Telemarketing Still Works

If you think that telemarketing services are not being sought by the businesses any more, you are wrong. The telemarketing call center companies are still in vogue; if telemarketing activities are handled using the right techniques and armed with advanced software, it can benefit the businesses to a great extent. The advanced software helps the agents at the contact centers make a lot of calls in a short time. It is known that the more calls the agents are able to make, the better opportunities they have for convincing the customers to make a purchase from the businesses.

The telemarketing call center agents use auto dialers and predictive dialers and several other technologies for offering high quality services to the businesses. With these tools at hand, the agents are able to make calls to the prospects that respond, and make many calls on an hourly basis. The technologies help the agents know which prospects can be called for cold calling and telemarketing. The agents do not have to waste time in calls which go unanswered. These technologies enable the agents to spend time on calls to which the customers have answered.

Telemarketing is a great way to educate the prospects on the uses of the products and services that are offered by the business. The telemarketing companies must make sure that they utilize all the technologies and software appropriately; this helps the telemarketing process to click. Otherwise, telemarketers are considered by the customers to be annoying individuals and a waste of time.

Contractual Telemarketing Agents

When you are using contracted telemarketing agents, you have to be careful about various aspects. You have to be careful about data security because these telemarketing agents are not part of the organization as such. They are not even on the direct payrolls of the BPO. However, you have to make sure that this fact is expressed only on paper. In spirit, you have to make them part of the call center services team. There may be a wealth of experience in the agents that you have hired on contract. They may know processes and methods which can take your telemarketing services to greater heights. They may also help you optimize and streamline your process.

However, none of this would come to fruition if the BPO managers don’t have the right kind of attitude towards them. It’s the job of the call center managers to make them feel part of the organization. It will only be with the right kind of approach that you can inculcate a sense of belonging in these short-term employees. That would make them work hard and do that extra bit for the call centers. As you know, BPO service is all about team work and you need every member of the team to contribute towards the project. That would include contractual workers as well. You may not be able to provide them the status of a full-time employee, but make sure you treat them like one.

BPO Question Out of Menu

The controversial BPO question is finally dropped from the table laid out for President Barack Obama. The online registration form that the business contingent in India has to fill up to meet the President had a question on the explosive business process outsourcing subject. The candidates had to declare how much of call center outsourcing work they are doing for America. Businesspersons in India are not sure that they want to give away this information in the form. That is why they objected to this demand and finally it was struck off. The visit of the President will turn over a new leaf in telemarketing services between the two countries. Because the visit comes in the wake of the President’s declarations that he wants to curb the offshore call center market, this visit promises to build hype around it.

There was another hitch involved in this meet in Mumbai. The charges that the organizers demanded were stiff and against the convention of such meets. In the wake of protests, the charges were pulled back as well. President Barack Obama visits India on November 6. He will be meeting a clutch of businessmen in Mumbai and talk about the issue of offshore call center outsourcing. The Finance Minister of India has already assured the media and representatives of the BPO sector that the issues arising out of outsourcing will be solved in the way of dialogues.

New BPO Players Increase Traction

New players in the market have increased the traction in the BPO sector. There is more competition and the new movers have succeeded in filling up the gaps left behind by their larger counterparts. In terms of business, this has both negatives and positives. Among the positives, new players will be able to inject fresh ideas into telemarketing. They will bring in a perspective that will give birth to some concepts that were not around. As a result of their constant drive for innovation, telemarketing services will be benefited immensely. This is surely one of the more exciting news that has emerged from the call center sector in the recent times.

If you count the negatives, the new players in the BPO sector have pushed up the competition. This is surely going to bring down the prices of call center services. That is not good news for the call center sector that is already reeling under the influence of the inflated cost of technology, equipment and manpower. In a way, call centers across the globe are making sure that they are optimizing their resources to make everything count. Their aim is to cut down the cost of production, so that they can be able to make some profit.

Watch the Time, Telemarketing Agents!

The time of the telemarketing call has a lot to do with its success ratio. This is even truer for B2B lead generation calls. You cannot expect your agents to hit the bull’s eye if you call a business head first thing in the morning when he is just in his office. Important business executives will never entertain calls from a BPO when they have plenty of other work waiting them to start off. It’s difficult to have them on the line, and even when you do, they are more likely to hear you out and disconnect. Then forget all about it in the course of their daily schedule. To increase your chances of making every call count, you have to keep an eye on the clock.

Time zones are a problem for call centers working out of offshore destinations. Such set-ups need to be extra vigilant to check what the time is on the watch of the customer that they are calling. Schedule business telemarketing calls to the latter half of the day. Allow the business heads to settle down and get their routine sorted out. Then you have better chances of making an impact. The same goes for any emails and business correspondence that you want to mail across. Keep them for the time of the day when your contact will have the leisure to read what you have written. Unless it’s a follow-up email that your contact asked for, keep them for the afternoons.

Call Center Lesson: What Customers Think

To find out how you can improve your call center services, you have to find out what the customers think of you. They are best judge of your customer service. BPO agents can find out about the work that they are doing and the impact that they have by tapping the customers who talk to them. Ask them about the experience of talking at your inbound call center desk. Find out what they think of your answering service. While some may be prejudiced or just cynical by nature, the majority of them will be willing to offer you an impartial view of things. You can use the feedback to rethink your strategy and include the suggestions that you receive from your customers.


It’s not just about call center services that you can find out from your customers. You can boost your telemarketing efforts by finding out about the customer’s buying patterns. It could be that with the feedback that you receive from the customers, you can actually position your products better than you are doing at present. Customers’ feedback can be beneficial for your clients as well. They can learn how they can improve their products to cater to a larger market. It may be that just by dipping the price a little they can achieve a bigger profit. Market surveys on customer feedback can be crucial for all concerned with telemarketing services.

BPO Rivals Crowd Market

The BPO circuit is now flush with competition. The recession has proved the stability of the business process outsourcing sector like never before. While numerous firms and industries got hit badly enough not to recover till date, the call center sector has progressed with bold strides. Now the Indian telemarketing sector is being challenged by their neighbor Sri Lanka. The emerald country is known to have the same type of resources that has made India the superpower in the telemarketing services industry. Sri Lanka has an integrated amount of English-speaking people who can be successfully inducted in the call centers. As any investor would tell you, the ease with which you get manpower is primary to the cost-effective utilization of an industry.

Other than the manpower, Sri Lanka provides call center investors with the right infrastructure and telecommunication set-up for an industry of this stature. The BPO sector is something that the government of Sri Lanka is serious about. They want the telemarketing industry to grow because they want to earn those foreign currencies, along with providing the employment to the educated youth of the country. They realize that their main competition in the business process outsourcing sector is with India. They also know that they started late and have a lot of ground to cover. With the right direction and the big projects, they will be right up there soon!

Labor Rights for Filipino Telemarketing Agents

The Filipino government is faced with a bill that ensures the protection of the labor rights of the call center employees. BPO is the preferred sector of most workers in the Philippines. With the growth of the telemarketing sector, the number of workers associated with the industry has also swelled. So the time is ripe for the regularization and protection of the right of the manpower engaged in the telemarketing services sector. The bill has been re-filed in the Filipino House of Representatives. The Philippine Consulate General in New York has already confirmed that the business process outsourcing sector will see further growth in Philippines despite threats on the contrary.

The salient features of the BPO bill provide regularization of the call center employees upon completion of their probationary period. That would mean confirming their employment of extending their probationary period in call center services, according to the need of the hour. The bill means medical benefit for the telemarketing agent, even if his employment has not been regularized. The bill makes allowances for comfort breaks for the telemarketing services agents of duration not shorter than five minutes, along with intervals of at least a couple of hours between their work shifts. The business process outsourcing employees will also have the right to bargaining and democratic associations, if the bill is passed by the House of Representatives.

FTC Still Struggles with Telemarketing

The Federal Trade Commission admitted that despite their best efforts, viral emails asking consumers to register their cell phone numbers with the Do Not Call list is still doing the rounds! Calling the emails that has been circulating since 2005 an “urban myth”, the authorities clarified that the government does not intend to give out cell phone numbers to telemarketing companies. According to the rules, call center agents cannot call cell phones to offer telemarketing services. The numbers of the DNC list are out of limits for any outbound call center agent, but it’s more so for cell phone users. There is a law against BPO agents calling cell phones, they need not sign up with the DNC to get themselves off the hook.



The viral emails also mention that the government has put up a time limit by which they can register on the DNC list. The truth is, to get rid of telemarketing calls you need not hurry because there is no time frame. As it is, call center units are not going that alley anymore! There has been quite some financial loss in the violation of the rules and telemarketing services were fined heavily. There is no point in the outbound call center agents tapping the unwilling consumers anyway. The telecom authority also mentioned in their disclaimer that the call center services have no access to their numbers and it does not intend to make the cell phone numbers public at any point in time.

Telemarketing Defines Life!

The working hours in the telemarketing sector have redefined the life led by the call center agents. The awkward shifts of work have put them in a situation where they have no choice but to adjust to the ways of the call centers. But they have not made a bad job of it. They have adapted to the BPO way of life in their own way. The body clock may have gone for a toss! The health hazards may have increased. But a good day at the telemarketing services desk is all it takes to put them firmly back in place. The call center services agents have decided to take the not-so-comfortable timings in their stride as some demand of their professional life.

















It’s not just at the individual level that the BPO firms have changed perceptions. In various developing countries, the concept of working nights was very foreign and alien. The coming of call centers has changed that. The people and the society at large are more comfortable with the graveyard shifts of the telemarketing services than they were a couple of years back. This means a lot to the telemarketing sector employees who had to face quite some resistance at home and in the social fabric. And it’s also changed the way you hang out with friends who are not part of the business process outsourcing industry. You cannot be with your friends during the day (sleeping) or night (working)!

Telemarketing Laws Amended for User’s Benefit

The Federal Trade Commission has amended the telemarketing laws in USA. According to the new laws, a call center offering debt recovery facilities and debt consolidation services cannot charge from people unless they actually provide the services. The FTC amended the telemarketing services law in a sort of knee-jerk reaction after several call centers were found to be duping the citizens in fraudulent call center services. They were getting the users to pay up to initiate services and then disappeared off the face of earth. The FTC feels that such practices burn a deeper hole in the already burnt pockets of the debt-ridden. The law applies for all firms that are registered as ‘for profit’ organizations.

The rules are a little relaxed for the non-profit ones. However, the FTC has put in stringent rules for call center units to pass off as non-profits. There are some call centers out there that are not registered as non-profits. Yet, when they are into telemarketing, they promote themselves as non-profits to bypass the rules of telemarketing services that they will be otherwise subjected to. Though the rules will not be a problem for the bona fide call center units, the ones up to some mischief will be in some sort of a bother. The law also forbidding BPO units from charging any fees for services that they have not provided comes into effect from October 27.