Contact Center Outsourcing - Key To Organizational Success

Contact centers are that vital communication link between businesses and their customers and even though an in-house facility may satisfy basic needs and requirements, it is always better to choose contact center outsourcing services, preferably rendered by an offshore outsourcing company. The main reason is that an offshore outsourcing company will make it easier for businesses to derive essential benefits such as cost savings. Some of the best outsourcing companies have their operations based in developing countries such as India, where operational costs are naturally lower as compared to that of developed countries such as the US and the UK. India's outsourcing companies are thus in a better position to achieve, sustain and deliver the desired cost savings.

Apart from cost savings, outsourcing companies also deliver many other benefits such as process optimization, efficiency improvements and value additions. The best part is that all of these can be achieved and delivered without compromising on the quality of offered contact center services. Customer satisfaction can thus be maximized with the least possible costs and efforts. Once that is achieved, businesses can look forward to creating business competencies that have become a necessity for ensuring both success and survival in today's age of Globalization.

In most cases, hiring offshore contact center services certainly helps achieve the targeted goals and objectives. However, since success depends a lot on the actual performance, it would be better if businesses check out the track record of available outsourcing companies. The stakes are often high and it would be wise to hire the services of the best available contact center outsourcing company.

Outsourced call centers: Is money the only motivator?

Like any profit-driven company, Largo, Md.-based Liberty Wireless wanted to cut costs when it elected to outsource its contact center. But, as surprising as it may sound, improved customer service was also a motivator for sending work outside the company.

"It was more than just cost," said Don Charlton, Liberty's president. "We thought we could get a better level of service for what we were paying."

Liberty divided up its call center work. It outsourced call center functions like call routing, interactive voice response (IVR) and automatic bill payment to Mountain View, Calif.-based BeVocal Inc., a managed call automation provider. Agents man Liberty's call center from the Philippines, a country expected to triple its contact center capacity this year to 60,000 seats.

"In certain instances it makes sense to have [the call center] all in one shop, but it also makes sense not to be dependent on one provider [for] too many core functions," Charlton said. For instance, having different providers for IVR and the call center prevents the outsourcer from steering more traffic to live agents, where it makes more money.

While it's still too early in the outsourcing process for Liberty to calculate the benefits, the company hopes to cut its call center costs in half and improve service. Still, not everyone buys the argument that outsourcing is good for service.

"You're kidding, right?" said John Ragsdale, research director with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. "I would still say the driving force [for outsourcing] is cost cutting."

In fact, a 2002 Datamonitor study found that a 150-seat call center that costs $5.6 million to run annually in the U.S. costs just $2.2 million when operated in India.

Yet, some companies turn to outsourcing as an easy fix. Ragsdale said that many companies that outsource do a poor job of monitoring customer service internally. An outsourcer may be able to reduce the average answer speed or cut down on call times, but often customers are more interested in getting an agent that speaks fluent English and having their problem resolved on the first call.

High-volume call centers often find it beneficial to turn to outsourcers to handle their overflow, according to Ragsdale. For instance, they keep calls requiring a great deal of training in-house and outsource simpler inquiries, where expertise is less important.

Convergys Corp., a Cincinnati-based contact center outsourced provider, said outsourcing's savings are so significant that high-level executives are increasingly involved in the decision to offload the work. And it insists that cost cutting isn't the only reason to do so.

"We believe we can increase things such as first-call resolution and customer satisfaction," said Bill Rieke, director of Convergys' customer management group. "We can reduce your cost by reengineering some of the process flow."

Rieke said his customers are focused more than ever on improving service and have placed a greater emphasis on strategic metrics to track gains.

If companies are sold on outsourcing, Ragsdale recommends that they identify service levels early on and include them in the contract. He said it's wise to begin with outsourcing peak volume to determine the outsourcer's service level.

"The key is all in the contract," Ragsdale said. "There's a huge amount of work you have to do. It's understanding the current service level, the current customer experience and working with the outsourcer, making sure they can meet those demands."

Outsourced call centers maintain growth

The North American market for outsourced customer service operations is expected to continue along a steady growth path, according to recent research by Frost & Sullivan Inc.

The San Antonio-based research and consulting firm states that the market reached $19.5 billion in revenues in 2005 and is likely to reach $20.1 billion by 2012. Call center agent attrition, companies' continuing to adjust to the Do Not Call legislation, and greater specialization by North American outsourcers are driving the market, according to Michael DeSalles, Frost & Sullivan's industry analyst for the communications practice.

"Call centers are the tip of spear. In a lot of places, it's the only place [the] customer touches the company," DeSalles said. "For some companies, they find that's not their core competency, that's for someone else. An outsourcer can do it cheaper or better. If you're not doing a good job or at least on par with companies with good contact centers, you're at a competitive disadvantage."


Also, the backlash by North American consumers over jobs sent overseas is helping to bolster the on-shore and near-shore outsourcing markets.

The market for North American customer service outsourcing is a fragmented one, with literally thousands of providers. According to Frost & Sullivan, however, it is dominated by fewer than a dozen major, global outsourcers.

The market is growing, but outsourcers are also under increasing pressure to do more than just increase efficiencies. Clients expect outsourced call centers to improve retention, and loyalty as well.

"The way to measure that is not by handle time, which was the prevailing metric," DeSalles said. "Now we're looking at first-call resolution."

Outsourcers are also conducting post-call surveys, measuring the number of transfer calls and up-selling and cross-selling.

Consolidation in the market has also provided companies with the ability to mix and match their outsourced call center needs, using some offshore, some near-shore and some internal resources. The growth of work-at-home agents, who can access CRM systems through Web-based interfaces and phone systems through Voice over Internet Protocol, is also providing outsourcers with a greater talent pool, while reducing facility costs.

Offshore Outsourcing Driving Contact Center Growth in Asia Pacific

Despite the negative press that the term off shoring tends to generate, the reality is that we are a global economy and many companies can maximize customer service operations by considering facilities in another country. One such country that is enjoying considerable contact center growth is that of the Asia Pacific.

Growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has produced new analysis that points to low labor cost, increasing competition, globalization, increased IP (Internet Protocol) adoption and improved network infrastructure as driving the contact center outsourcing market in Asia Pacific.

While high growth in both domestic and offshore outsourcing is expected in the coming years, offshore outsourcing is anticipated to drive a majority of that growth. Customer service and technical support services in the banking, telecommunications and technology sectors are on the rise and will likely fuel this growth.

According to the report from Frost & Sullivan, the Asia Pacific industry, which covers 13 major Asia Pacific economies, produced revenues of US $7.2 billion in 2005 and estimates indicate that the industry will be worth US $25.1 billion by the end 2012.

Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shivanu Shukla, offered that offshore outsourcing is a global phenomenon that has driven growth in the contact center outsourcing market in Asia-Pacific and expects to continue to be the key driver for growth. Proximity to the West, cultural similarities within Asia Pacific and increased focus on outsourcing and offshoring by the governments in Asia Pacific are all expected to boost growth.

US companies using India as a back-office hub for their administrative functions has led the offshore outsourcing trend. Many enterprises today from not only the US, but also the UK have outsourced significant portions of their customer care functions to countries such as the Philippines and India. Contact center outsourcing contacts serviced out of the Asia Pacific region from these two countries has represented more than US $2.17 billion in 2005.

Shukla noted that as the contact center market in Asia Pacific continues to return strong growth, the demand for skilled agents increases in tandem. Since employment as a contact center agent is not perceived as a great career option in most parts of the region, available talent pools are lacking. In addition, inadequate compensation and incentives are leading to higher attrition and agents tend to move fast within the industry.

Frost & Sullivan recommends that outsources offer structured career paths and better incentives to reduce attrition. The firm also highlighted the need to train and coach agents and leaders in order to build a strong middle management team as a necessity to retain employees.

Data security and customer information issues have been a key area of concern for customers and companies alike and as a result, outsourcers in India and other offshore destinations are implementing stringent measures to ensure that data security is maintained. ISO and COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) certifications, along with Six Sigma processes are gradually being adopted by outsourcers to increase the confidence level of customers and enterprises that outsource their customer information to the Asia Pacific region.

Contact Center Outsourcing Services

Customer Care Support balances improved customer satisfaction with reduced operation costs in handling various post-sale interactions including complex product and service inquiries, data privacy and security breaches, fraud management, crisis management, billing and credit issues, and product returns and reverse logistics.
People – Our people are the most important component of our approach. Our contact centers around the world are staffed with experienced, results-oriented teams that drive agent productivity and operational innovation. You will find a highly skilled global technology staff who ensure that daily operations remain stable and reliable. We also have recruiting processes that select, train, and retain the best customer service professionals to maintain and improve customer satisfaction. Our agents are further supported through focused training and retention programs that increase agent effectiveness.
Process – Around the world, our contact centers combine our globally consistent, customer operations performance center (COPC) compliant delivery processes with our standard technology infrastructure expertise to help you achieve your customer-focused goals. By clearly measuring the effectiveness of our processes both quantitatively and qualitatively, we provide the operational discipline to effectively manage operations within an individual contact center, across multiple sites or multiple geographies.

Technology – The technology component is a key enabler of the people and process components. Our global leveraged technology platform is built using products from key alliance partners and provides your business with superior functionality, reliability, scalability and security. Its advanced routing capability ensures customers are segmented by value and connected to the appropriate resource the first time, regardless of the interaction channel chosen by the customer.

Quality- All three of these components are strengthened by a Quality System that we have developed over the last decade and continues to enhance globally. Our Quality System is our set of management practices to ensure that our services, products, and solutions are reliably designed, delivered and supported at the claimed quality levels and continuously improved to meet changing customer and business requirements. To support the Quality System, we provide a comprehensive integrated framework comprised of dozens of market recognized best practices, regulation and standards. These Quality components are woven into the fabric of our global common processes to enable consistent delivery of services while complying with international standards for quality, security, privacy, and service management that protect the interests of our clients and their customers.

Offshoring by US companies surges: Survey

WASHINGTON: US companies are increasingly turning to off shoring their functions to achieve cost savings, and few plan to bring those jobs back to
IT
Top Indian outsourcing cos
Nine trends for IT in 2009
Cities that are IT hubs
the United States, the Conference Board said Monday.

The number of US companies with a corporate off shoring strategy in place more than doubled in the past three years, according to the fifth annual report on off shoring trends, published by Duke University in collaboration with the Conference Board.

Of the companies surveyed, 53 per cent had a corporate off shoring strategy in place, up from 22 per cent in 2005, said the Conference Board, a nonprofit business research organization.

"Sixty per cent of companies that had already offshore say they have aggressive plans to expand existing activities, and very few plan to relocate activities back to the United States," it said.

Does Outsourcing Really Add Jobs To The US Economy ?

We've all seen the headlines: Outsourcing America; John Kerry Says He'll Put an End to "Off-shoring" US Jobs. Are Too Many US Jobs Going Overseas? But have we really stopped to look at the benefits of working with offshore companies?

In just over one year since Tele-Sales Force, Inc. began operations and subsequently launched TSF Call Center, Tele-Sales Force, Inc. has signed up over 25 customers including Sun Micro systems and People Soft, added more than a dozen US jobs (Executive Team, Controller, Legal Counsel, Sales Professionals, etc.) and perhaps most importantly, helped other US companies increase sales dramatically. According to Stephen Polinski of Genuine, "Tele-Sales Force, Inc. helped us understand our target market better, developed a value- based sales message, and then executed the telesales campaign. In just a few weeks, we closed a transaction worth $86,000 to our company."

Chad Burmeister, Co-Founder and CEO of Tele-SalesForce, Inc. said, "Just like enterprise software helped companies throughout the 1990's to reduce costs by millions, improve efficiencies, and help companies compete, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) will become the next buzzword for the remainder of this decade. In our first year of operations, our company has proven that by taking a socially responsible approach to outsourcing, and focusing on jobs that US workers typically don't do as effectively, or do not want to do at all, we can add new jobs to the US Economy, not take them away." Mr. Burmeister also said, "We hired one local Account Executive that made about 100 telesales calls in the 10 months he worked with us. Our offshore telesales agents make more than 100 outbound telesales calls every day."

Additional value created by TSF includes: Identified and scheduled conference calls with decision makers at thousands of auto dealers which led to more than $800,000 in sales; provided 24 hour instant message support for a bank in Arizona to help them compete with B of A and other large banks; enabled at least three US companies to start a business using TSF call center as the backbone of their telesales operations; partnered with one US based call center in the past 60 days and already sold 2 seats for them.

The Scoreboard: Net US jobs lost: 0. Net US jobs gained

About TSF Call Center - TSF Call Center , world class call center, world class results, helps companies build a successful marketing campaign, monitor the campaign, and insure the best possible results. Additional services include complete outbound telesales campaigns, inbound call center support, and other back office services such as instant messaging, email support, and claims processing. The company is based in Southern California, has a sales office in Scottsdale, Arizona, a call center in Philadelphia, PA and a 350+ seat call center in Calcutta, India.

Call Centers - Generate Revenue by Satisfying Customers

A call center is a physical place where customers are dealt by customer care experts, normally with the help of computer automation. Characteristically, a call center has the power to manage a high volume of incoming calls at the same time, to separate out calls and send on them to someone specified to address their concerns also to log calls.

These call centers are largely used by companies which are deals on telemarketing, product help desk, on line marketing, service providers, travel industries, and every large business organization that uses the phone to sell products or provide services.

A great call center is mainly depends upon some factors like efficiency, customer satisfactions and revenue generation. The efficiency or the ability to handle customers with effectiveness without wasting time, effort and expense can make any call center bonafide and adequate.

Every customers looks for quick and efficient answers to their questions and that is known as customer satisfaction services.

Customer satisfaction takes place when a call delivered the exact answer to the question placed by a customer, whenever they want it. Highly skilled customer care representatives can easily understand the fact that the customer does not perpetually enunciate what they want, sometimes one need to comprehend and should act effectively.

Now a days, the scripts are being provided to every calling agent for the purpose of saving time and also giving exact information’s to their customers. However, sometimes one need to understand or determine the reason of being contacted in first place to help him/her right way.

If customer representative can understand the exact concern of the customer, they can easily help them justly and this will produce a satisfied customer for any call centers.

To get revenue upon your investment you must have to satisfy your every customers in today’s World because customers are main asset of any successfully organization. As the revenue generation is the one and only bottom line of any organization and begetting revenues is impossible without satisfied customers and the more effective the call center, the more time is usable for the same.

To intact the bottom line you must find ways to satisfy your customers to grow your business. If you are unable to provide solutions for customer satisfaction services then the wise idea is to outsource call center services from quality call centers.

Tina Hope is writing articles for Call Centers India Inc. (CCI), a globally recognized call center services provider produce quality agents that serves quality service with little waste of time and energy. Inspired and impelled to satisfy customers’ needs effectively, ensuing to additional and continuous revenue for clients.

Successful Offshore Outsourcing

1. Clearly define the scope and schedule of your project.
This might seem obvious, but any successful outsourced project always starts with a clear statement of what you are hoping to accomplish. Define your project requirements up front. Service providers need accurate, complete information to present you with realistic proposals and to quote you a reasonable price. Be specific about the deliverable you expect the vendor provide. Give vendors as much information as you can about what you need delivered and the way in which you need the work done. Also, be clear and realistic about your schedule requirements - project schedules can have a huge impact on project costs.

2. Evaluate a service provider like you'd hire a full-time employee
When you're evaluating proposals from service providers, don't be afraid to ask questions. Just like hiring a full-time employee, selecting a vendor is a very subjective experience. Check their references and ask for feedback from other clients who have used their services. Engage in a dialog - if you have any concerns about a vendor's specific capabilities, voice your concerns. Don't just stew about it and hope for the best.

3. Look for specific experience fit
Ideally, the service provider you select will have specific experience with the type of project that you're undertaking. You don't want to be somebody's "guinea pig." This is especially crucial when outsourcing complex technical projects such as software development. For example, if you're looking for someone to develop an application for the Palm PDA, make sure they've actually completed commercial projects on that platform for other satisfied customers. This advice holds true for other types of projects as well. If you need a business plan for opening a retail store, you'll get best results if the consultant you hire has verifiable experience in the retail sector.

4. Don't choose a vendor based solely on price
Though it might be tempting, never select a vendor based solely on price. Experienced buyers who have outsourced many projects and evaluated hundreds of proposals almost always recommend discarding the highest-priced and lowest-priced bid. Buyers report that their most successful projects are the ones where they felt the vendor offered a balance of good value and quality results.

5. Review portfolios and samples
Examine the vendor's previous work (their "portfolio") and make sure that their previous work meets your expectations for quality and style. If you've evaluated a vendor's portfolio, references and previous experience and are still unsure of their capabilities, consider asking them to do a quick mock-up or provide a basic outline of a work plan. A service provider who really wants to win your business might be able to give you a rough concept so you can better understand their approach to solving your problem. But never cross the line between asking for a mock-up and insisting that a vendor provide you with finished work "on spec." No qualified professional expects to work for free.

6. Start small
When engaging with a service provider for the first time, start with a project that is relatively small and simple in scope. This will give you a better idea of the provider's style and capabilities before you entrust a "mission critical" project to them.

7. Tie payment to clearly defined project milestones
Just as you should be clear about project scope, make sure that you define a work plan for your outsourced project with clearly defined milestones. Having scheduled checkpoints where you review the status of the project as it works toward completion-is an easy way to ensure that you meet your final deadline and that the final product meets your standards. Tie the vendor's payment to these milestones. A good guideline for IT and software development projects is to pay no more than 20% to 30% of the total project price up front, with the rest of the payments awarded based on the completion of 3 or 4 milestones.

8. Negotiate ownership of work up front
For any type of outsourced project, make sure that you are clear about who owns the resulting work product and any important components of that product. Make sure the service provider understands how you intend to use the deliverables that they are agreeing to provide. For example, the development of a custom software application for your personal use would be substantially different from the development an application that you intend to package and re-sell.

9. Don't forget about support after the project is complete
For technology projects, it's a good idea to specify a warranty or support clause so that you are assured of some amount of continuing support from the vendor after the project is complete. It's much easer to negotiate a support clause before the service provider begins work, rather than after the completion of the project. Even creative or business services can benefit from a support clause. Suppose you need some changes to a business plan based on feedback that you get from potential investors. Or maybe you find that you need that snazzy new logo delivered in a new type of file format. Specifying some amount of free support or negotiating discounted prices for future modifications can save you time, money and headaches later on.

10. Get it in writing

Call Center Outsourcing Guidlines

Contact center outsources can help to set your company apart from your competitors. With the right kind of call center outsourcing for small businesses you can reach your customers better with the outsource call center message you deliver and assist customers with an inbound call center that will bring them back to your business. Begin making the most of call center outsourcing by turning to a call center business to market your company.

Call center outsourcing companies can perform market surveys to find out you’re your customers want. Use a specialized outsource call center that has proven results with telemarketing efforts. Whether you use call center outsourcing providers fro marketing, as a help desk center or to direct client inquiries, make the most of call center outsourcing dollars with measurable results in a variety of ways.

1. Make sure you’re using the best call center operations.

2. Hire an inbound call center to get you on track.

3. Measure the results of your call center.


Action Steps to Smart Call Center Outsourcing:


The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Avoid waste with good information about call center outsourcing providers

Outbound call center management can take up a good chunk of your budget so you should make sure that you are putting your resources into call centers that work. Through client surveys, and ultimately through your sales figures, you should have a good handle on the most appropriate outbound call center management for your company.


Bring in call center operations to increase sales

After the surveys and plans are in place, the next step is to find the best place to put your calling requirements. An call center outsourcing for small businesses can help sort though all the choices as well as design your marketing pitches and recommend other lines of communication that could help increase your business profitability.

Measure call center business results

Keep track of the number of calls taken by the inbound call center and make sure you get reports of the disposition of those calls to ensure that you're getting your money's worth from the vendor. With the right kind of call center operations, you can be sure that your resources are being used in the best way.
enter needs.


Tips for Effective Call Center Operations

Try a short-term contract with an outsourced call center if you're not sure the service can help your business. Look at the results before making along term commitment.

Telemarketing call centers, often known as outbound call centers, are businesses dedicated to assisting companies with outbound calling tasks like appointment setting. There are a variety of outbound call centers available, including those with bilingual telephone sales representatives, 24 hour capabilities, and both dedicated and diverse telephone sales representatives at your service.

Telemarketing call center efficiently amass accurate information about the market in question, they can also take the disruptive task of outbound calling out of your office environment. Hiring the right telemarketing call center could be one of the best decisions you ever made for your business.

Profitable Customer Relationships through offshoring call Center Services

The fundamentals that will help your organization achieve greater success.

If you’re still trying to sort out what customer relationship management really means, you're not alone. The term has been so hyped and so broadly interpreted that it remains a source of confusion. And once codified as a popular business movement, terms tend rise and fall with the trends of the day.

But it’s important to remember that building profitable customer relationships will never go out of style. From the days of the corner store in centuries past, to the global enterprises of the future, the following 12 principles will remain the backbone of building a successful business. Each is both compelling on its own and intertwined with the others — there is no question, though, that customer relationship management as an integrated whole is greater than the sum of these parts.

1. Continuously Learn About Your Customers. This is the first principle of managing customer relationships because it is the most fundamental. From this everything else follows. When you know your customers, you can make sound business decisions about how to develop your relationships with them. Collect and analyze information about your customers to get to know them well. Maintain your knowledge in customer profiles that are available to all who need them. But don’t stop there. Apply everything you know to building a customer valuation model. Knowing the value of customer relationships is essential for managing them wisely.

2. Handle Different Customers Differently. This idea has been repeated so many times that it’s practically taken for granted now. But the power of this principle lies in the potential for optimizing the value of each customer relationship through differential treatment. Based on customer segmentation, call centers can provide user-appropriate Web and interactive voice response (IVR) interfaces, routing routines, service levels and content. It is important, however, not to differentiate simply because technology exists that can do so. Segment customers sensibly. There are hidden costs to differentiation that must be weighed against the increased value that personalization can be expected to produce. Effective strategy ultimately seeks to optimize the value and "wallet share" of each customer segment.

3. Anticipate Customer Needs. Building strong customer relationships positively alters the selling process in many ways. Knowledge of your customers presents new opportunities for making the right offer to the right person at the right time. Analysis of customer profiles, especially using powerful analytics tools, can provide insight about who buys what from you when. Contact management systems can detect cross-sell and upsell opportunities and act upon them by presenting suggestions to agents during service calls, dynamically responding to customer input or automatically presenting customized offers in Web pages and IVR systems. Even government and nonprofit organizations can use these principles to better fulfill their charters and anticipate the needs of their constituents.

4. Interact With Customers. Desirable relationships are not one-way. Relationships result from interaction. Knowing your customers is just the first step. Use that knowledge to deepen relationships with customers whenever you interact with them. No matter how sophisticated the technology that organizations and customers use to communicate, your customers are people and people appreciate being recognized, listened to and understood. Letting your customers know that you care enough about them to get to know them is an important part of managing the customer relationship.

5. Focus on Revenue and Retention. Unlike many other management initiatives, building strong customer relationships is not first and foremost about cost savings — although that will often be the end result. Instead, the emphasis is to increase the revenue received from current customers and heighten the retention rate of valuable customers. A renewed focus on customer relationships can require so many organization wide process changes that operational cost savings may well be realized, but in other ways. Talk time on customer calls may increase as agents make the most of each opportunity — it takes time to service customers well, to listen to them, to collect information about them and to upsell and cross-sell to them. But these steps can pay off in multiples. The return on investment for building customer relationships should not be expected from short term operational cost savings.

6. Increase Value for Your Customers and the Organization. The bottom-line reason for building customer relationships is to increase value both for customers and the organization. There are many ways to deliver increased value, including being “easy to do business with,” creating efficiencies for your customers and making timely offers of products or services that perceptively address customer needs. Similarly, there are many ways to increase the value of your customer relationships, and the most fundamental of these appear in this list of key principles. When executed properly, building customer relationships is a “win-win” for all parties.

7. Present a Single Face Across Channels. One of the ways to create value for your customers is to simplify the ways that they deal with your organization. Take a holistic view of your customers and consolidate information from across the organization, regardless of geography, department, function or product line. When you have a complete picture of each customer’s relationship, you can design customer interaction processes from the customer’s perspective, thus increasing value and letting customers know that you know them.

8. Enable Information Sharing and Interaction Across the Organization. Building customer relationships requires all parts of an organization, not just the call center. It is both a requirement and a benefit that organizations improve their internal communication processes. The only way to develop a comprehensive view of each customer’s relationship with the organization is with the full participation of every part of the organization. This requires strong support from top management and across the board. As the central point of contact with customers, the call center has a vested interest in driving the development of organizationwide interaction processes.

9. Create Business Rules to Drive Decisions. Business rules codify and automate processes, specifying what should happen in specific situations, thus enabling both differentiated customer treatment and automation. Developing organizationwide business rules is a monumental task, and how well it is done directly affects your success in building customer relationships. Business rules define the ways that the strategy is executed.

10. Empower Employees with Information and Training. Capable desktop tools may be the most visible technological feature of customer relationship applications. Just as the cockpit of an airplane displays all the information a pilot needs to fly in any condition, the contact management screen should pull together cleanly and clearly all that the organization knows about its relationship with that customer. Furthermore, business rules should dynamically change that screen to support and guide the agent in optimizing the customer relationship. Empowerment is a key principle, however, because no set of business rules can or should fully anticipate every conceivable situation: Agents need training, information and support offered by business rules so that they can make good decisions that are consistent with the organization’s strategy.

11. Retain the Right Customers. One of the truisms associated with customer relationship management is that it is cheaper to retain a customer than to acquire a new one, but that idea can be taken a step further. In order to maximize value, organizations should focus on retaining valuable customers, not necessarily all customers. Be warned, however, that misapplication of this principle can be dangerous. Mistreating “low value” customers, even if you are losing money on them, is hard to justify in the court of public opinion (which is where your future high-value customers are sitting).

12. Remember That Cultivating Customer Relationships is a Way of Doing Business. These efforts go beyond tools, techniques or programs. Building customer relationships is about the way you do business. It requires participation and hard work by people throughout the organization, and if done right, the work never ends. Results from these efforts should be fed back into the process to continuously refine business rules, marketing efforts and information systems. True optimization has no finish line — it’s an ongoing mission.

Source : cmsight.com

Call Center Outsourcing : Core Business Terms

For many companies, outsourcing call center functions is a more cost-effective solution than hosting one in-house. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, however, there are a few terms that you need to understand. International call centers, for example, may offer significant cost-savings, but may have a negative effect on public relations. You also should determine whether you need an inbound or outbound call center. Most important, however, is probably the National Do-Not-Call Registry.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Inbound and outbound call centers

Inbound and outbound call centers are just like their names imply. Inbound call centers take calls from your customers. This is ideal for customer service issues and taking orders. Outbound call centers make calls to potential customers. This is also known as telemarketing.


Private label call center

With a private label call center, you can retain your company's brand. When a customer calls your number, they will think that they are calling your company directly.
Recommend: Advantage Reserve offers private label call center services and describes them on their website.


International call center

An international call center is located outside of the United States. Due to a lower standard of living, workers in other countries can accept lower wages than American workers.
Recommend: Call Centers India international call centers off shoring Inbound and Outbound Services.


National Do-Not-Call Registry

Consumers that do not wish to be contacted by telemarketing companies can put their phone number on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. It is illegal to call numbers that are on this list. Telemarketing companies must check their call list against the Do-Not-Call Registry once every 31 days.

Recommend: Visit the official National Do-Not-Call Registry for more details.


CRM software, customer relationship management

CRM stands for 'customer relationship management' and a CRM software program allows you to keep track of your customers. This is necessary when outsourcing call center services because you are not dealing with your customers directly. CRM software allows the call center workers to take notes about customers and log the calls that they make.

Call Centers - Generate Revenue by Satisfying Customers

A call center is a physical place where customers are dealt by customer care experts, normally with the help of computer automation. Characteristically, a call center has the power to manage a high volume of incoming calls at the same time, to separate out calls and send on them to someone specified to address their concerns also to log calls.

These call centers are largely used by companies which are deals on telemarketing, product help desk, on line marketing, service providers, travel industries, and every large business organization that uses the phone to sell products or provide services.

A great call center is mainly depends upon some factors like efficiency, customer satisfactions and revenue generation. The efficiency or the ability to handle customers with effectiveness without wasting time, effort and expense can make any call center bona fide and adequate.

Every customers looks for quick and efficient answers to their questions and that is known as customer satisfaction services.

Customer satisfaction takes place when a call delivered the exact answer to the question placed by a customer, whenever they want it. Highly skilled customer care representatives can easily understand the fact that the customer does not perpetually enunciate what they want, sometimes one need to comprehend and should act effectively.

Now a days, the scripts are being provided to every calling agent for the purpose of saving time and also giving exact information’s to their customers. However, sometimes one need to understand or determine the reason of being contacted in first place to help him/her right way.

If customer representative can understand the exact concern of the customer, they can easily help them justly and this will produce a satisfied customer for any call centers.

To get revenue upon your investment you must have to satisfy your every customers in today’s World because customers are main asset of any successfully organization. As the revenue generation is the one and only bottom line of any organization and begetting revenues is impossible without satisfied customers and the more effective the call center, the more time is usable for the same.

To intact the bottom line you must find ways to satisfy your customers to grow your business. If you are unable to provide solutions for customer satisfaction services then the wise idea is to outsource call center services from quality call centers.

Tina Hope is writing articles for Call Centers India Inc. (CCI), a globally recognized call center services provider produce quality agents that serves quality service with little waste of time and energy. Inspired and impelled to satisfy customers’ needs effectively, ensuing to additional and continuous revenue for clients.

Offshoring threat downplayed for U.K. call centers

The U.K. call center industry is still set to see strong growth over the next few years, despite hype about the impact of offshoring, according to new research.

A report by analyst firm contact babel predicts a gain of more than 150,000 jobs over the next three years, bringing the total U.K. call center work force to more than 1 million--though that does represent a drop in the growth rate of recent years. U.K. call centers currently employ 850,000 people.

The growth, however, will not be across all sectors. Offshoring--the shipping of jobs overseas--will hit the finance, telecommunications and utilities sectors, where there will actually be a decline, with a net loss of 5,000 jobs. But contact centers in IT, retail, outsourcing and the public sector are set for strong growth, according to the report.

Steve Morell, principal analyst at ContactBabel, said in the report: "In the long term, offshoring will become an accepted part of the customer service mix for some businesses, especially those with many thousands of contact center workers. The most likely scenario is that most companies will keep the majority of their contact center work within the U.K."
Resource : CNET News

Why Call Centers India is the best to offshore Call Center Services

Call Centers India is the best in Offshore Call Center Services headquarter in Siattle, Washington and Operations in Noida India, a suburb of New Delhi India. Call Center India is wholly owned subsidiary of U.S Corporation and funded by CISCO. Call Center India provides 100 % IP based Network Services globally.

1.Call Centers India is wholly owned subsidiary of U.S Corporation and funded by CISCO.

2.Call Centers India is the best in Offshore Call Center Services headquarter in Siattle, Washington and Operations in Noida India, a suburb of New Delhi India.

3.Call Center India provides 100 % IP based Network Services globally.

4.Call Centers India is having 3 levels of redundancy for its technology and Infrastructure to provide the best quality services to the Customers at any Cost.

5.Call Centers India have highly qualified ,well trained industry experience professional, customer support and technical service representatives.

6.Call Centers India using end to end CISCO based IP Network , latest technology for Voice Mail, IVR, Predictive Dialing and Call Monitoring Solutions.

7.Call Centers India enhancing the expertise in both Inbound and Outbound Call Center Services.

Our Comprehensive Inbound Services Covering :

Order Holding

Customer Services

Support Lines

Handling Call Over Flow


Our Outbound Call Center Services that are hard to find anywhere else:

Verifications Calls

Collections

Lead Generations and Sales Support

Appointment for Sales

Market Research

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Non Voice Services Support:

Chat, E-mail and SMS Support

Web based Programming, PHP Programming, Custom Applications

Web Based Solutions:

Data Entry

Mystery Shopping

Web Chat and E-mail Response

Qualitative Analysis and Research Services


Call Center India provides Outbound Call Center Services and back office support and complete B2B Solutions. We focus to reduce your investment and maximize your business profits with potential customers. We have highly qualified professionals teams and latest call center technology solution to keep you connect with your potential and capable to give best quality Services.

Why Choose India for Offshore Call Center Services ?

In the recession are you seeking a way to improve customer relations and expand customer bases in a cost-effective way? Why not consider outsourcing your customer support to India? India has been the favorite call center outsourcing destination for many countries, because of the numerous benefits that the country offers.

Here are a few reasons why you must choose India for offshore call center services:

Wide range of call center services

Indian call centers have expertise in providing voice, email and chat support. So whether you require inbound support, outbound customer support or live chat support, your Indian vendor can provide you with the exact service you require. India is a one-stop shop for all your customer support requirements. By partnering with an Indian call center company, you can get access to all these services and more:

* Inbound call center services
* Phone answering services
* Order taking services
* Telemarketing services
* Disaster recovery services
* Appointment setting services
* Lead generation services
* Telemarketing services
* Chat support services
* Cold calling services
* Email support services
* Outbound call center services
* Technical help desk services

Time-zone advantage

The geographical location of India has given Indian call centers a time-zone advantage. The 12-hour time difference between India and companies in the US, have enabled Indian call centers to provide 24 hour customer support. Choose India for customer support and provide your customers with 24/7 support all through the year.

Call center technology and infrastructure

Indian call centers are equipped with the latest in call center technology and infrastructure, so with an Indian vendor, you can be assured of quality customer support. At an Indian call center, you can get access to:

* 100% recording
* Real time reporting
* High-speed internet facilities
* Best-of-breed telecom infrastructure

Skilled call center agents

India has a large number of IT literate and English-speaking professionals. Indian call centers hire only the best agents after conducting intensive tests to find the most ideal candidates. All new call center agents are given extensive training on their voice and accent before they are allowed to take calls. You can be assured that your customers will be spoken to in courteous manner and that all your calls will be handled in an efficient manner.

Low operating costs

You can save more than half of your current operating costs, by choosing India for customer support. You can utilize your resources on your core business, while staying assured that your customers are receiving quality customer support. Choose India for call center services and get access to customer support at a low operating cost.

Make a decision to outsource customer support to India and start reaping the benefits that India offers.

Outbound Call Centers : Best Way to increase profitability

Today Telemarketing is the best media to advertise products or services over the phone. Many organizations doing telemarketing after launching new products in the market to earn profit . The organizations have data which contains the phone number. These phones numbers are dialed by telemarketing agents who sell the products of the organization by way of telemarketing.

Inbound Call Center Services provide the services to the customers to purchase the products Call Center Customers are using Telephone to contact the respective customers. An Outbound Call Centers compile the large database of the potential customers

Outbound Call Centers business goal depends on approach only the targeted customers. Call Center representative analysis the needs of the customers, if customer requirement abjectly match with Company's products or Services. Second important thing we have to care “Are you asking the right questions?” We must care and a review of your competitions for the respective products or services , advantage and disadvantage in compare to this. Call Center representative should be prepared with this updates and always respond with “Yes” attitude.

Using an outsourced outbound call center invites an indirect, impersonal relationship with customers. It also means less control over sales representatives. This appears to be a great drawback in hiring outbound call center services, howsoever hardworking and honest they may be.

Call Centers India provides the best Customer Support services on Offshore Call Center Services, an International Call Center CISCO based 100% I.P Network , Headquarter in Seattle, Washington(U.S.A). Call Centers India Outsourcing Inbound Services, Web Support Services like Chat, E-mail, SMS Support Services, Back Office and Outbound Call Center Services - Market Intelligence, Database Selling, Direct Mail Follow-up, Lead Generation, Qualification Management, Seminar Population, Product Promotion, Debt Collection, Info & Literature Fulfillment, Appointment Scheduling, Decision Maker Contacts, Up Sell Cross Sell Campaigns, Surveys, Customer Satisfaction

Offshore Call Center Services India

In the present era, the online marketing world is expanding rapidly and this will continuously increase into the future. The customer service with many people needing assistance online, web based communication and due to this call centers becomes essential in your companies marketing campaigns.

Today's online and offline marketing world; there has never been a higher need for the use of an outbound call center service partner to provide all call center dealings hassle free.

Our cost efficient outbound call center solutions are guaranteed to meet your criteria for live operator direct marketing services. If you are looking to outsource your call center needs your customer service and telemarketing objectives.

Each of our call center representatives are highly trained on the products and services as your company offers. We also consistently monitor call performance and customer behavior so that we can update any telemarketing campaign to achieve its telemarketing goals.

Call Centers India provide the best quality offshore call center services for Outbound Call Center Support.