According to a prominent marketing expert named Erik Huberman, sticking with your core competence is an absolute necessity if you really want to do well in your business. Do whatever it is you do best and let marketing experts execute their business functions. It is called division of labor and it is a sure way of getting the job done without excessive time consumption, stress, and expenses.
THE TRENDING METHOD OF GROWING YOUR BUSINESS
One thing about trend is that it is a widely accepted way of doing something. In the world today, businesses and organizations outsource many facets of business like accounting, customer services, development, and of course marketing. If yours is a new brand or a business looking to expand, hiring the service of an expert marketer can go a long way in bringing your products and services to the right audience while you focus on other things. By doing so, you can save recruiting time, overhead commitment, training time, and the expenses of full time staff.
WHEN TO OUTSOURCE A MARKETING JOB
You should know that the need to outsource might not be a constant call. Outsourcing tasks are mostly carried out in the following scenarios.
1) To reduce the cost of hiring a full time expert to do the job; that is if there is no much need for marketing. Some businesses have their own internal marketing team; but how viable is the team? You can outsource the marketing job to an external marketer who can rub off positively on the internal marketers (as your contract with the external marker lasts) and inspire them to succeed.
2) If you need to get your marketing job done in as little time as possible; especially if you are in short of hands or time, it is advisable to outsource. If you are familiar with the goals of your business, then you will know when it is right to outsource and when it is not.
3) Outsourcing your marketing team is a good way to improve the success rate of your company/business. It is not like a passing fad, it is more like a paradigm shift that can change the face of your business in as much as forever. With the help of the internet and technology, you can easily come in contact with people who can expertly and professionally do jobs you cannot do yourself probably as a result of lack of know-how.
EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVES OF YOUR COMPANY
In addition to the benefit of outsourcing marketing jobs, you stand the chance to get an outside and professional perspective of your business/company. This is one of the reasons why companies/businesses with internal marketing teams still go as far as outsourcing marketing jobs. No matter how well you think you know your business, your perspective of your business is still one sided and narrow. There is always room for expansion/growth, and this you can get from listening and implementing the external ideas; and the more often you do this, the more your chances of doing well.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
As outsourcing increasingly becomes the number one (arguably) solution in today’s business environment, one of the most beneficiaries of this business solution is the customer service department of an organization. It appears customer service outsourcing is getting more popular than other outsourcing services. Of course, you don’t need to look far to get the reason for this increased popularity. One, a company saves much higher cost through this strategy. And, providers offer the best possible customer service.
So, What is Customer Service Outsourcing and How Does it Actually Work?
Simply, it is the act of hiring external expertise or skill to manage a company’s customer service as well as technical assistance support. As mentioned earlier, this type of outsourcing has grown leaps and bounds in recent years due to the huge cost savings that different service organizations and companies accomplish through it.
That’s not all, other benefits that companies enjoy from customer service outsourcing include access to best customer service skill in an affordable manner. Besides, employees of a company are able to focus on their original tasks in a more proficient manner when they are relieved from the additional task of providing support to the company’s customers.
What Does the Outsourced Customer Service Specialists Do?
The job description of outsourced customer service providers is extensive. So, when you hire these experts, you should expect them to accomplish the following functions on behalf of your company;
1: Customer Assistance
It is required of the outsourcing expert to assist the company’s customers. The assistance they provide for a business’s customers include providing accurate answers to questions and inquiries, addressing customers’ challenges, and providing solution to immediate issues that customers may have.
They accomplish these via different mediums such as telephone, email, fax, instant messenger, internet chat, and standard mail. If necessary, they may also provide the assistance in person.
2: Customer Concerns/Complaints Assessment
Also, customer service outsourcing providers are charged with the responsibility of evaluating the complaints or concerns that a customer may have. And, if they are not able to provide the solution, they can refer such customers to the appropriate representative or department that can proffer the required solution.
3: Problem Resolution
These experts are also resolution specialists. This is how; the representatives are the front-liners that customers get to interact with first and lodge their complaints. And, since they’ve been trained to be courteous and cordial in relating with customers, they are able to face and pacify irate customers, suppliers or vendors professionally.
4: Technological Assistance
The experts also help the company’s technology or technical device users to master the technology in question, such as smart-phones, software, or other applications. They also fix the issues they may have with those technological programs or gadgets.
Obviously, the customer service outsourcing representatives accomplish a lot for companies and businesses.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Hiring an outsourcing service provider has become the in-thing nowadays. The reasons for this popular trend include low labor cost, access to affordable expertise, faster delivery, and other competitive advantages. While there are tons of benefits to enjoy by leveraging outsourcing, you may end up regretting the decision if you do not choose a provider carefully and suitably. So, how do you choose the best provider for the task? Keep reading to learn the essential.
Essential #1: Embark on a Comparison Shopping
Just like any other venture, the best way to land the best deal is to embark on a comparison shopping. If you just jump on the first offer that comes your way, you may learn later that a far better offer was waiting for you at the other end, causing you to regret your hasty decision.
What to Compare
Relevant Skill and Experience: In order to hire the best outsourcing service provider, one of the proven essentials is to compare as many providers as possible. In comparing outsourcing providers, you should prioritize those who have relevant expertise and experience in the business function or task that you wish to outsource.
For instance, if you are looking to outsource your customer service, you should prioritize providers or vendors who are specialized in customer service and have relevant qualifications/experience in customer service.
Track Record: A company that has no previous work history should not be in your priority list when seeking suitable outsourcing providers. You want to be able to pinpoint relevant projects that a provider has handled in time past, which is a helpful pointer that your own project is likely to be in good hands.
A track record or work history should include previous relevant projects, previous clients and their contacts, as well as samples of those projects executed in time past.
Feedback: There are organized and independent websites that review activities of service providers, including outsourcing service providers. Typical example of such website is the Better Business Bureau. You will find tons of providers in the outsourcing category, including feedback from clients, unresolved complaints and more. This way, you can make informed and wise decision. The reviews and feedback on such organized and independent websites are usually authentic, compared to some paid review websites.
Pricing: As emphasized on most of our articles, the main essence of hiring outsourcing service provider is to cut back on business running cost. So, when you set out to hire a provider, you should also consider pricing during your comparison process. However, do not prioritize low cost over quality outcome.
If the price sounds too good to be true, that could be a red flag for low quality output. You should ensure that you balance the equation properly. Negotiate a reasonable price that will guarantee reasonable quality outcome.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Outsourcing has become a popular terminology in today’s business arena. The reason is obvious; this business solution has been found to be extremely useful in so many ways such as saving cost, leveraging affordable expertise, overcoming time-zone obstacles, hastening product entry time to the market, and many other benefits. The best part is that virtually all aspects of business and business functions can be outsourced, including marketing. There are outsourcing vendors or companies that specialize in rendering outsourcing marketing services.
So, What is Marketing Outsourcing?
When a business or company outsources its marketing activities, it is handing over such activities to a third party who is specialized in carrying out marketing functions successfully and at an affordable rate. This comes with three distinct benefits as follows;
1: The business or company is able to take advantage of better and increased quality marketing expertise than it could afford under normal circumstances. And, even if the business will end up with top quality marketing staff in-house, it will pay almost thrice (if not more) of what it would incur if it rather opts to leverage outsourcing marketing services.
In addition, choosing to outsource marketing services rather than establish a marketing department in-house will help a company cut-down cost significantly. These costs are mainly those associated with overhead costs, as well as employee remuneration packages that include things like health insurance and other allowances.
2: Another major benefit that comes with outsourcing marketing functions is access to expertise that would have cost more in-house. For instance, hiring a marketing manager to man the marketing activities of a company can be cost-intensive since you would need to pay such top executive high salary and allowances. Of course, the marketing team is there to also cater for.
Small and medium-scale businesses enjoy this benefit even more than the big companies since they have far less resources to hire top marketing executives or even keep a marketing team in-house.
3: Also, when you leverage outsourcing to handle your company’s marketing functions, you will only pay for the services you leveraged unlike keeping marketing employees in-house and paying them regularly, even when there’s no serious marketing activity going on.
For instance, if you want to launch a new line of product or expand your reach, it is quite more cost effective to use outsourcing services and terminate the contract once the campaign is over. This is not the case when you hire marketing employees – you will still need to pay them hourly or monthly remuneration rates even if the major marketing campaign is come and gone.
Obviously, taking advantage of outsourcing marketing services come with top benefits when compared side by side with establishing a marketing department in-house.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Since outsourcing has become an important business solution, there are tons of outsourcing firms and providers out there. While most of them are parading themselves as the best, you would need to research and do your homework thoroughly when trying to hire one. This is the only way you can be sure of enjoying the benefits that outsourcing offers.
So, What are the Top 3 Don’ts to Hire an Outsourcing Firm?
1: Don’t Over-prioritize Low Cost
Notice that the emphasis is ‘over-prioritize’. No doubts, the main essence of leveraging outsourcing is to cut back business cost significantly. However, you must ensure this benefit goes hand in hand with quality benefit – otherwise, outsourcing will be completely useless. What benefit is there in spending very little to execute a business function and getting very low quality in return? Be the judge yourself.
So, while it is important to get the best possible price quote, you should also prioritize the final outcome in terms of quality output from the outsourcing provider. The rule of thumb always is to look elsewhere if the pricing is too low. This is because you may end up getting too low quality as well.
2: Don’t Settle for the First Provider that Comes Your Way
Comparison shopping is a great way to land the best deal on just anything, including outsourcing providers. So, don’t be in a hurry to settle for the first provider that comes your way, no matter how juicy the offer may appear. The best bait is to always research as many providers as possible before selecting the very best.
So, when you compare outsourcing firms, concentrate on essential features such as relevant expertise, experience, work history, rich profile/portfolio, as well as cost. You should also explore independent reviews on the firms you have on your list, as well as authentic customer reviews. These elements will help you narrow down your search suitably.
3: Don’t Forget to Focus on Relevant Skill and Expertise
Focusing on an outsourcing provider who is specialized in handling the type of business function you wish to outsource is a great way to improve the chances of best quality outcome. Although some providers have other team members who provide outsourcing services that match each person’s skill and expertise, you should focus more on a provider whose specialty is solely or mainly the business task you want to outsource.
However, if you confirm that an outsourcing firm has professionals that handle different business functions, including the one you want outsourced, this is also a good move to make.
Generally, you should focus more on getting the best finished output at a reasonable price when interviewing outsourcing firms. This is the only way you can maximize outsourcing solution.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Why You Need to Outsource Customer Service Every growing business organization has its own share of customer service related problems. For some company, this part of the business is often sacrificed particularly business organizations that cannot afford to have their own in – house customer service department.
In spite of this, there are companies that are willing to stretch the capacity of some of their division just for them to cope with the growing demands of the business and clients as well.
By the time the company has grown way beyond its capacity to address all customer service requirements and declining a customer is not an option, this is the perfect time to find ways how to outsource customer service. Outsourcing other non –core services such as the company’s customer support services is an excellent decision that will allow the company flexibility without dropping out of the competition.
Even if the customer service requirements have grown a bit larger than what the business organization can actually handle, the business operation must still go on. It is not necessary for a company to limit their operations just because the customer service department is jam packed with workload way beyond its capacity to handle. Choosing to outsource customer service is more than just a mere operational solution for the company.
Outsourcing customer service processes is a growing norm that allows businesses to continue operating while third party service providers do all the necessary jobs to complete the project.
If the company is able to get the right third party provider to outsource customer service to from a multitude of BPO providers in the market, it is still feasible for the company to continue operating without sacrificing customer service quality. With this portion of business operation handed to professionals, the company now can focus on facilitating growth without sacrificing the quality of the output.
Then again, the challenge to outsource customer service lies in finding reliable BPO providers that specializes in top of the line customer support services and one that can guarantee excellent output at a very cost effective manner. The hunt for locating are liable third party customer service vendor depends on understanding the basic factors of customer service outsourcing because this will definitely affect the company’s choice of a BPO provider.
Before you decide to outsource customer service to a particular BPO company, it is vital to create a shortlist of potential customer service outsourcing provider and weigh up each of the capacity of the BPO provider in delivering results.
The key here is to focus your research base on their track record. Once you have shortlisted your options,it is time to appraise their track records and field of specialization, in this case, customer service. This screening process will your company to have the opportunity to know more about a potential vendor and what they can do to improve customer service processes.
Going online to gather information is always a practical move if you want to outsource customer service for your company. If a particular BPO provider has serviced a number of clients before, chances are that reviews and service testimonials will be available on their websites. Use this information to determine whether or not the BPO provider can meet your specific requirements in third party customer service processing.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Are your customers getting the quality help and at the time the help is needed? Are your in-house employees juggling between attending to customers and handling their primary duties, resulting in extended waiting time when customers call in? Remember, your customers are the reason why your business is still in existence. Therefore, giving them less attention than they deserve can turn them over to your competitors, causing your business to dwindle. Outsource help desk to help you pay maximum and quality attention to your customers.
So, Is Outsourcing Help Desk the Right Thing to Do?
The situation described above is typical of many businesses and companies. There’s hardly special and quality time dedication to customers. The same employees in charge of payroll or other functions are the same persons charged with the responsibility of answering customers’ phone calls and attending to their needs. How are they going to deliver quality customer care and help in such situation?
Obviously, the most sensible solution is to outsource help desk for the following reasons;
1: Undivided Attention
Outsourced help desk service providers have no other duty but to answer customers’ phone calls and resolve their complaints. They are not charged with any other responsibility like the employees in a typical business or company setting. Therefore, they focus all their energy, attention and skill to resolving customer’s complaints and technical issues, leading to increased customer satisfaction. This would in turn result in a ripple effect in form of increased business patronage, customer loyalty and more referrals.
2: Round-the-Clock Help Desk Service
Most businesses and companies run the typical 8am-4pm working duration. As a result, customers may not get help to resolve technical and other issues afterwards. On the other hand, outsourced help desk providers work round-the-clock since they adopt the shift-duty modality, making it possible for customers to call in at any time, even at very odd hours to get the help they need.
So, if you are wondering why consumers tend to gravitate more to your competitor, it is because your competitor is leveraging helpdesk outsourcing solution to offer consumers the help they need for their technical issues, even during off-business hours. Customers are confident that someone would pick up their call at the other end even at 12 midnight and beyond.
3: Time-Zone Barrier is Eliminated
Also, since outsource help desk providers run shift or rotational duty, time-zone barrier for businesses that also serve international customers is eliminated. This is because there’s always someone at the other end stand-by and ready to attend to the customers’ technical needs regardless of what time of the day it is.
4: Less Waiting Time
I hate it when I get those annoying messages at the other end — “you have five customers ahead of you…you have to wait for 3 minutes…” Almost every customer hates to hear that as well. I can easily tell that companies that give customers such off-putting responses are not yet leveraging help desk outsourcing to reduce call waiting time and enhance customer satisfaction.
Here’s the bottom line, choosing to outsource help desk is the right decision for any company or business.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
The choice of a new call center outsourcing service provider is akin to the dilemma we face when confronted with tens and hundreds of choices of different varieties of the same product at the store, without any way to taste them. The interview is a very important component of the process of selecting a choice of a company to provide your business with call center outsourcing service. This enables you to closely relate with the people who will be handling your business and keeping in touch with your customers and potential customers, thereby playing a major role in determining your company’s reputation and sales.
While interviewing companies, a lot of factors will determine your final choice.
Some of them are positive, and some are negative, but at least one major one is negative, but disguised as positive. It is the “yes” company, and you should be very wary of committing your business into the hands of such people. This type of company is the type that always has a positive and affirmative response to all of your inquiries. It is either these companies are amazing and extremely good in every aspect, or they are merely blowing smoke. The saying “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” is often the case.
The most important question is whether or not that company can properly handle the particular business process that you are considering them for.
If you consistently get an unreserved “yes” to all your inquiries, you should remember that while it may be true that they can handle all the processes they say they can, call center outsourcing service providers are usually better in some aspects than others. Some are better in voice, while others excel in non-voice. Some are excellent in customer service support where voice quality is pivotal.
In searching for a BPO to outsource to, you must ensure that you find the one that is willing to come clean to you about its limitations.
A truly good call center outsourcing service provider will only take on those projects and campaigns that they are sure they will excel in because of the awareness that a single failure could tarnish their image beyond repair. In order to ascertain this, you should be adamant on being provided with references, and investigate the reputation of the firm thoroughly.
If, after considering all the factors involved, you have made the decision to move certain parts of your business abroad, you should be aware that you can find excellent service in all the subsets of call center outsourcing service. However, you must ensure that you do not contract with a company that, after leaving an interview with them, you feel like you have just listened to a sales pitch with a lot of sound, but no substance!
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
The outsourcing of business processes has long been considered a very advantageous process for companies to maximize their profits by seriously decreasing the cost of providing a variety of services. Despite the decrease in cost, this method still ensures that the quality of service and productivity of such processes like telemarketing, IT staff and customer manpower are enhanced.
In short, outsourcing enables a company to effectively streamline its operations while it focuses on developing its core businesses.
Of recent, there has been a significant increase in the practice of outsourcing labour to countries like the Philippines due to the much lower costs of labour there. But apart from the lower costs of providing these services from abroad, there are actually quality-of-service gains to be made from employing offshore companies. In the Philippines, there is a rich and diverse pool of highly qualified manpower who have special raining and vast experience in service-oriented jobs. The Philippines is currently regarded as the best place to get outsourcing staff for several business processes.
This is due to a number of unique advantages:
English language proficiency – The Philippines comes in as number 3 of the largest English speaking countries in the world, and due to this, the offshore staff in the Philippines are able to communicate in the English language with the utmost effectiveness. At all levels of education in the country, students receive intensive instruction in the use of the language. In fact, the language dominates the instructional process, resulting generally in a wide vocabulary, splendid grammar and diction, as well as a very high level of comprehension in most employees. Due to the fact that Filipinos have been greatly influenced by American culture, most of them find it easy to adopt an American accent, which makes them easier to talk to.
Former U.S colony – The fact that the Philippines was once a colony of the United States of America means that the country has a close affiliation with other countries with English as their first language. This is part of why the Philippines has grown to be the number 1 offshore outsourcing destination.
Time zone differences – The difference in time zones is one of the major benefits of outsourcing your services to the Philippines. The time zone difference between Australia and Philippines is only two hours, and this ensures that the employees in Philippines will be working within your company’s normal business hours.
High level of education – Most of the Philippines outsourcing staff are college degree-holders and computer savvy. The Filipino culture emphasizes the importance of education, especially in information technology, in recent times. The skill levels of the staff are at world-class levels, and definitely impact the businesses that employ them positively.
The prestige factor – In the Philippines, call center and BPO jobs are held in much higher regard than in more developed countries. Because of this, Philippines outsourcing staff generally perform their jobs with great commitment.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Are you looking for a way to cut costs in your small business and at the same time, increase or maintain a high level of customer service?You probably would have read about outsourced receptionist services. You may want to give this service a try.
Due to fairly recent technological advancements, it is now possible to hire a virtual receptionist. With this service, all calls to your business can be sent through a professional outsourced receptionist service. This could be done through a “hosted” telephone number or by the use of call forwarding. This should save you the cost of hiring an in-house administrative assistant for the job, which would definitely cost more.
With this kind of service, small businesses can make it possible for their customers/clients to have better personal touch than they would if they used call center services or answering services with limited ability.
This can however be feasible when you choose the right receptionist services. A simple way of achieving this is by looking for a firm that offers better services at averagely better rates. A remote outsourced receptionist is going to be the first live representative that customers encounter. You need a receptionist that would make a great first impression.
You do not want a faceless receptionist. You sure did not sign up for a robot either. An ideal virtual receptionist should be warm and friendly. He/she should have some charisma and make a customer want to do business with you. It should feel like he is standing right in your front desk, talking to the most amiable person he’s ever met.
A great virtual receptionist service would do whatever it takes and would employ several methods to please the companies they represent and their customers.
If you want your outsourced receptionists to perform better, work with them. They need to stay informed and updated about your products and services. You should provide scripts for them, or go through their scripts to ensure they are in line with your company goals and would help callers in the fastest and most efficient ways possible. Do not just stop at that find out how your virtual receptionist service hires their employees. Find out if they feature friendly people that converse freely with customers. You need to know if they are well trained and if they are updated with the latest trends in the industry.
What service options/packages do they offer? Do they do background checks on their receptionists? Do they place emphasis on customer service? These are things to find out.
It takes more than a friendly voice to direct callers to the right person in the office. Your outsourced receptionist should be able to transfer calls to the right extension. A good service should also be able to take messages, if you should be away from your desk. The ability to take simple orders and even schedule appointments is a plus.
Affordability is a factor in choosing an outsourced receptionist, but be sure to do your homework, so you do not get roped into contracts with services that wouldn’t help your business.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
