Tag Archives: Outsourcing Company

5 Tips for Rewriting Your Outsourcing Contract

November 26, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If the workers assigned to your project are not at the level you originally requested both verbally and in writing, or if your Service Level Agreement is not being fulfilled as agreed upon in terms of time and quality, it may be time to renegotiate your contract. Such factors should have been part of an initial verbal agreement and contract, but since only hindsight is perfect — renegotiate your contract now!

1) Are you getting the level of experience you asked for? If you discover, for example, a few weeks or months into an IT project, that you originally asked for a senior programmer (5+ years) and are being billed for such–but that the programmer you have been working with has only 3 years of experience and is extremely slow and inflexible, you want to obtain some kind of credit and better accountability going forward. Write it into the contract in more definitive language, and include what the penalty will be for such an oversight. You as a consumer have the right to get what you originally contracted for and were promised. Is a required training period being adhered to (in a call center campaign, for example)? Ask that a specific level of skill and work experience be documented as part of the contract. Since this request was not adhered to from the very beginning–although it was agreed upon–see if the company is willing to give you a credit or substantial discount, particularly if there have been problems that might not have occurred had you been assigned a more experienced programmer or worker. And–write that penalty or discount into the terms of the new contract.

2) Are you getting your money’s worth per hour? If the company is giving you less effort per hour than you know to be indicative of an hour’s work, find a way to put that in writing: build in an incentive for certain quality delivered on a certain schedule, and for work done in much fewer hours than you think is necessary–with good results, of course. Money (a bonus) is the best incentive, but a few companies have succeeded in creating effective incentives such as trips, restaurant dinners, or shopping sprees (see www.anyperk.com for ideas on how to do this in the U.S.; in a foreign country, ask managers what employees would like). By the way, incentives are better than penalties, but they work hand in hand as we discuss in “Motivating workers with bonuses or shortages”

3) Forgot to include checkpoints and reviews? Add them this time: include periodic virtual (Skype or phone) meetings to let everyone know what is going well and what needs to improve. If you include in your contract this simple review process– and how often such checkpoints or reviews will occur– your needs and intentions will be clearer. Be sure to include wording that lists exactly what you will be looking for–for example, number of hours spent, specific tasks accomplished, concrete suggestions made by the project manager and workers, improvements made since the last checkpoint, and what procedures are yet to be perfected. Put it in writing. Then, the outsourcing company and its employees will know your expectations and respect your standards.

4) Are there liability issues not covered by a contract that is essentially unfavorable to you? For example, if code is broken (IT), or the query system does not work (IT), or certain calls made by a call center on your behalf cause problems and actually cause you to lose business, be sure the rewritten contract states all terms in your favor as well as the outsourcing company’s. The standard contract may limit the company’s liability. Make sure the final contract asks the company to take a good look at what its negligence might cost if your business suffers. If the company is not willing to take responsibility for certain errors…you pretty much know what will happen if the contract-makers do not change their attitude.

5) Last but not least…your contract should include what party will mediate the contract if things do not improve. Again, this should have been part of the original contract. With a professional mediation organization such as mediate.com with mediators in every country, you may do better than with an international law firm such as perkinscoie.com with offices in both the U.S. and the outsourcer’s country. Remember: You do not want to get to the point of litigation…but you do need to consider how the contract will be mediated or brought to suit if needed. Otherwise, your company looks foolish and lacks the power needed to control the level of work you are getting from the company in the first place. If they realize you are savvy about litigation with a company in their country and have laid out all the possibilities, many issues will be solved in a professional manner from the very beginning. By the way: one tip so obvious you are likely to overlook it is to make sure the contract is bilingual. That way, no one can claim that certain points were not clear. Get someone to check the foreign language contract against yours (English) and make sure the agreements are the same in both languages. How did we think of this? We know of a case where the contract was substantially different in Chinese than in English. The company’s written contract, created and signed by them, was actually in several ways a different contract than the English version a U.S. company signed.

Good luck making your contract perfect the second time around. If at first you don’t succeed– do it again–or prepare to find another company to outsource to.

You might also like:

International contracts to watch out for
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/14/i-refuse-to-sign-international-contracts-to-watch-out-for/

Precontracts for outsourcing: before the real contract!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/09/pre-contracts-for-outsourcing-before-the-real-contract/

An outsourcing company is as good as its worst worker

October 23, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Do you run an outsourcing company in Asia somewhere?

I bet you have an interesting mix of workers, right?

Some are geniuses, but others might be not so bright?

Imagine that you run a data entry company. Let’s say that I hire your company to do a task.

Let’s say that employee #1 handles my first request and he is okay. Let’s say I hire your BPO company to do another task and this time get employee #2. Great! But, on the 3rd try, I get employee #3 who is a liar and a cheat, not to mention lazy and incompetent. Let’s say that he bills me for double the work he did, and that his work was still not correct. Hmmm. In such a case, that one employee jeopardizes the reputation of the entire BPO company, and could lose the boss a client. Gulp?

So, we blame the worker for being dishonest and lazy, right? No! It is the boss’s fault for hiring a nitwit. After all, the nitwit is not in charge of the BPO company. They didn’t hire themselves. And, even if they did, it is not their fault for being a nitwit because after all, they are just a nitwit, right? I blame the boss. If I find out that a boss has a single less than standard worker, I would be very hesitant to do anything with that company.

Being realistic, I realize that most companies do hire a mix of empoyees, and most bosses just don’t understand the harm that their workers do to their company reputation. I HAND PICK workers at companies who I do business with. If the boss is stubborn and won’t let me, then they get fired just like that. I am smart enough to know that a bad employee can make my life miserable as a client.

You might also like:

The 2% rule; only 2% of outsourcing companies are worth hiring
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/21/the-2-rule-only-2-of-companies-are-worth-hiring/

Would you pay extra to have a better employee?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/17/would-you-pay-extra-to-have-a-better-employee/

The 2% rule; Only 2% of companies are worth hiring

October 21, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Unfortunately, it seems to be a rule of thumb that service providers worldwide provide mediocre service as a rule. To find people who are above average is like finding a needle in a haystack. What I learned is that across national borders, my experience has been that 2% of service providers are good enough to be happy with. Those are bad odds. Now, with reputable professions like Attorneys or Doctors, the 2% rule would not apply. But, with software developers, notaries, plumbers, and other professions that I have had experience hiring, this rule seems to be realistic.

My experience with custom software development companies is that 1% get an A, 1% get a B, 10% get a C, and the rest get a D or F. That means that 88% are getting a failing grade. How does the world go around? Most of these bad companies don’t even answer their phone or answer emails. How can you run a business when you refuse to communicate?

The next part of the problem is that the top 2% of providers who actually are reliable, honest, and do a good job are generally busy and expensive. It seems hard to win as a buyer of software development services these days. Honestly, the only way to win is to have a big company and to have your own employees who you can control.

You might ask what the list of bad things that bad companies do would consist of. Here is the short list:
(1) General Dishonesty
(2) Padding hours or inefficient work
(3) Lying about whether their staff really works for them or are independent contractors or offshored labor. Lying about how many employees you have.
(4) Not giving the amount of hours of service promised
(5) Not meeting deadlines
(6) Not answering the phone
(7) Not responding to emails
(8) Answering correspondences, but refusing to give good answers to questions
(9) Inability to speak English, or the language that is being used
(10) Sloppy or dysfunctional work.
(11) Failure or refusing to follow directions
(12) Handing off your project to a less experienced worker

The problem is that there are twelve very common ways to screw up an outsourcing relationship. If an outsourcing company does even a single one of these bad things on the list on a regular basis, they might get a D or F in my book. To get a passing grade, you have to do everything right at least most of the time. Very few companies seem to have it together.

You might also like:

Should you annoy people on purpose to test them out?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/03/should-you-annoy-people-on-purpose-to-test-them-out/

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

6 ways to be more in control of your business!

September 25, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I had a talk with the police about a small tampering case. They told me that since other people had my password that I was not in control of my business. I explained that in my business your programmers always have your password. He didn’t get it. He said I had a run away train. The point here is that someone else might have your passwords, but if they have been screened for reputability, then you are in control. If you don’t know how, or don’t have time to screen your outsourced software companies carefully, then you are not in control.

Here are some ways you can be more in control

(1) Watch what your workers and employees do. If they are not doing things the right way, teach them how to do it right. If they still don’t get it, then have someone watch them closely or fire them.

(2) Hire others to watch what your employees do, and make sure that the person you appointed sees everything and reports everything. A chain is only as good as the weakest link, so your “scrutinizer” needs to have no weaknesses in doing their job.

(3) Have screened backups. It is not always easy to have backups for every single task that you need done. But, if you don’t, then when you have to fire someone, you won’t be able to because there will be nobody screened to take their place. If you fire someone only to replace them with an untested person, you will probably have to fire the new one as well, only to have a 3rd person who also doesn’t do what they are supposed to. If you have a thorough interviewing and screening process BEFORE you hire anyone, you will have a much higher quality of workers and will not have to endure the emotional pain and financial loss of firing someone. These backups could be people in the Philippines or India who work for an outsourcing company. They don’t have to be wherever you are. Someone who can get the job done somehow — reliably is a good backup.

(4) Part time workers are sometimes a great way to get more of your less critical work done. They might not stick around, but if you have a constant flow of them, and someone reliable to watch them, you can always have your grunt work done on time which is critical. Having a relationship with a temp-recruiter can also be a similar solution.

(5) Keeping good analytics in a database or on paper about who is doing what, how fast and accurately they are working, etc., can really help. If you know who is on what project, what they will be working on next week, etc., you are in more control.

(6) Insubordination is a disease that spreads. The more you accept it the more of it you get. If you have one person who doesn’t follow instructions, you will get used to it and will end up with more of these types. You cannot be in control of your company if people disobey you. Americans don’t like the word “obey”, but try running a company where everyone does whatever they feel like. You will not be able to function. To be in control, gradually phase out insubordinate workers and replace them with very carefully screened people.

Being LIKED is a huge factor in being an outsourcing manager

July 5, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I was reading the Harvard Business Review blog the other day. They divided managers into four quadrants according to how well they were liked and then discussed how their associated teams did. The findings were devastating to managers who were not liked. Managers in the lowest quadrant for likeability had almost no teams who were in the most successful quadrant. However, those teams with the most likeable managers on average performed on a much higher level. The finding was, that the more likeable the manager was, the more successful the team will be on average.

So, how does this apply to managers of business process outsourcing companies? India is where the majority of outsourcing is done these days with the Philippines and China catching up fast. Due to the culture in India: having a management position gives you status in society. It is hard to get a decent marriage without a management position as a matter of fact! The problem is that Indians think too much of their status in society and how to make a show of superiority to their workers. Some outsourcing managers in India are very nice, but many are overburdened and very rough with their workers. According to the likeability study, this is a serious problem.

If a manager of an outsourcing company has 20+ workers under them (often the case in India), and they are unavailable most of the time, and threatening the other part of the time, how will the workers perform? The answer is that there will be many issues due to the lack of guidance and lack of nurturing. My personal experience is that workers need interaction with their managers to keep on track with their work. They need encouragement and praise on a regular basis in the form of feedback. They also need to know what they need to work on and some validation that you think they can really do it (especially when learning a new skill). If you are just unavailable, then you can not give any guidance, feedback, or double checking of work. If you are mean, then workers will have a bad taste in their mouth about work.

In my experience, the minute an outsourcing worker gets a bad taste in their mouth about whomever they work with — they turn off. I am not speaking of every human being in this world, but many people are like this. I have had numerous experiences where I started out with an average relationship with an outsourcing worker (often outsourced from a different company). Work went fine. The minute we had some disagreements, their work became really bad, and stayed bad for the rest of the relationship. They either quit or got fired after a few months.

Since you are almost forced to be likeable as a manager, what do you do when you can’t accept a worker’s work? Some people are just plain sloppy, or give horrible answers to questions. How can you praise such people? You need to give at least five compliments for each criticism to have a good long term relationship in work or friendship. It seems that you need to fire people who you can not be likeable around, otherwise the negative environment can poison your relationship with others!

What is your back up plan for outsourcing?

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

Do you do outsourcing? Do you have a new company who you are assigning processes to? I understand how you feel. Or, perhaps you have a company that you have hired for years. Perhaps that trusty company is pretty good. Or, perhaps they have a number of employees who are above average, and some more who are masters of disaster! Sound familiar? Am I preaching to the choir?

My experience tells me that you need a back up plan. That way, if your main service provider starts being unreliable or playing games, you have a leg to stand on and a boat with a paddle on the Rhone. The problem is as follows. Let’s say that you have a mediocre service provider. Most service providers are mediocre — even the ones who charge more than average. Let’s say that these mediocre folks go down hill and become “Sub-mediocre”, if there is such a term. Or, let’s say that you raised your standards and want above average people working for you for a change.

So, you shop around, and you find nothing but MORE mediocre companies at best. At least, the ones who answer their phones are mediocre, but most don’t even answer their phones. You keep shopping. You decide that you need to talk to 300 companies. You can’t FIND 300 companies. You spend days, weeks, months looking for better companies. Is it this difficult? If you want a list of back up companies who get an A or a B then yes, it is that difficult. Be prepared for some major shopping around. Most companies are run by over-worked managers who can not tend to all of the details of running a company well. the other companies are run by people who either don’t know, or don’t care how to run their company well. Good luck finding a back up plan — you’ll need more than good luck.

If all else fails, resort to prayer.

There is an expression created by a linguistic comedian. It is in French, but means nothing in French. It sounds more like English with a thick French accent. It sounds like: “Paddle your own canoe.” It means — Not their Rhone that we — or perhaps — We are not their Rhone river.

If your outsourcing company fails you and you have no back up plan, you will feel like you are in a boat without a paddle in the Rhone river — helpless — floating — and without a prayer. However, I recommend that you have a back up plan so that you can:

“Pas de leur Rhone Que Nous”

Phone etiquette for outsourcing companies

January 13, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It was a long night, and my assistant and I called 55 outsourcing companies on our directory by hand. To our dismay, only one company out of 55 answered their phone professionally.

What does it mean to answer your phone professionally?
You need to announce who you are at a minimum, and also state your company name. Otherwise people will doubt you as a professional, and also not know if they dialed the correct number. Answering the phone professionally means that ALL of the people at your company need to be trained on how to answer the phone. If someone dials your cell number after hours, you never know who that is. It is safer to answer that professionally as well.

Why bother answering professionally?
If you are an outsourcing company in India or the Philippines, you are up against an enemy called “Doubt”. Americans, Australians, British, and other westerns are suspicious about giving work to companies overseas. The first question is — will they cheat me? The next question is — will they be reliable in their work? My personal experience is that outsourcing companies are more likely to give you trouble than an American company, however, American companies give a lot of trouble, and charge five times as much — which in most cases they are not worth! Putting experience aside, to eliminate all of the various types of DOUBT, you need to make a good impression.

How do outsourcing companies typically answer their phone?
Most companies we call answer with a dull “Hullo”. They sound like very low energy, low brainpower people to me. We have to ask one, twice, or thrice what company we called. Many of them act perplexed when we want to know what company they are with. If you are in a foreign country, do you want to hire a company who doesn’t know what their name is? How will they handle complicated outsourcing tasks if they don’t even know their own name?

Answering machines and phone systems?
Ideally you need a phone system that announces your company name, and perhaps has a menu with departments to select. If the person you want to reach is not there, there should be a personalized message box that clearly announces the person’s name who you are leaving a message for. Typically, when we make calls, we get standardized messages such as, “The person you called is not available, please call back later”. That is very unprofessional, and no foreigner will want to hire you with this type of non-answering machine.

Cell Phones?
Cell phones are a good back up number in case you are out of the office. But, your main number needs to be a reliable land line. In India it takes time and money to get a land line, and that proves how professional you are if you use one.

Changing numbers and web addresses is bad.
Most companies in India are constantly changing their mobile numbers and web addresses. They even change their companyname repeatedly. Companies gain trust based on LONGEVITY. So, if you change your company name every two years, you will come across as being a fly-by-night, and nobody overseas will trust you. We want to hire stable and reliable companies. Mobile phones in India are based on SIM cards which can be lost or rendered disfunctional. Therefor, your main number should be a landline which will not be disconnected.

Call me back on Skype?
If someone is calling about business, and you tell them you don’t want to talk, or you ask them to call you back on Skype so you can save a few rupees, you might miss out on a million dollar deal. Why should a big company who wants to use you have to call you again? If it were me — I would call again — but, not YOU — I would call ANOTHER company and deal with them. My effort for making the extra call will get more return calling someone else.

Tweets:
(1) If we know more about your company than the person who answers your phone: it’s time to learn phone etiquette.
(2) When you pick up the phone, are you so out of it that you sound like you are in your own time zone? #outsourcing #ust+24
(3) Unless your company name is “Hello”, don’t answer the phone with a dull “Hello”.
(4) Most overseas phone lines are so muddy, your chance for attracting prospects is over by the 3rd “What?”
(5) There is something to be said for continuity & changing your # every six months isn’t one of them!

(6) Professional US companies keep the same phone # for decades. How long have you had your #?
(7) Change is good, but not if it means changing your number every 6 months.
(8) How will former clients find you if you change your # every six months? Think about it!

You might also like:

Are you tired of outsourcing to India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/03/05/are-you-tired-of-outsourcing-to-india/

Are your callers annoying?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/05/14/are-your-callers-annoying/

How to start a website for an outsourcing company

April 15, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How to start a website for an outsourcing company
 
Since the 90’s, it has been the in thing to do to start a website.  Having a website can drastically improve your marketing presence, and get you many more clients. Unfortunately, people are not aware of the costs involved in having a website, or how difficult it is to promote a site.
 
Sites for general outsourcing companies
There are different purposes for having a site.  One, is to be able to refer people who you already know or met to a site online so that they can easily get an overview of your company.  The other, is so that potential clients who do not know of you can find you online and perhaps contact you to purchase your services.  Just having a site which you don’t market much is a challenge in itself, but marketing a site can be murder.  
 
What to put in the site
The main components of a site are a flashy home page, a contact us page, an about us page, and a services page.  If your services are very involved, you might have several back up pages to elaborate on your various services.  The home page should have an easy to use navigation system that links to the various additional pages.  The site should look good, be functional, and information should be easy to find.  The hard part is that good artwork and layout are not easy and can cost a lot of lakhs to do a good job.  The mere act of finding someone capable of doing a good job in web design is also no easy feat.   If you are in India, the other websites in your country may be a bad role model.  Some of the fancier travel sites and web design sites may have flashy styles, but the other sites are very plain and unappealing. India is modernizing fast, so the trend is to have flashy sites, but this trend is unfolding slowly.  
 
Maintaining your site
Most people just want some price quotation of how much their site will cost.  The cost never ends.  Hosting goes on as long as you keep your site.  You have to renew your registration with the DNS.  And then, updating information and fixing things that break (especially in databases) is a real hassle.  If your information dosen’t change, then the server’s platform, or something on internet explorer might change.
 
Marketing your site
Optimization is a world of its own.  I do optimization ten hours a week for my sites. I analyze where traffic is coming from, and what various types of clicks are worth to me.  I create new content to support certain keywords and do linking strategies to link my internal pages. I also have a network of people who link to me in exchange for advertising.  Analyzing what content to put on pages, or what pages to link to what other pages is not easy.  There are many factors to consider there.  How many people click on the link, how good the content is you are linking to, and how relevant the information is.  Where you put the link and what type of artwork the link is housed in is critical as well.  With these multiple factors, you could be analyzing all day long for months. 
 
Keywords
The place to start with a small website is to identify which keywords you want to stress, and promote them on selected pages.  Having an analytics account to track what incoming keywords come to your site is irreplaceable for the analysis that you will need to do later on.  Regional keywords are critical, because there is less competition for the key word “Web Design Darjeeling”, than there is for “Web Design”.  There are hundreds of thousands of web designers world wide, but only a handful in Darjeeling.
 
Ask for help
Need help with optimization ideas?  Ask us at 123outsource.net.  I am not a professional optimizer, but I have four years of experience optimizing my own sites with considerable success!
 
SEO
What is SEO?  It just means search engine optimization.  It is a fancy word for optimization.  SEM is search engine marketing that can be done with pay-per-click networks such as google adwords. That is a fast way to get clicks and see which keyword variations generate traffic.
 
Please visit
India Web Design Search Results

India SEO Search Results

India Programming Search Results

Marketing Your Outsourcing Company

November 24, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsource Marketing, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Marketing your outsourcing company – Basics
 
Introduction
If you run a company that provides outsourced services or wishes to do so, it is critical that you know how to market your services effectively.  There are many different types of products and services that are typically outsourced.  123outsource.net is familiar with services only, and specializes in promoting a dozen or so professional categories with their respective sub-categories.  There are many facets for marketing your business involving online promotion, public relations, customer service, and quality of service.  All of these aspects are critical and must be perfected if you intend to gain market share.  Being Visable helps you attract clients, but giving clients positive experience helps you keep them and get referrals.
 
Why listen to us?
123outsource.net is owned by the same individual who owns 123notary.com which has been around since 2000 and is the prime venue for effectively marketing notaries public in the United States.  When it comes to internet marketing, we are experienced.  We have been outsourcing programming and other tasks for years and have some basic common sense ideas for what effectively helps a company function more efficiently and provide more desireable service to clients. 
 
Online Promotion
If clients can’t find your company, it doesn’t matter how good you are.  A good web presence makes you accessible to the public, but is only the seed in growing your business.  The truth is that most companies worldwide get most of their business from word of mouth, regardless of how sophisticated the technology they use is.  A small restaurant or a large international high-tech company get noticed primarily because of word of mouth.  If you have a base of satisfied customers, that base can grow with referrals and repeat customers to result in a much larger customer base.  But, to get your INITIAL clientele you need a good online presence as well as a comprehensive marketing mix appropriate for your company and industry.  This outsourcing blog intends to be very general in its approach, so please use a consultant for specific marketing tips.
 
Components of an Online Presence
A well designed, easy to use, informative website is where every company needs to start.  Websites get outdated in content and design every several years, so don’t be afraid to devote part of your budget to periodic or a regular schedule for renovations.  Typical characteristics of an old style website are pictures with faded colors, broken links, information that was from many years ago, and design styles that were popular in the 90’s.  Sites today use brighter colors, high definition photos, and cutting edge web design. 
 
Optimizing Your Website
Regardless of the quality of your site, you will not get noticed without a good optimization campaign.  Optimization is generally complicated and expensive.  Please  visit our SEO page to learn the basics of optimization so you will understand what SEO professionals are talking about when you contact them.   The basics are that certain pages need to emphasize certain keywords, and that internal pages need to be linked to each other in a way that emphasizes keyword similarities and user-friendly functionality.  Additionally, having supporting content from blogs, facebook, twitter, forums, and other social media is actually magical in terms of search engine performance.
 
Public Relations Outreach
One way a company can market themselves is to contact specific companies that could use their services.  Email campaigns are common ways for SEO and web design companies to do outreach.  However, emails normally get discarded if the sender is not known, especially with promotional emails.  Calling companies manually by phone can be an excellent way to attract new business.  If the employee making the call is polite and helpful, but not pushy, new clients can be obtained.  If you are serious about gaining a new client through outreach, its more effective to offer the prospective client something substantial for free.  A few hundred dollars worth of free services is a great way to woo a serious potential client.  Make sure they intend on spending at least a $500 per month for at least a year before you give them anything for free.
 
Customer Service
If your company offers a pleasant experience to your clients, you are more likely to accumulate long term customers.  Good customer service is critical.  The people who answer the phone should speak well, and emails should be returned quickly. Internal management should make sure that all job tasks are explained clearly to the workers, and that the output of the workers is scrutinized BEFORE it gets back to the client.  Make life easy for your clients even if it costs you a lot more.  They will remember you for this.
 
Quality Work
Doing good work is critical.  The speed and accuracy of your work makes or breaks your business regardless of how good your promotional stengths are.  All of the facets of a good marketing mix need to be balanced. If you are good at work but lousy at internet presence, you are compromising yourself. But, if you can be fairly good at all of the components mentioned in this quick outsource blog entry, then you stand a good chance of succeeding in the outsourcing world. 
 
Please see our other related blog entries to read more about customer service, double checking work, and more!

Tweets:
(1) If clients can’t find you, it doesn’t matter how good you are. A good web presence makes all the difference.
(2) Get your initial clients from the web & then get clients from word of mouth! (or word of mouse)
(3) Marketing your outsourcing company from A to Z

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Most BPO blogs use cheap looking pics
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/11/most-bpo-blogs-use-cheap-looking-pics/

Creating a vacuum in business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/28/creating-a-vacuum-in-business/

A hiring technique similar to 2nd interviews: The emailed question technique

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I invented yet another technique for screening companies that is similar in philosophy to the 2nd interview. I call it the multiple email question technique. During an interview, it is good to ask probing questions that reveal the person’s thinking style (if they have one), their personality, and ethics. You can also ask funny sounding questions that reveal a person’s willingness to answer questions as well as their personal style. Unfortunately, we learned through trial and error that Americans are not good at finishing jobs on time, while Indians are not good at answering questions that involve creative and innovative thinking. I blame it on the school system! Americans tend to be good at interviewing, but the results can be deceiving.

During the initial interview, you can ask a handful of questions and just talk. But, save a few of your canned questions for email conversations. During the interview, people are trying to impress you. If you catch them when they are NOT trying to impress you, then you know how they will act in the long run which is what you really need to know!

After the initial interview, you can send three emails at 48 hour intervals to your prospective outsourcing company or prospective employee. Do not ask funny sounding questions like how to fit a giraffe in a refrigerator (I am famous for asking this one). Ask serious technical questions in the email and give enough background information so the person can give an intelligent answer without asking you for clarification or more information. There are four typical types of results of this email test.

(1) Failure to return the email. See if your prospect will even return the email. Many won’t. You can not hire someone who doesn’t get back to you or you are asking for trouble.
(2) Unnecessary requests for clarification. There are those who email you back to tell you that the question is “complicated” and they need more information from you to answer the question. If you included sufficient background information to give a basic opinion, their requirements for additional information are only an excuse to avoid thinking and acting.
(3) Thoughtless answers. If you have a job that involves thinking, stay away from brain dead people.
(4) Quality answers. Finally, you might get a few answers that are thoughtful and indicate that the prospect is really trying. What I learned is that even the best prospects do not give 100% quality answers to complicated questions. They might have an innovative way of solving part of the problem, but few will be able to have a multi-dimensional strike that will solve the problem from multiple viewpoints. You need to compare answers from different prospects to judge who is the smartest. And remember that brain power is no good without timely delivery of finished work!

Please keep in mind that the outsourcing company or prospect might answer the first question, but get tired of your nonsense and fail to answer subsequent questions. If you are hiring someone on a serious project, quitting halfway down the road doesn’t work.

Another technique you can use is to ask questions that might make the prospect feel weird. Obviously don’t ask anything inappropriate, but we found that people backed out of deals if we asked for astrological information. For Americans it was “too weird”. We saved ourselves from being in a few bad work relationships by asking too much in the beginning. Remember, if you are going to be in a serious work relationship, it is like a marriage. You will go through a lot and you will be asking a lot of the other person or company. If a simple question is too much for them, dump them and you will be glad you did, otherwise you will have serious trouble down the line.

Are Outsourcing Contracts Just Another Trap?

September 25, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Sometimes, people need contracts.

You need one if you are a millionaire and you suspect your wife is marrying you for your money. You need one if you are buying a property or an office and you don’t know the seller personally (or maybe even if you do). You should have one with an employee or an employer or an attorney or a contractor who performs a service .

What about outsourcing? How much contract do you need, and how much is too much?

We are living in a time when people do not trust each other, and even if they do, there is always doubt. Things seem to change in a moment. Even if you have known someone for years, some crisis may strike and you will need to have something in writing to document your original understanding and agreement. Also, people are under a great deal of stress and two parties do not always remember things the same way. Finally, if you are outsourcing, you may not be familiar with the other culture, and it is good to put certain agreements in writing. Actually, a contract can tell you quite a bit about the party you are doing business with. These are all good reasons to have a contract.

However, most contracts are too complex for a simple agreement, and are one-sided: they do not protect both parties equally. Such a contract may show that the outsourcing company just wants to make money, and isn’t really interested in a good business relationship at all. When you see a contract like this, you may get the feeling you would rather not do business with this company at all.

One company we proposed to outsource some IT work to insisted that we sign a contract even before we gave them a one-hour sample project, and one wanted a contract even before they quoted us on several projects. We felt uncomfortable; this seemed extreme.

If you feel you have a good connection with a company, they should be willing to do a few basic things for you without a contract so that you can see how they work. Of course, if it involves giving them codes or confidential information, you will want some kind of understanding in writing. But if you do not already have a good understanding with the company by talking to them on the phone or in person, no contract will make it better…and if you do have a good understanding with them, there is no need to put in writing anything more than that understanding of details you already have and maybe a few details you have questions about. If the contract makes both parties feel safe, it may work…but the best contracts are drawn up by the two parties together , after they have had a chance to work together.

A good basic contract should include the names of the companies, responsible parties (business managers, project managers, or whoever is communicating the information), the scope of the work to be done, the dates, approximate number of hours, the fees, and time frame in which the work is to be completed. If the contract is for a call center, it may include training procedures and specific dos and don’ts plus frequent conferences and feedback. But it is fruitless to create an extensive contract before you have had a chance to work with the company on a short project. If a company wants a huge time commitment at the beginning–until you see the results, it makes no sense to sign a contract that binds you to a certain number of hours or fees plus extra fees for circumstances you never even wanted to consider.

In our experience, lengthy and confusing legal contracts up front only serve to show that at least one of the parties has had bad experiences or has not fulfilled some part of the bargain in the past. If this is true, you might want to keep interviewing companies until you find one you have a good understanding with. Nine times out of ten, when you find the right company, they will be willing to do a test project without an extensive, constrictive contract. After a test project, you can sign anything you think is needed–because you will have an idea of who they really are and how the work gets done.

You might also like:

International contracts to watch out for!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/14/i-refuse-to-sign-international-contracts-to-watch-out-for/

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

Getting a new client is 6x as expensive as maintaining an existing one

September 19, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Customer retention is the name of the game for big companies who study analytics. I bet you study analytics too, right? Or, at least you take an interest in them, right? Well, if you don’t study analytics you can not be efficient as a business person, so it is time to start thinking about them now!

I read a study about a decade ago. It caught my attention since I’m a numbers and an efficiency oriented guy. The study said that for some of the larger phone companies, it was SIX times as costly to win over a new client as it was to maintain or retain an existing one. Phone companies are not limited in their size like our tiny companies. They can buy a new branch office in some remote part of the world at the drop of a hat (or a pin in the case of Sprint). They can maintain infinite quantities of customers and they try to get them too.

But, winning over a new customer for a phone company is not easy. They have to have special promotions, advertising (which is expensive), they give discounts for the first several months, or they give you a free piece of hardware. Many companies take a loss when trying to attract a new client. The costs only pay off if you can keep them for a long time. Maintaining an existing client is easier.

If someone is a client of your outsourcing company such as a call center, data entry company, etc., then they will have to go to a lot of trouble to find another company to take their job. If you are lazy, give bad customer service, or try to cheat them, they might leave you. Did you bother to calculate the long term profit that you could have gotten from that client in the life of your relationship?

What if your average call center client spends US$200,000 in the life of their relationship with you, and what if your profit margin is 5%. You just lose $10,000 by losing that client. Some companies try to cheat clients by a few hundred here or there in the beginning of their relationship. Perhaps they cheat to see if they can get away with it. Or, perhaps they cheat out of nature. Let’s say that you are getting $1000 per month from a client who would stay with you for four years. You will earn a gross revenue of $48,000 from this guy. Let’s say that in month three you try to cheat him out of $300 by creating a confusing bill with some undiscussed extras on it. He will start off by arguing with you. If he gets fed up he will go to another company. You will lose your $48,000 gross and $2400 long term profit because you tried to cheat him. Bad karma and dumb if you ask me!

What if you are just too busy to deal with your client’s concerns and complaints? The girl on the phone talks to quietly and your client’s customers complain about her. Are you too busy to find your client a new girl? Would it cost you 10 hours of labor to get a new girl? How much would it cost you if you lose the client altogether? How many hours would it take you to find a new client like him. Do you think about this? Maybe you should start thinking about this!

If analytics are a mystery to you, then find a friend who can explain basic business math to you, so you realize what you have to gain or lose by various types of business behavior!

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Gaining market share or gaining the type of market share
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/18/gaining-market-share-or-gaining-the-type-of-market-share/

Social media & promoting your products with humor & information
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/05/28/social-media-promoting-your-products-with-humor-information/