Market research and survey by BPOs

Any well-known call center service provider these days offer quality market research and market survey services. This is directed to gather as much information as possible.

Coming to what all you can gather from a typical market intelligence service:

• To collect information and data
• To get acquainted with the latest market trends and developments
• To know the customer tastes and preferences
• To collect customer feedback, this is done through customer satisfaction surveys
Why do you need market surveys and research at all?

• Information and data are important for maintaining a valid database. In today’s time a valid database is pretty significant in carrying out business particularly conducting the direct and indirect marketing campaigns. With a database at hand identifying and setting the target becomes easier. Call centers have the technical support to procure and maintain flawless data.
• Keeping a track of the latest market trends and developments is important. Modern day market tests on your innovative skills. The success of your business to quite some extent depends on adaptability skills, the ability to changes and on the ability to upgrade.
• Knowing the customers taste and preferences is a must. Why? So that the business can present rather offer its products and services exactly the way in which the buyers want.
• Collecting customers’ feedback is important. Based on such info the future marketing and other business strategies are decided upon.

Cold Calling in Call Centers

Call centers follow the cold calling marketing strategy for calling up total strangers and informing them about the client’s products and services. This is not as easy as it appears, since people are not all ears when they understand that a call center agent is trying to make a sale. For grabbing the interest of people, the script has to be prepared well and edited in the right manner.

Firstly, the prospects and target audience have to be identified through the right market study. Talking in a conversational manner is an art that the call center agents need to master; people should be engaged in the conversation, and nothing should sound as if it has been rehearsed. It is to be kept in mind that time is precious, so avoid wasting time in beating about the bush and get straight to the point.

Once you are able to identify the need of your prospect and offer him/her something that he/she needs, your job will be a lot easier. The aim of cold calling should not be to make sales; rather it should aim for setting an appointment with the prospect. Making the sales comes at a later stage. Always clearly explain the prospect how the product or service would benefit them; this is the key to make a successful cold call.

Call Center Interview – The Right Way

BPO jobs are very much in demand especially with the Asian youth. There are several young men and women fresh out of colleges opting for call center jobs for the attractive pay that is offered. There are certain tips that a BPO should look for when recruiting people for its call center.


First and foremost, the interviewer should look for experience related to call center among the candidates who appeared for the interview. The educational qualification is also important; most call centers have particular criteria for education, and that has to be met. If the candidate is experienced, it is necessary to know the job profile of the person in details and tell the person what the requirement is for post that is vacant.

Talk to the interviewee and try to understand if the candidate has the capability to talk politely and has a pleasant voice; this matters a lot when talking to customers over phone. You can ask the candidate to talk to you on any topic constantly for around 2 minutes; this will help you analyze how clearly the candidate can describe things and make you understand. This is a skill that is required when providing information to the customers.

The candidate may be nervous, which is quite natural, but your job will be to see if the candidate is trying to smile pleasantly from time to time. The call centers require agents who have a pleasant manner and lots of patience when interacting with clients and customers.

FTC Plugs Web-leads for BPO

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has come down heavily on the business prospects of the BPO again. After pulling down reins on the telemarketing business by banning random calls from the outbound call center, the FTC is now thinking of doing something similar for the Internet business. The FTC is planning to ban the use of Internet cookies to store information that is useful for online shopping and makes it a more personal experience. Internet cookies are also used by call centers to track information about users and visitors that come to the clients’ websites. The information is used for lead generation through email marketing.

This new directive, though still in the nascent stages, is already giving worry creases to call center managers. Just when the BPO units were shifting from a lead generation method based entirely on telemarketing calls to the use of web leads and Internet tools, this bolt from the blue will hit the industry hard. Sales lead generation experts predict that if this new directive comes into play, a major chunk of the Internet revenue will shrink, causing a financial crunch for business process outsourcing units across the world. At present, the Internet users have the choice to disable Internet cookies before they surf online.

Call Center Resolutions

There are some New Year resolutions that call centers need to take. These are necessary, not just for an improved call center services, but also to make it possible for the call center to grab telemarketing projects. Here are some resolutions that you can implement in your telemarketing unit:

• Monitor Quality: Stringent quality check is the only way to a future with improved telemarketing services. Your agents and employees, especially at the inbound call center team, have to pull up their socks and deliver quality work. The managers and team leads have to be careful about this so that the call center makes a favorable impression on the client.

• Increased Security: Call centers have to doubly careful with data. Clients are more particular about the data that they share with their BPO partner. Any leakage or misuse of data will result in a bad reputation for the call center unit. Data theft is extremely prevalent these days. Members of the outbound call center team have to be careful about the data that they are working with.

• Knowing Customers: Customer service agents have their task cut out in dealing with customers. The inbound call center team needs to ensure that there is little erosion from the customer databank. Proper answering service can solve this issue and also earn good feedback from clients/customers.

Money Talk at BPO

Money plays an important part in the modern day call center. Without a steady capital, BPO companies cannot compete. They need the cash for various purposes. The technology used in business process outsourcing units are changing and upgrading every other day. To keep pace with the times, they have to continually invest in better technology. For example, call centers need to get web-enabled call center services for everything they do. Other than technology. they will need the money to hire superior quality manpower. Since quality will be the benchmark of outsourcing, you might as well start spending cash towards that end!

How to save money for the call center in this economy? That is the question that is baffling for BPO owners across the globe. You can start off by streamlining your call center services. Unproductive pockets consume resources without offering anything in return. The BPO managers will do well to conduct campaigns through methods that provide higher returns on investment. For example, deciding on your targeted customers before cold calling will save costs or scheduling the inbound call center resources will help you cover more in shorter period of time. You have to keep experimenting to check what works for you.

Call Center Software

When you hire out your customer service department to a call center, you want your business partner to handle a high call volume with practiced efficiency. There is no doubt that the BPO company you have onboard should have the latest equipment and software to tackle your business calls and process them without any flaws. Primarily speaking, there are two different kinds of software used at call centers. One is the IVR, or the Interactive Voice Response software. Here, the callers are allowed to choose from a list of options. This cuts down on the call time because the callers can immediately go to the section they want information from. There is no need to speak to live agents, unless the caller insists on it.

The other type of call center software is the CTI, or the Computer Telephony Integration. In this system, the telemarketing calls are routed through a computer. When the calls come through, the BPO agents can check the required information about the caller on their computer screens. They can easily find out what kind of material they are looking for to answer those calls. The information bank is at their disposal. This helps the telemarketing services to be more precise and accurate in their information dissemination. It also reduces the hold time for the callers and they get their answers promptly.

Call Center Industry in 2011

The call center industry has some interesting trends to show in the coming year. 2011 will be the year of cloud computing in the BPO sector. Clients and customers will be more comfortable at looking for Caas (Communication as a Service) rather than premise-based call center services. The key will be to get the best talent onboard. Whether they are working in a brick-mortar business process outsourcing unit or not comes second. Along with the cloud system, real-time monitoring and reports will find a lot of purchase in telemarketing services. Clients will prefer a web-based reporting structure as opposed to white papers that call centers send in to their clients.

A very interesting trend in lead generation services is the development of applications for Blackberry, I-Phone, Smartphone and I-PAD applications. These are new-age mobile devices that consumers are increasingly getting hooked to. Most consumers use these gadgets to check up on their emails and other Internet activities. To tap these upwardly mobile classes of consumers, BPO units have to adapt themselves to the way they like to connect. Along with the application, the question of security in call center services is another emerging trend for 2011. Call centers are more concerned about security, as they are about providing quicker solutions to telemarketing issues.

The Important of FCR in Customer Service

FCR, or First Call Resolutions, is that part of customer service that records the number of calls that were resolved on the very first instance. Sometimes callers have to ring up the inbound call center desk more than once for a single problem. A call center that pays attention to the FCR percentage doesn’t allow a problem to lie. They make the best possible attempt to get it sorted out on the first attempt made by the caller. This has several advantages to it. Firstly, it reduces the operational cost at the answering service desk. Callers, when they find a solution to their problem, don’t call again with the same issue. So the BPO unit doesn’t have to pay for repeat calls.

Probably the best advantage of a high FCR is the customer satisfaction. Customers like your customer service when you manage to pin down your problem immediately. This attains two benefits for the telemarketing department. One is that the call center agent can build up on the customer’s good mood to cross sell and up sell. Another benefit is that because the callers are happy with your call center services, they will not think about moving over to some other brand. This keeps your clients happy and is fruitful for your business in the long run.

Customer Service Goes Virtual

The customer service departments of various BPO companies are going virtual. The struggle to be there for the customers at all times has reached a new height. Call centers are now working out a schedule by which they are recruiting answering service agents who will work as a virtual team. The agents will ideally be located in different time zones so that they are able to cover the entire 24 hours. The idea is to keep phone answering agents on the call during the lean hours. The customers can be located anywhere across the world. They will call according to their convenience. So the call center has to be ready to receive them.

By careful scheduling, the call center units can assign agents according to the time zones they are based in. It will be the BPO manager’s job to check up the peak hours at the inbound call center desk. Get the best agents on the job during this time. You can keep this thing with the customer service agents working from the call centers itself. During the weaker periods of time, get the virtual phone answering agents to come into the picture. Brief them about the telemarketing project and the requirements well in advance. You need the whole team to function as one unit.

Transformation in Customer Service

Times have changed at the customer service department. You can no longer associate the inbound call center with just voice calls. Previously it used to be about optimizing the answering service process like bringing down the hold time or increasing the frequency of calls that are resolved on the first attempt itself. These days it is about transformation. Customer care has now transformed into something that spills over online. It’s not just about voice calls anymore. Customers are contacting the BPO agents through the websites of the clients, through emails or even through online chat options.

The inbound call center, therefore, has more to do than just answer calls. They have to answer emails and also respond to queries about the brand. The BPO units must deploy agents with standard writing skills so that they can personally respond to the email messages sent by clients. These are also wonderful opportunities for lead generation. The savvy telemarketing agent can convert the curiosity about the brand to sales. That is one area where the telemarketing services employees have to be vigilant. They have to spot the opportunities where they can cross-sell and up-sell.

Economic Support of BPO

As opposed to what the general perception is, the BPO sector continues to contribute handsomely to the economic prosperity of the host country. The call center sector is known to be a prime contributor to the total earnings of a country, mainly so because of the foreign exchange that it brings in. However, skeptics have derided the contributions, of late. They declared that the telemarketing industry is about to fall apart. There are twin reasons why they think so. One is the growing impatience of people towards outbound call center calls, and another is the political machinations against telemarketing services.

But these threats seem valid only on paper and speculation. The call centers are generating millions of jobs across the world. The benefits of the BPO sector is most evident in the third world countries. The contributions of the telemarketing units towards the national earnings is also to the tune of several billion American dollars. The creation of jobs is such a prime focus for every country that they are developing their infrastructure to help accommodate call center services. Moreover, they are also keen on making it smooth for the investors to set up telemarketing units in their countries. If the industry was actually deemed to be past its prime, would they welcome investors with open arms?

Budgets in Lead Generation

Budgets are important in lead generation. Before your outbound call center agents start working, you have to finalize what kind of money you are looking at. The cost per call has to be worked out according to that budget. The way things are, call centers have to be aware that shooting above the budget will not be welcome. Clients are also working on tight financial schedules. They cannot afford to pay extra. Recession-hit firms are not able to work out finances at the last minute. Like the BPO units, they have designated budgets for sales lead generation as well. If you fail to deliver within the stipulated budget, it’s counted as a discredit.

There are different ways in which the call center units ensure that they are sticking to the budget of lead generation. Assign small targets for yourself. Check how much you are spending during the different stages of the telemarketing project. If you see the outbound call center agents are working within the constraints of the budget, let things keep rolling. Otherwise you can bring some cost-saving measures into effect. Small targets help because you get the opportunity to rectify things before it’s too late. Keep your fingers on the pulse of the telemarketing services and respond immediately to any deflections.

Lead Generation Tip: Nurturing

Lead generation comprises of a significant process called lead nurturing. That’s the process by which outbound call center agents follow up on the leads that they have generated through phone calls and emails. The process of lead nurturing is important for the BPO because customers and clients are busy professionals. They often forget about the telemarketing offer that they received last evening. They may have assured the sales lead generation agent that they will think about their offer, but when it comes to actually doing so, they come unhinged. It’s the task of the call centers to give them follow-up calls or emails.

The usual procedure of lead nurturing is to send across an email after 3 to 8 days in B2C lead generation. If the telemarketing project is about something to do with finances, the agent has to provide them some additional lead time to think it over. Call center agents have to be careful that they don’t send in the same emails as reminders. Vary the copy of the email to make it more progressive and interesting each time you send one. If you are using the same copy, the receiver may get frustrated and hit ‘Unsubscribe’! That, of course, closes down the sales lead generation process.

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.

Monetary Rewards for Call Centers

Money is a major motivational factor. But when the financial strains begin to tell on the BPO, the employees are sure to feel the heat. Deferred raises, lack of perks and privileges are very much there when the telemarketing unit is hard pressed for cash. In a way, the call centers have to cope with some disgruntled voices on the floor. Incentives are good catalysts for motivation and the managers have to slog through some indifferent attitude from the employees. It’s an issue that most human resources manager would like to side-step. It’s obvious that they don’t have much to do here because they don’t have the purse strings with them.

What they can do here is boost the morale of the employees. Transparent talks with the call center agents are ways to do that. Explain them as to why they are not getting their raises and incentives. When you speak to the BPO agents as they are part of the organization, they are most likely to respond and understand the situation. You need their support in these trying times. Let them know that their effort in telemarketing services is being noted and they are up for monetary rewards the moment the call center services see some influx of cash.

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.

Lead Generation Rules On!

With the telemarketing sector shrinking because of the trouble with the telecom authorities, an alternate and stronger alternative is emerging. This is the online lead generation era! Call centers across the world are looking forward to generating leads online as compensation and also as bonus. There are some advantages of using the internet to get in touch with more customers. The reach is unimaginable! You can market local products in any market that you choose. The internet gives you access to any circuit that you want to target. The BPO unit has to study the search engines and make allowances so that their client’s page comes up before the rivals.

Customers like to buy in a certain way. If the call center services can provide them with their demands in the way they like it, the call center will definitely reap the benefits of being customer-friendly. Customers prefer to buy products/services online. They are aware that the system of delivering goods and processing payments has rapidly improved and become more responsible and transparent. They are not afraid of being duped by telemarketing agents because everything is in front of their eyes. They can even track the passage of their purchase from the manufacturer to their doorstep through online status updates.

Importance of Strategic Planning in Call Center

There is a direct need for strategic planning in call center units. Without the assistance of a proper plan, BPO units tend to deviate from the path that they want to take. The advantages of strategic planning are many and disparate. Planning helps to keep the budget under check. Budget can become an issue of debate between clients and the call centers. Because the budgets that clients set aside for call center services is limited and often not very deep, they want to be additionally careful with the money that they put on the table. Coming from the perspective of a financer in the recession hit market, their paranoia about money is understood.

If the call center wants to optimize the budget and means that they have on hand, they can do so well. They have to be careful about keeping a tab on things. The planning stage in call centers begins when the telemarketing project comes on board. The hiring on agents, the decision on what kind of technology that will be used, along with how things are going to pan out – all these need to be chalked out with care and a practical eye for detail. It’s always advisable to make provisions for those factors that are not strictly within your control.

When Answering Service is Busy

A pet peeve at the answering service desk is finding the number busy. It happens so often that you feel scared of calling the phone answering desk unless there’s a dire emergency! That’s not a healthy sign for a brand that wants to be popular with the customers. Having a functional and efficient inbound call center team is important for brand value. Customers thrive on brand value and that comes chiefly from customer service and customer care. If you are taking good care of your customers even after you have made the sale, you are earning some brownie points for yourself and your brand.

We have all experienced the frustration of finding the customer care number to be busy. Repeated calls to the number fail to elicit a different response. That’s where BPO firms need to work. They have to use specialized tools and probably interactive voice response system (IVRS) to tackle the clutter at the inbound call center. The right kind of technological investment, like depending on web enable call center services can solve a lot of your worries. You can route the traffic of customers to a website. This will take the pressure off telemarketing agents and yet bring you leads. Online lead generation will also ensure that the customers contact you through emails and queries addressed through the website. They will seldom call and you will have your phone lines free.