For your everyday call center needs!
Header image

The Filipino Call Center Service Level: An Investigation

Posted by admin in Call Center | Call Center Services | Services Call Center - (0 Comments)


Whatis.techtarget.com, an IT online encyclopedia, explains the term “service level” as follows:

“Service level describes, usually in measurable terms, the services a network service provider furnishes a customer within a given time period. When used as a call center metric, service level measures the percentage of incoming calls that an agent answers live in an established amount of time.”

The site further provides that there are multiple approaches to determine service levels, each involving how call centers define “abandoned calls.” They may be treated, for instance, as:

- Missed opportunities (counted against the service level)

- Ignored (unavoidable and a part of doing business)

- Completed (where the caller would have been serviced properly without a premature abandonment of the call when the wait time is reasonably short)

A quality analyst (QA) is trained to evaluate and assess the service level of the call center agents. He/she must identify that an agent’s missed opportunities and ignored calls are the results of inability to connect with the callers chiefly because of language barrier or differences. American callers, for most of the times, can be adamant with call center agents having heavy accents. This is the reason why some offshore outsourcing centers of some international companies are transferred onshore. Filipinos, who speak English as their official language, has much higher rates of English proficiency and are known to have a neutral English accent. According to the “Asian Call Centre Review,” the Philippines has the highest standard of English in Asia followed far behind by India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. One can expect that Filipino call center agents can establish rapport when talking with American customers with so much ease and efficiency because they have a strong cultural affinity to the West and a high level of understanding on American idiomatic expressions.

If you are planning to outsource in any offshore centers in the world, a service level agreement (SLA) should be one thing that you have to put into great consideration. SLA is a contract between an outsource provider and the client/investor that specifies, usually in measurable terms, what services the outsource provider will furnish.

, , , , , , , ,

How Call Centers Help Businesses

Posted by admin in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

For smart businessmen, any type of call, as long as it pertains to business, is very important. Whether the caller wants to vent his anger and frustration or he or she is just calling to tell a supervisor how helpful and courteous the representative he spoke with was, a customer’s demeanor over the phone can be used as a measure of his level of approval or lack thereof of the products or services that a specific company provides. The services given by a call center include the monitoring of calls and coaching of agents on an individual basis to help them improve the level of customer service that is being provided over the phone. There are other kinds of services that call centers offer and we will tackle them in a bit. Call centers, most especially the established ones, are already accustomed to various metrics imposed by different clients for the various skill sets present in the call center industry.

A large number of companies engaged in trading and product promotion are at the onset of the call center services industry some of the very first types of businesses which availed of the services that call centers provided. A business that is involved in marketing can take into service a call center to perform customer acquisition operations. This particular call center service is all about generating leads that can be transformed into potential customers, cold canvassing, direct selling, conducting of surveys to identify the right demographics for a specific product or company, telemarketing, and a whole lot more. Call centers can also be of great assistance in B2B marketing. Most outbound call centers are well equipped with the tools to be used in over-the-phone sales. Most of them have installed various types of software to automatically and seamlessly connect one outbound call a few seconds after a call has been ended. Many of these call center services also employ tools that will help their agents tag the appropriate status of each call so that the accompanying file can be organized into specific folders for proper handling. For example, when a call center agent determines that the person he is looking for is already deceased, all he needs to do is click on the appropriate disposition, in this particular case it would most likely fall under the heading “deceased”, and the associated lead file will be sorted by the system and placed on the deceased folder, preventing that data to enter the call cue cycle again some other time.

 

Customer Service through Social Media

Posted by admin in Call Center | Services Call Center - (0 Comments)

The power of social media today cannot be ignored. In almost all aspects of contemporary life, the influential majority in all societies take part in the virtual community that social media creates.
In the business world, this influence slowly becomes apparent. Investors of all sorts readily make use of popular social networking sites in launching their venture to a global audience.  As such, retailers and sellers scatter around social media hubs like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Multiply, etc.
Just recently, a survey by the TNS Global Market Research found out that the power of social media had already reached the confines of customer service processing. With rising demands from social media subscribers, both mobile and online, who turn into their favorite sites for customer support, companies eventually realize the impressive potential of social media in promoting brand loyalty and providing customer service solutions for clients.
This strategic move among investors is gradually taking shape and form. In fact, 57% of consumers (including 71% of 16-24 year olds, 65% of 25-34 year olds, and 64% of 44-65 year olds) are already actively participating in this social media-driven customer support scheme. Under this activity, the initial step is to search for customer solutions and support online. Then, with the aid of social media platforms such as chat rooms, video tutorials from YouTube, blog demonstrations and many other question websites like Yahoo Answers, Facebook Questions,  and Quora, customers readily get the help they need for their product queries.
However, while this trend remains promising, a number of consumers remain satisfied and contented with the traditional phone support service provided by services call center; about 64% of consumers aged 55-64 still prefer phone support over online searches while an average of 30% for overall consumers do the same.
As such, investors and services providers must take this influential social media support system as a mere part of a greater system of customer care. Customer care providers must bare in mind that consumer support revolves around understanding audience demographics and the right level of support provided. In that regard, customer care must be holistic and accommodating at all times.

The 5s program in a Call Center workplace

Posted by admin in Call Center | Call Center Services - (0 Comments)

Having problems with the cleanliness and effectiveness of your workplace? Are you a call center agent whose having problem getting that elusive perfect attendance bonus because of your perennial sick leave? starting a bad day and is worsened by a brush with an irate caller? Having difficulty of remembering where you placed that last report you finished a week ago? Or are you an employer whose suffering from stress because your company looks more of a zoo than call center?

Fear not 5s program is here. It’s not a new program which would use you and your workplace as guinea pigs; actually many companies had already reaped its benefits of efficiency and orderliness.

5S is the name of a workplace organization methodology that uses a list of five Japanese words which are seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke and having their english translations starting with S as well.

Seiri-Sort

This means sorting through the call center workplace for anything that is not essential to the operation of the business. Throw away or store in a separate place the things that are not necessary with the core of the business. Human resource managers, line managers, supervisors, and team leaders should take the initiative to communicate with the agents of the issuance of this first step, where the call center agents themselves would decide what is essential and redundant with their work area. The company should provide an atmosphere where no morale or effectiveness of the agents would be overlooked. The first step is the hardest to implement, a hit or miss scenario. The management may have to use a “foot in the door phenomenon”, a strategy where a small participation is requested at first and each person’s responsibility would grow with it overtime.

Seiton-Straighten

The call center should determine the starting point for the company’s operation, in order to limit the distance and the time traveled between each operational function. The company should have  the IT support, the administration and other functions that are vital to the operation to be within reach of the call center agents and vice versa. The things that are core to the business should be accessible and organized to ensure a smooth flow of operations.

Seiso-Shine

Make cleaning a part of everybody’s routine, not just something that is done when an important client is visiting, or when the mess has become unbearable for the employer. People may say that this is just to easy, but proper waste disposal would save numerous chairs and desk from presence of chewed gums and dragees. The management may provide incentives for teams that have the cleanest workplace at the start and at the end of the day. This would not only provide motivation but good health and a clear mind as well, since people tend to work productively when there are minimal negative factors in the workplace.

Seiketsu-Standardize

The call center agents should know exactly what is expected from them and should be guided accordingly inorder to maintain the momentum of this new discipline. The management should be responsible for maintaining the consistency of the workplace, like reminders and posting the weekly progress of the 5s program.

Shitsuke-Sustain

Team leaders and managers have a job to do here, in ensuring that the people involved in the development of the new way of working remain committed to the methods that were designed. The program would just be a waste of everyone’s time and energy if it would gradually slip back into the old practice. Everyone should maintain the discipline in the call center, employers and employees alike.

It’s essential that the Call center “participate” with the program rather than having 5S “done” to them.

, , , , , ,

The Benefits of Call Center Services

Posted by admin in Call Center | Call Center Services | Services Call Center - (0 Comments)

Call centers are now an indispensable part of the world of commerce. Their presence has transformed the way in which companies and independent entrepreneurs transact business with each other. In addition, call centers have also transformed customer-service provider relations. Among the reasons why call centers are such a hit in this era is that they are able to streamline, standardize, and iron out services that would have otherwise prevented customers from fully benefiting and/or enjoying them. Call center services are geared towards business growth via cost-efficient and less complicated means, as business growth ultimately requires putting customers first on your list.

Telemarketing services, for instance, entails calling out to various potential customers in the hopes the products or services being plugged can be of benefit to them one way or another. It is not just about profit. Such products and services can actually have a very positive impact on the lives of these individuals if they just open their minds to it. Telemarketing services include both tangible and intangible things, from goods like mobile phones, broadband Internet, and cable television to services like educational assistance, credit card cash advances, and appointment setting. All these are beneficial to customers although the preference for either one of them could vary from one customer to another.

Customer service campaigns speak for themselves. In fact, among the call center services, only customer service and technical support are directly engaged with customers, making sure that they are satisfied with the goods and/or services they purchased so as not to lose faith in the company. If ever there are problems, accidental or deliberate, whether it was the company’s fault or the customer’s, customer service and support representatives act as pacifiers. They stand between the client and its customers, maintaining the integrity of the former while simultaneously letting the latter feel how much they are valued. Customer service and support centers cover any outsourceable service under the sun.

Various call center services can affect businesses in various ways. As a rule, however, all these call center services aim to lighten up the load of entrepreneurs who tend to experience the following limitations:

  • Problems of recruitment and hiring, including attendant costs of recruiting and hiring (i.e. paid newspaper or online advertisements) and the unpredictability of employees’ length of service
  • Specialized skills are rare and not very accessible (i.e. location is not quite urbanized, population has low literacy rate)
  • Rising costs of buying equipment or putting up facilities
  • Time and budget constraints

When you think about outsourcing costly and dragging business processes, you rarely think about it without mentioning a call center service or two. At the end of the day, call centers, contact centers, help desks, support centers – however you name it – work both ways. On one hand, they are for the customers, by the customers, and of the customers, while they are for businesses, by businesses, and of businesses on the other.

, ,

Call Center Services

Posted by admin in Call Center | Call Center Services | Services Call Center - (0 Comments)

Call center services have been quite in demand these days as business owners have finally conceded to the fact that outsourcing is one of the most cost-efficient means of increasing productivity.  Such in-demand services in call centers include customer care, appointment setting, market research, internet marketing and telemarketing. These call center services have an indirect stake in the prosperity of companies here and abroad. For more information, you can go through the comprehensive list below to scrutinize which call center services are most appropriate to your business needs:

  • Appointment Setting

If you are an oh-so-busy businessman who barely has time to entertain prospective partners and dealers or a not-so busy businessman who needs more clients, then appointment setting is your solution. All it takes is for you to have a bunch of appointment setters to either adjust your overflowing clients into your convenient schedules or create opportunities for you to get more clients.

  • Customer Care / Help Desk

Should your concern be more on the welfare of your customers and how well their queries, orders, demands and other such feedback have been addressed, it is high time that a businessman like you considers the benefits of customer care and help desks. Customer care and help desks are some of the most powerful call center services as they enables business owners to increase their customer satisfaction ratings. Such positive feedback from your product or service buyers will ultimately reflect on your company and, in the long, boost up your reputation. If budget is not a problem, then you can establish your own customer care call center services. If you want lower costs and practically similar efficiency, then you can opt to outsource to offshore firms in the Philippines or other Asian nations for that matter.

  • Internet Marketing

Search Engine Optimization is presently the most sought-after internet marketing strategy among today’s entrepreneurs. It includes a variety of sub-strategies like email blasting, blog commenting, backlinking and, of course, content writing to get not just your website on top of Google and Yahoo! searches but also your company name. This means an increase in online reputation as well as an increase in potential clients and consumers! Your business is simply a click away if you indulge in the wonders of internet marketing via SEO. This is one of the most valuable call center services offered in today’s hypermodern world. Of course, if you want it cheaper and just as efficient, it was already mentioned where you ought to look in the map.

  • Market Research

Market research is an altogether different service area and not all call centers are offering it. However, it is gradually being mainstreamed in the line-up of call center services. Call centers that are a hybrid mix of business process outsourcing, particularly backend office services, are the only ones capable of providing external market research. They gather pertinent information on market trends, perform consumer preference surveys and pile up basically any other statistical data that can enrich and develop your business processes. Market research is perfect for businessmen who have plans of workforce, business coverage or service package expansion.

  • Telemarketing

Last, but certainly not the least in the list of in-demand call center services, is telemarketing. The service serves to strengthen company sales and is in fact one of the most effective – although tedious – sales strategies. Telemarketing easily generates results, but it also has its setbacks. So many factors can make or break its efficiency, but so long as you have the right set of agents, the right script and the right voice marketing plan, then you need not worry much. No matter how tricky telemarketing might be, if you have the entrepreneurial resourcefulness to combine it with other call center services like market research or internet marketing, then it might just work to your advantage.

There are certainly more call center services on the line but their maximum potentials are as yet untapped. In due course, however, it is believed that when the outsourcing industry itself rises to the same heights as other global industries, more and more services call center will be in popular demand.

——–

If you seek to apply for a job in or plan to outsource your services to a competent call center here in the Philippines, why not try eBusiness BPO Inc.? We offer services like back-end office management, virtual assistance, accounting, IT services, call center seat leasing, telemarketing, transcription, and the like. For more information and inquiries, you may visit the corporate website at http://www.ebusinessbpo.com. You may also call 1.866.583.2813 (US Toll Free) or email us at support@ebusinessbpo.com.

, , , , , , , , , ,

Technology Powers Call Center Services

Posted by admin in Call Center | Call Center Services | Services Call Center - (1 Comments)

In the heat of expanding business operations, getting more clients, increasing employee productivity and ensuring quality performance, many call center firms rely on technology to make everything else work for them. Technology begins where people end. Major call center services would not have been possible without the help of technology, particularly where communication and filing and documentation are concerned.

The birth of technology paved the way for inbound and outbound call center services, whose potentials can only be realized through the use of the computer and the internet. Call center services like telemarketing, technical support, and customer care require dial-up connections, voice over internet protocol, leads – not to mention workstations and headsets – to be able to communicate with consumers from different parts of the globe. Technology acts as their transportation, their means to better serve the needs of businessmen.

Technology can do a lot to increase both quality and quantity of call center services. The more up-to-date the technology is and the more high-end, not only can more call volumes be activated but workload for employees is lessened by half. What’s more, because technology facilitates the storing and retrieval of data, should there be need for evidence or documentation to track down performance or daily activities, it is easy to produce one. Stored data can easily is an advantage to just about any call center service because they can serve as reference for discrepancies and suspicious performance. Call center services are also greatly benefited from technology, especially if there is a remote server, because it is easy to pick up where one left off in case of fortuitous power interference and other natural calamities.

Technology is truly a wonder not just for helping call center services achieve the efficiency they require, but also for making life easier for workers and for the rest of mankind. However, this is not to say that we should rely on it for everything. There are, still and all, some things that not even technology can handle. Take for instance emotions, the motivation of individuals behind call center services, the goals of the company, and so on and so forth. Technology is the one dependent on man, thus we should use it wisely and to our maximum, but harmless, advantage.

—————-

If you seek to apply for a job in or plan to outsource your services to a competent call center here in the Philippines, why not try eBusiness BPO Inc.? We offer services like back-end office management, virtual assistance, accounting, IT services, call center seat leasing, telemarketing, transcription, and the like. For more information and inquiries, you may visit the corporate website at http://www.ebusinessbpo.com. You may also call 1.866.583.2813 (US Toll Free) or email us at support@ebusinessbpo.com.

, , , , , , ,