Tag Archives: Call Centers

How to get clients for call centers — Contracts!

April 5, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

I can imagine that it might be hard running a small call center. Imagine that you have 20 seats, and 5 are empty. Then, the phone rings and someone wants 20 seats filled right away. How do you hire all of those people and squeeze them into your little office? Do you put them on the roof or on the patio? Perhaps the sidewalk? Call centers rely on contracts, and they are necessary when the call center owner has to invest in hiring new staff members and training. However, many BPO companies are too pushy trying to get strangers to sign contracts.

I wanted a small call center process done
I remember that when I needed a small BPO job done, one call center in Bangalore tried to get me to sign a year long outsourcing contract. I said that I didn’t even know them or how good they were. How can I sign a contract? I didn’t know how long the job would last, or how long I would last tolerating them. They basically lost me because they were too rigid about their contract. Sure, big businesses use contracts and we all want to emulate big businesses. But, small clients don’t always want a contract — no matter how flexible it is.

Small clients are valuable
Most businesses want big clients including call centers. They ignore the little clients in search of big ones. Then, they lose the little clients, to satisfy the big client, and then lose the big client, and end up with nothing. My business has almost all small clients. We have three people on staff, plenty of outsourced work on the side, and healthy profit margins. Small clients can be profitable if you manage them efficiently — we do! Small clients have fewer choices of who they can work with because most call centers are so restrictive about their contracts. If you can be flexible, you can attract lots of small clients. You can even charge a little more to offer them flexibility, and they will have no choice but to accept.

Small clients can become big clients if you fertilize them
If you give good service to small clients, those small clients would have a new tool to grow. Remember, that you are helping other people’s companies grow, and not just trying to make money from them. If you help them grow, then when they become a bigger business, they will give you more business as well. They might even sign a contract a few months down the line. Additionally, if you give people good service, you will get referrals which will help you get more clients in the long run.

The bottom line about call center contracts
Call center contracts are important to make sure your clients will commit to a term of service. In the beginning, unless you are flooded with huge clients, try to make your contracts short-term, easy to read, and more beneficial to the client. That way, the client will have a positive feeling about your BPO. If the terms of the contract only benefit your BPO and not the client, the client is likely to hire some other call center service. A two month contract seems like a good minimum term to begin with. If your client is satisfied with your service, then you can go month to month, or have them sign a half year or a year long contract.

Summary
So, the moral of the story is — think less about contracts, and more about helping clients get what they want. They will be more likely to stay with you if you cater to them. And if they stay, then your business will grow. If you scare them away, then your 20 seater call center will have 20 empty seats!

I hope that answers your question about how to get clients for call centers by being flexible about contracts.

.

You might also like:

How to get more clients for your call center — relationships

Skills you need to have to open a call center

Compilation of posts about how to get more clients for your call center


Compilation of best marketing resources for call centers & BPO

How to aquire clients for call centers — presentation!

How call centers find clients

How to find clients for call centers — good salespeople!

How to start a Call Center — advice analyzed

Using Linked In to network for your Call Center

The correct process to hiring a call center

Making routine calls with fun & humor

18 ways to boost your SOCIAL MEDIA marketing in 10 minutes a day
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

.

How call centers find clients

March 20, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Call centers find clients in all types of ways. Some cold call companies around the world asking for business. Others get business by referral only. Imagine the profit margin of a company that doesn’t need a marketing budget? Many companies advertise on websites, directories, or through agents. There are so many ways for how call centers find clients.

But, the bigger issue is: Is your call center good enough to get serious clients? Many call centers are not that great at what they do. The bottom line is that you can spend a mint on marketing, but if you don’t have the service offering to back up your sales and marketing venture, you will end up with a loss.

So, my advice is to first think about how to have the best call center in the world. I would have at least seven years of experience working for someone else’s call center in a management position before attempting your own. If you think you can do a better job running your own call center, then good luck. If you offer a superior service, then IF you get clients, you will probably keep them, and maybe get a few referrals as well!

.

You might also like:

Compilation: How to get more clients for your BPO or Call Center
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 centers using CONTRACTS
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/04/05/how-to-get-clients-for-call-centers-contracts/

How to write a resume for an outsourcing job
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/01/01/how-to-write-a-resume-for-an-outsourcing-job-2016/

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

How do you inspire people who do boring BPO jobs?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/20/how-do-you-inspire-people-who-do-boring-bpo-jobs/

Best motivational quotes
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/10/best-motivational-quotes/

Are you a thinker or a doer?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/18/are-you-a-thinker-or-a-doer/

The rupee mentality
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/07/07/the-rupee-mentality-2/

Is it time to Uber-size your outsourcing business?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/05/10/is-it-time-to-uber-size-your-outsourcing-business/

.

How to get more clients for your call center

March 17, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

We wrote dozens of articles for how call centers can market themselves and get more clients. Please click on the call center link on the right of our blog to see all of the other articles. This article will be unique.

Get more clients for your call center
There are numerous traditional marketing techniques. Having a great website makes a huge difference. Having great sales staff is also irreplaceable. But, what about networking?

Marketing doesn’t always have to cost
I know of companies who network with other companies to get business. They don’t pay for advertising — not that there is anything wrong with paying for effective advertising. If you are a little call center, what if you take the jobs that a bigger call center rejected for one reason or the next.

Get more clients for your call center by networking
Picture the reality of a big call center. They have 200 seats to fill, and they want big clients only — ones that will sign big contracts and long contracts. What if little clients approach these giants? What will happen? Imagine that they could refer those little clients to your call center. They might want to know if you are any good before ruining their reputation referring clients to you. But, what if your call center service IS good? Or, perhaps they might want a finders fee if they get you a client. It is worth it to pay a small up front fee and residuals for good clients.

You could network with call centers around the world. Trying to get end users to hiring you by calling them is one way of marketing. But, OTHER call centers already have those end users, but might not want them. Perhaps those clients won’t pay enough, or won’t agree to rigid terms. That is perfect for you, because you have liberal terms, so you can get your business moving, right?

I’ll assume that you said, “Right”.

Tweets:
(1) Big call centers eat little call centers
BUT, little call centers can eat the left overs the big #callcenters didn’t eat
(2) 1 big #callcenter has 250 branches in 57 countries.
You’d better be very professional to compete with them for business!

You might also like:

Call centers who don’t answer their phone!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/08/call-centers-who-dont-answer-their-phone/

How to get more clients for your call center — better training!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/05/how-to-get-more-business-for-your-call-center-better-training/

Are you tired of outsourcing to India?

March 5, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: India, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Are you tired of the nonsense?
Anyone who has outsourced to India knows of what I speak… the little tricks, the negligence, the hour padding, the stubbornness, the poor communication habits, and the disinclination to plan for the future and not having any concept of timeliness whatsoever? Me too. India is the king of BPO outsourcing, at least for small and medium companies. So, what are your other more favorable options for fulfilling your outsourcing needs.

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.
If you deal with Indian BPO outsourcing companies, you will find many distinct cultural behavioral patterns that repeat themselves. Some of these behaviors are very pleasant while others will drive you crazy! If you are lucky, you will link up with one of India’s many responsible people. The problem is that there are also many negligent and crooked people mixed in with the great people that doing business with new companies (or existing companies who hire new staff regularly) can be very unpredictable. Each country has their own unique cultural makeup. Some are more concerned with accuracy, and others stress social skills. If you are tired of doing business with India — try some other countries and compare. But, remember, no matter WHERE you do business, make sure you are working with good people.

Where is the back office?
For programming, there are many outsourcing arrangements between Western countries and popular outsourcing destinations (India, Russia, Belarus, Romania, China, the Philippines, etc.) Finding these companies is no easy task. Looking around on the internet, it is not always easy to see where people are REALLY doing business. Their mailing address on their contact us page and their evasive back office’s location are typically two completely different things. The only real way to make heads or tails of the marketplace is to call local programming companies and ask where their network is (and hope you get a straight answer). However time-consuming, you can learn a lot. Visiting a company in person will tell you if there is a company to begin with (or if you are hiring someone who works out of their bedroom and uses irresponsible freelancers he barely knows).

Even if you bombed in Bombay, you can manage in Manila!
For call center work, there are zillions of call centers in the Philippines. But, finding them is no walk in the park. There are call centers you can find on the internet in the Philippines. However, those are not always the highest end companies that exist. You would have an easier time reaching the DMV by phone than being able to talk to an actual manager at some of these call centers. Most successful offshore companies have a sister company in America, England, or some other Western country. You might have better luck scouring the American market to see who is networking with the Philippines.

East meets West: Goals versus Family
American culture is more goal-oriented while Indian culture is more family-oriented. Americans are often very picky about deadlines. Indians are used to routine and unpredictable electrical outages, floods, riots, strikes, and other types of delays and seem immune to missing deadlines. On a brighter note, Indian companies are generally better staffed, and can give you more hours of work per week, even if their work is not quite as efficient as you hope. Additionally, if you visit India, you will find that although their phone etiquette is atrocious, they are very gracious and hospitable in person.

You might also like

Call Center News — Philippines Overtakes India!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2010/12/24/call-center-news-philippines-overtakes-india/

How does culture determine what is private or public information?
Click Here

Synergy & working closely with others
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/30/synergy-working-closely-with-others/

Are you aware in business?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/18/are-you-aware-in-business/

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.

.

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/

.

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!

.

Four likely effects of using a false name!

September 27, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Indians are notorious for using false names at call centers. I even met a few very well spoken gentlemen in the .net programming business who used Anglo names. They didn’t want to tell me what their real name was.

But, what are the effects of using a false name?

(1) You will lose credibility. There are many people out there who will assume that if you misrepresent your name, you will lie about other things as well. I have learned that this is unfortunately true. The sad thing is that so many people in India lie about their names and lie about everything else as well. If you ruin your credibility, that is for life — at least with that particular client who you ruined it with. Unfortunately, you undermine the credibility of others who are associated with you as well when you lie. People will judge others from your country because of your fabrication!

(2) People might be more comfortable with your name. Many in America cannot pronounce multi-syllabic Indian names. Worse yet, they might not like some of the names. God forbid your name is Ousama or Hussein. Muslims typically have names like this! Many westerners might like the fact that you have a name like David which they can pronounce!

(3) You might gain a sense of freedom having a new name. You are no longer Chakrapani Balasubramanium. You are now, Rick Smith, an aspiring American businessman, who for some reason ended up in an Indian Call Center! You might feel a sense of liberation by being freed from the oppressive and narrow-minded restrictions of Indian culture! You might even start eating hamburgers and dating girls with no thought of marriage — how American!

(4) You might also feel a sense of alienation. If you feel close to your culture, and distant from Western culture, you might not like being Rick Smith. You might say, “I don’t feel like a Rick Smith.” Honestly, it is hard to feel close to a culture unless you socialize in it. And even if you socialize in that culture, if they are mean, discriminate against you, or are just plain boring, you will not identify with them in the long run.

So, if you are not sure about having an alias name, try it out for a week or month, and see how it goes. Have your mom call you by that name, your sisters, brothers, friends, enemies, and so on. Try it out, Rick!

Tweets:
(1) What are the effects of using a false name in business besides losing credibility?
(2) If you misrepresent your name, will you lie about other things too?

You might also like:

Do you over-analyze or trust your instincts?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/18/do-you-over-analyze-or-trust-your-instincts/

Is bigger always better in business?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/11/is-bigger-always-better-in-business/

For English, Press One. For barely speaking English, depress more than one!

September 22, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Many call center managers screen their workers. They require their workers to be fluent in English and have certain capabilities. But, my experience on the phone suggests that this is not always true. Different call centers have different standards. Some don’t seem to have any standards.

It is not easy testing people out. There are different situations that can arise. My strategy is to find situations where most call center clerks fall on their face or fly off the handle. Throw a few curve balls at people and see how gracefully they react. Skill in business is NOT about how you handle daily business. It is about how you strategize, and how well you handle ugly situations.

Americans are sick of dealing with callers who can’t function in clear English. Thick accents, mangled names, and incompetent answers are not going to make you popular. Even those who speak the queen’s English show their true lack of colors when asked to pronounce place names. Los Angeles, Newark, and Tucson are some good ones to test people out with. Try a few Spanish city names in California if you want to throw someone off fast as well.

Another factor to remember is that call centers need workers in a hurry if they have a new project. If you need people fast, you have to take who you can get. If only unqualified people come to the interviews, you have to pick from them. In a situation like this, by definition, you will end up with some substandard people. And since you are in such a rush, you won’t have time to train them either which will make matters worse.

My suggestion: Screen your workers
Never hire people when you need them.
Hire people when you don’t need them, test them, train them, and get them ship shape. That way if they don’t work out, you can fire them before putting them on a critical project. And if they do work out you can train them before putting them on a critical project. Having a little too much labor comes at a cost, but losing a prized client due to having lousy workers is much more expensive! Also, if you hire people when you don’t need them, if you are in a bind and can’t get any good applicants, you will already have someone in house. Large companies have lots of screened people hanging around. They can always transfer from one department to the other if necessary. That way they don’t have to repeat the screening at the last minute all over again!

How to acquire clients for your call center: long term goals!

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Any motivational speaker will talk about long term goals. It is common knowledge that if you write your long terms down, you are 41 times as likely to reach your goal. I made up that number, but statistically, there is documentation that proves that you are much much much more likely to achieve your goal if you write your goals down. If you strive daily to attain a goal, that helps too. If you change your goals daily, that is a deal breaker in the goal game.

But, what are your goals? What I have learned is that call center professionals know their game, and know what to do. They have been in the call center game for years, and keep doing what they are doing and might keep growing. Sometimes they might move their operation from Bangalore to Noida to save on costs. Or they might abandon India and move operations to Cebu in the Philippines. Perhaps they might try a place with high unemployment like Assam in the Northeast Corner of India. But, the game is the same. Find good clients, find good workers, have a good facility, put it all together and make it work.

Young Indians who want to start call centers typically do not have the business skills to pull off having a full fledged call center. They might have managerial experience at a call center (or not), but it takes a lot more than that to have a real call center. To those guys I suggest starting small, and getting your experience while small so you don’t lose any large sum of money or ruin your reputation too much.

But, what should your long term goals be in a call center? To have a 100-seater overnight? That is insanity, not a goal. How about to think small and have a 20-seater? That is still small. You have to choose your workers, find contracts, train people, monitor people. It is a lot of work unless you have a manager. Plus, how do you even select a good manager if you have no experience owning a business? It is not that easy. That is why you start small.

If I were mentoring you — and I sort of am — many young Indians read my blog for inspiration, and I hope they get lots of inspiration without feeling too discouraged by me — I would give you this long term goal chopped up into smaller goals.

(1) Start your business in a tiny office or at home. Get top notch equipment so that people can hear you properly.
(2) Acquire small clients. They are easier to get, and easier to keep if you treat them right. Your goal should be to see if you can RETAIN your clients for a long time and get referrals from them. If you give them really good service at a reasonable price you might achieve this goal.
(3) Only hire a few people. Train them well, and keep an eye on them. If you are not experienced, you will not know how to train others. If you are so busy you can not see straight, you won’t have time to train others. To keep clients, you need good service, and there is no good service without well manicured employees.
(4) Once you have been maintaining a very stable client base, and have retrained your employees, then it is time to expand. Slowly. Remember, that having new clients is more work. The new ones are uncertain and need more time negotiating deals. Existing clients might need a little more or a little less at certain times, but they are more stable. Hiring new workers is also time consuming. You have to interview many to find one acceptable worker, and then you have to train them and watch them to make sure they are reliable. If your people quit often, you have to repeat this process which gets in the way of what your real business is — doing call center work for your clients.

Your philosophical long term goal should not be about money. Money comes on it’s own (or it doesn’t). Focus on finding out what your clients want (or think they want) and giving that to them as masterfully as you can. If you get a reputation of taking care of people better than anyone else, then your business will grow on its own. You might not even need to advertise. I have heard stories of people with huge businesses who never spent a penny on advertising in your life. Expecting not to need to advertise is not realistic, but keep the thought of its possibility alive. Focus on helping others and then they will help you with money. The world works like this.

Don’t think big… think small, and grow as fast as the forces of nature let you grow.
You can become a millionaire — just don’t try to do it overnight. let it happen naturally over time as you provide great value to the universe!!!

Americans who LIKE Indians complain about call centers

September 14, 2010 by admin
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Americans who LIKE Indians are also complaining about call centers

It is common at Noida Call Centers for managers to encourage their workers to become less Indian — to erase their Indianness and become a fake American or Britisher. The point is that Americans and English live in very cosmopolitan societies where people of all backgrounds are accepted to a greater or lesser degree. Sure, it is good to blend in, but the bigger issue is how you interact.

My Tamil-American Friend

I have a friend who as born in Tamil Nadu.  He loves India and visits regularly, but he has lived in the United States since early childhood.  He thinks that Indian culture is the best in the world and married an Indian lady born in the West as well. Every day I talk to him he tells me something new about how great Indians are, and how great Hinduism is.  But, when an Indian call center calls him, he gets annoyed right away.  So, even Indians in America get upset at Indian call center workers. He takes offense that they always have a fake American sounding name, and that they pretend to be in America.  The words that come out of his mouth are, “Let’s be honest, what’s your real name Rocky? Is it Rakesh?, and where are you really located, you are not in Memphis — that is for sure”.  Misrepresenting your location, having a fake name, and trying to push a product you don’t understand well is not flattering to my friend.  Once again, honesty and good interaction skills are what sells.

My American Friend who Loves Indians

I have an American friend from a meditation group that I used to belong to.  He loves Indians.  Half of the people he knows are from India.  He loves Indian food, culture, languages, and everything else you can think of that is Indian.  He too gets annoyed that these call centers bother him and the workers have fake names and refuse to disclose their real locations. So, is the problem that people don’t like Indians?  Americans like Indians, they just don’t usually like Indian call center workers for a long list of reasons.

American Stereotypes about Indians

Americans think that Iranians are terrorists, they are terrified of Pakistanis, and think that Arabs want to kill us all.  These are all cultures that Americans can not tell apart from Indians.  Dark skinned people, who wear strange clothing, have bizarre beliefs, and worship a scary god that is different from our god.  You can explain to Americans that Allah is the same god that Jesus prayed to, but this fact will simply not register.  But, the American stereotype of Indians is that they are GENTLE and INTELLIGENT — non-threatening.  This group of exotic brown-skinned people is NOT out to get us — we can trust them — and they are amazing with computers too!  But, this positive stereotype of Hindustanis — the new model-minority in America changes when we meet pushy call center workers who talk without listening, have fake names, fake locations, and fail to understand any of the prospective buyer’s concerns.

An example of an Indian who got ahead.

I know an Indian who got ahead — far ahead.  He did multi-million dollar deals for decades and was one of the most sophisticated people in his industry.  According to the philosophy of the North Indian Call Centers, he would have to be fair skinned, and have one of those “NEUTRAL” sounding accents, and throw his Indianness in the garbage to get ahead.  The truth is that the Indians who try to de-Indianize themselves are making about 100 rupees per hour.  This particular Indian who got ahead makes several crores (millions) on a bad year.  He is very Indian, and at the same time very worldly — speaking five different languages flawlessly.  He has a very typical South Indian accent, and he looks like a typical South Indian.  He uses his real name, he never plays games about where he is located — which is never a constant.  Breakfast in Singapore, lunch in Qatar, and dinner at Nariman point would be a typical day for him in his business.  If this gentleman was the only person who you knew who was getting ahead, you might think that call center workers need to be MORE Indian and use their real name!

You might also like:

Do cultural differences make outsourcing harder or easier?

Training for outsourcing jobs part 2

Evaluating the work of outsourcing companies

How to find call center clients — being pushy

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

Finding call center clients could be easy or hard, but having good technique is what you should be worried about at this point. You can contact larger companies and see if they need extra call center resources. Or, you can market yourself on the web and in directories and wait for the calls to come in. The main point is to attract the people you come into contact with. Many companies have not mastered this point.

Many call centers lack basic phone skills when you call them. They often don’t even answer their own phone, and many don’t even answer professionally. Often times, you can not get someone trained in sales to help you without really pulling teeth. So, master your phone skills before going on to the next step.

Don’t be pushy
Many businesses that do outsourcing of any type can be pushy about contracts and terms. If you are a smaller company trying to make it in the big world, you will feel tempted to copy what bigger companies do. This is a mistake. Don’t copy big companies. Big companies might have rigid contracts, formal looking offices, formal suits, receptionists, etc. You don’t need any of this. Contracts are restrictive and scare people away. Sure, you need to protect yourself from not getting paid. However, trying lock in a complete stranger to a contract will scare them away. Your phone is NOT ringing off the hook. So, if your phone does ring with a prospective client, your strategy should be to NOT scare them away no matter what. Lure them in by being nice, helpful and flexible.

The 70% rule
When I go shopping for companies, I have to turn down 70% of them because they have rigid terms and because they try to push me into a contract. Do you want to lose 70% of prospective clients? Most companies behave as if they don’t care if they get new clients — those companies get far fewer than they could if they changed their attitude. Does your company have this “Don’t care” attitude?

The long run
If you care about the long run of your business, you will quickly realize that catching a new client can turn into a snowball effect. That new client will stay with you for years if they like you. They can also give you more business volume if they like you. Additionally, they can tell their rich friends how great you are — if they like you. However, if you alienate your prospects at the point of sale — they will not try you out — and they will never know if they like you — because you were too pushy. So, DON’T BE PUSHY. Learn your lesson now.