people they share it with will not likely enjoy widgets which means the sharing will end right there and the post will not go viral.

Where does content spread?
Viral content can be spread on blogs, forums, social networks, web sites, and company intranets.

What types of posts go viral?
Popular images might make a point, tell a quick story, or appeal to people on an emotional level. Being funny or entertaining generally helps. But, your image or post needs to appeal to the masses. It could be a breath taking photo, or something that makes you start laughing at first glance. Or it could be something really interesting.

Integrating industry specific with viral themes
One technique that sophisticated marketers use these days is to integrate popular themes into industry specific blog entries. If you are writing about widgets, you could write about how your puppies are happy the minute they see a widget, or how you love enjoying a widget with your morning mocha. You would be surprised at how powerful pets and coffee are in social media.

Tracking the viral flow
Once an image goes viral, it is difficult to track how it spread. It might be easier to follow the expansion of a particular post on a particular network like Twitter for example. For an image to go viral, it needs to be published by a particular account. Then, at least one of the accounts following that account need to share the content again. The reason why even the best content out there rarely goes viral is:

What can go wrong
(1) The account posting doesn’t have many followers, or doesn’t have many active followers

(2) At any particular moment in time, less than 1% of your Twitter followers are on Twitter and will have the chance to perhaps see your post.

(3) If you do get shared, the follower who shared your post may not have that many followers. If you have 10,000 followers, and only one shares your post and that one has only 10 followers, your post will not get seen.

(4) If you do get shared, but the people following the people who follow you don’t find your post interesting because they are in a different industry or have different interests, there goes your virality!

(5) You posted your post at the wrong time of the day

(6) Group consciousness would have liked your post in 2011, but not in 2015 for some unknown reason.

Summary
To really go viral, you need to attract the attention of what Vegas casinos call “Whales.” You need a few really huge accounts to retweet you, or at least a lot of somewhat large accounts. That way the message has a chance to spread, and keep spreading. You need a really hot post, and a lot of luck too. Sometimes a hot post will spread like crazy. Then, it will die down. Post the same thing a month later, and nobody is interested. My suggestion — pray to the viral gods — put your destiny in their hands.

What is the growth rate of your social media profile?

April 3, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Social media is here to stay and is expanding its reach daily. In a few years, marketers may devote double the resources to professional social media accounts. But, what does the future look like for you?

We all spend time working on our social media accounts. Some of us have more followers than others. But, my question is, how fast do your accounts grow?

Google+
My Google Plus account only grows when I follow others. I publish popular industry specific content mixed with beautiful pictures and content of more general interest. We get at least fifty interactions per day, but no growth from the content no matter how popular it is. It seems that there are only two ways to grow a Google+ account. You have to have a fan base already that finds you because you have a G+ icon on your main site. Or, you follow lots of people and they follow you back. Even Guy Kawasaki who has over six million followers on G+ has a growth rate of less than 1% per month and he gets his content shared hundreds of times per day!

Twitter
A Twitter follower is only about 10% as potent for getting clicks as a G+ follower. However, Twitter is an easy medium for growth. Personally, I follow about 2000 new people per week on my main Twitter account and get a few hundred to follow me back. I can get 300 new followers per week without even trying. Additionally, if I publish twenty hot articles about my industry that I found on the web and get shared, I can get a lot more followers on top of that. I don’t have an exact number for that though. My estimate is that I might get 100 new Twitter followers if I get about 45 shares or favorites. Additionally, if I have ongoing discussions with other Twitterers, then Twitter introduces me to more people in their, “you might also like” section. If I used Twitter to the maximum, I could probably get around 800 new followers per week. On other mediums, this would be nearly impossible

Facebook
Facebook makes it easy to grow your presence with PPC for attracting new followers as well as PPC for sharing your articles. Both types of PPC have worked miracles for me. My facebook is currently growing at about 8% per month posting twice a day and using PPC. In three years, I might go from 9000 followers to 60,000.

Predicting Growth Rates
It is hard to predict growth rates on social media. The speed you are growing at now is not the same as the speed you will be growing at in a few years. You might reach a saturation point in attracting your relevant audience at a particular point, and then experience a slow down in growth. Or, your medium could stop growing which will affect your growth. Additionally, social media mediums could change their algorithm for how helpful they are in promoting your profile, or change their advertising rates or offerings.

How I see my future using G+
However, in my long run, I see getting a lot of clicks from Google+ since I am gaining a lot of followers through a very labor intensive practice of following and unfollowing. However, I don’t see much growth happening after I stop doing my manual promotion. Exponential growth doesn’t seem likely. I hope I’m wrong and that I am given the opportunity to grow into the millions.

Twitter – my future
Twitter makes it hard to get any serious amount of clicks unless you have 50,000+ followers. But, the good news is that in a few years, I see myself having that many followers. Additionally, I follow other large accounts that have grown a lot. One of the social media accounts I follow grew from around 60,000 to 100,000 in the last two years. Additionally, an account of general interest that I follow went from 400,000 to 550,000 in the last several years. These two accounts post regularly and have experienced growth rates of about 25-30% per year which is excellent and gives me hope. At the rate they are going they will be in the millions in a few years.

Facebook in the future
Right now I have 9000 Facebook followers on my Notary Facebook. I have different accounts for the different sites I manage, but the Notary Facebook is the most dynamic since we have such good followers. We’re growing at 8% per month. Since most of our followers are Realtors, and Mortgage Bankers, we might run out of potential followers after we hit 50,000, but it is looking like we’ll get to 50,000 in three years. We’re already getting 3000 or more clicks per month from Facebook, so it will be a waterfall of clicks in three years!

What about your future?
It is hard to predict which social media medium will do best in your future. So compare a few, and then really focus on the one that gives you some serious results. You need to track your analytics yourself because your individual situation si unique and not like mine or anyone elses.

An Indian BPO company learns Japanese culture to boost teamwork

April 1, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It was a tough afternoon for Santosh, a manager for a popular BPO company in Noida. He was sick and tired of the lack of loyalty of his employees. He was fed up with the status consciousness of his staff. And lastly, he was at his breaking point with the sloppiness of some of the workers. Santosh knew that if India was ever going to get ahead, a cultural shift would have to happen. Since childhood, Santosh had always had a love of the the cultures of the East. His family took him to Japan as a child, and his love affair with Japan never ended. He knew what he had to do. He had to Japanize his company. But how? And would his staff be agreeable to the change?

The New Company Culture
Santosh started by creating some new company practices as an effort to remold the company culture. The workers started the day by doing jumping jacks and then singing the company song. Nobody liked this, but they did it. This is how Japanese workers start their day, so this is how Santosh’s BPO would start theirs. Group activities are an essential framework of the Japanese culture as theirs is a society of ants. They function as a whole society and not as individuals. They are loyal to groups, and not to their personal needs. In the entire world, it is really only Japan, Korea, and to some extent Vietnam who are so group focused. The American culture is individually focused while India and many other nations revolve around family. But, family culture will not get India ahead. Santosh had a plan.

Group Activities
Stage two of Santosh’s plan was to have group activities. The workforce would go hiking together. A few said they didn’t feel like it and another girl refused on the account that she didn’t want to get her shoes dirty. Santosh insisted that people would have to put aside their individual preferences if they were going to function as a group. If they didn’t like hiking, they could come up with some other physical activity to promote health and group consciousness.

Sushi
Next it was time for sushi. You can’t have Japanese culture without sushi. Sushi has raw fish. If you eat raw fish in India, you will undoubtedly get dyssentery and be in the hospital. So, what can you do? They tried making sushi with nori seaweed paper that they flew in from Singapore. They got cauliflower and sticky rice. That didn’t taste good. Then they tried cook fish, but half the staff refused to eat it because they were pure-veg. What to do? After about twelve experiments, Sujata decided to try tempura sushi which is popular in California. The group loved it. It was fried, unhealthy, and tasted great! Sushi didn’t quite gel with the group. So, they decided to try something more Indian.

Mini-samosas!
They would have green tea, and mini samosas eaten with chopsticks. Sujata fumbled with her chopsticks. She couldn’t hold them right. She looked at the chopsticks, then looked at Santosh, then stared blankly into space looking confused. Then, Santosh explained that you hold one of the sticks like a pencil and the other jammed between the side of your thumb and your ring finger. Sure using chopsticks won’t come natually to non-Asians, but what better way to get into the mentality of the Japanese culture and teamwork?

Bowing
Next, Santosh introduced the idea of bowing. It is hard to get Indians to eat meat or fish if they are from a non-meat eating caste. Hiking doesn’t match the sedentary lifestyle enjoyed by most Indians either. But, bowing shouldn’t be too much of a problem. When anyone entered a room, they had to bow. Unfortunately Veena forgot to bow.

SANTOSH: You forgot to bow!

VEENA: Oh, sorry sorry sorry! I’ll bow three times to make up for it.

Samurai Culture
Next, everyone watched a movie on samurai culture. Santosh said that if anyone made a mistake, they would have to kill themselves with a sword. It would be fake, and with fake blood, but what better way to condition yourself into being careful about your work as if your life depended on it? After a few weeks of this Sujata had had enough. She complained to Santosh that they were not Japanese, and that they were Indian. It was unnatural to adjust to this foreign culture. They didn’t even know anyone from Japan and they didn’t have any Japanese customers either.

Doug’s visit to India
A year ago Santosh had hired a hippy guy named Doug to teach them about American cultural norms. Sujata reacted better to Doug as he was easy going and didn’t give them a hard time. Doug’s philosophy was, “Do whatever you want to — man.” Sujata and the others we okay with Doug until Sujata told Doug how Aunty wanted to force her to marry Dinesh, and she didn’t want to. Doug said, “Well if she likes Dinesh so much, why doesn’t she marry him herself?” Then Sujata replied, “In India, we cannot talk about our elders that way. It just doesn’t work like that.” The problem was that Santosh’s staff could not break out of their rigid Indian ideas and adjust to other cultures. Sure, they could accept certain things about other cultures, but not things that conflicted with the values of the homeland. How would their team succeed with all of this rigidity?

A few momths later, Sujata complained bitterly to Santosh…

SUJATA: How can I be in the same team as Prateep? First of all, I am much more highly skilled than he is, and second, I have seniority! I have been here 104 days — well, 104.5 days if you include orientation, and he has only been here 43 days.

SANTOSH: In life there are no exact fits and no exact equals. For us to succeed as a company, we are forced to either work together, or leave the company. Since I own the company, I have no choice. I have to stay. When you get married to Dinesh, you’ll have similar problems. He’ll want to do one thing and you’ll want to do another. You’ll have to compromise and get along somehow or your marriage will be a wreck. We can’t survive as a company without teamwork and India will never become a first rate country without a general improvement in corporate standards. It is up to us!

VIPOOL: You wanted to see me?

SANTOSH: Yes, at our company, we treat our employees like family. When they have done something wrong, instead of firing them, we send them to their room. You made a data entry error yesterday. I hereby order you to what Japanese call, “The boring room.” You are to commit hara-kiri, the ritual Samurai stomach cutting act with this fake sword. Fake blood is in the refrigerator. Try to make some convincing facial expressions and sound effects. Oh, and one more thing.

VIPOOL: Yes?

SANTOSH: Don’t forget to bow — very important.

VIPOOL :Yes sir… I mean, “Hai… gozai-masu Sensai” (Japanese translation of yes teacher)

Summary
After a year of Japanese culture, the employees still didn’t like it — well, except for the green tea ice cream and mini-samosas. But, their sense of teamwork got better. Many cultures as so individualistic, that it is hard for them to put their personal concerns aside and think about teamwork. But, what people fail to realize is that if everyone else is teaming up with you, teamwork just happens. If your team expects you to contribute, but treats you like an unappreciated member, the team culture won’t last.

If Google ran a BPO Call Center, what would they do differently?

March 30, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

There are tons of BPO companies out there. Some better than others. Some try to please, while others enjoy the most backwards of standards. But, how many BPO or Call Center Outsourcing companies bother to ask themselves how Google would run their company?

The typical BPO boss is concerned with metrics and numbers. So is Google as they are in charge of creating highly effective search algorithms. But, Google’s approach to human beings goes beyond metrics. They incorporate human engagement and fun into the equation. Can you create an algorithm for how much is the right amount of fun? Google kind of understands this concept as much as anyone can.

What would Google do?
I cannot speak for Google, and they would probably evolve into doing something different by the time you read this article in any case even if I did know what they would do. But, here is my guess.

(1) First of all, Google would probably give your BPO a cooler name. Instead of H&K outsourcing Pvt. Ltd. You would be Kahooka Labor Sourcing.
(2) Next, you would probably have a badminton court in the middle of your office, next to the exit that leads to the manmade lake where you have inflatable boat races. But, we can talk about that on your way to the lounge where you can make small talk with people in different departments and your higher ups. In India, you have to kiss the shoes of your higher ups, but in Google, you can be buddy buddy with them.

(3) Don’t forget that you would have group nature activies from time to time and perhaps a few competitions to see who can do something the best in the office.

(4) I very much doubt that Google would have employees working at tiny cramped work stations the way they do in India. Sure rent is expensive, but cramped doesn’t bring out the genious in people. Google might be tempted to move the entire office to the countryside, give everyone free lodging (I’m guessing) and have a really cool office with recreation rooms, large windows, and a place to feed the elephants. Yes, you heard me correctly. Google might want to blend into the local culture, and nothing says India more than elephants.

(5) After you got done designing a flying carpet rick-shaw, would you resume your regular work with a new sense of inspiration. Your co-worker would probably invent a device that would detect a rigged rick-shaw meter and auto-report it to the proper authorities who would ignore the message — but, at least they would get the message.

(6) Last, there would be lots of training, mentoring, self-analysis, and courses to know how to think like your customers think so that you can please them more. I strongly suggest point six before you even think about the other ones.

BTW: Here is a dialogue between the Rick Shaw Walla and a client after your BPO creates it as a project.

WALLA: The flying carpet rick shaw comes with surround sound, anti-gravity technology, wi-fi, news alerts, internet radio with 200 channels, four power outlets, and a hair-dryer in case you had to leave home in a hurry.

CUSTOMER: So, how much is a ride to Deccan?

WALLA: rps 200.

CUSTOMER: Can we use the meter?

WALLA: Sorry — meter broken!

If you invested in training your BPO employees, what types of skills would you teach them

March 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO, Outsourcing Articles, Popular Posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The mistake that BPO companies make is that they think that their employees are there to do a particular job. This is wrong. They are there to deliver results that contribute to revenue. What am I talking about? I’m not making sense here.

Which matters more? Teamwork or hard-skills?
Let’s say that a software development company needs to get work done. So, naturally they hire some software developers. This is their first mistake. Someone who is merely a software developer or programmer is not qualified to work at a BPO. Why? Because at a BPO you work as a team in some way or the other, so you need to hire someone who is good not only at programming, but also at teamwork. India is an authoritarian culture. You keep your mouth shut and do as you are told. This type of culture doesn’t foster teamwork. Japanese culture is all about team work, but I haven’t lived there and can’t explain what they do.

So, how do you train your employees?
If you want to have a really amazing company, you need to train your people in all types of ways. They need to be good at their core skills. They need to be able to communicate, stay organized, work with others, and get things done on time. I believe that the majority of the training for a programmer would be to put them through a lot of diverse programming tasks with a very seasoned teacher watching over them. Many programmers are good at doing the tasks they do repetitively, but fall short the minute you give them a difficult task.

How do you teach communication?
Most programmers in India cannot talk to clients. This is usually not a problem because clients want to talk to the PM, not the programmer. But, what if you get a client like me who wants to know what type of person he is working with. I have endured countless buffoons, and want someone smart. This means I have to talk to them. Mastering the art of oral communication is not easy, and your BPO is probably not equipped to teach it either. Additionally, clear written communication is another key element in software development. Most programmers refuse to get back to people as a matter of policy, so what do you do with them?

Summary
In short, you need to train your employees in all types of ways. Whether you should give them a lower salary in the beginning when you are doing more training is up to you. Or, you could make them prove themselves before you give them much training. But, after enduring the incompetent behavior of dozens of outsourcing houses, I strongly recommend that you invest 10-20% of an employees time in some type of training and evaluation program. The training should be continuous and not stop , although it could intensify at particular points in their employment.

You might also like:

Six problems that only individuals working in a BPO would understand
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/15/six-problems-that-only-individuals-working-in-a-bpo-industry-would-understand/

Business quotes that will inspire you
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/10/04/business-quotes-that-will-inspire-you/

The pen is mightier than the sword, but is blogging mightier than flogging?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/31/he-pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword-but-is-flogging-mightier-than-blogging/

Jeremy’s 11 tips for better business decision making
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/29/jeremys-11-tips-for-better-business-decision-making/

Did you tell the applicant what they can get from the job?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/07/do-you-tell-the-applicant-what-they-can-get-from-the-job/

A company has a board of directors, so why shouldn’t you?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/18/a-company-has-a-board-of-directors-so-why-shouldnt-you

9 insane things stress can do to your business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/31/9-insane-things-stress-can-do-to-our-businesstre/

Hiring difficult personality types
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/28/hiring-difficult-personality-types/

What’s the difference between getting business advice from a millionaire and a billionaire?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/21/whats-the-difference-between-getting-business-advice-from-a-millionaire-a-billionaire/

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How to develop the Google culture within you

March 22, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Innovation | Tagged , | Leave a comment

If you don’t work at Google, chances are that your company doesn’t practice a Google-type culture and probably doesn’t want to. But, what if you are in management and a few of your coworkers are hip to the idea while a few others aren’t? If everyone is against you then forget about it, but if you have a few yea-sayers, there are things you could do.

You could start doing group activities. You never know — the enthusiasm could spread. You could have competitions among those who choose to participate. You could convince Starbucks to open a branch right inside your office with sofas if management would also approve (not likely.) You could all decide to have some bizarre activities and weird interests to keep life interesting.

I work from home, and work with people who are not innovative except for my writing buddy. I choose to live a lifestyle that is a little like the Google employees. I have a ton of strange interests that keep my life interesting. I study the effect of feng-shui on where I spend time, or stay at hotels. I found that the feng-shui of particular buildings affects my health, social interaction, and business activity. A food feng-shui place can triple my business for the next day while a bad place can kill my sales for a day as well. I also try new foods all the time. I find a way to find new foods in a city with mostly the same old variety of things. I go on little trips to new places and go hiking. At Google, they do a lot of things as groups. I don’t have the luxury of a group, but you could say that I am my own little one person group. Oh, and one more thing — I write for three blogs and run 17 social media accounts. OMG!

Which type of online content influences consumers the most?

March 18, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsource Marketing, Popular on Twitter | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Expert content has been proven to be the most effective during purchase consideration, and even for affinity and familiarity according to a recent Nielsen report involving 900 respondents who responded to an online survey. Expert content was found to be more effective in attracting buyers than user reviews or even branded content. But, why is this?

Should we trust the experts?
Many consumers liked the third party characteristic of expert reviews. The experts were not promoting the product themselves, but merely giving an intelligent unbiased review or commentary of the product. 50% of consumers in the study indicated that they would not trust a brand’s website to be evenhanded about promoting the product while even more were less likely to trust reviews that could have been paid for by the company promoting the product. Additionally, consumers found the expert content to be a better source of information.

Not all products respond the same way to product information.
Video games had similar results between expert content and user reviews while dryer sales were more dependent on user reviews than any other type of content. However, electric toothbrushes sold better with branded content. Maybe the experts couldn’t hit the image home that you would have whiter sexier teeth if you would only buy a particular toothbrush.

If you are promoting your own product, you might try to experience with all types of content to market your product. Although you can’t control user reviews, you can create formats where users can leave reviews, and you can promote whichever ones you like as well!

You might also like:

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

Compilation of best marketing resources
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/02/24/compilation-of-best-marketing-resources/

What separates “A” marketers from the flock?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/16/what-separates-a-quality-marketers-from-the-flock/

How to create a company culture like Google’s & have fun while doing it

March 14, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is it possible to run a successful business and still have fun?
In this modern business culture, having fun might be the only way. Too many companies out there have uninspired employees. There is no enthusiasm about work, innovating, or connecting with the others at work. Try being a customer of a company like that! No thanks! I’ll pass.

Google invests heavily in its culture, having the right offices formatted the right way, and paying people to work on their own little projects. What is the result? A job that means something. Most people find no satisfaction at work, but Google employees work in a stimulating atmosphere where it is hard not to find meaning in their work.

1. Start by hiring the right people
If you hire people who have no enthusiasm, you will not be able to create a culture around them. Even one toxic or boring person will ruin your culture. Culture is a hard thing to build and a lot can go wrong. You might be advised to find people whose last job was in a cool culture. But, if they were in such a cool environment, why would they quit unless they were forced to move?

2. Some companies out there are learning that the most dynamic conversations happen when people bump into each other in the hall way, or by accident somewhere. Some companies are designing their offices specifically to engineer more of these spontaneous combustion type conversations that lead to innovations. It might be hard to rebuild your building, but I’m sure there are things you could do to keep people bumping into each other by accident.

3. Many call centers who do BPO outsourcing do Google type things like having contests, prizes, and winners to keep the excitement going. Call center work is not quite as innovative as being part of the Google culture, but by keeping the momentum going, they do create a positive culture at some of the more successful call cneters. Remember, that they have the highest burnout rate of any profession, so they have to keep the environment positive.

4. Fitness counts, but try getting your employees to the mountains or beach. Google offers on-site fitness like swimming pools, gyms, and more. Nothing builds that winning feeling like working out. Fat, unhealthy workers might not contribute much to a vibrant culture, but if you get them moving, you might be surprised. I have an innovative job, and I need to keep my life exciting just to function. I go hiking, walking, and try new restaurants in my area. That is how I personally maintain a positive one-person culture if there is such a thing!

5. Do more for your employees to make them feel special.
I drive to my employees homes to give them a check on a regular basis. Perhaps they take this for granted, but no other boss would do that. It personalizes the work. Giving people unique birthday celebrations, or celebrating special occasions in an unusual way is another way to foster a positive and innovative culture.

6. Google has a billiards room, a slide, a rowboat, table soccer, and other unusual objects. At Google, work is designed to be mixed with play. After all, you won’t be at your smartest or happiest if you never have any fun.

7. Google hires people who are from all walks of life, speak dozens of languages and who pursue a wide range of interests including beekeeping, frisbee and fox-trotting. It might be a good idea to find out what types of hobbies your applicants have before hiring them if you want a lively job atmosphere. And if someone doesn’t have a hobby, you might try having a program to help incubate new hobbies.

8. The Google culture is associated with a startup culture, but Google has thousands of employees. The secret to maintaining the startup culture is to maintain an environment where employees can communicate freely with higher ups, and people in other departments in a casual way in the cafeteria, gym, or other parts of the company.

9. Do things outside of the office as a team. Google employees often go hiking, skiing or have picnics together. Building the bonds of a recreational culture in the workplace create strong bonds and good feelings. Personally, I think that rock climbing builds the healthiest relationships between people. Rock climbers are the coolest, not to mention the fact that you are putting your life in someone’s hands if they belay you which builds trust in the work place (assuming nobody dies.)

So, you can be more like Google. It’s easy. Just think of things you can do. But, if you think it is too hard, then you’re probably a boring defeatist and aren’t up to Google’s cool standards anyway — so give up! You’ll never make it! But, for the rest of us — we can — and success starts with a short brainstorming session and a few quick actions.

My business karma improved – an interesting example about my outsourcing directory

March 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I remember the frustration I went through two years ago when I first started calling the members on my outsourcing directory. So many of them couldn’t speak English. So many didn’t answer. So many of them were difficult with me. Things have changed. The change started from within me. This is actually very spiritual, and reflects a lot of what my guru has been telling us for years.

In the past, I was desperate to have a directory with tons of listings. Critical mass of quantity mattered a lot to me. As I went on, I realized that to maintain any type of quality on my directory, I would need standards that would weed out more than half of my followers. It bothered me so much to undo hundreds of hours of work getting rid of listings we had put so much sweat equity into putting online.

But, in the long run, I wanted quality. After all, if you were an American, would you hire someone who refuses to answer question, who babbles, or who doesn’t even answer their phone? Or worse, the people who put you on hold without asking permission — and then you wait on hold forever only to call them back and be put right back on hold.

The interesting thing that happened is that I removed 65% of the listings on our directory for quality reasons. Most of the remaining listings were moved to the bottom of the list because they lacked quality communication skills. We have 1750 listings now instead of 4400 of the original listings. Instead of just putting listings online now, I call them. But, this time around, everyone I called answered their phone and spoke passable English which is a huge improvement over my luck two years ago. It seems that it is not my luck that improved, but my karma which improved by me improving it by deciding to have standards and sticking to my guns!