WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A CALL CENTER.

That’s a great question. And I have an answer for you. When your out there in the market searching for a call center, your going to find all kinds of information on the net. I mean, your going to see it all, and that can be a little overwhelming. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t need to know every little detail about how the operations work, I just want to know that I can trust the person. And that’s where www.SaveOnCallCenters.com comes in.

At SaveOnCallCenters.com you will find a generous company with great morals and even better customer service. They want to make you happy, which is the most important part of any business transaction. When looking for a call center there are so many things you may want to know, but lets be honest, do you really think your going to understand it all? I mean, when you go to the doctor, do you ask him to explain his 10 years in college to you in 5 min? I don’t think so.

What you should look for is a consultant who knows the right people in the right places, and cares about your satisfaction. Then you can tell that person what you want, and they can get if for you. Now I know it’s difficult to put your trust in a complete stranger, but with this business, it’s almost necessary.

But just in case your like me, then you want to know all about it, so here are a few tips to consider when searching for the right match. First of all, you should always make sure the company your working with has reputable customers. You can always just ask them to share with you some of their current or past customers. You may get a little resistance here, but that’s natural, but if they want your business, they will share just about anything in order to get you to sign up.

Secondly, you should make sure they have the most up to date software analysis programs. They should be able to provide daily, weekly, monthly and on demand statistical analysis reports whenever you want. This is very important because even just one extra day can costs thousands, and if your agents are just sitting around, then you are loosing money.

Finally, you should pay attention to the location of the call center. If your customers are mainly in the United States, the good English is important. One of the best places to match well spoken English and great prices is the Philippines. English is their second language there and they are very serious about running their call centers. Most employees of a call center, or data center in the Philippines actually went to college to learn their trade. They make it a career choice to be an agent in the call center, and it’s extremely important to them.

I hope this has given you a better idea of what to look for in a quality call center. If you need more assistance, then please visit www.SaveOnCallCenters.com for more information or to get a quote.

By: Dick Jones, CEO of Consultants Exchange

The words outsourcing and offshoring were created in recent years by clever marketers but the concepts they describe are as old as the legendary Silk Road that delivered the exotic products of ancient China to Constantinople in return for those of European origin. You could even say that the British West Indies Company “outsourced” the production of beaver pelts to the native tribes of North America so that every proper English gentleman could sport the latest fashion in beaver hats. In fact, that same innovative company even “outsourced” the transportation of their gentlemen-traders via canoe across a vast network of lakes and rivers to a hardy breed of French paddlers, known as “Voyageurs.”

Historically, world trade has benefited all parties when it is not restrained by protective restrictions, such as tariffs and government subsidies. The free and fair forces of economics, such as raw materials, markets, and labor costs will ultimately determine where products are made or services performed. For example, in the last century, textile mills migrated from New England to the southeastern United States because of lower labor cost. Then the pre-eminent educational institutions in the northeast produced the skills base needed by the burgeoning software industry and the empty mills became offices for high-tech companies that created high-paying jobs for a new generation of New Englanders. In similar fashion software supplanted steel in Pittsburgh, and now some of those high-tech workers’ jobs have gone the way of loom operators and steel rollers.

Until recent years, offshoring has been restricted to manufacturing, based on one or more economic factors. It is interesting to note that Japanese and Korean automobile companies are now offshoring the production of automobiles to the United States, not because of lower wages but because of proximity to the world’s largest market for automobiles. Since labor only represents about 10% of the cost of auto production, the savings on transportation cost easily offsets the higher wages paid in this country.

In recent years, technological developments in communications and telephony have made it feasible to outsource information services such as data entry, call centers and software development. The outsourcing of data entry applications initially gave rise to a thriving industry in parts of the U.S. where labor cost was lower. However, as enabling technology emerged, that business has dried up and virtually no data entry companies now exist in this country.

Today, many large companies also have outsourced their call centers either to domestic or offshore companies, while most small to medium sized companies have not yet taken the plunge. Many of those toll-free numbers you see on products from chain saws to chicken soup are answered in far-away places where an ample labor pool of educated, English-speaking workers is available. Technology even makes it easy to handle complex requirements such as technical support and customer service with a tiered operational structure; easily resolved tier-one calls are handled by the call-center CSR while tier two calls are switched instantly to experts at headquarters perhaps thousands of miles away. In telemarketing services, call-center CSR’s are able to handle time-consuming cold calls and switch interested prospects to sales ‘closers’ at the client’s U.S. facility.

Of course the primary reason to offshore call-center work is to reduce labor cost but it also solves some other problems. American workers find call-center work boring and monotonous, which makes it difficult to hire qualified and motivated workers and even harder to retain them. Air Tran, for example, locates its call centers in college towns, where there is an abundant supply of qualified workers looking for part time work; however few, if any, such workers are seeking a career in that line of work. In the U.S., workers sitting at a PC all day, wearing a dead-set, are the ‘fruit-pickers’ of the information services world. On the other hand, workers in developing economies see call-center opportunities as their ticket to a middle-class career. One QA employee in Costa Rica proudly said that she had been with the company for eight years, starting as an agent, then supervisor, then trainer and now she was only one step away from project manager. In fact, colleges in these countries offer majors in call-center operations.

Understanding this, Amazon.com opened for business with their call center in the Philippines and Proctor and Gamble moved its 2,000 employee call center to Costa Rica. Similarly, Delta Airlines has outsourced much of their reservation call-center work to India. The decision to offshore any service inevitably raises the accusation of ‘shipping American jobs overseas. In reality, as with all free and fair trade, both countries benefit financially. A recent McKinsey & Co. study has shown that every $1.00 American companies spend on offshoring actually brings $1.12 in return to the U.S. economy, resulting in jobs that are higher up the food chain and pay better money. Offshoring is truly a manifestation of the familiar saying that, “A high tide raises all boats.”

For example, the off-shore call centers themselves buy PC’s, communications and telephony equipment, servers, and software from U.S. companies, creating jobs in American companies that produce those products. But more importantly, the career opportunities for people in developing countries enables those workers to buy American cars, clothes, I-Pods, Big Macs, and everything else they see advertised on American TV. A trip to the mall in San Jose, Manila, or Mumbai confronts you with so many familiar stores and products it can almost make you forget you are not in your favorite mall back home.

And it doesn’t end there. India has already offshored some routine functions to Thailand and Indian workers are clamoring about ‘foreigners’ taking their jobs. It’s never a painless transition, but it’s the way the world works.

Consultants Exchange has been working with companies from around the world to bring its customers the best possible solution at the best possible price! Our new partner in the Philippines is ready to help. Outsourcing of centers and data centers to the Philippines has been going on for years! As a matter of fact, the Philippines was one of the first countries to provide this service!

One of the best things about the Philippines is their stong English Speaking People! English is a second language in the Philippines and about 90% of all it’s residents can speak English. They begin learning English in elementary shool and speak fluently by the time they graduate high school. Which leads me to my next point, their commitment to the industry.

Philippino’s aren’t like Americans in the way that they view a job in a call center as a career choice and not just another side job while trying to get your degree in college! They actually go to college to learn how to manage call center duties and become call center specialist! After college they find a job at one of the countries many call centers and begin their journey to the top.
If you are interested in learning more about Call Centers or would like to get a call center of your own, then please visit SaveOnCallCenters.com