Do You Take Drugs?

How sure are you that you are safe in your call center offices during your shift?

I asked this because you have to be sure that you are working in a safe, secure call center environment. That is why most call centers now are asking their applicants to pass drug testing as part of their screening process.

They wanted to get rid of these call center applicants who are using illegal substance.

Also, in some call centers, random drug testing can also be done by the help of professionals (yes, this is still under the prerogative of the call center employers) who can deliver quick results using their drug testing kits. If you want to have an idea on the different illegal substances subject to their different tests, you can check out their UK based site online. They also have a section for exchanging questions and answers, that is really helpful to get direct answers from the professionals themselves. So no more time to get half baked and a little unsure information from peers. You can also purchase the drug testing kits securely online, and you can even recommend this one as a good resource to consider in getting the supplies for your office (if the need arises).

Personally, I would be thankful should companies begin doing all these random drug testing in their call center operations floor. It will give me the impression that the company is putting a premium on the safety of their employees whether inside or outside their office premises.

NCR is closing its Springdale call center, which employs 334, in August after spending about 40 years in the small Lexington County town near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

Midlands development officials said little could be done to keep one of Lexington County's largest private employers.

The call center work is being transferred to Georgia, where NCR recently relocated its corporate headquarters and opened new distribution and call centers and a manufacturing plant.

NCR has been poised to leave Lexington County before. The company planned to close its Springdale operations until it was swayed by state development officials, who pushed tax credits and job training.

The deal was finalized by then-Gov. Jim Hodges.

"They milked the state out of incentives for 20 years, and they're moving on," Lexington County Council vice chairman William Banning said.

From the highest possible position to the lowest in the call center industry, Filipinos are in demand. But, are they reliable workers? Of course they are! If they weren’t then big institutions like Procter and Gamble, Ford, Intel, Nestle, etc., which are currently working with call center outsourcing companies in the country, would not be doing so. Likewise, no overseas Filipino workers would be hired by countless companies in other countries around the world.

It is a fact that the Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia and Filipinos uphold Christian values, trust in God and integrity. Also, Filipinos value their family and have high respect for their elders as well as people in authority such as CEO’s, managers, supervisors, team leaders and the like. Aside from this, Filipinos value education so much that everyone is aiming to finish their studies and as much as possible, acquire a degree.

These values build up characteristics that the Filipinos possess; making them reliable and trusted workers.

The following are their character traits:-

* Due to the fact that Filipinos have a high standard of quality education, they are competitive and won’t settle for anything less or mediocre. They aim higher than where they are.
* Filipinos can easily be trained to perform a multitude of tasks. That’s what makes them capable and competent.
* Filipinos are actually very industrious. They do not mind if they work overtime without pay just as long as they can finish their job and acquire a sense of fulfillment after wards. In fact, this is seen as a plus in the call center outsourcing industry in the country.
* Filipinos love to think of better ways in order to solve an issue or complete a task effectively. They are indeed innovative, creating new ideas to enhance their work processes.
* Filipinos are innately jolly individuals. It is seen in them when greeted by their beautiful smiles. They are indeed very optimistic.

Additionally, we always reiterate that Filipinos are proficient in English and have good work ethics. Those above mentioned character traits are also manifested in every Filipino worker. So, if you are looking to outsource virtual assistance, outbound telemarketing, inbound customer service, lead generation, appointment setting, online marketing, web and graphics designing, transcription or bookkeeping, you can rely on Filipino workers to do these tasks.

StarTek, a business process outsourcing company, announced it has won Best Outsourced Provider from the 2010 Call Center Excellence Awards.

The awards were announced June 16 at the 11th annual IQPC Call Center Week Conference in Las Vegas. The judging was done by a panel of call center experts and leaders assembled by IQPC who evaluated the entrants on their ability to deliver to customers.

"This was a great win for us," said Mary Beth Loesch, SVP of business development for StarTek. "This competition for the award was some of the top outsourcers in the world so a first place finish is even more of an accomplishment."

The 2010 Call Center Excellence Awards program was created by IQPC to honor, recognize and promote the most innovative call center solutions and individuals over the past year. With Awards given in 8 categories, the Call Center Excellence Awards are dedicated to recognizing creativity and execution across the full spectrum of call center functions.

The WDSGlobal call center here has hired more than 400 workers and hopes to hire close to 200 more within the next two weeks.

“We are getting very close to hitting our commitment for our next round of classes,” site director Jack Kozeny on Monday said. “We have hired over 400 employees already, and we only need to hire 195 more to reach our goal. It (hiring) has been real good. Last week, we offered jobs to roughly 100 people.”

Kozeny recommends that those wanting to work for the company should apply immediately. Interested persons should fill out the application online at www.wdsglobal.com/careers.

“We will have an open house and job fair on Saturday. We will do on-the-spot testing, interviewing and hiring at our location at I-44 and Airport Drive,” he explained. “If they are planning on coming to the job fair, it would be good for them to go ahead and apply online. It will save them some time.”

The open house and job fair will be from
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The company had received more than 1,200 applications by mid-May. More than 300 workers had been hired by early June.

The pay range, he said, starts at $8.15 per hour, and full- and part-time jobs are available. Part-time workers are required to work 24 hours a week.

The center held its first training session in May.

In an earlier Times Record News story, Kozeny said, “The WDSGlobal team is looking for self-motivated, goal-oriented people that are looking to work and grow in a fun, fast-paced environment.”

He said the center will work exclusively for a major wireless provider. It will be customer service only.

WDSGlobal is an international company.

The Wichita Falls location is in the former Avis/Budget call center facility.

Saving Expenditure

Call center services are labor intensive and costly, which is primarily why many businesses are outsourcing the function to call center services companies. Apart from saving costs, call center outsourcing frees up in-house resources to focus on reveune generating tasks. Experienced call center companies that have shared strong relationships with businesses bring in positive changes that enhance business productivity and efficiency.

The quality of an outsourced call center is very important as the telemarketing call center agents will be talking to your customers on your behalf. Their pofessionalism will go a long way in shaping your brand that will directly impact your business’ bottom line. The cost of hiring a professional call center may seem high initially, but the returns on this investment will be significant.

Call center outsourcing helps small and mid sized business save. Here’s how:

1. Reduced Employee Costs

By outsourcing call center services, the small and mid sized business does not have to recruit or train call center agents for customer service and support.  No overhead costs such as health insurance and employee benefits to deal with. The business can direct its investments and resources towards other revenue generating and profit making initiatives.

2. Reduced Infrastructure Costs

In-house call center services involves the cost of procuring and maintaining communications equipment and network and office space. By outsourcing call center services, businesses tap into a pre-established organization that has the necessary infrastructure and skilled personnel. Typically, personnel use a hosted solution at the outsourced call center location. Many call center services use CRM solutions to manage customer service  information and activities.

3. Call Center Agent Skills

Lack of call center agent training, especially in soft skills as well as technical know-how often leads to increase in customer complaints. Outsourced call center services recruit and train call center agents that have the required customer service skills to assist customers. Though some time is spent on training personnel to align them with your business’ strategies, the learning curve is short.

Performance Check

4. Scaling Up and Down

With call center outsoucing, businesses can meet their unexpected spikes and slumps in customer service calls. Call center services have several clients and they can manage the fluctuation in call volumes. This alleviates small and mid sized businesses from having to staff up or downsize based on seasonality of call volumes and still meet their customer service needs with affordable call center pricing.

5. Organizational Expertise

Outsourced call centers use techniques such as target analysis and scripts to improve the effect of telemarketing calls. Personnel are trained to respect the potential customer’s time and drive the conversation towards a resolution or sale. A survey across industries reveals that professional call center services have helped businesses improve profits through up-selling and cross-selling by 25%, reduced complaints and errors by 50%, and enhanced quality control and compliance practices significantly.

6. Improved Compliance

Outsourced call center services update their staff on the latest federal, state and regional laws governing telemarketing. Businesses that do not comply with these strict rules face severe penalties and can even have their license revoked. By having call center services take care of telemarketing, businesses protect themselves from possible fines or litigations.

Businesses that outsource call center services can improve bottom line by improving customer support services and marketing initiatives while keeping a cap on expenses. Professional telemarketing and call center services help organizations improve business practices for greater customer satisfaction and business growth.

Fifty-four employees will lose their jobs when Global Contact Services in Kingsville closes its doors this summer.
The call center on Brahma Boulevard is expected to run at normal capacity until Aug. 12, when it will close, according to a letter dated June 14 that was sent to the Texas Workforce Commission. Calls Tuesday to the North Carolina-based company were not returned.

Global Contact Services opened in 2006 and offered good employment for a segment of the community that has a hard time finding work, said Dick Messbarger, executive director of the Greater Kingsville Economic Development Council.

“Its employees were predominantly single females who were head of households,” Messbarger said. “But the economy has affected this industry as it has affected its clients, which were an impressive list. They included Bank of America and AIG.”

The 28,000-square-foot, 320-cubicle former King Bowl building, is owned by the city, which has a contract with Global Contact Services for about another year, Messbarger said. The building was vacant for a year after Calling Solutions closed in 2005.

Every business operating in a business environment currently has call center must be met. What is small scale industry or business of Fortune 500 companies, almost all companies operating in this competition has several call centers or other requirements. Similarly, most call center companies slow to switch to digital software and super easy to use to link to the customer.

The level of communication strategies and work as follows in the call center to help business groups to link their clients to increase sales to customers. Patterns of the customer service center by chance the right time, effective and meaningful. This is specifically for each call handled by professionals and tailored to ensure that the developed approach. Unit customer service work at night and the table. This is to ensure that ongoing support continues to be the buyer. As customer needs, requirements and expectations are considered the main priority, images or service marks have to be improved. It will be something that leads to increased sales. Here is a need sophisticated software.

Today representatives or call center agents well versed cross selling and up selling. Customer Care Agents are responsible for profit and benefit from each product or discount. In addition, efficiently done through the management table and beat the machine in line. All this and much more clearly by using advanced software techniques and methods. Call Centre Technology Centre has been successful evolutionCall age is just a telemarketing and telecommunications service providers. customer service unit was created to be a driver of the roof to meet all business needs. Thus, telemarketing, customer care, back office, technical helpdesk support, discussion, research, software development, IT support, PUT, broadcast voice, call center are some of the most specialized services to ensure the best customer support.

Customer care services to improve the quality and value for all the services they offer. Some call center technology is the most popular are:-

1.Auto Dialer: This is one of the innovative techniques that enable customers to get the treatment agent through the list of potential buyers or potential with minimal time and resources. This method of helping all special agents to maintain their services and work processes efficiently.

2. Fine and computer telephone integration: Use of high-end database will help customer service agent that the water does not return to normal. It is an integrated contact information, agents can offer access to the right to request feedback in real time.

3. Automatic call distribution, and Efficient Call Center value the right of every call: In this case, the use of technology, there is no guarantee that the call is answered or returned to the process. All calls should be automatically distributed to agents who did not attend the call. Through the technology up-to-date in the call center, better response times and superior customer satisfaction is achieved.

4. Mapping Software Performance: gone are the days when agents must take the yellow pages or the manual for the identification of lead candidates. These days, most call center companies to switch to digital software and super easy to use to link to the customer. Using this software easily find potential buyers for the maintenance and management of the condition and performance sheets per order.

In this era of customer empowerment, call center managers that focus on Emotional Intelligence (EI) find valuable aid in the selection, recruitment and development process. Emotional Intelligence is all about an individual’s ability to know emotions and act appropriately. Human resource (HR) managers find selection indicators such as intelligence, education, personality, and experience adequate in qualifying a candidate for a job, but it’s not enough to predict performance. The ability to know the behavioral patterns of call center candidates is essential to the human resources department. What has been recently learned is that communication – the key feature in relationship theories – is connected to Emotional Intelligence, a predictor that can be measured by what is termed as EQ or Emotional Quotient.

Emotionally intelligent call center workers are able to form strong relationships because they can communicate effectively and are able to cope well with stressful situations. EQ can also be strengthened and be developed over time, which is why the call center industry would be well served with EQ assessments. HR managers ought to use and integrate these instruments into their standards for selection and development. Plotting the succession of senior leadership is critical to a call center’s success, and selecting the right candidate to hire or promote becomes simpler. Furthermore, EQ helps to identify individual specific strengths and weaknesses so that training and coaching can be designed to develop skills that contribute to future leadership.

Handling calls efficiently may be one of the main tasks of call center agents. But, this includes the ability to listen, build a rapport with a customer, engage in a dialogue, and solve problems. The ability to handle odd timings, and work pressures, are areas where candidates need to excel and not get hijacked due to stressful emotional situations. Issues of self-control, self-esteem, and self-motivation are areas linked to the emotional quotient. Identifying and growing these effectiveness skills is essential. When call center agents, supervisors and managers can be profiled for EQ it makes it simpler for human resource managers to determine, coach, and develop “star performers”. Attrition rates are also significantly lowered in call centers that include EQ assessment as part of their recruitment process. Moreover, call centers need not worry about recruiting the incorrect candidate, resulting in a significant saving. With added pressure from clients to cut down on recruitment costs, exploring the implementation of EQ assessment has gained momentum in the industry.

Call centers are one of the main industries where the Emotional Intelligence factor comes into focus. Moreover, it is a excellent return on investment when it comes to the selection and retention of employees. Profiling candidates through EQ testing helps make a corporate culture imbibed with an atmosphere of teamwork and leadership. Call centers cannot afford to have customers complain about inadequate support due to the indifferent attitude of customer support agents. Irate customers too cannot be dismissed without a polite word and an attempt to solve their issues. In small, employees with a excellent EQ and the right coaching will be able to contribute significantly to the success and profits of any call center.

IQ test means Intelligence Quotient,with the help of IQ tests intelligence test you can measure your ability of your work in any field, if you get high IQ level in IQ intelligence test that means there is chances of highly complex jobs.

The city is willing to lend $2 million to convince a call-center company to locate an expansion here that would create at least 500 new jobs downtown.

City council approved the $2 million loan, with an interest rate of 0.25 of a percent for up to 12 months, today with VXI Global Solutions.

VXI already employs about 500 to 600 on the fourth floor of the city-owned 20 Federal Place building.
A $2.7 million expansion would be on the building’s fifth floor. A VXI official said the deal could be finalized in a few days.

Also today, council declined to purchase the long-closed Paramount Theatre on West Federal Street for $80,000.

The deal isn’t dead, but council members said they don’t see why the city should buy the building now and assume the liability of the dilapidated structure.

U.S. Cellular will dismiss 160 employees at its Tulsa call center in the next nine months and close its Tulsa Financial Services Center.

The jobs are moving to a call center in Madison, Wis., and to a contract partner in Houston.

The Chicago cell phone service provider confirmed the layoffs Wednesday after submitting a notice to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

“The company has made the strategic business decision to transition the credit and collection responsibilities of its Tulsa Financial Services Center to … Madison, Wis., and … Houston,” U.S. Cellular said in a statement Wednesday.

It cited lower costs as the reason for the changes.

The Financial Services Center is part of a larger U.S. Cellular complex with about 400 employees in eastern Tulsa.

The company will use the space to add 100 new jobs to its Tulsa Customer Care Center.

The fired employees will be eligible for those jobs, but they will have to reapply for the positions.

U.S. Cellular is offering a severance package of eight weeks pay and extended COBRA coverage to any employees who choose to stick around until the job cuts start next March.

The company will begin moving the positions this summer.

When finished, the changes will reduce employment at the Tulsa center to about 350 workers from about 400.

Lead generation is a major service of outbound call center service. In simplified words, lead generation can be understood as calling up potential customers and convincing them for the product and services of client. If a customer makes his mind to try the product his name is send to the company to actualize the lead into sales. The in-house team, then take cares that the product are delivered on time.

This is lot more complex process that it seems from the face. It is a multilevel process. The biggest challenge and opposition call center agents face is the fear of lashing out from the customers as they call the potential leads without permission. They get numbers from random database. Though the process is entirely compliant to the Do not Disturb list but the agents by no means can know who are they calling up and what could be the most convenient time for them. Sometimes, this inconvenience comes in front as plain verbal assault, abusive language and aggressiveness. This can be very unsettling and depressive for the workers of call center. At this point their training proves to be great help to deal with the odd behavior of customers and tackle the situation to the benefit of company. The customer care executives are trained to overcome these hurdles as soon as the call is ended and call another person without getting affected.

The list of odds and problems for outbound call centers lead generation programs does not end here. An agent has to be hardcore marketer of the product. The challenge becomes more difficult because the entire deal is done through telephone. The agents also sell additional products and services in up selling and cross selling processes. Moreover, despite of new challenge every day, they have new target to meet!

The agents are the backbone of any call center. They work to evolve a product into a defined brand that is more visible and more popular with the customers. They are pivotal in promoting the growth of company. The training schedules and continuous odd working shifts put adverse affects on their health. They are deprived of their family work to give you a call for a product that may help you and facilitates your life style.

Last week brought a lot of disgrace for the Philippine call center business. In a worst ever instance, 4 call center personnel working in a Philippine based firm was suspended following an incident. For the Philippine call center industry this incident is reported to bring about a massive blow to its growing reputation. The 4 accused call center professionals are awaiting for their final judgment as further investigation is yet to resume in a couple of days or so. The local authorities have probed for an investigation after the February 19 event.

What prompted this suspension?As per the news published in the New Zealand Herald, one of the well read daily in the country, it was an obscene SMS message that proved to be the main fault of the 4 professionals leading to their suspension from the job. The SMS message that was send from the service provider was directed to one of the customers of the firm’s New Zealand based client. What did the New Zealand Herald report?

On last Friday 19. 02. 10, the New Zealand Herald was found to report that Telecom, which is a telecommunications company based in New Zealand, has exposed the source of the obscene text messages that was received by some of its own customer at the beginning of the last week.

When did such incident occur?It was last Wednesday 17. 02. 10, when a woman belonging to the Whanganui District is to be reported to have told the authorities that she had received a text message saying “ F*** you”. After receiving such abusive message, she filed a complaint against the customer service cell of the Telecom. It has been reported that she has been a customer of this telecom company and has been facing problems of delays in the SMS service of the service provider. Suddenly, when she got this SMS message, she was annoyed by her service provider and decided to file complaint and part ways with the same. About the investigation:The offensive messages that some of the customers of the New Zealand based telecommunication company received were lastly traced to the Manila based office of the Sitel.

Now Sitel is the name of the multinational business process outsourcing (BPO) company of which the Telecom was a reputed client. Step taken by SitelCurrently, Sitel occupies a prestigious name in the Philippine BPO market. After this particular incident, industry leaders feel that this particular act will really bring about a lot of discredit for the company. See what the general manager had to say:The general manager of Sitel customer services- Trish Keith said that the company includes more than 1,500 team members in New Zealand and in Manila it includes 800. This incident will certainly be a massive disappointment for the entire workforce. On the part of the company, there have been repeated apologies made by the company officials. However, as per the GMA News. TV news, the company has chosen not to disclose the name of the all four accused call center personnel who have been responsible for messaging such abusive message.

VoIP technologies are indispensable for the contact center efficiency enhancement as you can move to a distributed contact center or employ at-home agents to
* reduce facility expenses and salary rates;
* overcome the language barrier and cultural differences;
* smooth out peak load periods and develop a reliable business contingency plan.

As TechTarget research data shows, at-home agents:
”* have a 10% attrition rate, which is significantly lower than for on-site staff;
* are 25% more productive.
* cost $11 less/hour.”

But no matter whether you choose a distributed model or a local one, to get maximum benefits from your VoIP contact center, you need special software that is described below.

1. Automate Call Processing and Release Your Staff for More Complicated Tasks

If you need to
* ensure that your clients timely get the information that they are looking for;
* release your staff for tasks that require their experience and expertise,
provide your clients with a self-serving facility with a voice portal or interactive voice response (IVR) applications.

2. Overcome Call Peak Loads and Cut the Waiting Time

Generally, people hate to waste time searching for an “appropriate employee” to answer their questions. To decrease this waiting time and smooth out call peak load hours you can use
* skill-based routing (SBR) software, integrated with your CRM and ERP software that will automatically route calls to:
** a manager who usually works with a calling client or
** an operator with demanded skills that is defined from information about a calling client (such as his/her previous requests or his/her location and language he/she speaks) and operator’s product expertise, overall skill-level and language capability;
* virtual queuing software, with which your clients will just leave their contact information and return to their business, while an operator will automatically call them back.

Note that integration of telephony and CRM software accelerates client request processing also by providing your staff with information about the calling client retrieved from your databases.

3. Save Your Time and Effort by Getting All Requests from a Single Inbox

Would you like to save your time on checking client messages from different sources (phone, fax, email, website etc.) and timely service all requests?
With unified messaging and voice mail service, you can collect messages from all sources in a single mailbox available 24×7 from both your e-mail client and phone, and thus guarantee your clients get a timely response to all their questions, regardless of where they sent them from.

4. Get a Single Solution to Improve Call Processing at All Company Offices

If you look for a powerful tool that is able to streamline call processing at all company sites and support at-home operators, pay attention to software-based attendant consoles.

With a software-based console, your operator, regardless of his/her location, can:
* get incoming calls from several phone lines and route them to appropriate employees;
* find quickly an employee/a phone number;
* send a text/voice message;
* record a call.

This software also supports intelligent call queuing.

5. Enhance Your Call Center Staff Productivity

Today, almost all large and mid-sized companies deploy call accounting software to control/reduce employee telecom costs. However, you can do much more with it!

Advanced call-accounting software provides you with various reports, built on the base of call detail records (CDRs) received from your IP PBX that you can use to:
* determine peak phone network hours and compose an appropriate call plan;
* track unanswered calls and control, if your employees return calls in a timely manner;
* track employee “friends & family” calls and set special rules to limit and even deny such communications at peak load hours.
Conclusion
To do the most of your VoIP call-center, you need just to choose appropriate software:
* a voice portal or IVR applications to automate processing of up to 80% of incoming calls and release your staff for complicated tasks;
* skill-based routing or virtual queuing software to smooth out call peak loads and cut down the waiting time;
* unified messaging and voice mail service to save your time and effort by getting all requests from a single inbox with;
* a software-based attendant console to get a single solution to improve call processing at all your sites, regardless of their location;
* call-accounting software to decrease telecom costs, control your staff daily activities and enhance employee productivity.

Call Center Hiring

Consumer Cellular, a provider of wireless phones and services mostly for seniors, opened its second U.S.-based call center in the Valley, and the company plans to staff it with about 100 employees by the fall.
Employees at the 8181 S. 48th St. center in Phoenix will provide sales and support for the company's customers from a 39,000 square-foot building. The company said there are 24 new employees on the job and another 80 will be hired by September.

Consumer Cellular also has a customer service facility at its headquarters in Portland, Ore.
"Our Phoenix expansion allows us to meet the demands of our expanding customer base by providing additional time zone coverage, increased data security, and emergency back-up customer support when needed," said John Marick, CEO of Consumer Cellular, in a statement. "We chose to locate the new call center in Phoenix because of its excellent talent pool and business-friendly environment."

Consumer Cellular's Valley expansion comes six months after the company celebrated double-digit annual revenue growth from nearly $65 million in 2008 to more than $100 million in 2009.

Founded in 1995, the privately-held company is the exclusive wireless provider for AARP members. Its niche is basic cell phone service for seniors.

A Bank of America call center employee has pleaded guilty to charges that he stole sensitive client information and then tried to sell it for cash.

Brian Matty Hagen pleaded guilty last week to one count of bank fraud. According to court filings he allegedly recorded customer account information when BofA customers called him for technical support at the Florida call center where he worked.

Prosecutors say he focused on high net-worth customers and then unwittingly sold their information to an undercover U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. Allegedly, he thought that he was going to collect a percentage of the profits from what's known as a credit bust-out scam -- meaning that the information would be used to fraudulently line up new credit with other banks.

Hagen allegedly logged account holders' names, birth dates, addresses and account histories between September 2009 and April 2010. He was supposed to get a 25 percent stake of the profits, court filings state.

One of the customers had his information stolen after calling Hagen to have Netflix automatic payments suspended from his account, prosecutors say. That customer's BofA account contained more than US$444,000.

Hagen allegedly told the FBI agent "that he could get similar information for other BofA customers 'pretty quick,' but would not bother with any account that had less than $100,000 in it," court records state.
It's not clear how many BofA accounts were compromised -- the FBI found details of just a handful of accounts in his possession, prosecutors say.

Neither BofA nor its customers were harmed by Hagen's actions, said his attorney, federal public defender Adam Allen. "Mr Hagen has worked in the banking industry since he was 17 years old and the conduct in this case constitutes an isolated incident for which Brian deeply regrets," he said via e-mail.


The Bank of America could not be reached for comment.
 
Hagen faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on the charges, but with his guilty plea, he is likely to face a much softer sentence.

Training is the key for any business success, as it prepares you to take-on the challenges with a lot more skill and belief and when its matter of creating good impression on the customer who is of other nationality, other culture and creed, the role of training gets even more pivotal.

Call centre training is the most crucial part to make the experience of your caller rewarding and to get repeat on sales, otherwise, you won’t get a second chance to create your first impression. The key areas which need strenuous training are product knowledge, technology and speaking soft with skill.

Special soft skills trainings would be highly required for your call center team before handling international customers. Starting with the accent, make the heavy and localized accent affordable for the US or other developed nation caller, who are money rich and time-poor, they do not want to take too longer in understanding the alien accents. You will need to train your call center team through accent-neutralization and by arranging lacoste shoes smooth and easy to adopt monikers. With this you can overcome the challenges faced by your call center with your international customers.

The difference in cultures, should be highly considered as it is the most difficult challenge call center team might come across. Customers always have high expectations on the customer service representatives. They are in some sort of problem while they are calling, some credit card payment issue, discrepancy on a bill, want to get assistance for computer problem or are seeking delay in their already bookings for airlines, they are all calling you with high level of frustration and the agent ahs to be trained to handle such situations with cool head and a lot of common sense.

These already offended callers are not ready to relieve anyone who is mens lacoste shoes short of words, solutions and way-out for their everyday problems, all the agents should go strenuous in-house training before they are exposed to callers that how compliance can be achieved. US based customers expects the rep to offer a certain level of empathy, put thoughtful questions across, use relevant cheap lacoste shoes words and get hold of the problem smartly. Whereas, reps of under developed countries show sympathy which is offending for the callers who are expecting sincere support.

Training can give customer service raps more word choice and way forward to lead the conversation ahead, they can present a confident gesture about offering sincere responses in the manner that echoes with your customer base. The more technology savvy your customer service reps are, the more their chances of converting a call into long-term relationship exist. Train the reps with all the innovative technologies to make them feel good about everything. This will improve their confidence and they will show better performance.

As a crux, the rep should be given adequate knowledge of the content they are supposed to handle, they should be given ample training in receiving calls in safe-simulated environment to get confidence and skills, a detailed perspective of the country which has most potential prospects for the call centre and last but not the least, an ongoing coaching to make their skill, their excellence.

NRG Global Solutions Pty. Ltd., an Australian debt management company servicing multinationals in the telecommunications, banking and finance industries, opened yesterday a new, 150-seat call center at the Eastwood City Cyberpark in Quezon City.

The firm’s local call center operation, which started on Aug. 8, 2008 with only five seats, plans to expand operations in the Philippines by adding clients from Australia.

"NRG is the first Australian collection company to establish a presence in the Philippines. The company chose the Philippines for its agent talent pool, infrastructure, and readily available vendors and suppliers focused on supporting the international call center sector," the company said.

NRG recently incorporated a Philippine subsidiary, NRG Global Solutions (Philippines), Inc., to serve the firm’s Australian client base.

"The company has gone through measured growth from its Brisbane-based call center, opening with only five seats in a Manila business process outsourcing (BPO) center in August 2008. We are excited with this new phase of growth in the company, as it exponentially increases our presence from five seats to 150 seats," Laurence Barlow, co-founder and chairman of NRG, said in a statement yesterday.

He added: "It made business sense for us to move a portion of our call center operations offshore as the Filipino government encourages foreign investors to set up here in the Philippines with its conducive business environment, incentives, and special economic zones. We also want to capitalize on the abundant talent pool and redundant infrastructure available in the Philippines.

It is a common notion that call centers only handle calling for companies. But as the outsourcing industry develops, call centers have also evolved themselves and have diversified their services. Call centers in India and around the world are not only handling inbound and outbound calls, but they are literally working as a back office for companies.

Let’s have a look at the call center solutions available these days:

1. 24×7 live Email Support: Most companies allow their customers to contact them via email. People send emails to companies for various reasons like filing a complaint, requesting a change in their services, ordering products and services etc. Through 24×7 live email support, a company can send reply to all such mail within minutes of their arrival. Specially designated professionals can handle the queries, complaints and comments in the emails and provide appropriate response to the sender without much delay.
Email support is extremely useful when a person needs written records of the conversation for present or future needs. The company can send written manuals, required documents and proof of transactions via email support.

2. 24×7 live Chat Support: Other than email, instant messaging is also a widely used method of communication on the Internet. The companies know this and that’s why they provide the option of live chat support to their customers. They can simply contact a call center representative and discuss their queries or file their complaints. Call centers provide this solution to enhance the customer support and credibility of the company.

Live chat support is very useful in places where the caller cannot use a phone. It allows the customer to have a conversation which is similar to a phone conversation, but only in written.

3. Inbound calling: Handling calls from the customers is one of the most basic and important call center solutions. A trained professional who has been given all the information about the company, answers call and provides assistance to customers. These days, inbound calls of all kinds of companies, from technology to retail, from automobile to education, are being outsourced to offshore call centers.

These call centers provide cheap and efficient inbound calling solutions for companies who want to provide 24×7 support to their customers and want to assure them that the company is ready to help them as and when they need it.

Call center solutions have been constantly changing and evolving, with time. If you are also planning to hire a call center to get one or more of these solutions for your company, then consider the following points before you do that:

1. Choose the solution that suits your requirements.

2. Choose a reliable call center that has fully trained professionals.

3. Ensure that your customers are aware of the customer support options.

Call centers provide multiple solutions for companies and enhance their market value and credibility by ensuring that every customer that calls them for help, finds a solution to his or her problem.

One hundred and forty new jobs are soon coming to Springfield. KSMU's Ryan Welch reports.
Gold Mountain Communications, a relatively new company in the Springfield area, is more than tripling its employee count from just three months ago.

The call centre began operations in April of 2009, and made its first official call in June, 2009 with 15 employees on staff.

Hank Seevers, president of Gold Mountain Communications, says this expansion was all part of the plan.
"It was kind of the vision when we started the company a little over a year ago in our small downtown office. We kind of envisioned this coming along at some point, and it really came along on schedule as we had planned…which is sometimes surprising,” Seevers said.

To accommodate this rapid growth, the company is investing nearly one million dollars and has moved from its downtown location to West Sunshine Street.

Seevers also says the Economic Development Team at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce has helped his company apply for state tax credits.

“Having those tax credits prompted us to move a little bit sooner than we would’ve, and we’re very happy to have them,” he said.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development approved nearly 400 thousand dollars in state tax credits for Gold Mountain Communications under the Enhanced Enterprise Zone, because the company is creating jobs and making investments within the specified zone.

Why waste your spare time if you can earn money with it. A home inbound call center agent is one of the growing businesses nowadays, although it is not that popular but this kind of home based business already exists for quite long now. An inbound call center is one that solely or predominately handles inbound calls.

Companies are hiring home inbound call center agent because the company do not have to pay the regular wage that they pay to the company based agents but they get the same quality work. The company do not have to offer benefits like holiday pay, insurance or even pensions in short the company can save money by hiring an outsider call center agent.

This is a great opportunity to those people want to work at home. There are a lot of companies who offer the same kind of work. All you need is to search in the internet for different companies that are outsourcing their work as they may have opportunities for inbound call center agents.

There are some requirements that you need to have in order to start a home based call center. You will need a computer with a Windows operating system and a processor of at least 300 MHz as well as an adequate amount of hard drive space. You will need internet access. Obviously you cannot do the task if you do not have an internet connection it is because you will need to have an email address since most of the actual call center work and communication will be done on the computer. There are some instances that company require you may also be required to download an instant messenger.

Another is telephone, this is very important because you can not receive call if you do not have telephone. Companies prefer the corded telephone. Much better if you can afford to buy an avaya phone. Avaya phones are IP telephones that are used by call center companies. Good thing about using this kind of telephone because it can be connected in your computer in which you can trace the incoming calls.

Most important thing is the good telephone etiquette. In order to be an effective customer service representative, you should be aware and sensitive to your customer. All you need is a lot of patience, adequate knowledge about the company you are representing, and a passion to give a helping hand to your valued clients.

How many times have you made your way through the telephone maze to a customer service help desk, only to figure out you’re talking to somebody on the other side of the world? Now there’s a lawmaker who thinks there ought to be a law to change that.

In an effort to slow the outsourcing of American jobs, New York Senator Charles Schumer is proposing a tax on companies that transfer calls with U.S. area codes to foreign call centers. His proposed legislation would tax companies 25 cents for each customer service phone call that is outsourced to a foreign call center. Schumer also wants to make companies inform customers when their calls are being transferred outside the U.S. and to which country.


“This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back,” said Sen. Schumer in a statement.

Under Schumer’s proposed bill, companies would also be required to report their total number of customer service calls and the amount rerouted to foreign call centers.

Many American companies place call centers overseas to save costs. India, Indonesia, Ireland, Canada, the Philippines and South Africa are among the countries that U.S. companies use to outsource call centers.

It mаy bе tһаt yοur business һаѕ reached tο a point wһеrе yοu аrе finding іt hard tο handle tһе customer requests. Tһіѕ іѕ tһе time wһеn yοu саn seek essential һеlр frοm аn inbound call center. An inbound team іѕ basically comprised οf a group οf well-trained individual’s wһο wіLL bе answering tο аLL tһе phone calls, wһісһ comes tο yοur work station. Wһеn tһе contract і ѕ established between tһе inbound call center аnd business, tһе call center agents wіll bе responsible fοr handling tһе customer calls.

Tһе inbound team саn bе conveniently used each hour οf a day. In addition, businesses саn аƖѕο сһοοѕе tο uѕе tһе service аftеr tһе usual business hours аѕ well. Mοѕt businesses using inbound services throughout tһе day аrе basically tһе ones tһаt аrе found tο bе tοο busy іn handling сеrtаіn phone calls οf tһеіr customers.

Apart frοm taking calls, tһе inbound call center саn bе used tο schedule οr set appointments, provide tһе technical support οr recall data οn diverse services οr products аnd processing tһе sale orders. Wіtһ a variety οf services οn offer, mοѕt businesses wοuƖd bе аbƖе tο reap maximum advantages frοm аn inbound customer service center.

Lеt’s take a look аt ѕοmе οf tһе industrial sectors аnd businesses tһаt саn take full advantage frοm аn inbound customer care unit. Starting first wіtһ tһе property managers, tһеy happen tο bе one οf those individuals wһο саn take tһе benefit frοm аny inbound call centre. Wіtһ һugе number οf growing shopping malls, apartment complexes аnd others, tһеrе wіLL naturally bе ѕοmе inquiry calls. Now calls mаdе wіLL come frοm those individuals wһο аrе interested іn renting οr buying a retail store οr аn apartment. Tһеѕе аrе calls tһаt саn come several times іn аn hour аnd wһеrе аn inbound call center саn prove tο bе a unique way tο supervise аLL tһе calls.

Tһе government agencies саn bе another group wһο саn take tһе full benefit frοm inbound customer services. Tһеrе аrе several programs run by tһе government agencies, Ɩіkе food stamps аnd medi-care. Tһеѕе аrе ѕοmе programs tһаt οftеn generate a few hundred calls еνеry day frοm those individuals wһο аrе seeking fοr һеƖр οr һаνе аny queries tο solve. Aѕ mοѕt government officials аrе busy tһеy mаy nοt gеt time tο actually converse wіtһ tһе callers аnd hence tһеy tend tο depend οn tһе inbound services tο listen tο tһе customer queries.

Lіkе tһе government agencies аnd tһе property managers, tһе satellite аnd cable television providers аrе mοѕt ƖіkеƖy tο look fοr inbound services. Wһy? According tο reports, a major half οf tһе American households include cable οr satellite television. Wіtһ tһе passing days, more аnd more people іn America аrе applying fοr tһе same. Tһіѕ аƖѕο means tһаt number οf calls wіLL gеt placed tο tһе service providers аnd οn a regular basis. Mοѕt οf tһеѕе calls аrе found tο include changing οf tһе package οr іn tһе ordering service. Wіtһ tһе exact technique аnd equipments іn рƖасе, tһе call centre agents wіLL bе аbƖе tο ѕtаrt up wіtһ tһе process.