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.

B2B Lead Generation through Professional Networks

The use of professional networks is an up and coming tool for B2B lead generation. Professionals across the globe are steadily signing up for professional networking websites like LinkedIn and Xing. Their aim is to stay in touch with colleagues and co-workers from the past and also the present. The network helps them source for jobs, share ideas and also take part in meaningful discussions about their professional. Call center agents can interact with the decision makers of business firms. Talking strictly in a professional manner, they can convince them as to why they need the telemarketing services of the BPO unit.

B2B lead generation is a tad difficult than the usual sales lead generation that the outbound call center agents does. In this process, the call center agents have to be careful about what they are writing and talking about. Because they are dealing with top-notch business executives, any error in pitching for telemarketing projects can be the reason why you missed out on the deal. Trying too hard to seal it off will also come across as desperate. You have to strike a fine balance between being laid back and too aggressive. Follow up your emails with phone calls and keep the lead warm, advises experts.

BPO Companies and Mobile Applications

Mobile applications development is not an option for most call centers. To build up a mobile app for a simple phone needs superior technology. For high-end phones like Smartphone and Android phones, the stakes get higher. BPO companies often shy away from investing that much into mobile advertisement and apps. The reason is very simple. These phones are used by top notch business executives and affluent income groups only. Lead generation campaigns don’t often include them in their target demographics. That is why the amount of money that they put in is not really justified at the end of the day.

However, the bigger BPO companies are using mobile apps for lead generation. Consumers like it when they are contacted in newer, unique ways. When the call center walks the straight path and go for telemarketing calls to get more customers in the kitty, consumers tend to be repelled. They don’t want to budge to the traditional ways of telemarketing services. The same customers would feel drawn to a brand when the call centers tap them through mobile advertisements or apps. To find out what mode of sales lead generation would be suitable for a campaign, the telemarketers have to study the market trends and make investments accordingly.

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.