These days, the word outsourcing is viewed in a whole new light, maybe it’s because of the new NBC TV show “outsourced”. Well, you do not have to own a company that manufactures novelty goods in order to enjoy the benefits of outsourcing.

If you run a small or large business and you need to get certain tasks done, outsourced virtual assistants (also fondly referred to as VA’s) will be of great help to you.

Here are just some of the benefits that outsourced VA’s can offer you:

·They only charge you ONLY for the amount of time that they have spent working for you.

·Virtual assistants will use their own equipments and stuff – you do not have to shell out money to buy a new headset, monitor, software etc.

·You do not have to deal with paying sick workers (who may or may not be actually sick), employee compensation, retirement funds, and employment insurance.

·You can kiss agency fees goodbye. Temping agencies usually charge a fee in order to work with them.

·You can take advantage of the time zone differences. While you are sleeping your virtual assistant is working you.

·Thankfully, you also do not have to worry about footing the training cost for specialized skill, why? Because outsourced virtual assistants are already well trained.

Here are just some of the tasks that outsourced virtual assistants can carry out effectively:

i.They can add press pages to your company’s web site – if your company’s site doesn’t have a press page, then add a press page now! Outsourced VA’s can even create a press page and go on to add links to the articles that feature your business on a day to day or weekly basis – it’s your call.

ii.You can also delegate the responsibility of the distribution of your company’s articles and press releases to variety of directories to your virtual assistant. You of course know that it is important to write articles and press releases on a regular basis, but writing these articles and press releases will not mean squat if they are not read by the right audience. Outsourced virtual assistants will help you distribute them to various directories online.

iii.Virtual assistants can help translate your website to another language. For instance, if you are doing business with Spanish speaking people, a virtual assistant who is very fluent in Spanish can translate your website into Spanish.

Daven Michaels

Of course it is a great idea to outsource your call center service! Before we go to the reasons why some people think that outsourced call centers are a bad idea, let’s first take a look at the benefits of outsourcing your call center service:

·You do not have to shell out money every couple of months in order to invest in the latest telecommunication systems. In case you do not know this, these equipments do not come cheap and I am sure you have other plans that need financing. The outsourced call center service worries about getting state of the art facilities and providing top quality service – your job is to expect results.

·Worrying about employees shirking their responsibilities will be history and you will also not worry about firing an employee for incompetence yourself (most business owners absolutely HATE doing this). Outsourcing companies only hire people who are ready and willing to work and if they have to fire an employee, you will not be the one to give him or her the axe (Yay!)

·Why should you pay for an extra office space for your call center services when you do not have to worry about this and still get top quality service?

·Do you honestly want worry about paying someone who has the habit of calling in sick just because he/she felt like sleeping in after having one too many drinks?! With outsourcing call center services, you will never have to worry about paying employment insurance, staff compensation, and retirement benefits. Outsourced cal center employees are generally dedicated to doing their jobs.

Some people think that outsourcing call center service is a bad idea because:

Accents! Accents!! Did I mention Accents?!

Oh please! Many of us have had the experience of speaking to a person over the phone in a call center in the Philippines or India and most times, we are not able to tell the difference! I’m sure you must have viewed the trailer of the upcoming NBC TV show “Outsourced” where one of the employees at a top Indian based call center service mimicked an American accent PERFECTLY! He even said the word “corndog” the way an American would say it.

Geez, there are so many talented outsourced call center employees that will do a great job answering question from customers, taking orders and so on.So stop hating!Wake up and smell outsourced call center services.

Daven Michaels

How to Successfully Choose an Outsourced Partner

A lot of businesses are looking for effective ways that they can cut down costs – especially if the business is still very new. One of the smart and common ways to cut down the cost of running your business is by identifying the business processes and department that incur too many expenses. After you have done this, many business managers identify firms outside the company who can successfully do all of the required tasks at lower costs. This is known simply as “outsourcing” – outsourced partners do company tasks at lower costs without compromising on the quality of work.

In order to choose an outsourced partner who is great at handling your company’s outsourcing needs, follow these guidelines:

·Ensure that you clearly identify the needs and motivation for a really successful outsourcing partnership. This will of course involve cost cutting and quality control measures.

·Make sure that you take some time to check out the alternatives that are available in the market – a good way of doing this is by investigating what other businesses have done in similar situations. This will give you a good idea of what kind of outsourcing company you can hope to get the best results from.

·You should check out the top industry players and make up your mind as to which outsourced partners will help you in furthering your business strategies and the type of value that the outsourced partner can add to your business.

·You also need to make sure that you run a background check on the would-be outsourced partner(s). It is important that you do this, especially if you want to find out what kind of reputation the outsourcing firm you are thinking of working with.

·You should also figure out some kind of standard for recognizing an outsourced partner that you can trust to effectively handle all your outsourcing needs. Pick the BEST method of getting potential outsourcing partner interested in working with you. The common methods are tendering and of course, bidding.

·Ensure that you get the prospective outsourcing partners to inform you about the kind of services that they are capable of providing that your in-house staff will be incapable of providing.

·You should match the professional background of every prospective outsourcing partner against the standard that you set. You should then choose the most competent and efficient outsourcing partner and work with them.

Daven Michaels

Okay, the main reason you started your business in the first place is to make good proceeds, and there are some times when you have to shell out good money in order to generate good leads but to no avail. These days, many people are poster, flier and even billboard blind. Because a whole lot of people are very busy making ends meet, they really never have the time to watch TV ads, and when they do find time to watch television, they usually get up and go to the kitchen to fix a snack or get something whenever an ad comes on. Outsourced telemarketers have very effective ways to get prospective customers or clients to know about and buy your goods and or services.

You need to understand that there is no way a television ads, leaflets, billboards and posters are going to respond to questions from potential clients or customers – especially if you sell novelty products just like the ones on NBC’s new television show “Outsourced”– customers will DEFINITELY have loads of questions. As a great option to running an in-house telemarketing department, why not take advantage of outsourcing? If you take advantage of outsourcing your telemarketing when your business is still quite new and still growing, you will be glad you did. Like the characters on the show “outsourced”, there are many young, smart and intelligent outsourced telemarketers in reputable outsourcing centers in the Philippines.

Here are some of the great advantages of outsourcing your telemarketing:

·Outsourced telemarketers are known for their abilities to help boost sales. Many reputable telemarketing outsourcing companies ONLY provide well experienced sale persons who are very aware that their own success basically depends on their utmost dedication and expertise in getting the job “well done” for clients.

·If you are only interested in getting results from your sales department, then the best thing you can do is to outsource your telemarketing. Reputable outsourcing firms only hire and choose a telemarketing team that will be perfect for your project. Do you honestly want to go through the hassles of recruiting and training a telemarketing team yourself? Didn’t think so.

·You also no longer have to put up with silly excuses that some employees take their sweet time to come up with and you also do not have to worry about being slammed with a law suit by some bitter employee who is just looking for a way to get back at you for giving him or her the axe – even though they deserved it.

Daven Michaels

Do you want to increase your business’ bottom line? Then, outsourcing your telemarketing tasks can be a really good way. The telemarketing business is full of pretty good call centers that you can choose from, so you have to make sure that you choose the most suitable – well, it is also no secret that India or the Philippines have the majority of offshore call centers. Before you finally decide to choose a telemarketing outsourcing company, it is important that you know a little bit about the country where you plan to outsource your telemarketing service. Ensuring that you consider your target market is one of the most important things.

India is a country that was once colonized by the British Empire for a pretty long time and the Philippines was colonized greatly by the United States. So, if you are targeting customers or clients in the United States, it sure makes a lot of sense to choose the Philippines for your telemarketing services. If your target clients or customers are in the United Kingdom, you can consider India to handle the telemarketing services. But there are a whole lot of Indians who can easily handle the American market if given the opportunity to do so.

After choosing the country you are comfortable with, then the next thing you will need to do is to choose a firm which, of course, will be very familiar with the target market. Then, you will need to speak with your management team or telemarketers, because the management team in the end will really impact the results of your marketing campaign. You need to understand that the more involved you are, the better the results you will get.

Here are just a couple of basic steps you will need to take before outsourcing telemarketing services:

·Make double sure that the company that you choose is really familiar with the goals that you are trying your best to accomplish.

·Search for only those telemarketers who have adequate call center experience. You can give the inexperienced ones a chance if you are impressed with their performance during the interview process.

·In order to make sure that your marketer has a neutral accent and very strong English speaking ability, you have to make sure that you chat with your marketer as much as you possibly can.

·So that you end up receiving good results from a telemarketing firm, make sure that you train your telemarketer like an in-house employee – that is, if you have the time.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

In spite of the acknowledged usefulness of call centers, not every company, organization or agency can afford to have an in-house customer call center. The reason for this may be due to the high cost of employing and training agents and operators or the lack of necessary space for all the pertinent technology based marketing tools.

For a lot of businesses that cannot have their very own technology driven customer service division, outsourcing their call center services will of course be a superb way to generate sales, thanks to the provision of the necessary customer support service.

Are you making the decision to outsource your call center services? Well, if you have made up your mind to outsource a call center service, the decision of choosing a firm should be influenced by a variety of very important factors. The reason for this is that once an outsourcing company is hired or engaged, its activities will of course go a pretty long way to influence the success or failure of the hiring organization. You need to understand that poor call center service by an outsourcing company can really ruin all the benefits of any top marketing strategy.

What should I consider before outsourcing my call center needs? Before you choose a telephony service provider, as a business manager you must first and foremost decide what you want to benefit from employing the services of a telephony service. The basis for doing this may be to attract all the benefits of outbound and inbound calls or for simply gathering reliable data on client or customer needs and perceptions. Making a decision on the real object for needing to provide a technology based customer service will help you decide on the type of firm that has to be selected.

Different Types of Call Centers

Blended Call Centers – these are call centers that merge automatic call distribution for both outbound and inbound calls.

Contact Call Centers – these are call centers that easily assist the interaction with clients or customers through an array of media, including but certainly not limited to electronic mails (e-mails) and telephony.

Outbound Call Centers – these call centers that are basically used for reaching and calling out to potential clients and customers. It is a type of telemarketing.

Inbound Call Centers – These are call centers that are mainly or completely for responding to calls from clients or customers and providing the pertinent information to customers.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

To be continued

You do not have to be an experienced business man or woman in order to consider outsourcing. As a new entrepreneur, do you know that you can double your income and also reduce your stress levels by one-third before the end of the year when you begin to outsource work? That is indeed a great incentive, don’t you think so?

Just think about it, outsourcing makes sense and those who don’t outsource the work may find that their business is not growing as much as they would like because of;

a.Lack of systems and procedures put in place – it is not uncommon for businesses not to have operational procedures put in place for other people to follow.

b.Poor planning – most business owners do not just plan ahead and allow others to do the work.

c.The “I can handle it myself ” syndrome – most times business owners clearly insist on handling everything themselves, even if there is someone else who can do it far better, cheaper and faster.

d.Poor preparation – a lot business owners are not organized enough to assign tasks to someone else.

A lot of business owners make it even harder on themselves by putting roadblocks in their own way in order to stop them from outsourcing! They convince themselves that:

a.They do not have the time to train outsourcing persons

b.They do not have enough cash to think of even hiring an outsourcing partner

But the truth is that these two roadblocks will be resolved as soon as business owners take care of the third roadblock which happens to be:

c.They have not developed a “criteria sheet” of what they would want they want the outsourcing partner to do for them.

The Tactics Used for Resolving the Roadblocks

·Business owners will need to clarify why outsourcing is really required for their business. For instance, they may want to reduce their long hours or maybe they might not be so good with numbers and will need someone to balance their books every quarter, etc

·As a business owner, you will need to confirm what area of your business you would love to outsource first. Experts recommend that you start with easy tasks such as bookkeeping.

·Make sure that you really commit to the time that will be needed to train them to complete outsourced tasks.

As soon as you start outsourcing to a competent and reliable firm, you will really be amazed at the many advantages and the increase in your bottom-line.

Daven Michaels

The process of outsourcing work abroad has really manifested, especially in areas of customer services. A lot of companies are starting to invest in foreign call centres and other training facilities across the world in order to benefit from untapped labour. You can effectively outsource your customer service department whether at home or abroad as long as you follow the proper steps.

Place temporary and part-time employees in your customer service centre, in order to reduce your payroll. You will of course notice that your call centres will experience a much higher amount of traffic during the holidays, and would experience a dip in call volume during other periods of the year. In order to keep up with seasonal service demands all you have to do is to outsource jobs to placement services. You can write a script for every customer service rep that is very easy to read. You can even hire high school graduates instead of hiring graduates by simply using a repetitive service formula that is quite simple to learn. Experts will advise that you search for a reputable outsourcing company where you can get professional service. An outsourcing firm will provide top quality compelling scripts and operators that will appease even the most difficult clients or customers – an inexperienced high school graduate may not have the skill to do this.

You can cut down on training costs by simply using well experienced customer service representatives to help train new employees. You can use a “shadowing system” and assign new group or team members to follow their well experienced colleagues as they expertly field customer service queries. When you outsource your customer service to a competent and reliable outsourcing firm, you will not have to worry about training new staff, leaving you with more than enough time to concentrate on your core business.

You can avoid new building expenses and the cost of renovation of old building by renting customer service space which was previously owned by a similar business.But the truth is how many buildings are previously owned by a business similar to yours? Agreed, it is a rather smart idea, but a much smarter idea is to employ the services of an outsourcing firm. You do not have to worry about renting an office space or buying expensive communication equipment or even hiring a professional customer service representative.

Make sure that you choose a reliable and competent outsourcing company for your customer outsourcing needs.

Daven Michaels

It is no secret that China has already become a major importer of consumer and industrial products. In a short time, India is most likely to do the same. Outsourcing has really proved successful in history. Back in the early nineteenth century, the United States was a poor developing nation. The European capital helped in financing our railroads, canals and even new factories while workers in the United States started to produce products that competed with European production. Since the markets were relatively open and also competitive, Americans and Europeans benefited greatly from the process. Job creation and economic growth took place on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Presently, service providers abroad require American made computers, software, telecommunications and equipment. These countries also obtain financial, legal and marketing services from the United States.

There are some jobs that simply cannot be outsourced because personal contact is important in some business activities. It will take domestic companies to tailor new products and or services to the needs of local clients or customers. Yes, a lot of the people we work with regularly remain really close by – we normally don’t take long trips in order see our dentist, lawyer or doctor unless we want to for reasons best known to us.

The United States Labor Market
You will notice after sometime that more new jobs will be created than outsourced in the United States. The United States has a very open labor market – this characteristic is basic to the country’s economic vitality. About 1,000,000 employees are tired or simply quit every week and an equal number is immediately hired in their place. Agreed, it is much harder to lay off employees in Japan, Europe than in the United States. Although, due to the present global financial crisis, employers are a little bit reluctant to take on new workers. In striking contrast, employers in the United States are much more likely to employ personnel – and they usually do. Also keep in mind that a lot of foreign companies still come to set up operations in the United States and hire Americans to work in theses offices.

So, it is very simple: the United States is a country that creates new jobs than Japan or Europe combined. America also has the highest proportion (about 66 percent) of the population in the labor force of all industrialized nations – the United States unemployment rates are really below Europe’s.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has  been honored more than any other individual or  outsourcing organization. You can get more  information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com

90 percent of American’s have encountered outsourcing in one way or the other. The outsourcing of America’s information technology jobs to other foreign nations such as India is really good for the United States’ economy and will create new employment opportunities. Now, this is the part where you say “oh, I bet it will!”

Outsourcing or offshoring will help add about 124 billion dollars to the United States and will also create 317,367 new employment – this information is according to a study that that was conducted by a research company and was sponsored by a leading and trusted Information technology trade group IT Association of America.

Outsourcing is really far from being an economic disaster that will wash away domestic information technology as some people believe – global outsourcing helps firms become much more productive and competitive. The money produced via global sourcing is invested in the following:

• Market expansion
• New goods/products and services
• And most importantly, the money is used to increase real wages for United States employees.

Although offshore information technology services and software outsourcing has sort of displaced and might continue to displace some workers in information technology services and software occupations, the increased activity will create a wide variety of new jobs in both IT and non-information technology.

As the advantages compounds over a period of time, the United States’ economy operates a lot of more efficiently, creates more than two times the number of jobs than are actually displaced, attains a much higher level of output and also increases the average real wage. Many reports have shown that the benefits of outsourcing (especially information technology) sure contributes significantly to the real United States’ gross domestic products – in 2003, it added 33.6 billion dollars.

There are so many people who have been belly aching especially when they hear the word “outsourcing”, but the truth is that it is not ruining our economy, it is actually helping it for crying out loud! Outsourcing is really a vital link to effectiveness and labor market flexibility. It is important to have some freedom to outsource because whether we choose to believe it or not, the target of outsourcing changes over a period of time.

Outsourcing can really save on cost, increase efficiency, improve company flexibility, help improve company focus – for smaller companies, it would help to level the playing field with large corporations and also reduce business risks.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com