Do people leave their BPO job for personal reasons or career reasons?

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I am a career oriented person. I have been in the same line of work for close to two decades. To me, career thinking is the only way that makes sense. Otherwise you won’t have a career, a position in life, money or respect. However, others just jump from job to job without any sense of commitment or meaning. I can’t stand that behavior. What is worse, the logic behind people’s decisions leaving jobs also doesn’t make much sense.

Ladies often quit their job when they have a new boyfriend, fiance, husband, a baby, move, or change the way they feel about the job. If you are having a baby, that is a real reason to quit. But, in this modern age to quit your job because of a man doesn’t make sense. Women have equal rights yet do not want to provide equal income!

Then there are the personality conflicts responsible for job change. Either the boss is mean, or the employee is disrespectful to the boss and gets fired. There are also the disengaged workers, and I blame their disengagement for a disinterest in life in general as well as a boss who doesn’t work closely enough with them. Then there are people who have conflicts of interest. One wants to do a job one way while the other wants to do the opposite. Splitting up is inevitable.

Finally there are the job hoppers who are always looking for a better opportunity. If another company has a nicer recreation room, prettier secretaries, or offers 5% better pay, you can expect a job hopper to hop faster than a bunny rabbit.

So, how do you hire people who are going to stick around? After all, it is expensive having people leave a project in the middle, right? I would pay people more if their fact-checked resume indicates that they stuck at the same job for an average of at least four years. That shows commitment — and you can’t make it in any career with any skill level without a good sense of commitment.

Standing Rock: Energy independence vs. environmental safety

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Wars over oil replaced by drilling at home
America got involved in a huge war in Iraq primarily over control of oil. America also wanted the dollar to still be used by Iraq instead of the Euro, so the war was in essence a bullying session at great expense to both nations. Third, the war cmbined with the Afghanistan invasion also was about improving our military position near Iran. All three of these political objectives make logical sense. But, fighting huge wars for such small goals seems corrupt and not worth it. The solution is to create our own energy at home. And since our nation is so large, especially when you include Alaska, there are lots of energy opportunities.

Drilling at home weakens the Arabs
America and Canada started finding new and improved ways to drill for oil in our own lands without depending on the Middle-Easterners which was a great idea. Many of the Gulf countries are going under financially now that America is in competition with them for oil production as the cost of oil has gone down. Weakening countries engaged in terrorism or engaged in supporting others do terrorism seems like a reasonable national goal.

But, fracking & offshore drilling are bad for mother earth
The problem is that America doesn’t know when to stop exploiting the land for resources. Moderate drilling for oil in safe places makes sense. But, what about offshore drilling? That can create spills that are impossible to completely clean up that are devastating to the environment. And fracking is much worse as it pollutes ground water and does long term damage to whatever region it is done in. Many people claim that fracking increases the rate of cancer many times over. I personally don’t know what the truth is, but creating environmentally unsafe conditions for temporary profit are extremely bad in the long run. America needs to find clean and safe ways to lead the world of energy.

Standing Rock Protests
Right now, the native folks at Standing Rock are protesting a pipeline that is going to go over a river. They know that if there is damage to the pipe sometime in the future, that the environmental consequences will be hard to control. Additionally, since the rivers from North Dakota feed into the Mississippi river, if you pollute one river, you pollute the entire network of rivers. The claims about long-term environmental risk made at Standing Rock make sense — and our government should start listening if they want a planet that their children can inherit.

Worldwide environmental standards are necessary
The solution to the problem seems to be three-fold. First as a nation and as a planet, we need clearly defined environmental standards and goals. There should ideally be a worldwide government in charge of environmental safety to regulate countries like… well… all of us. Brazil is cutting down their rainforest, America is fracking, and China is polluting. We all need to wake up and regulate.

The second solution is to find alternatives to drilling. Solar energy is currently more expensive than oil, but doesn’t have to continue to be. If more research was put into the efficient construction of solar energy farms, it would be more cost effective, and with no damage to the environment. Additionally, energy from corn based ethanol are also solutions. The problem is that the price of food is so high, that ethanol can not be a competitive alternative to oil. The only way to reduce the price of food staples is to reduce the population of the planet — but, reducing the population would also create a reduction in oil prices. Do we have to wait until the oil is almost all used up before we find alternative energy resources?

Last, having more efficient ways of using fuel seems to make sense. Hybrid cars are helping people save energy. Van-pooling and ride sharing are becoming more popular these days as well. More efficient models for distributing goods nationwide would be yet another way to save on fuel. More efficient train and truck systems of transportation would be part of that solution.

I hope we can meet our energy needs without destroying our planet. The bigger issue is getting the people in power as well as regular folks to see that our environment is one of the most important issues of the day — and if it doesn’t get solved, we’ll all be very very sorry.

If Trump taxed Filipino call centers at 35%, would quality change?

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You get what you pay for, right? Wrong!
Sometimes you pay more for a service, but get worse service. You won’t be using that service much longer, right? Service in the Philippines for call center work is not always that professional. Agents quit their jobs after a few months on a whim as a matter of practice. People do not answer emails consistently. You find broken links on websites and other aspects of unprofessional business. I had an interview with a call center and I couldn’t hear them because the phone line they were using was not clear. If you specialize in communication, why can’t I hear you properly?

Trump would love to bring jobs back to the United States. But, if an American company charges $40 per hour for call center services and you can get someone in Manila at $7 at a company or $2 if you hire them directly, why would you pay $40? Even with a 35% outsourcing tax, $7 becomes $9.45. If you charge $9.45 you need to have higher standards. And if that price went back down to $7 you might keep those standards now that you have made a habit of them.

The Filipinos need to learn that their sloppy business behavior needs to change. As long as they get endless supplies of work thrown at them, they will not learn to be better. In fact, they have too much work in the Philippines. So much work that people quit on a whim. This is a problem. They need to face a severe work shortage in the Philippines so that they take work more seriously — and Trump’s tax might do exactly that.

There are other factors that could force the Filipino outsourcing culture to change. The minute India decides to run their call centers better and treat customers with respect, the Philippines will be in huge trouble. India’s disrespect and bad manners was Manila’s blessing as Filipinos have very good manners as a culture. The Philippines sucked up almost all of India’s call center business as big companies wanted manners. But, with competition from Africa, South & Central America and Eastern Europe continue, there might be big competition for call center jobs. It is just a matter of time, but the world will go this direction.

Outsourcing BPO work: How do you find a decision maker at a prospect company?

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So, you own a BPO. Perhaps you just purchased a 10 seater, or you want to start a company. We’ve heard this many times before. If you don’t have many years of management experience at someone else’s BPO, you are doomed to failiure. Knowing what you are doing has many facets. Getting work done, hiring, dealing with finding the right property all matter. But, if you can’t find jobs, then what good is it?

I found a list of 500 companies that hire outsourcing companies to do their work such as call center, data entry, BPO, programming, social media, etc. You can look those companies up online. But, how do you find the decision maker? Do you talk to the secretary? Do you send an email to the wrong person who assures you they will forward it to the right person? Do you visit their company in person?

Pick a state
Since there are companies all throughout the United States that hire overseas outsourcers like yourselves, you could pick a state and visit all of the companies in that state. It is hard to find a contact person. But, if you are physically in their office, you will be very focused about finding that person, and the local staff might feel more inclined to actually help you since they can see that you are a real person, and well dressed with a briefcase, serious facial expression, etc. You could visit all of the selected companies in a particular state. It might take a while, but you might actually find real people. And people are much more likely to deal with you if they can interact face to face. But, is a personal visit a good first step? I think that would make a great marketing experiment if you visited offices cold for a week and saw if it led to any sales over a six month period. Sales don’t always come in immediately.

Linked In
You can use Linked In to find out who does what at what company. I am not skilled with Linked In, but it might make sense to master the art of Link-Inning so that you can find some good contact people. Finding the right contacts is half the battle, the other half is to get them to like you. So, have someone agreeable who speaks good English who is NOT PUSHY make the initial contact.

Cold Calling
Be prepared to hammer companies incessantly to find the right person. Remember, that the right people are the ones who are hiding. You will always get a secretary who knows nothing and who has no desire to help you. But, to reach the right person requires finding out their name, what they do, when they are there, and how to reach them. I have no idea how long this takes, so expect a long and hard battle.

Twitter
Sometimes high ranking people have profiles on Twitter. Some of the fancier social media companies have ways to target your marketing to reach only those high ranking folks. I have actually met good people on Twitter by accident. But, imagine meeting them on purpose!

Warren Buffet’s stock algorithm cracked?

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I am not a very seasoned investor and I don’t know Warren Buffet’s entire stock algorithm. But, I have a good idea about parts of it.

Yes, Warren Buffet likes a company that has been around for a very long time that will not go out of business. Yes, he looks for good margins of operation and return on equity. He looks for companies with a “moat” where competitors cannot just run them out of business. But, there are things about Warren Buffet’s stock buying practices that you might not be able to guess just by crunching numbers. He looks for P/E ratios, but also low P/B ratios as that is statistically the best indication for the greatest increase in stock price in the long run.

Conglomorates
Warren Buffet likes conglomorates that buy up smaller companies as he finds them steady and a good business model for the future. In the tech world, IBM seems to be the best conglomorate as they are huge and buy up smaller companies. Google and Facebook are in the process of becoming conglomorates too, but they lack the same stability as IBM who made it through the great depression which is a huge achievement for a company. I’m not sure if companies who made it through the last depression will make it through the next one — but, in my opinion, they are a better bet than new companies.

Good Vibes
What? Is Warren Buffet a hippy now? If you read about Warren Buffet, you’ll know that his sidekick Charlie Munger used to go around to companies and walk around and talk to people. He could tell very quickly if people were happy at the company, and if they looked like they were working efficiently. My stock algorithm never predicted what Warren would buy until I started meditating on companies. What does this mean? I regularly meditate to get an idea of the mental state of the management and workers at a particular company. Some companies are more aggressive, while some have stress, happy people, anger, or other emotions. If I am going to invest lots of money in a company, I want to see happy and productive workers in my vision. Warren’s picks for companies don’t always measure up with numbers (although they don’t do poorly either,) but they do quite well when I meditate on them. WFC, KO, IBM, AXP, PSX and KHC all did splendidly in my meditation and I bought stock in each company as well as others.

Premonitions
I have been testing my psychic skills in the market. My accuracy rate was about 65% which is not bad. Anything above 50% is super. But, sometimes the cmpanies with the good vibes are not the ones that you will make money on. Sometimes it is companies that took a temporary dip in value that are going to bounce back and make you a quick 10% that are the ones to invest in. I meditated to see which companies I thought would do the best in the next four years. Warren Buffet’s picks yet again did quite well in my meditations, particularly IBM, KO and a few others. I also thought that Starbucks and Facebook (companies Warren doesn’t touch) will also do well in the next few years. Not to sound funny, but I take pleasure in owning SBUX and FB — it makes me happy! I’m convinced that Warren is very psychic and has an excellent sense of human nature. It seems clear that Warren knows long ahead of time which stock will not only go up, but go up a lot. I truly believe he is a 21st century oracle, and understanding what makes him tick could unleash the secret to your success!

Overflow Call Centers — worth the wait?

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There are many overflow call centers out there. The problem is that not all of them have the skills as the primary call center. In fact, some of them don’t have any skills at all other than to babysit clients as they wait. What good is it to transfer your clients to the Philippines just to have them wait? You might as well have an online system to help answer their questions and make payments.

One idea that is popular these days is to have automated systems, but to have a rep guide people in navigating and using the online system. It is sort of cyber-babysitting if you like. Some reps are in a hurry and take you to the first page of the system and then say, “Gotta go.” But, for people who are not familiar with your system, walking people through from beginning to end is helpful. That way, the next time they need help, they will be confident about using your online system as it would be a habit they feel comfortable with.

But, what about training overflow call centers to do basic Q&A. You could create a database of common questions and answers for them. If that is too hard, just stick to the most common twelve as that will get a huge chunk of your customers taken care of without having to be transfered. It doesn’t seem like rocket science to have your overflow people do payments as that doesn’t take hardly any skill at all. You just need to be able to repeat names and numbers as well as expiration dates.

A little training wouldn’t kill you but would make your customer’s lives much nicer. So, make your overflow call center a little more skillful. Instead of building a better mousetrap, build a better cybersitter.

Will there be an outsourcing tax with Trump?

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Trump is such an interesting character. On the one hand he does business around the world. On the other hand, he caters to frustrated lower-middle class white guys in America who want to keep jobs in America! Can we have it both ways? And what does Trump really believe beneath the hype?

I believe that Trump is likely to increase or create import taxes from certain countries. China is going to be at the top of the list. GM is a company popular with American workers who say the word, “aMERican” with the emphasis on the “MER.” The irony is that GM is all over China getting rock bottom prices on infrastructure and labor during China’s economic recession. Meanwhile Apple who is all over the world taking advantage of regional tax breaks is going to pay big time when Trump clamps down on their manufacturing which is heavily in China. An import tax will harm both these companies in a huge way. I would not be surprised if stocks go down by 25% for both of them.

Meanwhile, the outsourcing business is unique as it is a service. It is harder to track who is doing outsourcing when you look at smaller companies unless the government monitors their Paypal accounts (and it does for tax purposes.) You can see which Paypal payment goes overseas. If the government puts a tax on outsourcing, it might not be so bad. A 20% tax would mean that providers would have to lower their rates by 10-15% to stay in business. Some would go out of business, while others would lower their rates. The customer on the American front would not have to pay that much more after all is said and done.

Personally, I prefer a free and open market. That way the world can capitalize on labor wherever and whenever it can be found. Land for manufacturing might be cheaper in Mozambique than Minneapolis and companies can take advantage of that. But, Trump is sure to fight for some outsourcing taxes. So, don’t cry. You won’t be out of business if it happens — it will only hurt!

On a brighter note, unemployment is so low in America, that prices for services here are bound to rise making it easier for overseas competitors to stay afloat until we have a bad recession.

2020 to 2030 — will outsourcing survive a period of war and depression?

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I have always been worried about the future, prophesies, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wars. Revelation warns of this, my spiritual Master warns of the same. Most religions say something bad is going to happen in the world to make room for a new society that is spiritually based. The problem is that most of the world has to get wiped out in the mean time. I run a business and if you read my blog chances are you do too. We need to stay afloat in good times as well as bad.

The world is sort of falling apart. Europe is flailing with a huge influx of Middle-Eastern immigrants who have caused a lot of grief to the locals. Russia is ready to take over neighboring countries that used to be part of its empire. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are going broke and selling oil dirt cheap just to prolong their demise. China is drowning in its own pollution and having a bad economic downturn. The only country doing well these days seems to be The USA, and to some extent perhaps Brazil, Australia and a few others. Some of the African nations are becoming more economically strong which is nice, but they have a long way to go.

Additionaly, we are looking at world-wide bankruptcies that will be simultaneous. Too many countries have borrowed more than they can ever pay back, and when these countries crash all at once, the future of the world economy is unsure. We might create a system to forgive debts or create a world-wide currency. But, in reality, if someone lent you money, you have to pay them back in one form or another.

The question is, how will outsourcing companies survive a global depression or war. If you are in Hyderabad and the world goes to hell, will you still be able to sell your programming and call center services? And what about us here in the states? Will we be safe hiring someone in India when the Pakistanis will eventually invade and kill everybody? What will happen to my code if my programmer Praveen gets his head cut off by invading Mahmood? What if the economy in the states gets so bad we actually do our own programming work? Then India will be out of business! Or worse, what if I hire a nice Indian Muslim in the United States, and then our government cracks down on Muslims and he gets sent back to Delhi? What happens to my code?

As you can see, I think of the worst. Hope for the best, plan for the worst are words of wisdom. None of us can control the outcome of the world, but we can prepare by having savings. That way if we have to work for far less than we are used to, we still survive.

If the Lakota people would network with those outside their tribe and outsource!

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We normally think of India and the Philipines when we think of outsourcing. But, we have local people who suffer from horrible unemployment. Native American tribes normally live out in the middle of nowhere. They are far from cities, far from work, and just don’t have a lot to do.

What if someone created a call center in or near the Lakota nation? The cost of labor is not high, and lots of people are willing to work. The problem is that their level of experience has not been developed.

People who live in the middle of nowhere need businesses that thrive in the condition of being nowhere. Remote is the keyword here. Call centers, data entry facilities, farming, RV camps, and internet businesses can do quite well while being nowhere. In fact, call centers do better when nowhere because the cost of land is low. Another interesting factor is that the stress level at a call center would be less if people worked near the ocean or in the middle of nowhere. It is more relaxing there and the relaxing attributes of the landscape counteract the stress of the job.

Cottage industries should be encouraged for those living in or near native reservations. It is not easy or cost-effective to get outside capital. But, creating mini-industries at home or in a small office space or industrial space doing basic tasks for a low price make perfect sense to get a business off the ground.

But, what about networking? In a greater sense, Native Americans are isolated partly because of their geography. But, also do to a lack of social networking. You could live near others, but if there is no way to connect to them, you would be socially isolated. Lakota people are regaining their culture these days as they came close to losing their language. They need to network with people from their tribe or other tribes living outside of the reservation for cultural and business activities. They also need to network with mixed-race people who probably feel left out. Additionally, Native Americans need to network with people who used to be Native American in a past life but were reincarnated into Hindus, whites, or some other community. The more connected you are, the more ideas will flow, and the more opportunities have the chance to be offered to you. By living in isolation, you can’t receive anything because nobody even knows you are there.

The Lakota language also needs to recover which is an entirely different topic. But, I’ll include it here since it is sentimental to me even though I only know one word of the language. Language is learned best by people who are three or four years old. Since so few people speak the Lakota language, those few thousand linguistic human assets should be allocated to spending lots of time with the 3-7 year old folks and speak only the Lakota language. Then, to maintain the language, work environments on the reservation need to be set up where only that language is spoken. But, that is the whole problem that I have been addressing in this article. There isn’t a strong work culture. Two hundred years ago, there was 100% employment in the Lakota tribe as men, women, and children all were assigned a task. After the buffalo were killed off and the US government took over most of the land, the Lakota traditional way of life was demolished, and the people were not able to adapt to other types of lifestyles.

My recommendation — adapt!
Culture never stays the same, and neither do languages, souls, or anthing else. The only thing that is constant is change. As living organisms, we adapt or die out. Since native culture is so sentimental to many of us, it is very sad to see their culture die out. So, the solution is to adapt!

The old way of life involved living in connection to buffalo. Food, clothing, shelter, and tools all came from parts of the buffalo. In older times when human populations were lower and more natural, buffalos roamed wild. Those days are over, but buffalos can still be farmed in free-range style farming. I feel that the Lakota people should focus on being ranchers and breeding their sacred animal that they feel they descended from (perhaps they mean spiritually descended from.)

I feel that cottage industries in outsoucing specialties could save the Lakota people too. After all, Lakotas speak English as their first language, and that is something call centers in foreign countries cannot capitalize on as their English is not native!

Next, traditional arts are very popular world-wide, yet Native Americans don’t normally have good marketing skills. The skills of production are there, but there is always some Lebanese guy who makes a killing on marketing native goods. Why can’t native people learn to sell their own goods in an efficient way? Good marketing skills could open up huge markets for pottery, beads, paintings, and other native art which could create tremendous employment opportunities. Additionally, adaptations on traditional arts such as native mouse pads, sofas with Native Americna apolstery, website development using native art, and anything else you can think of.

Finally, there are other businesses that would work well out in the middle of nowhere. RV Parks, tortilla factories, cultural classes, clothing manufacturing, solar panel manufacturing, wind power manufacturing, and more. I discourage the casino business as it is not holistic and leads to addition and unhealthy outcomes which reflect poorly spiritually on the community.

Here are some nasty things call center agents do

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I am reading how one very mean call center agent handles his problems. Some agents are tired of dealing with rude clients. But, it seems to be a common theme that police officers, administrators and call center agents have unkind ways of dealing with people they are sick of.

1. If a customer is rude, the agent would soften his voice. The more rude the customer became, the softer the agent’s voice would become.

2. If the customer demands rush service, put them at the back of the line.

3. If they are complaining angrily about verification steps, he adds a few extra steps.

4. Regardless of how many times they have called in, he starts at the beginning of the troubleshooting process — is your computer turned on? Is the electricity working in your building? etc.

5. If the customer is screaming, that is an opportunity to unplug the connection and blame it on internet faliure — ooops!

6. A few good open ended technical questions will make an angry customer realize what an idiot they are without you having to tell them.

7. When they interrupt me, I stop speaking until they are forced to ask if I am still there.

As an admin person myself, I am tired of rude clients over the phone. I have several ways of penalizing bad customers on one of my directories. I keep track of their poor communication skills or anger in a database. I keep track of who asks me to repeat regularly, who cannot answer a question without telling me far too much inconsequential information, who argues, who doesn’t know what they are talking about and who gives roundabout vague answers. I also keep track of who refuses to talk to me and who refuses to answer simple questions.

We all have our ways of getting back at bad customers. But, as customer service people, we are in business to help customers and not help ourselves. So, try to be nice to people even if they aren’t willing to be nice to you.

Are the British the most sensitive to quality in outsourcing?

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Is the UK the most sensitive to quality in outsourcing? It would appear so. I just did some analysis on my stats for my outsourcing directory. I do a cleanup of my outsourcing directory every several months. The cleanup involves removing companies that are out of business, fixing expired phone numbers and replacing them with current numbers, demoting companies with bad phone habits to the bottom of the list, and more. The result of my work is having the top ten or so companies on my list being top notch which makes life easier for those searching for great outsourcing companies.

The question is, how does my work affect my web stats? I took readings for click averages from many companies at various times of the year. I took readings before I did cleanups and after. Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia clicked more when there were more total listings while the UK drastically preferred to use my directory immediately after I did my cleanup. In fact, the click rate from the UK went steadily down month by month after I did my cleanup. The minute after I did another cleanup after roughly 100 days, the clicks went back up again! Blimey!

So, it seems that the Brits are the most sensitive to quality of any nation while those in the Middle East and India often prefer quantity. Is it possible to please everyone?

Call Center Directory

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What is the best call center directory and what makes it the best one?
The best call center directory will by default have the best call centers in the world at your finger tips. The tricky part is that call centers overseas tend to change their numbers regularly, go in and out of business, and also sometimes operate out of their bedroom. If you run a directory, the secret is to keep everyone’s information straight and also to add more companies to your list every week to compensate for the companies that dropped off.

123outsource.net’s call center directory has been around for years and gets about 30,000 visitors per day looking for call centers in the Philippines, India, Central America, and other countries as well. We have inbound call centers, outbound call centers, technical support call centers, international call centers, as well as those specializing in appointment setting, order taking, chat support, email support, and more.

At 123outsource.net, we organize search results based on the quality of the companies. We rank companies on how they interact on the phone, how well they answer emails (and how promptly) as well as looking at their click average. We throw these three considerations into an every changing algorithm and then decide placement levels based on the results!

123outsource.net has over 100 call centers and 800 of the best outsourcing companies in the world listed and all at your fingertips. Use our directory whenever you need great outsourcing companies!