Tag Archives: Outsourcing

How selling to a difficult client prepares you for outsourcing

January 26, 2016 by 123outsource

Categories: Sales | Tagged Outsourcing | Leave a comment

I think that the people in the Midwest who live near those defunct factory buildings need to think about this. If your only goal is to force people to pay you far more than a market wage for your service by creating artificial market conditions, you will end up in shatters. The key to winning the game of business and or outsourcing is to be able to maintain a constant demand for a service, and not just to be able to hold companies temporarily hostage using unions.

If you live in America, it is easy to make money here. But, what if you trained yourself by trying to sell in Asia. Asians are tough customers, and it is a lot harder to sell to them. First of all the culture is different. Their needs are different. The language is different. Their perception of you could count very badly against you as well. Last of all, price competition in Asia could count against you.

In America, people command huge wages. Even for unskilled work, you sometimes have to pay up to $20 per hour. Our neighbor Canada is not much cheaper, although their sluggish economy lends itself to somewhat lower prices. Mexico has abundant inexpensive labor, but their manufacturing is not as well developed as China unless you are in an industry they excel at.

So, if your goal was to sell to the hardest customers in Asia, if you survived, you would be the toughest, most adaptable, innovative bastard that ever lived. I would bow down to anyone who could meet this challenge.

Guys like Mark Zuckerburg, love challenges. That is why he is so successful. He is in China now running in the smog. He calls it a smog run. He is a loveable nut, and out to make a difference. He even learned to speak excellent Chinese if you overlook the fact that he speaks this tonal language in a monotone.

For America to compete in outsourcing, costs need to be low, and a lot of innovating would be necessary to get those costs down.

For people in India to do well in outsourcing, quality needs to be a lot higher. Indians try to over-capitalize on price. But, if the quality of your service is horrible from the first time you answer your phone until the last email where you get dumped, you are not going to excel as a company. You can compete on price, quality, customized service, or anything else. My suggestion is to be competitive in as many ways as you can. That way you can win the game.

I don’t know what BPO owners do. I know that call centers are very competitive. But, the other outsourcing industries do not seem to have bosses that ask themselves daily — what else can I do to compete? Maybe they should!

How to start an outsourcing company (2016)

December 29, 2015 by 123outsource

I wrote an earlier version of how to start an outsourcing company several years ago. I wanted to spruce it up a bit, so here is the new version.

1. Have Extensive Experience
I get emails daily from people who want to start a BPO, or who just got one but lack clients. There is a lot of competition out there and a lot that can go wrong. You need many years of experience in your industry to have a chance at doing well. Additionally, you need to be better at what you do than anyone else, otherwise, why should anyone hire you? I’ve read many articles about entrepreneurships and startups. The point that hit home is that people in their 20’s that want to start businesses have a high failure rate because they lack maturity and experience. A startup might be a new business, but the experience that goes behind it should be old. People tend to do a lot better at entrepreneurship in their 50’s as they are well seasoned, mature, have contacts, and have a ton of experience. I’m not discouraging young people from starting businesses. I started my first business when I was six, and another when I was fourteen. I did okay too and I learned a lot from it. However, I was very immature how I ran many aspects of my business. My businesses had small investments like a lawnmower and a rake. If you are investing in a 20 seat office and salaries, you had better know what you are doing.

2. Get Management Experience
Okay, so you know how to do your job and you worked for the best. There is a lot more to running a business than being a worker. Being a good worker is only one aspect to the endeavor. If you were a good worker, that shows you have the skills and patience to survive in the industry. But, you need to know how to manage expenses, do marketing, hire, fire, train, and assess workers. That requires many years in management to be any good. I recommend that you have at least seven years in management before attempting to create your own BPO.

3. Master your Marketing
As a BPO owner, you won’t survive at all if you don’t have clients. You need to be an expert at marketing. You need to be able to find decision makers at companies around the world to get clients. Some use LinkedIn, others go to networking meetings, while many have agents to help them find clients. You can also subcontract work from other people’s outsourcing operations. Having a great website and promoting it is often the solution while excelling at social media and blogging is a great boone to your business presence.

4. Excel at Customer Retention
If you start an outsourcing company, you will have customers. The difference between a good outsourcing company and a great one is how long you keep your clients. Do you do a good job? Do you keep in touch with clients? Do you help them find new reps quickly if they don’t like the old ones? Are you there for your clients, or do you just use them for money? To do well at outsourcing you need to focus on pleasing clients no matter what. You can’t grow your company if you are always losing your clients.

5. Give Free Samples
I grew my businesses by offering free samples or discounted trials. If you want to attract outsourcing clients, give them a chance to try your work with no contracts and low prices. They will be seven times as likely to give you a chance if you give them something for free or half price. If you do a good job, you might win them over for life. So you get by giving.

6. Offer Liberal Terms
Most outsourcing companies want people to sign rigid contracts that enslave them to stringent terms. Personally, I don’t want to sign a contract with a stranger. The contract ensures that I will pay a certain quantity of dollars each month. However, the contracts never ensure the quality of the service that I am getting. If I get poor service, can I pay with low quality dollars? Dollars are dollars, but no two services are the same. My suggestion is to have easy contracts in the beginning going week to week or month to month with very small deposits. Let the client get comfortable with you before you get demanding.

7. Have Clearly Defined Specialties
There is nothing worse than a call center that is not clear about what they do. Some do telemarketing, others do chat support, while a few do appointment setting. You never really know how good they are at any of their specialties. It is easier when there is a list of specialties in the “services” page of their website. That way you can be sure they do chat support — unless they stopped doing it three years ago and removed it from their site. If you claim to specialize in something, make sure you have multiple workers trained in it so a client can always get someone.

8. Flexible Office Space
Some call centers start with a huge office and then try to get clients. Many of them end up with huge losses from miscalculating how much space they need. It is better to have a flexible system for getting office space. Start small, and don’t get a big office until you have stable clients who are not going to end their relationships with you on a whim. If your workers are divided between two buildings, that is not the best, but it is temporary and you will have to deal with that as your company grows. Some offices offer shared spaces where you can rent space by the day, week, or month. Those would be excellent resources for a startup that doesn’t know how much space it will need.

9. Offer Training To Your Workers
Most BPO companies do not invest enough in training their workers. If you care about success, be like some of the top rate call centers and monitor your workers daily. Train them constantly. Make sure your workers are the best. I am tired of calling outsourcing companies only to hear them say, “hullo” when they answer. This is very unprofessional. If that is how the managers answer the phone, their workers are almost guaranteed to be horrible. If you aren’t professional yourself, how can you possibly train your workers to be?

10. Have Marketing Managers & Floor Managers
To grow your company, you can’t be two places at the same time. You need someone to manage the workers as well as someone to handle marketing and sales. If you hire people who aren’t loyal to you, you might be left high and dry. So, you might have primary managers and a few backups who you are constantly training.

11. Reward Worker Loyalty
You can’t build a good business with disloyal employees. Businesses that do well have a core of people who have been with them for ten or twenty years. You need to make sure you treat your star employees like stars. They deserve more money, better conditions, and appreciation. If you take them for granted you’ll lose them. Mediocre workers are dime a dozen — they are replaceable. But, you can’t build a business with them. Stars are the framework of your future success. Find them and find a way to keep loyal and talented people, otherwise your business will be tiny forever — or worse — it might be a collection of 50 dysfunctional nitwits!

Summary
I wish you good luck in business. But, the worst thing you can do in business is to go too fast. Get your foundation in order before creating a business. If you are not already a marketing genius, you’ll never survive. If you have to ask me how to get clients, you’re in the wrong field altogether. Additionally, I would like to add that the call center business is one that many Indians want to start. This type of business is almost exclusively being done outside of India. Even Indian companies are hiring Filipinos to do their call center work since the manners in India are very unpolished. Try to focus on an outsourcing specialty that caters to the talents of the workforce where you are. Indians are better at accounting and technical support than call center work. Keep that fact in mind as it can make you or ruin you! Good luck!

You might also like:

Six problems that only someone working in a BPO company would understand
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/15/six-problems-that-only-individuals-working-in-a-bpo-industry-would-understand/

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

If you invested in training your BPO workers, what types of skills would you teach them?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/03/28/if-you-invested-in-training-your-bpo-employees-what-types-of-skills-would-you-teach-them/

See our 2011 version of how to start an outsourcing company!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/24/how-to-start-an-outsourcing-company/

How to get more clients for your BPO or Call Center (Compilation)

August 20, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Call Center, Compilations, Popular on Twitter, Semi-Popular | Tagged bpo, call center, Call Center Marketing, Call Center Outsourcing, Call Centre, Outsourcing | Leave a comment

We wrote many blog articles about outsource marketing that were so popular, we were not able to top them. However, many of these articles are from long time back and they never resurface to the top of the feed of our blog. So, we are going to bring them back in the form of a compilation to give you a choice of many articles!

How to attract more clients to your call center part 1
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/05/05/getting-more-clients-for-your-call-center/
Relationships are the key to success. How well do you get to know people and nurture the relationship? It might all start with a cold call, so get your fingers ready to dial.

How to attract more clients to your call center part 2
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/05/19/how-to-attract-more-clients-to-your-call-center-part-2/
Hiring the right staff and training them meticulously is part of the secret. You need to mentor them, coach them, and keep metrics on them. Experienced workers will keep your clients happy, so don’t deliver any novices or you’ll all be sorry.

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/
You could have the best call center in the world, but without the right salespeople, getting new clients might not be so easy. Having well trained salespeople is key, and having a few extras around might not be such a bad idea either.

How to get clients for call centers — contracts!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/04/05/how-to-get-clients-for-call-centers-contracts/
Getting clients is just half the battle. Once they agree to do business with you, what type of contract should you use? Should it be rigid and long term, or a more relaxed month to month contract that is more “friendly?”

How to acquire clients for call centers — presentation!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/03/29/how-to-acquire-clients-for-call-centers-presentation/
If you provide a good service, that is half the battle. But, how you present yourself online and over the phone can mean the difference between gaining that new clients and losing them.

How to gain clients for your call center: Pay-Per-Click!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/01/how-to-gain-clients-for-your-call-center-pay-per-click/
There are many ways to get clients for your call center, but attracting people using PPC can be one of the fastest. You’ll need to know all of your keyword variations inside out and how the Google Adwords and other systems work. After that it is all systems go!

How to acquire call center clients — looking like a big company
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/20/how-to-acquire-call-center-clients-looking-like-a-big-company/
Some people are comfortable hiring a small company. But, larger clients prefer to play ball with larger companies. So, how to you appear to be large when you are not?

Is an English accent important? Just do your job!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/01/call-centers-in-india-is-an-english-accent-important-just-do-your-job/
Some call centers in India like to have agents with seemingly perfect English accents. But, the key to getting ahead lies more in quality work than in flashy accents.

Gaining new clients and nurturing them correctly
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/04/17/gaining-new-clients-and-nurturing-them-correctly/
We all have our hands out for new clients. However, how often are we there to solve their problems or just ask them how things are going? Do we woo them the right way? And how is our credibility?

6 pitfalls in hiring outsourcing companies that could cost you millions

July 15, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Outsourcing | Leave a comment

It is easy to interview outsourcing companies. However, there are many things that a client might overlook while hiring a company.

Also See: Outsourcing work for $2 per hour?

(1) You interviewed the salesperson, not the workers
If you hire a company because they did well at the interview, you are missing the point. You are probably interviewing the salesperson who is trained to talk well. He is not the one doing the work and couldn’t care less if the work gets done. If you interview the technical manager, you are beginning to be on the right track. But, the technical manager is also educated and will present himself well, although not quite as colorfully as the animated salesperson. Interview the lowest level workers and see if they seem like functional people. In my experience, 95% of the time, they cannot function in a simple conversation and also cannot do their work even marginally correctly.

(2) You were fooled because the interview went well
Let’s say that you were smart and asked a variety of personality, logical, and technical questions to your new prospective hires and they did well. You still don’t know if they are reliable at getting work done. You don’t know how tightly the company schedules their work and you don’t know who will quit and when. You need to test them out on some smaller projects before giving them a big project to see if they manage their work well. Workers will come and go, but if a technical manager has a handle on his work, you will get consistent results.

Also See:
Good Sign Bad Sign: What to look for in newly hired workers

(3) You were lured in by a low price
If an outsourcing company doesn’t charge enough, you can be absolutely guaranteed that they cannot afford to hire decent workers. If a company hires substandard workers, your work will not be done well, and you can bank on the fact that nobody will care either. Don’t get the lowest price or you will be sorry.

(4) You assumed that because someone charges more that their service is better
Companies that charge more usually, but don’t always deliver more. But, the “what” that they deliver is not necessarily better work. It is more often than not better customer service. Good customer service might make your life more pleasant, but if paired with really horrible outsourced work, you will not be satisfied with the results. Quality work comes first and good customer service is the icing on the cake!

(5) Failure to give two test jobs
If you are an experienced outsourcer, you know that it is imperative that you test out companies before giving them any serious work. But, testing them once is not enough. They are trying on the first test job. You need to see how they function when they are just being themselves. The first test job should be short and test ability, but the second one should be long enough to test their scheduling skills and to see if they meet deadlines on a job that is 10-40 man hours.

(6) You stopped watching & they started slacking
Nobody wants to micromanage others or babysit outsourced workers. But, you need to keep a close eye on them. The problem is that after they gain your trust, you will be tempted to stop watching them. Don’t! The level of scrutiny and intensity in which you watch outsourced workers needs to be high in the beginning, and then go to medium after a while. It is very common for workers to really slack off in their fourth or fifth month. It is also common for workers to slack off right before they quit. That means if you had the same trusted person for two years without issue, they might start slacking off when you least expect it. So keep an eye on them!

You might also like:

Judge a book by its cover: Judge a company by its office
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/05/26/judge-a-book-by-its-cover-judge-a-company-by-its-office/

“You’re fired” is NOT when you start looking for a replacement!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/08/17/youre-fired-is-not-when-you-start-looking-for-a-replacement/

Which countries are the best to outsource particular tasks to?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/04/07/which-countries-are-the-best-to-outsource-particular-tasks-to/

Six Problems That Only Individuals Working In A BPO Industry Would Understand

June 15, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: BPO, Call Center, India, Popular Posts | Tagged Abhishek Jain, bpo, BPO Industry, call center, Call Centre, Outsourcing | Leave a comment

Six Problems That Only Individuals Working In A BPO Industry Would Understand
Anyone who has been working in a call centre, or has already worked there knows that there is no other psychological trauma quite like it, say for example hooked up on a phone call that would never end for the majority of your life, and is been subjected to the worst kinds of humanity.

Time is everything in a BPO Industry. We come across situations where you would have military walking in, your breaks being monitored, strict call length control, monitoring toilet breaks, etc. with each and everything being controlled and monitored. Welcome to the world of robots. Given below are some of the trials and tribulations one would have been experiencing in a call centre and lucky are the ones who escaped from it.

Being shouted at the entire day: You know what could make your clients angry for the things you are about to say. And things like it would take two weeks, or you do not have an account with us, or I would have to transfer your call, or my boiler has not been working and it’s definitely your fault. These are things that would sound like a red rag to a bull. So if you are lucky enough you would be getting a response like this I know it’s not your fault but before things go worse….and is something that’s unlikely to happen.

Being asked to work overtime: Each and every one of us have been doing this. We would have to work overtime in order to pull the given targets. We cannot let our customers down and would require someone who could answer their calls.

Taking up calls that you cannot deal with:These kind of things continue to happen a lot in the BPO Industry and is something that is never funny. Weeping people come forward and tell you their story whereas screaming customers would claim that they are going to come commit suicide with sexually inappropriate comments. And when such things happen you would here need to remember that you would have to wrap up the calls in 2 minutes or else would be fired.

Having to come up at 8.30 and starting your computer: You have been told that you need to be at your desk by sharp 8:30 am and it’s already 9.30. And it’s obvious that certain programme that you would need at your job would take half an hour of time to load. And off course you would not be paid for your extra half an hour then why would you choose to work for an extra hour.

Not wanting to be a part of clients call during day off: Do not try of contacting your customer success team during weekends, it would never ever happen. So try and use whats up, gmail, Viber, and Facebook instead.

Getting Back Home and Noticing That Your Friends Have Been On Facebook The Entire Day: Most of the times we come across situations where we did not have much work to do. And you could just read articles online with a limited access to internet like the fact of the day been written by your manager and your weekly column where your CEO would be describing the holiday he would be going on.
Author Bio:

Abhishek Jain has over 10 years of experience within the BPO Industry and Finance and Accounting outsourcing services. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services India delivers and manages various offshore/onsite projects in various technologies and domains

You might also like:

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/

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 start an outsourcing company
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/29/how-to-start-an-outsourcing-company-2016/

If you invested in training your BPO employees, what skills would you teach them?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/03/28/if-you-invested-in-training-your-bpo-employees-what-types-of-skills-would-you-teach-them/

The most important factor for creating leads for your outsourcing company.

April 23, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Amazon, Outsourcing, Outsourcing Company | Leave a comment

Companies that do B2B have a very different attitude than those who do B2C. Unfortunately, this attitude is not a good one. When I personally call outsourcing companies, they rarely answer their phone. If they do answer, it is usually a lower level employee who doesn’t communicate well, or who doesn’t know anything. Most companies out there only want large customers and don’t want to bother with small companies like mine. The general attitude of outsourcing companies out there is — we want more money, but we don’t even want our existing customers. In the real world, you can’t make money without having customers.

“We chase projects — not dollars”
One company told me that they chased projects, not dollars. Unfortunately later on I realized that they enjoy projects, but hate customers. I think I need a company that chases customers, not dollars, but finishes projects on time. Hmm.

A seamless experience
What gets B2C companies business should be considered in the B2B world. B2C companies thrive when they offer a seamless, glitch-free, teflon, no friction customer experience. Amazon‘s 1 click ordering is an example of how the most thoughtful professionals handle this concept. Most outsourcing companies out there offer maximum friction and dysfunction at every step of the process not to mention talking to (or being brushed off by) anti-social people who may or may not be responsible enough to complete your work to your satisfaction.

How to create that experience
The process of finding qualified leads is up to a good marketing department. You need to find people who are in high positions in companies who hire programmers, data entry clerks, call center agents, etc. Once you have found them, the key is to not ruin what comes next. Is your website informative? Does it make it easy to know what you do, and all of your specialties such as chat support, SMS messaging, and technical support for HP products? Or does your site just ramble on about how you offer the highest quality of BPO services, and refuse to let people know what those mystical BPO services are? Many companies out there just ramble on for paragraphs about how they adhere to the highest of standards, but don’t mention anything specific that would make me want to hire their company. Your site needs to have a very elaborate services page, FAQ page, contact us page with all applicable contact numbers, contact forms, email address(es), phone numbers that go to people who actually answer their phones, as well as photos of your staff, building, and perhaps a map of your location so people can mentally place you.

The next step is being personal
These days, people normally visit your web site or social media sites to size you up. If you pay special attention to both, then you will have made a good impression on your leads. The next step is to actually talk to people. If you make it easy to talk to an informative human being, and make it easy for people to get their work done with you, you will be on the right track.

That’s all for now. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Should you outsource your printing to a single vendor or multiple vendors?

April 21, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Outsourcing, Printing Outsourcing | Leave a comment

The decision to in-house or outsource your work is one that many companies make. Both have complications, and both are tough decisions. But, if you outsource, then the question is how many outsourcing companies to hire? If you are in the printing business, you might find one company that does a good job with your business cards, and another who is better at pamphlets. A third company might be more expensive, but good at short turnaround for books. In my opinion, it is better to have many outsourcing companies on payroll. Use the better ones more, but keep in touch with a few others that function as your backups. In business – you always need backups and multiple backups are necessary since people retire, quit, go out of business, are busy, end up in a hospital, screw up, or might even cheat you.

The Single Vendor Approach
If you outsource to a single vendor, you would only need one or two pickups of orders (possibly done online) and only one or two drop offs of work per day. Your work would be mixed in with their other clients’ work, and completed at their various facilities, or perhaps at a single relatively nearby facility.

The Multi-Vendor Approach
If you hire several vendors, you can optimize by hiring the best vendor for each specific task you have. Additionally, some vendors as I mentioned above might be better at short orders while others might specialize in low prices with less favorable delivery terms.

Brokering your work
If you hire a broker to figure out how to get your work done, then they worry about who to hire. Since they specialize in outsourcing work, they might be better at it than you.

Managing Vendor
There are other vendors who would hire a third party, but manage the work done at that other company’s facility.

Dedicated Vendor
You can also hire a vendor that has particular staff members designated to working only for you. This has higher fixed costs, but they take care of the staffing, training, machines, and all you have to do is to supply orders. Having dedicated employees is very popular in call center and software development outsourcing. It is common for a US company to hire five programmers in Noida, India who work for an IT staffing outsourcing firm to work on a project for them.

The Mixed Approach
You could have all the machinery you need in-house, but in limited supply. You could do whatever work you have time for yourself. But, whatever overflow you get, you could outsource to one or more vendors. Additionaly, if your equipment breaks, you would already have your outsourcing partners in action. In business, it is very important to already have a long lasting relationship with someone when you need their help in an emergency.

Joining a Parade of Outsourcing for Small Businesses

April 13, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Freelance, Outsourcing | Leave a comment

In the past, it was almost exclusively large businesses that went overseas to capitalize on the abundance of inexpensive labor. These days through new technology and resources, anyone can do it. You don’t even need to be in business to hire a freelancer in a foreign country.

If your main office is in Topeka, Kansas, you are no longer forced to hire someone in your city, state or even your country. You can hire someone in Noida to build your new app. Then, you can hire someone else in Manila to do the phone calls necessary to find leads for your app. And finally, you can hire someone in Minsk to clean up the mess your Indian programmers created when creating the app (assuming you hired the wrong ones, and most novices do!)

Freelance sites
You can query all types of freelance sites to find people. Odesk is a popular service because they have satisfaction reviews for all of the service providers listed. You can’t get away with cheating your clients or delivering shoddy work on Odesk. After you have been in outsourcing long enough, you will realize that the #1 considerations is not price, not convenience, not personability, and not even punctuality — it is finding someone who will get the job done correctly. Most outsourcing companies hire incompetent staff members who screw everything up that they touch! Odesk eliminates a lot of that risk. There are other sites like Freelancer and Guru which also publish reviews.

Company directories like 123outsource.net
You can also hire companies to help you out. Although the quality of the reviews is better for the freelancer sites, for larger jobs or longer term work, you might be better off hiring a larger outsourcing company. 123outsource.net is a great place to find software developers, call center companies, data entry, medical billing, and more. There are other call center and web design directories out there. However, those other directories are not as adament as 123outsource.net about keeping their information up to date, and about putting quality providers near the top of the search results!

Here is what my buddy says
I have not personally hired freelancers outside of the USA, however, my friend does this all the time. He is always bragging about how he hired someone to do phone calls for $2.70 per hour in the Philippines or how he found a great PHP programmer in Argentina who works for $15 per hour. In real life, the average call center freelancer makes around US$4.00 per hour and the average overseas programmer makes around US$15 in India and around US$20-30 in Eastern Europe. Prices vary according to how good the freelancer is and market rates, currency exchange rates, etc.

American freelancers do not benefit from this
It is hard for an American to compete against someone charging US$5 per hour for freelance work. However, people will hire Americans at American wages if you offer a higher quality of service. Perhaps you are better at answering tough questions in an intelligent way. Or perhaps you make the customers feel more at home with you. American programmers are normally a lot more efficient, easy to communicate with, and use best practices more effectively than their overseas conterparts which is why the average software development freelancer in the USA charges about US$70 per hour while in India it is only $15. Despite how difficult it is for Americans to compete, it is very difficult to hire Americans. I personally find most Americans to be very stubborn, unreliable, and uncooperative. Maybe Americans don’t need work which forces employers to look East to Manila!

How is the outsourcing landscape transforming?

April 7, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Outsourcing, Outsourcing Landscape | Leave a comment

The outsourcing landscape and terrain is evolving as we speak. But, is it changing for the better? There are several factors to consider.

(1) Outsourcing providers are gaining skill at fulfilling their customers’ needs as the industry matures.

(2) There are more companies out there in more countries competing for outsourcing revenue giving the customer more choices.

(3) Rules and laws concerning outsourcing will continue to change. Obama might make it more difficult to outsource which could cause a huge disruption in the market. Regulation in the United States for example could cause a decrease in outsourcing.

(4) More companies are expected to take an interest in outsourcing as time goes on and the overall industry is growing worldwide.

Regulations
Politicians often talk about protecting American jobs by regulating outsourcing. However, by protecting American jobs you are shooting other American companies in the foot who need services. If you cannot find quality services in the United States for an affordable price, you are forced to outsource overseas. But, if there are laws restricting overseas outsourcing, American companies doing the hiring will suffer and their overall growth will be dampered. Job protection helps those with jobs but harms businesses and end-consumers.

India’s situation
India is famous for outsourcing. But, unfortunately due to the negligent behavior of managers and poor service at many companies, the market is turning away from India for a lot of outsourcing services. Eastern Europe is taking over a lot of the programming outsourcing while the Philippines has drained more than two-thirds of India’s former call center revenue. India is still #1 in the outsourcing world, but if their sloppy unprofessional behavior continues, they are likely to continue sliding downhill in the outsourcing world as other countries gain ground.

Technology
As technology continues to evolve, and human culture adapts to the evolution, we will see an increasingly mobile workforce and more remote workers who are likely to be outsourced from foreign countries. Cloud technology is a very common type of technology which aids mobility. You can access your information from an i-phone on a desert island with the cloud and conduct your meetings from a pool overlooking the ocean there if you desire!

The million dollar outsourcing query call

February 28, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Outsourcing | Leave a comment

The trick question – what city are you in?
We’ve all heard of the TV show from the 1970’s — The Million Dollar Man. He can jump twenty feet in the air, put his first through a brick wall, and run faster than a car. But, what about a million dollar call? I call outsourcing companies daily, and am astounded that not a single one handles themselves completely professionally over the phone. There are always aspects of professional etiquette that even the highest class of outsourcers miss. People answer the phone saying, “Hello” instead of stating their name for one. At other companies they transfer you the minute you ask a tricky question such as, “What city is your company in?” That question is too difficult for the caliber of employees that they hire. After you get transfered, you get put on hold for long periods of time, or disconnected. In the best case scenario you talk to some other moron who hasn’t a clue how to answer your PhD level question and requests to transfer you to yet another imbecile. The transferring never ends as there are no intelligent people who are available at many of the larger companies.

How much business do you lose per year?
As an outsourcing company, you should be aware that high profile prospective customers could call you at any time. If they talk to someone who is an idiot, or doesn’t have proper phone etiquette, you could lose that prospect. If they are a customer and get put on hold too many times, you could very easily lose that customer for good. My question is, what is the cost of having good phone service, and what is the cost of having bad phone service? If you lose a 1 million dollar contract because someone untrained answered your phone, the cost of your bad worker is the profit on that 1 million which could easily be $50,000. I’m sure that the cost of hiring someone decent to answer your phone who has half a brain would be a lot less than $50,000 in India or the Philippines. In real life, you probably lose a lot of smaller clients who might have jobs for US$20,000 per year. In the course of a year, you might lose several million in revenue from new prospective clients due to your bad phone staff.

Use a contact form
My suggestion is that if you can’t have someone good answer your phone, don’t have a phone number. Use a contact form on your website. It is hard to have someone answering calls eight hours a day, or 24 hours if you cater to overseas clients. It is easier to have them fill out a form, and much more respectable too. It is better to not have a phone number rather than having a numskull answer your phone. At 123outsource.net, we call all companies on our directory. If they have unacceptable people answering their phones, we will remove them from the directory without a second thought. However, if they have a contact form and no phone number, we will keep them at the bottom of the list which is mildly better than being removed.

Don’t allow certain people to answer the phone.
Have only designated people answer your phone. In India, most people (99.9%) lack proper phone manners. Have an American or British friend train six of your staff members to answer the phone and don’t let anyone else touch the phone without a substantial penalty. Additionally, train your phone staff to answer basic questions about your company so they don’t have to transfer the call. They should know simple things like what your company does, where they are located, what they charge for various services, etc. You can write all of this information down on a cheat sheet to make the task simpler.

Good luck!

Is your outsourcing job just a job?

February 22, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Popular Posts | Tagged Outsourcing, Outsourcing Companies | Leave a comment

I must have called close to a thousand outsourcing companies over the last two months. I called call centers, medical billing companies, programming houses, data entry facilities and more. When I call them, I can tell whose job is just a job and whose job is a passion that really matters. I want to hire people who are devoted to their work.

One way to see how devoted people are is to call them after hours. If someone answers their phone at 7pm or after, they might be more devoted to their job than someone who leaves promptly at 5pm. See who works on the weekends. Many people are not willing to. Keep in mind that just because someone puts in that extra effort doesn’t guarantee they are the right fit for you, but it helps and is a plus!

Another thing to look for is managers who answer their own phone. Many managers who are serious have a phone line that they generally answer. Others have a secretary transfer calls to them. There are also managers who are completely impossible to reach who you have to schedule an appointment with. If you are doing a serious time sensitive project with someone, you need to be able to reach them.

As a parting thought, it would be so much nicer if more people would take their jobs more seriously. If you could get through to people on the first attempt rather than chasing them around town, life would be so much easier. If managers hired the right workers, you wouldn’t have to shop around so much and fire people so often. The world would be a much better place!

You might also like:

Six problems that only someone in the BPO industry would understand
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/15/six-problems-that-only-individuals-working-in-a-bpo-industry-would-understand/

Is it safe for women to take cabs in India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/22/is-it-safe-for-women-to-take-cabs-in-india/

Judge a book by its cover; Judge a company by its office
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/05/26/judge-a-book-by-its-cover-judge-a-company-by-its-office/

Putting the ball in their court — outsourcing advice for beginners

February 16, 2015 by 123outsource

Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged Outsourcing, Outsourcing Advice | Leave a comment

Many of us are forced to outsource work overseas because of labor shortages at home, or due to excessive prices in your country. The problem is that most outsourcing companies, particularly software development companies are not that reliable. You have to test them out to find the best software development companies.

My mistake testing people out was that I was too emotionally attached and anxious throughout the testing process. I sort of made myself involved in the process which was my biggest mistake. The purpose of the test is to see what a company will do on their own initiative, not on your initiative. You have to throw the ball to them and see what they do. Many will drop the ball or make quite a few mistakes.

By testing out ten companies at the same time, you will be so busy, that you won’t be paying attention to any particular one of those companies. That way, they get back to you when they are ready, and not when you remind them.

This reminds me of a story I heard about medieval Japan. There was a Samurai who would always hire two prostitutes at the same time. That way he wouldn’t fall in love with either one of them. Do the same with programmers. The minute you become attached to one, you might be settling for less than optimal service. Always be comparing them even if you have a regular provider. Keep a ranking system that keeps evolving and gives quarterly updates to the ranks of the programming companies who you like at different stages of the relationship.

Tag Archives: Outsourcing

How selling to a difficult client prepares you for outsourcing

How to start an outsourcing company (2016)

How to get more clients for your BPO or Call Center (Compilation)

6 pitfalls in hiring outsourcing companies that could cost you millions

The most important factor for creating leads for your outsourcing company.

Should you outsource your printing to a single vendor or multiple vendors?

Joining a Parade of Outsourcing for Small Businesses

How is the outsourcing landscape transforming?

The million dollar outsourcing query call

Putting the ball in their court — outsourcing advice for beginners

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