Tag Archives: bpo

Starting a Call Center: Keep financial back up for 3 months!

September 26, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Starting a BPO Call Center is no joke. So many people in India think they can just jump into business, fill a 20 seater with a bunch of girls, and be in business. Many of the people who start such businesses might have been managers in a call center. However, they lack the knowledge they need to have to manage the entire operation. There is a lot you need to know in business that goes above and beyond what a manager knows.

How do you make sure you have constant work for your employees? What if employees quit in the middle of a project? What if your client dumps you in the middle of a project? What if there are hidden expenses? What if you need help training people? There are hundreds of problems that you could encounter that you might not be well versed at dealing with.

My recommendation is that you start SLOW. Get some really small clients and take really good care of them. Don’t lust after large clients. They will come in time if you are any good. Start either at home or in a tiny office with perhaps one or two people working with you. That way you can oversee the entire operation and ensure flawless work.

You need at least 3 months expenses saved up in cash just in case. Things happen in business, and things tend to happen a lot more quickly when you don’t have long term relationships with clients or staff. This is why I suggest starting small and building up slowly. Some people have a growth plan for their business that is financial. I suggest growing your business relationship by relationship, and judging your success by how many relationships you have had for three or more years! If you are starting out, you have ZERO of such relationships. Think long term and think about pleasing your clients and workers. Keep them happy and they will grow!

Your 3 months expenses need to cover rent — so a cheap rent is in order. It needs to cover salaries, utilities, and all other expenses including accounting, legal fees, etc. Usually I tell people to think big, but if you have no experience, you can gain a lot of skills and knowledge by building up from the ground. If you try to grow your BPO Call Center too fast you get in trouble. As a famous rapper once said, “The faster you rise, the harder you fall”. Keep this bit of gritty street knowledge in mind! It is a matter of survival in your case.

Do you think about the long term business?

April 2, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I interview BPO companies all the time. The one thing that I have noticed, is that companies typically are not looking at their long run growth potential. It is all about twisting someone’s arm into a contract that is not beneficial to the client. Or, other companies get you on board and then slack off, and don’t get your work done.

If you want to have a big BPO business one day, you need MORE clients. How can you get more clients, if you scare half of them away before they become clients? How can you get more clients if you are lazy about getting their work done on time? Do you think about that? Try getting all the clients you can keep on THEIR terms, and try keeping them. Hire new people to do their work if it is economically feasable. The next thing you know, you will have a bigger business.

Long term thinking is more than having a formal business plan. It is more than understanding certain analytics and metrics. It is about creating a vacuum effect to draw in new clients and keep them.

A new client is like a seed. They can grow into a bigger client and tell their friends. One client can become ten times their original size if you get referrals, and referrals from referrals.

By having enough people on staff to get your work done, you are creating a metaphysical opening in the universe to let more business in. How can you get more business if you don’t have the resources to handle it? And whose fault is it if you DECIDE not to have the resources to get the work done for your clients? It is your decision.

You decide to grow, or not to grow by how you allocate your staff resources, and how you treat your clients.

If you want constant growth, you need to always have at least 10% more staff resources than you can use. That way you are never too busy for a client. Most people think that is wasteful. But, what do you think? Do you want to grow? How else can you do it?

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One famous Rabbi was asked, “Rabbi, I am a small potato who wants to become a big potato in business — what should I do?”. The Rabbi thoughtfully pulled on his long beard and gazed inquisitively at the wall for what seemed like a very long time. He made many different facial expressions during this time. He crinkled his face, then opened his eyes wide, then looked up. Then, it was back to staring at the floor. It was obvious that he was deep in thought. He said, “Hmmm” a few times, and then cleared his throat. Finally, he remarked, “If you want to become a big potato, put more dirt around you!”

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Should you have a niche in your outsourcing market?

Focusing on the goal is half of the secret to fast growth

What is better about your BPO company?

March 26, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do you run a call center, BPO, KPO, software or IT outsourcing company? Do clients ever ask you what is better about your company? I think they should — and you should know how to answer them as well. Most companies that our staff talk to have no idea what is better about their company. Perhaps nothing is better about their company, and that is why they don’t know how to answer us. But, there SHOULD be something better about your company, otherwise how are you in business? Here are some ways to be the best BPO company possible.

(1) You could be faster at doing the same work or processes others do. I knew a pianist who could play the minute waltz in less than 33 seconds. We clocked him. It didn’t sound great being played that fast, but if you are in a hurry waiting for a train that is about to arrive, and want to hear the minute waltz, that particular pianist is the one to hire.

(2) You could have nicer staff than other BPO companies. These days, I am rarely happy about anyone’s staff. Every company seems to have one shining employee who brightens up my day, and the rest — well — the rest are the rest! Let’s put it that way.

(3) You could be cheaper. Some companies are cheaper, but don’t get the job done right. Are they really cheaper after the hassle? But, what if you really do get jobs done correctly and STILL are cheaper? Well, then you really are cheaper.

(4) You could have a nicer looking office. For outsourcing, nobody is coming to your office, so it doesn’t matter.

(5) Your receptionist could have a nicer sounding voice. A nice voice makes an impression

(6) You could have more flexible terms. Many companies are rigid these days. Having terms that benefit the client might bring you more clients. HAVING TERMS THAT BENEFIT YOU, MIGHT BRING YOU MORE YOU’S (if that is possible or desireable).

(7) You might do a better job and follow directions more.

(8) You might train your staff better.

(9) You could hire a fancier salesperson who is great at getting you new clients who you might be equally good at keeping (or losing).

(10) You might offer more related services. ONE STOP SHOPPING. If you do web design, you could also offer programming, social media, blog installation, and more. If you do call center work, you could offer data entry, surveys, statistical analysis, and virtual private assistants.

But, the bottom line is — no matter what is better about your company, if you can’t express that to the world, then it will take them a lot longer to find out what is good about you!

The back burner strategy for outsourcing

March 8, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I don’t see BPO companies who think like this. Most BPO companies have really obtuse pricing strategies. It is too bad, because they would be able to grow more, and pinpoint what their clients want with a bit more innovation in their pricing strategy.

Imagine that you are an outsourcing company. Imagine that you have four employees that do a type of task. Perhaps they are call center workers, or perhaps programmers. Programmers are a better example since they often do a few hours a week for one client and a few hours for another client. But, the type of work they do is immaterial. The point is that in any given type of shop environment, you might have certain workers who are just busy all the time, and others who might have free time. Or, you might want to hire someone new, but don’t have enough work to keep them busy full time. So, what do you do?

My suggestion is NOT to have a flat labor rate. The rate for labor should depend on:

(1) Which employee is assigned to a particular account

(2) How busy that employee has been during the previous quarter.

If they were really busy, then you raise their hourly rate by several percent each quarter they were booked up, until you reach an equilibrium.

(3) Charge based on the time sensitivity of the job.

Front Burner Jobs
Let’s say that you have three rates for each employee. Let’s say that Mary’s time will be billed at $100 per hour. However, if you have a rush job, Mary will put you first — no matter what. Since other people will be delayed, it is only natural that you would have to bill more for the rush job. “Front Burner” or rush jobs might be billed at $130 per hour for example. In real life, perhaps only $115 or $120. You should taylor your rate so that 15-25% of any employees monthly labor consists of “Front Burner” jobs.

Back Burner Jobs
On the other hand, what if a client wants you to work for cheap, but doesn’t care when you get the project done. In such a case, you could charge them $60 per hour for Mary’s work. However, Mary would only work on your job when she has no more medium burner or front burner jobs to do. You might be waiting for months to get even one hour of Mary’s time. The problem is that your client might LEAVE if nothing gets done on their project for months.

A Back Burner Contract Idea
So, you need a CONTRACT where you guarantee the client a certain amount of work that you will get done. In exchange for offering a low price, you need to get flexibility from the client in exchange. I feel this is fair. After all, if the client needs your company to be flexible by doing a rush job, you charge them more, right? Let’s say that the client has a job that is 200 hours of labor to complete. Let’s say that the client is willing to give you up to a year to accomplish this task, but you can go as fast as you want. However, the client wants to make sure that you are not completely slacking off, otherwise there is no point in assigning this project to you. So, you can have a contract that states that you will do at least 15 hours of work per month on their contract, but you can do as much as 100 hours per work on the job too if you like.

The Next Issue – WHO will be working on the Back Burner Job?
Back Burner jobs are perfect if you have an employee who is no longer in demand. If your previous star employee only has an average of 20 hours per week of billable work, and you don’t want to fire them, then a back burner job would cover your costs to keep that employee around. On the other hand, what if you never know which of your employees will have time to work on a project? Whichever has extra time on their hands would be perfect for that back burner project. On a brigher note, if your company is growing, your new employee might have very few paying jobs to keep him busy, so a back burner job would be great for the first few months until you can dump some high paying work on him. The problem is, that your client might like Mary to be doing the work, and if Mary gets busy, the client might not like it if John (the new guy) starts picking up where Mary left off. After all John is new and might not be any good. If you write a contract, you have to specify WHO is authorized to do the work on a particular project, or at least what skill level of people. Certain BPO jobs require a specific skill level after all.

It is complicated having different employees all with differing hourly rates, and then to add the complexity of billing based on time sensitivity. However, this way you can deliver optimal results to your clients and be more popular. To me, it makes sense if a company aims for having 10-20% of their total work being back burner work. Why? This way you have plenty of time to accept rush jobs, so you don’t keep your paying customers waiting… Think about it.

Many BPO companies will take on a new client and promise to get their project done fast. Then, they will get a much bigger client, and put the smaller client on the back burner without consent. This is a dirty business technique used by so many programming houses. They basically ruin the schedule of the smaller company, and lose them as a client. Then, the big client might dump the BPO company as well, leaving them with NO clients. It is much better to just keep time commitments by charging people enough to warrant overtime pay, and the hassle of an uneven schedule.

The end!

6 Habits of Successful Outsourcing Companies

October 23, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Popular on Twitter | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

I have been talking on the phone to some of the most successful BPO outsourcing businesses in the market. I bet that you are very interested to know what I learned about their habits. There are those who beg for BPO “processes”, and those who get so much work, that it would make you dizzy. So, what is the difference?

(1) Knowledge at your fingertips
The larger and more successful BPO companies have someone knowledgeable answer the phone. The phone rarely goes to voice mail. The person you talk to on the other line can answer most of your preliminary questions, and make you feel confident that their BPO company can get the job done. The difference I see is that some companies have a very sophisticated and knowledgeable person who will talk to you, while others merely have someone “adequate”, who knows the basic answers. Some people at BPO offices I talked to sounded a bit bored, while others sounded like amazing people. I talked to one gentleman who had been a consultant who impressed me. I asked him how he learned to speak English so clearly. He told me how he did consulting all over the United States and London. He is a breed of his own, and guys like him would be too expensive for most of us to hire. But, if you want BPO business, hire someone really good to answer your phones.

(2) 24 hour phone answering?
I just talked to a company that does IT related BPO processes in Delhi the other day (my day — their night). The guy on the other end of the line sounded bored, but he spoke good English and answered all of my questions. His company had hundreds of workers, so they were doing many things right. I prefer to speak to exciting and fascinating people, but someone who gets the job done is much better than 95% of the OTHER outsourcing outfits do.

BPO Business these days is global. If you want to catch calls from other countries, it might matter WHERE your office is — however, it matters more WHEN your office is. If you have an office in Delhi and you answer your line all night long (which is daytime in America), then you can get American clients. You will need an American phone number so you don’t scare off the Yankies. Having an office for BPO in America with locals answering the phone will make you sound local, but to me, knowledge sells much more than having an uneducated blonde on the other end of the line. Have someone who can answer basic business questions who answers the phone. Don’t make prospects work to talk to a salesman. You wait on them, they shouldn’t have to wait for you.

(3) Having the staff to do the job
Big companies have large staffs. They have staffs of different levels of experience, and different specialties too. No matter what type of BPO job you throw at them, they have the availability to get the job done. If you want to get ahead in your outsourcing outfit, you had better have people who are ready to jump on new projects, otherwise you will not get the new projects. Think ahead.

(4) Being flexible
I have notice that many of the companies with 20-40 workers can be very rigid. They want tight contracts that protect THEM, but put their client in a very constricting position. I noticed that the larger BPO outfits are often more flexible about terms. Since they have such a huge staff at large companies, they don’t NEED to lock you into a constrictive contract. In any case, you should be in business to make life easy for your clients if you want to have enough clients to have 200 workers. Think like the big guys — do you think they don’t philosophize about how to please their clients better?

(5) Having higher level workers
Many companies that offer BPO in India have low-end staff, and perhaps a few senior workers who have four or five years experience. If you want to get serious clients, please consider having high-end staff available. Some projects require higher level skills, while some require a mixture of levels of skill. If you only have low-end people, you will scare off the serious clients. If you want to grow your business big, you need big clients, and big clients want smart workers. Think ahead! Big companies in India who do outsourcing have a higher percentage of high skilled people, and they are more accessible than in medium or smaller companies where those “experts” are likely to be tied up on some other project and too busy for your new clients. If you want to get clients like the big guys, give them some skilled workers. It makes all the difference.

(6) Good communication
Some companies in India have great workers, and write good emails, but have a horrible phone manner. Little BPO companies in India almost always are horrifying on the phone. No respectable client would hire them to even pour a cup of coffee with their bad communication skills. The bigger companies seem to have a much better command of phone etiquette and English. However, even many huge companies in India still are far from perfect on the phone — phone manners seem to be a problem across the board in India. But, I will say one thing: the larger BPO companies are MORE LIKELY to have staff with good English and good phone etiquette than the smaller companies.

How do you train a BPO worker?

March 20, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

How do you train a BPO worker?
 
I have a very small company, and we do tasks very similar to what people in BPO companies do.  We do call center work in small quantities — perhaps an average of two hours a day of outgoing calls, and then we have one dedicated full time incoming phone attendant.  We do about two hours a day of data entry work filling in online forms.  We even do KPO type tasks (we meaning myself individually) such as SEO analytics which includes keyword analysis.  Content writing is another specialty which I personally engage in, etc.
 
The hard part is how to train others to do all of the 20 types of tasks that I do daily.  Training BPO call center workers is not easy.  The manager has to create a SCRIPT for the call center worker to use when doing outbound calls. 

Hi, this is Don from ZYX company, we are calling in reference to your account with us … etc.
 
The script is easy to write, and to say.  The tone of voice that you require for reading the script might require a special personality.  Perhaps a strong man, or a caring woman.  Or, perhaps a tough woman, or a sensitive guy!  The hard part is training them to answer questions. There are so many questions that someone could ask, and how do you train a worker to answer all of the possible questions?  I think that creating an online cheat sheet is super, where all of the answers to common questions are there, and you can search by keyword.  Workers should be trained in the main topics, and be quizzed regularly to make sure they understand things well.
 
The next question is, how often do you check up on your workers?  Some people get better with experience, while others keep making the same mistakes endlessly no matter how many times you correct them.  There should be periodic checking up on workers, and regular evaluations.  If someone has been on a project for three weeks, and hasn’t mastered the basic questions after receiving regular coaching, maybe it is time to say good bye! On the other hand, perhaps your star employee is having trouble dealing with some of the finer points of answering more subtle or less common questions.  How detail oriented should your staff be before handing a question over to the manager?
 
If you are training a BPO data entry clerk, it might make sense to show them the process, have them repeat it a few times in your presence, and then to do a few hours on their own, and then have a reevaluation.  Data Entry seems to me to be less involving than call center work because there are no incoming questions — the complexity of the work is hence, more limited which makes it easier.  But, how do you teach a disorganized person good formatting skills?  You are on your own! Good luck!
 
Training for KPO work is much more sophisticated, and I don’t want to touch that topic today!  Let the folks in Bangalore deal with that — there are so many highly qualified KPO workers there.

Assigning billing work overseas to BPO companies

March 14, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Assigning biling work overseas to BPO companies
 
This is a topic of concern to many US companies, particularly small ones who have less control.  It is nice being a big company.  You can set up huge offices anywhere in the world, get business licenses anywhere and your attorneys will do the work for you.  You can have your head office in the Caymen Islands where there is no corporate tax.  You have a lot of freedom being big.  But, for the rest of us, we do not have these luxuries.  We are at the mercy of who works for us.
 
There are many companies that hire overseas BPO companies to do their billing and credit card transactions.  It is common.  For the most part, it is business as usual.  Americans are always fearful that people in a foreign country will be more likely to cheat them, but I feel that you need to look at countries one by one. India and the Philippines do most of the BPO outsourcing in the world, and there are only scandals from time to time, and perhaps not that many more scandals than their equivalents in the United States.  I don’t have the data.  If you hire a reliable company, all it takes is one bad individual (or apple as we say over here), to spoil the bunch.  One bad employee can commit serious fraud involving credit cards, and ruin a whole company’s reputation and cost them millions. That bad guy could be anywhere. He could be in India, or Canada, or who knows where.
 
If you are in Nevada, and hire a company in Nevada to do work for you, you can have a contract, and you can sue them if they violate the contract.  If you are in Nevada and hire an Indian BPO company to do work for you, it is not so easy to sue them.  For that matter, if you are in India, it is not easy to sue someone in India due to the inefficient legal system.
 
To keep the trust of your clients, if you are a smaller company, you might be better off having your billing done domestically rather than hiring an Indian BPO, and preferably by a trusted staff member.  I would not have billing done by anyone you have worked with for less than a year if at all possible. There is a lot to lose here!

What is the process of setting up a BPO Company?

February 4, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What is the process of setting up a call center or data entry house?
 
I have never done anything like this before, so I am the wrong person to ask.  However, I regularly interact with those in the BPO, Call Center, and Data Entry professions, so I know a few of the basics.
 
Here is a step by step plan for setting up a BPO company.
(1) You need to be an expert at most of the core skills of the outsourcing company you are setting up. If you don’t know what you are doing, you will not be able to hire or train others to do the job well. Also, if you don’t know what you are doing, you are not serious, and will fall on your face.
(2) You need to be a business expert, and an expert at attracting and keeping clientele.  If you know how to run a BPO call center perfectly, but fail to attract clients, you would be better off as a manager at someone else’s call center. If nobody will hire you, then that proves your value (or lack of it)
(3) You need to pick an auspicious location.  Some areas offer better rates per square foot.  In my opinion, lucky offices will attract more clients, so keep luck in mind.  Do you see an area where companies are generally thriving and making profits?  It is easy to see if someone has revenues, but profits are harder to detect. Maybe these seemingly thriving companies are just getting by, or taking a loss.
(4) There are companies that focus on selling equipment and networking for new companies to set up their phone systems and internet systems. 
(5) Once you have your office all set up, you need clients.  If you have an attractive web site and do outreach to large companies that might need a call center, you might be able to set up a client base.  From there, hopefully you will get referrals.
(6) You need to have a large pool of workers you can call if you need service.  Call centers have unsteady business, so you need a long list of people to call if you get a new client.  It is not a bad idea to let the client have a say in who you hire for their particular projects too.
 
Those are the basics.  I am not in that business, so I can not tell you more!  But, keeping an eye on your employees, and making sure they are doing their best is key. Bringing in an outside consultant to train and critique your workers could make a wonderful improvement too, and is worth the money.  Quality wins the game in the end, so if you are willing to invest in quality, you could beat out the competition.

You might also like:

How to sell like a pro — what exactly do they do?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/06/25/how-to-sell-like-a-pro-what-do-the-pros-do/

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

If Google ran a BPO, what would they do differently?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/03/30/if-google-ran-a-bpo-call-center-what-would-they-do-differently/

Picking a 4000 foot BPO office before you have the clients!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/06/picking-a-4000-foot-bpo-office-before-you-have-the-clients/

BPO projects, how to get them and what they entail!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/10/20/bpo-projects-how-to-get-them-and-what-they-entail/

What does Mark Cuban say about startups?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/04/what-does-mark-cuban-say-about-startups/

What is the best BPO work environment?

January 21, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What is the best BPO work environment?
 
If you are running a BPO, Call Center, Data Entry outsourcing company, or other outsourcing firm, you need to be refined in how to manage your work environment.  I had an interesting chat with a buddy of mine who runs a small web development company. He says that at many of the more successful American IT and marketing companies, everyone works in one large room, where the cubicles have low walls, so you can see everyone at a glance.  This was an interesting opinion. 
 
So, what is better, private cubicles, a room filled with desks and no dividers, or completely separate rooms?  If it is up to me, I like a separate room, but if I am managing others, I like to be able to hear them faintly in the distance, so if they are telling a client the wrong thing, I can run in and intervene — but I get relative peace and quiet simultaneously.  In the real world, my perfect environment is not so easy.
 
Are there studies that discuss the advantages of office set ups?  I am reading on Wikipedia that having a bunch of people working together in the same large room is called an “Open Plan”, and contributes to higher noise, higher turnover, and stress.  I can relate to that.
 
I’m reading another blog called The Good Work Circle that claims  that many larger companies are getting rid of cubicles and adopting an open workspace office set up.  The open workspace model was better for communiation and a sense of community. 
 
I like the idea of a hybrid system for BPO companies, where you get your private space and quiet part of the day, but can have togetherness during other parts of the day. 
 
Another factor is how cool the building is that you are working in.  A really pleasant work environment for BPO companies might have high ceilings, art work, a pool table, a pleasant break room, and places to interact with others. If rooms are too small or efficient, then it might not be so pleasant to be in them.  A good balance between space efficiency and coolness might win the game in the long run.  It is good to not overlook the fact that many people just don’t care about how cool the building is while others who are more tuned it will really notice and just not want to hang around if the work environment is not up to their standards for coolness!
 
Since every group of employees is different, rather that reading a book written by an “expert”, why not listen to YOUR employees and see what they say about what they think a good layout would be!  That way you please the people who you are stuck with, and can make the best out of it.  And remember, BPO companies in India have a high turnover rate, so if you can make your employees lives better, the will stay around longer!

BPO Projects – How to get them and what they entail

October 20, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

BPO Projects
BPO = Business Process Outsourcing.  BPO companies typically do data entry, call center, payment processing, and other repetitive back office services.

There are many types of BPO projects out there.  Some are voice processes while others are non-voice processes.  It is important to note, that when communicating with prospective American or Australian clients, they might not understand what you are talking about if you use the term, “non-voice process”.  When talking to Westerners, it is more clear to mention a specific type of process or work such as data mining or telemarketing for example.

What do projects entail?
BPO projects might include a call center or telemarketing project, data conversion, image processing, payment processing, data capture, or a wide variety of other types of work.  It is important to note how many seats will be involved in the work, and how long the work is expected to take unless it is intended to be continuous work on an ongoing project. 

Getting work
Getting BPO projects is not always easy.  Established companies have a steady clientele that might refer them to other overseas companies.  So long as the quality of their work stays intact, they would normally continue getting regular business.  There might be economic cycles that would effect their work volume, but a steady flow of BPO projects would be normal. 

Newer BPO companies, especially those that have weak marketing skills, will find it much harder to get steady work.  Additionally, I have found that inexperienced start-ups have management that doesn’t always have a good command of English.  If your marketing materials are in broken English, it will be hard to attract data entry or call center work, since those lines of work are language intensive.

In the beginning, you should have someone help you with your marketing materials to make sure they will attract foreign clients.  Once you establish a reputation for doing good work for a reasonable price, then business will begin to be more steady. 

How do I get initial work?
You can contact companies overseas that might need your type of services.  Making personal contact is a very effective marketing technique.  You can advertise on alibaba.com, or on 123outsource.net to gain worldwide exposure for your company as well.  The basic trick is to find companies who need your BPO services, and to make them feel confident about using your outsourcing services. Offering them a little bit of work at a discount or for free with liberal terms is the easiest way to get BPO projects fast! If you make life easy for your new clients at a great price, they’ll be very enthusiastic about your company!

More ideas for getting work
Have a website, call companies that might need your service, create a Linked In profile, advertise on large outsourcing directories, use PPC advertising on Google, network with other companies, do email blasts, etc. Please read our more up to date articles below for more thorough information.

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

How to get more clients for your BPO or Call Center (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/20/how-to-get-more-clients-for-your-bpo-or-call-center-compilation/

What is the process of setting up a BPO company?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/02/04/what-is-the-process-of-setting-up-a-bpo-company/

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

Best Outsourcing Articles (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/04/02/compilation-of-best-outsourcing-articles/

Outsourcing was first used as a business strategy in 1989
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/02/outsourcing-was-first-used-as-a-business-strategy-in-1989/

Getting new clients and nurturing them correctly
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/04/17/gaining-new-clients-and-nurturing-them-correctly/

Why Indian call centers fail
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/16/why-indian-call-centers-fail/

From 100 Indian call centers down to 1
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/21/from-100-indian-call-centers-down-to-1/

Get more clients for your BPO by having better TRAINING
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/05/how-to-get-more-business-for-your-call-center-better-training/

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How to get more clients for your call center

May 5, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

Getting more clients for your call center part 1
 
Call centers are everywhere!
There are many call centers throughout the world.  The United States and Canada are filled with them.  The Philippines is the most popular outsourcing location for call centers, while Kenya and South Africa offer a good command of British English and are in the same time zone as Europeans.  But… not all call centers are created equal.  Many new companies want more clients, but they don’t know where to start.
 
It’s about relationships!
BPO Companies typically get business because they have the right contacts. No contacts; No contracts; But, how do you get connections when you don’t know anyone? A call center might know a potential client, or could be referred to a client from someone who knows them.  Often, they will know other people in the business, who give them their overflow or take a commission on BPO business sent their way.  But, what if you are sitting in a building in Navi Mumbai, or Cebu, and you see others succeeding in the call center business when your phone is not ringing with interested prospective clients?
 
How do you get to know people when you don’t know anyone?
We all start out with empty Rolodexes in this life unless we are born into the right family.
But, how many of us are born into a well connected family?  I’m from America which is a meritocracy. Your success is still based heavily on “who you know”, but we generally are not born with good connections like the upper class British or Indian families might have.  We make it based on merit and hustling — otherwise we don’t make it.  Some of us are talented, while others are average but work harder than our competitors.  In America, many of my friends were from affluent families, but didn’t have the drive or dedication to achieve, and they are working for minimum wage in many cases.  By the same token, many people who were raised in slums are now prospering.  So, get out there and hustle and get to know people. You can meet prospects through cold calling, Linked In, networking meetings, or through existing contacts.
 
Getting to know people
If you want to drum up BPO business, you have to contact companies who might be able to use your service, as well as contacting competitors. Competitors might be able to refer you jobs that they don’t want or don’t have time for. They might charge a commission for offering you work. You could get to know agents and brokers as well, but be careful as many of them charge up front and don’t deliver! You can get listed on outsourcing directories and have a broad social media presence as well. In terms of contacting prospective clients, who do you call, when, and where? Pounding the payment is on my perpetual to do list — my company contacts 400 new companies per month every month, on schedule at the beginning of the month whether we need new clients or not, just to keep the momentum going.
 
Email
Email is a wonderful tool, and it has its place in society. It’s a very practical way to contact people who already know you and are happy (smiley face or not) to hear from you.  However, if you send emails to strangers that are trying to sell them something, you will get ignored.  If you use email to contact people, you might get a 0-1% return rate if you offer them some sort of free trial period. If it is just an introduction to your company, you will be ignored 9999 out of 10,000 emails which makes the whole process futile. Writing to a specific contact person and perceptively addressing their unique needs increases the chance of you getting noticed 100 fold!
 
Cold Calling
Calling companies is a royal pain in the neck. It’s often like pulling teeth to reach the decision maker, and each phone call can carve 10 minutes out of your day only to be put on hold and then ultimately rejected.  Phone calls are tedious, so plan on having someone who is patient and dedicated to manning this essential lifeline. On a brighter note, a dedicated caller can realistically reach up to 30 decision makers on a busy day of cold calling.
 
Meeting people’s needs
The mentality that separates a salesman from a pest is their ability to anticipate their prospective client’s needs.  If you call someone trying to force your service down their unwilling throat, you will have wasted your call.  Even if they need your service, they won’t like your style.  If you are polite, make nice conversation, and ask them about their needs, you will get your foot in the door.  My experience has shown that a female with a nice voice, an even nicer personality, and a good technical understanding of call center work will excel at this type of cold-calling.  Gentleness and suave are the keys that open the doors. On the other hand, my personal experience running my own call operations is that a man with a very feminine voice is just as effective as a girl.  My best caller was a guy with a folksy high voice, and everyone liked “her”.  I hired him to offer free listings on one of my directories, and he got seven listings per hour, while the other male caller averaged only four! Of course — everybody thought that he was a she!!!
 
Smoothness and getting to know people
People hire other people they know. Its not about what BPO company you work for, or even what company they work for.  If a person at a particular company likes a person at another company and gets to know them, you establish trust. Trust = Sales or at least has the potential to lead to sales.  People entrust their money to people they like and trust. If your salesgirl cannot only sell, but makes great chit-chat with the decision makers, they will develop a type of relationship with your company.  In five minutes, you went from a non-relationship, to having a warm and fuzzy relationship. You are no longer doing a cold-sell now. You are working in a warm market.  Your sales girl melted the proverbial ice!!! One sales lady conveys such charm, that clients who have never laid eyes on her are regularly sending her flowers. When you interview your salesgirl, ask how many flowers her clients sent her on her last job. There’s your clue as to how successful she will be!
 
Free samples
Many people are stingy and selfish and don’t want to give away even a minute of their time for free. But, if you are starting out, you have to establish a reputation. If nobody knows you, then the only fast way to GET people to know you is to offer a few hours of work at either no cost, or at a reduced cost if the person will commit to a contract once they are satisfied.  If you have a star employee who will impress your potential clients, you will gain many others from offering free work. Not all of them will hire you. But, always remember that business is about relationships, ideally long term ones. If you sacrificed a few hours of a star employee’s time, but got a client who stuck with you for twenty years and referred you to ten other companies who used you, do you feel that your sacrifice was worth it? You give away a penny, and get a million in return. I like that exchange very much.

Have a professional web site
People judge a book by its cover and a web site by its professionalism. A professional web site that clearly states all of your specialties and contact information will attract business, especially if it is easy to find on Google. Please see our article about having a professional web site for your business.

Pay-Per-Click
An astute web marketer will be an expert at using pay-per-click programs. Google’s adwords is the most effective in this category. Pick the keywords and keyword variations that are well targeted to your business and geographical terms mixed with professional terms, i.e. “Bangalore Web Design”. Twitter, Facebook, and Linked-In also have PPC programs that can help you grow your social media presence quickly and effectively providing that you have popular content. Going to a $100 party wearing a $3 shirt is the equivalent of spending hundreds promoting poorly written blogs or web pages. Write good content and promote it using PPC. However, you should track your results and terminate promotions that don’t yield positive results. Using PPC involves a lot of trial and error, so try many approaches and keep your eyes open. Please read our article on Pay-Per-Click promotion of call centers.

Summary
Hire a nice girl who makes smooth conversation, knows her technical stuff, and can anticipate her prospective client’s needs.  Get to know companies and offer them a certain amount of free work if you think they are serious. That way, they will be confident about working with you in the future since they had a good experience with your company.  On the other hand, if you hire the worst staff, your free sample will just be a waste, because nobody wants to work with a rotten bunch of employees!!

Stay tuned for part 2 of getting call center work.  You will see a completely different point of view on marketing in that blog entry.

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You might also like:

How to get more clients for your call center (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/20/how-to-get-more-clients-for-your-bpo-or-call-center-compilation/

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

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

How to find clients for call centers — good salespeople
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/04/08/how-to-find-clients-for-call-centers-good-salespeople/

How to get more clients for your call center — get an agent!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/14/how-to-get-more-clients-for-your-call-center-get-an-agent/

How to get more clients for your call center using Pay-Per-Click
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/01/how-to-gain-clients-for-your-call-center-pay-per-click/

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Tweets:
(a) When it comes to business, it is about who you know.
How well do you know yourself?
(b) In business it is about who you know. How well do you hustle to get to know new people?
(c) In business, it is not who you know — it is who knows you and thinks highly of you.
(d) Get to know prospective clients by calling them.
Interact with existing clients by emailing them.
(e) Emailing prospective clients has a really low response rate. Ask your Nigerian uncle. Try cold-calling prospects.

(f) Hire the right girl to talk to decision makers & they will develop a warm & fuzzy relationship w/your company.
(g) 1 sales lady conveys such charm: clients who’ve never seen her regularly send her flowers.
(h) When u interview a salesgirl, ask how many flowers her clients sent her on her last job. There’s your clue as to how successful she will be!
(i) The best things in life are free. Give a free sample to a prospect, do great work, and win a client!

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BPO Definition and Information

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

BPO Definition and Information
 
BPO means business process outsourcing.  It also means broker price option, but in the context of outsourcing, the first definition is the one we will concern ourselves with. There are various types of BPO outsourcing as well as specialties and it is important to understand the distinctions between them.
 
Some BPO companies stick to a particular type of specialty such as Data Entry and it’s associated specialties such as Data Mining, Data Conversion, Data Processing, etc.  Some stick to Call Center (call centre) work and it’s various specialties such as technical support, customer care, customer retention, telemarketing, etc. It is common in India for BPO companies to engage in a wide variety of functions.  I have seen many companies that will do Data Entry, Call Center, Medical Billing, SEO, Software Development, and Web Design, if not even more diverse specialties. BPO companies mostly stick to repetative back office functions like payment processing, information transcription, answering calls, etc.  However, there are other types of outsourcing operations that have very highly trained and highly educated employees.
 
There are various other types of outsourcing that include: KPO, LPO, RPO, and ITO.  There might be more acronyms or terms out there, but these ones are very common. 
 
KPO = Knowledge Process Outsourcing
LPO = Legal Process Outsourcing
RPO = Recruitment Process Outsourcing (HR work)
ITO = Information Technology Outsourcing (Software Development)
 
LPO, RPO, and ITO are easy to understand.  However, the term KPO, which is normally associated with research and analysis,  is often inclusive of legal and software work as well when used in a general way. Most KPO companies engage primarily in various types of research including market research, medical research, pharmaceutical research (a new trend in India), and other types of research.  Business analysis, data analysis, and various types of sophisticated number crunching fit neatly into the category of KPO.
 
The interesting point that one should understand is that it is common for BPO companies to engage in activities which blur the distinctions between BPO and KPO.  It is common for call centers to do surveys and data tabulation.  Taking and inputting the information (which involves call center and data entry work) fall into the general category of BPO. However, many call centers will also analyze the data for you to tell you which market segments you need to spend more time targetting.  Data entry firms will often do data analysis as part of their work.  The grunt work of entering data from forms, online, or databases into another form is low paying work.  However, the analytical work done once the data is in an appropriate format is much more intricate work.
 
Please keep in mind, that if you are browsing BPO websites on the internet, they might refer to themselves as a BPO when they are doing work that falls partly in the BPO category, and partly in KPO or even LPO categories.  You really need to read the “services” page of any website to get a clear idea of what they do.  The next question is what do they do best? Are they wonderful at legal research, but sloppy about data entry?  That question is not so easy to answer.  Good luck!

Please visit our KPO definition blog entry as well