Your employees are depressed…

September 4, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Your Employees are Depressed: Why Business Isn’t Booming–And What You Can Do About It

Depression: A Major U.S. Export?
In the United States and elsewhere, many people are just tired of all the economic ups and downs—and just don’t believe in the system anymore. Mental health in the workplace is at an all-time low, and workers don’t feel secure about the future. Even those fortunate few workers who believe they have stable jobs and good bosses may suffer from work-related depression. Psychologist Robert Ostermann, an expert on workplace stress, pointed out that, at the outset of the 21st century, in countries that emulated “the American model” (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore) there was more stress. As outsourcing continues to be a solution made-in-America, stress continues to escalate in call centers in India, IT companies in India and China, electronics manufacturing companies in Asia, the Philippines, and South America, and all across the globe.

After Sept 11, 2001, outsourcing to call centers in India, for example, increased dramatically as a way American corporations could pay out less and have callers on the phone at hours when U.S. call center workers were sleeping. Along the way, America also outsourced its customer service problems and its stress: Americans expected their calls to be handled by people who spoke good English, understood their accents and their concerns, and could offer clear solutions. When customer service issues were handled by call centers in India, the U.S. company that hired the call center was often criticized and held to higher standards by critical customers who then became suspicious of the company they believed they were doing business with in the first place. For most call centers in India, with the jobs and income came the stress of having a call center that was up to U.S. standards.

How Many Depressed Workers Are There?

According to surveys described in The Times of India (Feb 19, 2013), 66% of employees in India suffer from stress and admit they have trouble focusing at work because of stress. Whether it is caused by the very real demands of multi-tasking or by the unreasonable requirements of an unsympathetic and harsh work environment, lack of focus is a major symptom of depression. At call centers in India, where poor management and stress are legend, stress is extreme; yet in 2013, stress is part of every job, every industry, and every country. As of 2011, a quarter of the world’s workforce admitted to suffering from depression, and 92% assert that their depression is job-related http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/nearly-quarter-of-global-workforce-depressed_n_1088785.html .

According to a 2013 article in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Depression in the workplace is a global concern.” Michael Mazaar, author of Global Trends 2005, points out that “Depression is now…the world’s second most insidious illness” (after heart disease). Workers in call centers in India, the Philippines, and the U.S. are greatly at risk because customer service work on the phone is so stressful, but all types of jobs that involve multitasking and the potential for misunderstandings put workers at risk for depression. In the U.S. in 2001, job stress cost industry over $300 billion a year; what are the costs in 2013—if stress in the workplace has doubled or tripled? What are the current costs in the workplace–globally—because of stress due to outsourcing, national debt, mortgage interest rates, global warming, earthquakes and tsunamis, terrorism, global political meltdowns, and the threat of constant war? Human beings are aware of these issues, even if they do not consciously think about them or discuss them. These issues are real, and cannot be easily dispelled by talking about them…which may explain the current focus on medications: according to CNN, use of anti-depressant medications has gone up 400% since the late 1980’s.

Tip: If you think you are depressed: Spending time in nature (gardening, hiking, walking), exercise, and proper diet will bring you most of the benefits of the chemicals in medication. Also, studies demonstrate that just choosing to focus on the positive increases your serotonin levels.

Am I Depressed? Are Workers in my Office Depressed? How Can I Tell?

If you work in a call center or an office job in India, the U.S., or the Philippines, you may have noticed workers who are
· more and more forgetful
· often late
· prone to error and missed deadlines
· easily distracted
· exhausted
· confused
· withdrawn
· gaining or losing weight
· emotionless
· hostile
· preoccupied
· fond of alcohol

These are common symptoms of depression, a product of stress, and may be observable in your workplace. “Stress comes from bad managers,” says Robert Hogan, PhD, an expert on personality in the workplace. If you are a manager in a call center in India, the Philippines, the U.S.—or a manager in any office—you are in a position to help your employees and your company by finding out about employees suffering from depression.
According to Forbes, 65% of Americans surveyed said in 2012 that they would rather have a good boss than more money. Call centers in India are notorious for bad managers…but managers in the U.S. or anywhere else can be just as bad. A 2009 Harvard Business Review survey reported that “the majority of people say they trust a stranger more than they trust their boss.”

So What should I Do?

If You Are a Manager or a Boss:

1. Having healthy employees is good for business: According to an MIT study, depression costs “tens of billions of dollars” each year in terms of loss of productivity, time off from work, and health care or costs for treatment. Hire, train, and keep employees who are healthy and have a healthy way of relating to others—in person and on the phone.

2. Screen employee responses as you train workers. Give employees clear directions, realistic goals, rewards, and consequences. Talk in a pleasant and rational manner. Make employees feel safe. Let healthy employees mentor those who are on edge.

3. Observe employees at work. Don’t ignore any symptoms you observe. Be on the lookout for bullying or other behaviors that create stress. Ask questions and have employees see a company doctor if needed.

If You Are an Employee:

1. Manage yourself. Be aware of how you feel and how you react to others. If you are not happy at work, figure out why and make a plan to correct the situation.

2. Don’t just let the situation keep on the way it is. If you need more direction or different tasks and hours, speak up. Ask for help at the beginning, and follow directions.

3. Do your job. If you know the workplace environment is bad for you, find another job with a better work environment. If you can’t find another job, do everything to function better—including medication, if you need it.

Few workers feel the workplace is a friendly environment they can trust or feel comfortable in. Are workers at call centers in India and the Philippines taking the heat from U.S. business problems? According to Forbes, “The United States is a nation in decline” and the U.S. has slipped to 12th place in the list of the world’s happiest (read: most prosperous and stable) countries http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/01/09/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2/ .

Let’s face facts: terrible workplaces and poor job security are everywhere. In India and China, for example, only 40% of people surveyed in 2013 believe it is a good time to find a job. On the surface, these countries seem to be doing better than the U.S., but workers in India, China, and even the Philippines exhibit their own symptoms of depression. Labor issues, the high cost of food, worker safety, long hours, and poor wages are real: it’s not just about having a job, but the quality of the job and the work environment, too.

The Moral of the Story?

Despite the reports we hear of a boom elsewhere, there is no place where workers feel life is safe and the future is rosy enough to keep on working as usual. Whether you work in a call center in India or an office in the Philippines or the U.S., there is stress. In the workplace, do something good for others, and it will come back to you in increased productivity and focus.
Looking for the perfect country to do business with is like the old story of the house with the golden windows at sunset: a girl has always seen a house with golden windows. When she travels there one evening at sunset, the windows are not golden, and the boy of that house points out that the house with the golden windows is at the other side of the valley: he turns and points to her own house.

Perhaps the moral is still to look to your own house, your own country—instead of pointing at other countries’ productivity and bemoaning the fate or the lack of productivity of your own. We need not abandon outsourcing or doing business with those far-off countries that seem to have the golden windows, but we can try to strengthen our own nation. That means addressing problems that lead to stress and depression. It means not allowing our lives to be overtaken by the trivialities and frustrations brought about by a world that doesn’t seem to care anymore. Find the workplace that is the best for you, create a work environment that is positive, and reward the few people around you who care. Give good managers your best effort. But keep on looking.

Tweets:
(1) Americans are exporting depression as workers feel unsure about the future.
(2) Depression makes you forgetful, late, and distracted. Not good in the workplace!

You might also like:

If you were Donald Trump, what would you do?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/24/if-you-were-donald-trump-what-would-you-do/

If you hire happy people to interact with your staff
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/05/29/if-you-hire-happy-people-to-interact-with-your-staff/

What is a microvacation?

September 4, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What is a microvacation and why you should take one.

There are various types of vacations that a person could take. You could stay at home, go to a resort, go

to a foreign country, or just camp by a lake. These days there are more innovative types of breaks called “Workations,” “Twittercations,” and now there are “Microvacations” (not to be confused with Nanovacations.

It is hard for busy working people to get away.
You can’t take a one week or two week break whenever you feel like it. You need to be all done with your work and your meetings before you can seriously take time off. But, what if your work load just doesn’t end? There needs to be a system for dealing with that. Stress can pile up, and the stress doesn’t care if you have time for a break or not. You need a microvacation.

What is a microvacation?
A regular vacation could be a week or more, generally in a far away and hopefully relaxing or rejuvinating place. Or, it might be an interesting place with lots of sightseeing which could be refreshing albeit tiring. But, a microvacation is something that lasts only a few hours. It is not even as long as a mini-vacation or day trip. No, a microvacation is only a few hours at best.

Recommendations for quality microvacations?
The beauty of a microvacation is that they are low in cost. You don’t need to book hotels, and you don’t need to pay for expensive cabs, or airfare. Since a microvacation is so short, they are by definition nearby where you live. By my personal definition, a microvacation could be taken anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours from where you live. You simply drive to your destination, and then enjoy your activity. The point of a microvacation is to take you away from your regular stressful environment into a refreshing place. What you actually do is secondary providing that it rejuvinates you. Natural places are what I would recommend for a microvacation.

Where do I go for my microvacations?
I like the coast at sunset. I’ll often go for an hour or two. I will read blogs on my i-phone, or enjoy a quick meal at a coastal restaurant. The ocean vibration refreshes my mind and body, so that when I go back to work, I can function better with less stress. Sometimes I’ll visit the desert for a few hours as well. That is a longer drive, but it does miracles to boost my energy. Or, I’ll visit a local forest that relaxes me and boosts my energy. Use caution, because not all natural places will have the same effect on you. Choose places that you notice a definitive change in your mood or energy after you go there. Take notes on how you feel before and after each place, and go more than once to document your average net boost in energy or lowering of stress.

How often should I take a microvacation?
I would recommend a microvacation two or three times a week if you want to be able to work at optimal performance at your job. The weekend can be used for a longer microvacation that might require eight hours away from home. Shorter trips can be done after work during the week.

It is about the quality of the interaction on social media

September 3, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Interpreting stats on social media is not easy. I have to rely on my intuition to figure out what is what. We have multiple social media channels going on and I have trouble keeping up with all of it. My social media manager handles most of it, and I review her work from time to time.

Although we found it hard to get 11 Linked In members, and easy to get 18000 Facebook members, the total number of intelligent posts from other members on Linked In exceeds what we got on Facebook for this particular account. Please keep in mind that my Facebook account for my notary site is very lively and intelligent. I am not trying to undermine Facebook as they have been a valuable resource to me. I’m just doing a quality analysis on social media commentary.

It is the quality of the followers, not how many you have. It is about how many of them post, and how good their posts are. If you get intelligent comments on one medium, that is worth a million bad quality comments on another medium. Actually bad comments are a liability because you have to remove them.

Another thing to consider is the science of how an online community grows. Does it grow like a seed and germinate? Do you see a small seedling sprouting up, that becomes a small tree, then a bigger tree, then a huge tree which eventually produces fruits? It is very unpredictable.

We have had a Notary Facebook account for years. The total number of followers continues to rise. The quality and quantity of commentary seems to have been constant for three years. We get good comments, and enough of them, but it is frustrating that we don’t see any growth in the total interactions. Out Twitter accounts seem to have regular growth in the amount of interactions and retweets. Part of it is the improved quality of our content and increased networking on our end.

My bottom line message is to forget about the top line numbers in social media. Look at the growth rates for quality interactions.

African Outsourcing

September 3, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Africa | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Outsourcing in Africa

Africa has a growing outsourcing industry with South Africa taking the lead. Although India has the bulk of the outsourcing market for the time being, Africa has offerings that India has no way of providing — Languages. Many European languages are spoken in Africa such as Dutch, French, Arabic, and many others. Although these languages will not attract U.S. outsourcers, they will attract many companies in Europe and the Middle East. Additionally, many African call center workers can learn to speak very authentic British sounding English much better than call center employees in other parts of the world. Speaking with the local accent is one way of gaining popularity with customers.

Political instability, frequent power outages, and poor infrastructure are factors that are detremental to the African outsourcing industry as a whole. But, prices are so low, that for many, its well worth it to tolerate these dangers and inconveniences. As time goes on, African countries are gaining credibility in the international market as reliable outsourcers.

Putting language aside, cultural attributes in Africa can be very helpful in the BPO Call Center industry. Being empathetic to distressed customers comes naturally to many African call center workers, perhaps more so than in other countries.

One area that is very important is broadband internet infrastructure. If a country has good connectivity especially in economic areas, then it can provide efficient and reliable communication services which are key in the call center industry. A year ago, Africa had no fibre-optic vertebrae. The recent building of four underwater cables has increased bandwidth capacity by one-hundred fold and has increased speed and reduced prices for internet usage as well. Currently there are only four million Kenyans with regular internet access, but access is expected to rise with the future sales of 3G mobile phones with internet accessibility.

African outsourcing continues to grow, and in another few years it will become a matured and regular desination for various types of outsourcing. With more global choices available, companies can find the most optimized match for their service needs which makes the world an overall better place.

Alternatives to having a fake call center name

September 3, 2010 by admin
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Alternatives to creating a fake call center name

It seems to be a formal rule that is recorded in the constitution of India, that all call centre workers will have fake names — or be immediately throw in jail for not shunning the culture that they are from.  But, why not have a policy of having TWO NAMES…

I personally have a name that I translate into many languages.  I have an English name, a French name (spelled the same as the English name, but pronounced differently), a Spanish name, an Arabic name, a Hebrew name, and lastly a very classy Chinese name which sounds surprisingly similar to one of their literary scholars (which was a complete accident).    If I go to China and people ask my name, I say, “Wo de zhong-wen ming-zi shi ma jue min”.   That means, my Chinese name is Ma Jue Min.  I make it clear that this is not my legal name, but this is the Chinese version of my name — Horse Awaken the People.  Incidentally, the name was meant to be the closest phonetic match of my English name, but has a very poetic meaning in Chinese, and is almost identical to Li Jue Min who was a literary scholar in China — a happy coincidence.

In any case, living in America, we meet people from all around the world.  Before 911, I met a guy from Lebanon.  If I met him today, he might hide his real name for obvious reasons.  He introduced himself this way — “Hi, my name is Ousama, but my friends call me Oos — Just call me Oos”.

So, picture a South Indian call center worker being honest about his name and location. “Hi, my name is Rama-Chandra Sri-Kumar Venkatchalam — but, you can just call me Mike… everybody else does”

There is a legitimate reason to adapt an alias name if your name is too hard for Americans to say. Please remember that many Americans live in places like New York where we hear 30 languages every single day, every day of our lives. We are used to hearing names of all types ranging from African, Indian, French, German, Chinese, Korean, etc. For cosmopolitan Americans, being able to pronounce a name like Rajesh would be a piece of cake.  But, for whitebred folks in Oklahoma or North Dakota who don’t have much diversity at all, it might be an issue to grasp ANY Indian name at all.  To me it seems logical to keep your real name unless it is just impossible for more than 5% of Americans to remember or pronounce.

Visit our worldwide list of call centers

The mystery call center caller

Which parts of the USA have better programming companies?

September 3, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Software Development | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

When we think of BPO outsourcing, we often think of offshoring, but you can also nearshore to other parts of the United States for example. Many California BPO companies hire in the Midwest or the East Coast for example. The question is, which parts of the country have the most reliable service providers?

What I learned through a lot of searching around and interviewing people is that California is the worst place to hire programmers. Interestingly enough, 17 years ago, I remember that my aunt told me that her husband’s friends with businesses never hired California companies to do anything because of the unreliable service. They always hired companies in the East Coast. I remembered her story long after the fact and found it to be generally true. I also learned that people who live in California who are FROM a reliable part of the world, tend to be more reliable.

In any case, the Midwest is a place where the level of integrity is much higher than the rest of the country or perhaps the rest of the world. We encountered personality issues with a few emotionally unstable service providers in the Midwest. We also found some people who were not that smart. But, we encountered far fewer liars and cheats in the Midwest than in other parts of the Country.

New Hampshire was another good place to find programmers. New Hampshire is a no nonsense state for rugged nature loving individualists. The folks there bring new meaning to the term, “Live free or die!”.

Massachusetts, my place of birth had mixed results. There were many highly intelligent software companies there, but many wanted to charge 200 hours for a project that experienced people typically bid 35-45 hours on. What does that tell you? Are they bidding high so that they can get rid of us? Very dishonest if you ask me.

No place in America is perfect, but New Hampshire and the Midwest are where I would refer a stranger to find good outsourced help in programming or perhaps other specialties as well. If it were me, I would strongly consider outsourcing to India. Good Indian teams can get your job done quickly and cost effectively. Good luck!

You might also like:

How to make sure the software company you hired will deliver
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/22/how-to-ensure-that-the-software-company-you-hired-will-deliver/

Slow-but-good verses fast & sloppy programmers
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/16/slow-but-good-verses-fast-sloppy-programmers/

Why would you hire you?

September 2, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Would you hire you? Why?

We have many companies begging us for jobs. But, we don’t dispatch jobs. At least we are not doing that yet. We might in the future since everyone in India is desperate for assignments. But, the people asking for jobs are not very refined sounding. They don’t even know how to properly ask for a job. They sound like they have no experience in business and no skills either.

If I sat these desperate guys down at a table and asked them, “Would you hire you?”, what do you think they would say? If they were honest, they would say “no”. The companies who are worth hiring typically do not advertise much, and are very picky about which clients they accept. So, if you are available, you are not good, and if you are good, you are not available. This is a very real paradox in outsourcing.

I am not trying to berate newer and less professional outsourcing outfits by any means. I just want them to take a look at themselves and assess their strong points and weak points.

Do you get work done correctly? Consistently?
Do you get work done on-time?
Do you correspond well with clients, and as often as they might like?
Do you read, write, and speak good English?
Is your staff reliable?
Can you handle higher level work?
Are you meticulous enough?

Nobody is perfect, but my goal is to get people to look at themselves and try to figure out what their best points are, and which points need attention. Remember, you must pay more attention to your weak points than your strong points, otherwise you will be an unbalanced mess — and unbalanced messes don’t do well in the cut throat world of business!

Tweets:
(1) If you worked in HR, would you hire someone like you? If not: what can you fix in yourself?

You might also like:

Don’t hire an employee, hire 5 and keep the best one!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/20/dont-hire-an-employee-hire-5-and-keep-the-best-one/

The 2nd interview, why is it so important?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/02/the-2nd-interview-why-is-it-so-important/

Does the internet make it easier for new startups? Google sets the rules here.

September 2, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Many people think that the internet makes everyone’s life easier. It is easier to shop on the internet because a zillion companies are competing to get you the same product at an even lower price, or with better shipping terms. But, the internet has put many bookstores out of business, and put many couriers out of business. The way we function in today’s society has completely been changed by the internet.

The internet keeps changing
The way the internet is used today is drastically different from how it was used five or ten years ago. As an internet marketer, I have to be very quick to adapt to and learn new marketing methodologies on the internet.

One world — one market
But, the fact is, that the internet makes the world, one small market place. The problem with that, is that if you are not in the top three in the planet in your market niche, you will not stand out, and probably won’t do well. On the other hand, if you have a physical location and also use the internet to strengthen your marketing, then you have the geographic advantage of being in a particular place. A hardware store in Maine, can’t compete with a hardware store in Los Angeles assuming that you aren’t going to buy the actual hardware online — and most people don’t buy heavy things online for obvious reasons.

Google makes the rules
Google sets the rules for who will do well in its kingdom. The rules are very interesting in fact. In the old days, you could have a site, do a little SEO, and you would show up well. Now, you have to do the SEO, perhaps some adwords pay-per-click, but you really need social media to do really well. My traffic would probably be less than half without social media. So, Google in essence is forcing you to become a master of social media if you want to do well.

The rules don’t favor the rich
I was beginning to think that without a huge budget, you couldn’t do well on Google. With more maturity and experience, I’m seeing that this is completely not the case. It is skill that Google rewards, not money. If you have money, you can hire a social media company that can get you all the accounts that the experts say you should have. You can get a Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, a blog, and a few others as well. They can get you followers too. A social media company can charge you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand a month. But, the one thing a social media company can’t do, generally, is to use the social media mediums in the way that Google respects.

What does Google like
I used a lot of social media PPC. Google didn’t reward me at all for the Twitter clicks I got from PPC. The rewards came from organic clicks from twitter which were real, and resulted in longer visits to my site, and visits to more than one page per visit. I realized, that it wasn’t about budget. It was about making the system work. Google doesn’t care how many followers you have. They like the fact that you are on your blog and your twitter daily, and manually make new connections, interact with them, publish quality materials and get retweeted.

Anyone can tweet on twitter, but how many can get retweeted?
Anyone can make dumb interactions on twitter, but how many can get others to interact back and not ignore them?
Anyone can buy followers on twitter, but how many can get over a thousand relevant followers who are active?

Google understands that it is easy to buy followers. They understand that it is easy to tweet. They understand what is easy and what takes skill. Google is here to basically say that they reward you for doing what is hard, and for taking action on a daily basis rather than creating a site and letting it rot! Google rewards you for your skill and your efforts, and not for your ability to spend lots of money on services. Google is fair, Google is just. But, does Google and the internet (Google is the internet, or the internet god from my point of view) make it easier for startups?

In my opinion, the internet makes startups harder because you are competing with the entire world, and they know more than you do. On the other hand, if you are smart, and take the trouble to learn, you can outsmart those other dummies, and believe me, most of them really are dummies, and be in the big leagues in less than a decade. All if takes is really hard work, and refining your analytical thinking skills. Doing well on the internet is directly proportional to how you communicate and how analytical you are! Good luck!

Oh, and don’t forget to pray to the Google gods.
To please the regular non-internet God who we call God, he likes hard work, honesty and tithing. So, give to the Red Cross and a few homeless shelters to get on God’s good list. And to get on the Google God’s good list, interact more on Twitter and figure out how to get retweeted and clicked on.

The 20 day rule for Twitter & Google

September 2, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: SEO, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I love seeing how the mechanics of web optimization works. My life depends on it, and I am passionately interested in it. Basically, I have reduced SEO strategy down to a three simple rules.

(1) Keep your content correct, informative, well organized, and up to date. Find out what type of content people like to read, and keep giving it to them.
(2) Keep traffic constantly flowing to your site from adwords, blogs, and social media campaigns.
(3) If there is a spike in Google traffic on your blog, or Twitter activity, that peak will manifest itself on your main site’s web stats exactly 20 days later.

We had tried accelerating our Twitter interactions eight months earlier from zero to about 8 per day.. I noticed a spike in site traffic that started a few weeks after the beginning of our campaign. I wanted to try it again, because our site traffic increased by about 14%. Yes, we got about 16,000 extra followers per month. That translates into more long term income which is the final statistic in the long train of events.

So, I decided to do it again. But, I didn’t communicate clearly enough to my social media manager. She thought I wanted two interactions per day with followers. I wanted ten. So, we agreed upon seven interactions per day. Our traffic went from 28,000 per week to 30,000 on the week that had its mid-day 20 days after. Shortly after it climbed to around 31,000. Once again, about a 11% increase in a very short amount of time after we went from 2 interactions per day to 7.

I wonder what would happen if we did 30 interactions per day for a two month period. Maybe we should try!

Remember the golden rule of Twitter:
Although the top line total number of followers doesn’t mean anything, you can USE those followers who are relevant and interact with them to boost your web stats. So, the top line number actually does have a value, and a very significant value too!

An LPO company comes to visit me!

September 2, 2010 by admin
Categories: LPO | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Legal Processing Outsourcing company came to visit me!

It was an exciting moment in my life as the manager of an outsourcing directory.  I had spoken to many companies in India and the Philippines on the phone, but I had only met a few programming and web design companies who I had used for my own business needs.  This was a first — a meeting — and an exciting one.  A Legal Process Outsourcing company boss from India took a tour of the United States meeting with their business contacts in various parts of the United States.  There were two gentlemen, both very well spoken. We discussed marketing strategies for their business.  I will omit their names and locations for their privacy.

In any case, we discussed ways to improve their site which looks really nice.  Also, I came up with many ways to promote their overall web presence using SEO techniques. I might be able to find them clients from the U.S. over time as I develop my business presence. I hope that I develop a great relationship with this company.

It is my dream to have a close relationship with many BPO and outsourcing companies in the future. I might pay India a visit in 2013 and visit several different cities. I might visit the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates as well.  It is hard to handle my workload and travel too, but I will find a way once I make many of my processes more streamlined.  Every month I find a new way to make one of my processes just a little bit more effective or efficient, and over time the results are phenominal!

See our list of LPO companies worldwide!

Are your callers annoying?

Hybrid binational companies — the way of the future?

Human beings or human capital?

September 2, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
French Proverb

Twenty years ago when I had my first formal job at a call center, the industry was still young. Everyone knew the idea was to get people to buy or contribute as much as po$$ible over the phone, but no one really twisted any arms. Callers used their natural charms and genuine attitudes about life to convince people to do something, and it had to be something they wanted to call about. Of course, this was before the general erosion of trust had destroyed 80% of Americans’ feelings about people and their motives, before telemarketing became a common daily occurrence, before 9/11, before the mortgage crisis, before the poisonous BP oil disaster, before gas prices rose to $4 a gallon in the U.S., before the rich versus poor gap widened so much that it resembled the fault at the border of the Pacific Plate, before the tsunami of 2004 that released energy the magnitude of 23,000 Hiroshima-style atomic bombs, before Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, several presidents ago…before the continuing stockmarket crashes that parallel these natural and unnatural disasters.

There is no longer much trust in each other, and young people of all nations do not have a secure future to look forward to. They have seen their parents struggle, and some have seen their parents fail. Many people are willing to learn to say anything at all on the phone to earn a living.

Thus, in 2012, the dilemma: how to run a call center? And how to run a call center so you get lots of work and can still face yourself in the mirror?

The latest ideas have revolved around what software to use to “manage” the calls and the call center and thus keep callers on their toes; how to keep training callers due to the constant turnover–formerly known to create business failure but now considered par for the course; and now, finally, where to outsource calls to–India or the Philippines–since U.S. workers demand to be paid “too much.” Note that all of this is about volume and turnover and bottom line, as if people really were dollar bills being spewed out on an assembly line and there will always be an endless supply of them…and thus, they are expendable…anything but human. This is the way companies and workers in the U.S. have been living. In fact, it has been shown to be the case that training good English-speaking callers and keeping them will, in the long run, make your call center more profitable to high-end companies. By the way, it is also better for all the people involved.

It seems that our current ideas of how to run a call center demonstrate all of the problems and cycles of thinking and management theory we have flipped through in the past twenty or thirty years, including the idea of “human capital.” I’m talking about human management; remember, what management originally meant was the way to get people to do their best. But now management has become an ugly word, and in practice often means the best way to manipulate people, lie to them, herd them in one direction and then another, and then, finally, when they least expect it, let them go.

Education and health are now termed “investments” in human capital; in other words, it is good for people to be healthy and smart. Why can’t we simply say that? In a time when the value of real investments is questionable, does the comparison of human benefits to capital–or people to money–inspire us? Is it sincere? After what we have seen of our investments, such a comparison seems blind and heartless. For if our human capital is to be managed by the same reckless forces that managed our major companies, stocks, banks, and governments– why would we want to use the term human capital? It has an eerie, Orwellian feel to it; ask any of the shareholders who collectively lost $11 billion when Enron collapsed, taking their retirement pensions, hopes, and dreams with it.

Here is my memory of working part-time in a prominent U.S. call center in 1993, right after I moved and was suddenly teaching not full-time but only part-time at a college.

The call center manager was a guy about 45, which in those days meant that he had some education and, given that he had lived through the 1960’s, had people-centered and earth-friendly values. He wasn’t rich, but he had a simple house and was generally happy in his life. He also made everyone at work happy: he complimented us when we did well, explained why something we said was or wasn’t effective, and sincerely believed in the companies we called on behalf of. Technology? We had the latest equipment, and it was adequate for what we did, and no new expensive software will help the bottom line if your people are not with you in spirit. Trainings? We had lots of them, but the core of the thing was that we all worked together well as a team, and we all tried our hardest without lying or creating false names….because nothing we were saying on the phone was a lie. It wasn’t tacky or scummy; we weren’t trying to fool anyone into doing anything. Of course, we also weren’t doing customer support or explaining technical manuals on the phone…but if we had been asked to, we would have managed to do it with a smile. All the callers were well-educated, and worked at the call center part-time or full-time because it supplemented their income, and all of them did it with a genuine feel for people. The term “human capital” would have been absurd.

Tom, the manager, was liked by everyone. He was known to be fair and approachable, and although he was not a softy or a pushover, you could ask him for a special schedule if you needed one. The clients who hired the call center also loved what we did. We had great rankings, and could get anyone to buy anything on the phone. Of course, the company only signed up with companies it genuinely developed a relationship with. And that is the secret of managing and developing any business at all: develop a real relationship by calling your clients and dealing honestly with them.

It was great while it lasted.

Like most things in that time of change, it didn’t last. The call center was bought out in 1994 by a bigger company, and went the way many companies have gone in the U.S. and elsewhere: the management became big and impersonal, giving lip service to the values of human decency and individuality that the smaller company really lived by. And that’s what companies do these days: they have a people-centered company mission statement that sounds good, and then they often do just the opposite in practice. And people know it.

Bigger is not better. Bigger cars take more gas and make the earth poor once more; bigger bombs destroy our future, bigger debates waste our time, bigger egos prevent us from communicating with one another. And if you are not big enough to lose, you are too small to win.

Covering our fears and our lies with impressive company names and more lies will not help the peoples of this world. Using the clever term “human capital” will not make us feel human. Admitting we are all human and then treating us as such, and forging on with a positive attitude, was always the best policy: as George Bernard Shaw put it, “If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.”

What’s the best way to run a call center? How can you run a call center so you get lots of work and can still face yourself in the mirror?

If you’ve been reading this page, I think you have the answer.

Attachment to a particular outcome will destroy you

September 1, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

After engaging in a spiritual practice for two decades, I learned that attachments are bad. The problem is that I had a few attachments. If you have been working with someone for ten years, it is not so easy to let them go. If you have been living in the same place for two decades it is not so easy to just pack up and go. If you have been driving the same car or doing the same job for a long time, it is natural no matter how spiritual you might think you are to have an attachment.

What I learned is that spiritual knowledge really helps in business. India is the world capital of spiritual knowledge. Unfortunately, the ones who are highly evolved don’t work, and those who work, are generally at a very low level of spiritual attainment or non-attainment. If India would apply its spiritual knowledge to business, they would be superstars. Maybe in another four decades. I will keep my fingers crossed.

I wanted to have one of my assistants handle all of certain types of tasks. She did part of it but not all. I didn’t have enough work to hire and train another assistant — or at least so I thought. So, since she didn’t do everything, then I started working overtime to get all of the tasks done that I wanted done. I just tired myself out. The problem originated from an attachment. I was “used to” using a particular person for tasks. I was used to doing things myself. I was not used to training new people to do new things. After all, that is time consuming, and “what if” they don’t do a good job, or “what if” they quit.

So, I trained someone new to do the work, and they learned to be better in many ways than the original person I was using. Wow! So, I got over my attachment to a particular way of doing things, and the result was better. Of course, the result could have been worse as well — and that is why we try things before we commit to them.

Next, I was having issues with a service provider for another task that I outsourced. I had been working with her for seven years. I had very little experience with others on the particular task she did. But, I had trouble with one of the people in her office who always was rude to me. It got to the point where my patience was running out — and they were no bargain either. So, I found others who could do the work she did equally well. Of course, they didn’t have the technical skills that the original person had, but they were good in other ways that I never thought of which made up for it. Additionally, the price was much lower.

What I learned was — whatever you didn’t think of could be very valuable. New people might be good in ways you never imagined. As a manager, your skill lies in your ability to explore and nurture the hidden potential in others! So, don’t get attach to individuals, or particular ways of doing things. Be flexible and learn to explore!