Call Center Magazines

Call center magazines enable readers to understand complex and dynamic issues related to call centers such as marketing, management, and technology. The magazines are also a great source of contacts and information for people who are already in the telemarketing business or others who want to set up their own call centers.

Call center magazines provide comprehensive and balanced product information on call center tools, administration, and operations. These magazines are written by a dedicated staff of editorial experts, corporate/call center managers, IT professionals, consultants and senior sales & marketing executives who generate essential editorials that help in understanding the strategies and services offered by call centers. They bring to light the technologies, services and practices that enable call centers to communicate effectively with customers, whether they call or go online.

Apart from providing crucial information in choosing the right kind of call center service, the editorials enable readers to optimize their call centers' resources, minimize costs and maximize the value their companies bring to the customers who contact them. Almost all call center magazines publish monthly expert opinions on the present standing and future prospects of call center development issues ranging from trends in customer-interfacing applications to call center best practices and budgetary trade-offs.

Some of these magazines also sponsor annual industry appreciation awards to give recognition to call centers that exhibit superior innovation, dedication, and the pursuit of excellence in providing products and services for the call center market and beyond. Winners are selected by magazine editors who look at each product's ability to enhance agent and call center manager productivity, boost sales, and improve overall customer satisfaction.

Individuals looking to make a career in call centers or those wanting to start their own call centers can subscribe to these magazines for call center industry updates on a regular basis. These magazines also feature expert advise from experienced call center professionals.

Call Center Solutions provides detailed information on Call Center Solutions, Call Center Software Solutions, Call Center CRM Solutions, Call Center Management Solutions and more. Call Center Solutions is affiliated with Outsourcing Call Centers.

 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Pinkerton

Scaling a Call Center With VoIP

If VoIP has had an impact on normal businesses, can you imagine the effect it has had on those firms whose entire existence is devoted to making calls? Most businesses have already switched over to VoIP and it's virtually impossible to find a call center, which doesn't use the cost savings and routing benefits of VoIP to improve its processes. But on a more fundamental level, VoIP is changing the very manner in which such businesses operate. In this article, we look at the disruptive potential of VoIP and unified communications in general and how it can have truly far reaching impacts.

With VoIP phones being as configurable as they are, it's only a matter of time before dramatic changes come about in organizations. It's expensive to run an office housing hundreds of people. Electricity, gas, water supplies, rent, security personnel, maintenance and a hundred other expenses add to the overheads of keeping everyone in one place making calls day in and day out. But that's exactly what call centers do and being a cost control center, they're constantly looking to improve their workflow and make it cheaper and more streamlined.

Which is why many of them are looking to VoIP to devise advanced telecommuting procedures, which allow people to work from home and have all the benefits of working from the office. With VoIP, it's possible to have all incoming calls transferred to your home phone and even have an extension assigned to it. This way, the person at the other end need never know that you're not sitting in an office. Nor do they need to.

There is a whole pool of talented people who would be ideally suited for call center work but who don't have the ability to travel to work, stay there for eight hours and travel back every day. Mothers, disabled people and even the elderly can earn their living and contribute to the economy by making use of VoIP. This untapped market of professionals is set to unleash its talents and businesses which have a clue are devising innovate means to tap into them.

We're already seeing this transformation in a few select businesses. It hasn't really caught on yet but its one of those trends whose time has to come some time or another. The benefits are simply too large to ignore. Which process-oriented business wouldn't want to cut its costs and improve its efficiency after all?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bhagwad_Park

Common Call Center Services

The popularity of a new business can be estimated; however, it is not always guaranteed. Many new business owners are finding themselves overrun with customers. A large customer base is a good thing; however, it may not be if you do not have the staff to handle those customers. Instead of hiring new employees, it is common for a business owner to use the services of a call center.

A call center is typically an offsite collection of workers who are experienced in trained in customer service. A call center worker is commonly referred to as a call center representative. The job of a call center representative is to answer incoming calls and then assist the callers in any way that they can. A call center is a great way for a business to save time and money because it eliminates having to constantly answer phone calls. To use the services of a call center, a business owner will first have to find one.

The best way to find a great call center it is know the services that they offer. Each call center is likely to operate under different rules and regulations; therefore, it is safe to assume that different call center services will be offered at different companies. Business owners are encouraged to learn what call center services are offered at a particular center. Once the information is complied it will be easier to determine if the call center services match your needs.

As previously mentioned, call center services are likely to vary from call center to call center. However, there are common call centers services that are offered by most companies. One of the most common call center services is that of sales. It is not uncommon for a call center representative to take a call and place a catalog order, airline reservations, or more. Medical call centers are likely to schedule patient appointments and offer some medical assistance to callers.

Another call center service includes setting up a toll free number. This toll free telephone number is often equipped with Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR is a system that is developed to help walk clients through the process of connecting to you. IVR may be used as an answering service if customers are unable to have their questions answered by a call center representative. Other call center services may include online customer support. Online customer support is important it today's world because now many individuals use email just as much as they do a telephone.

The above mentioned call center services are just a few of the many call center services that may be available. To ensure that you will be working with the best call center you are encouraged to know what these services are ahead of time. Your business and your client’s can both benefit from call center services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zach_Perry

Women Employees in BPO

Today women play a vital role in Indian BPO sector. According to survey out of 400 million of workforce in India, around 30-40 percent are females. They are one of the driving forces behind the success of call center industry in India.

The Indian BPO industry accounts for a revenue US$ 39.6 billion and has emerged as one of the largest private industry providing direct employment to 1.6 million professionals.

The participation of women in BPO industry has been seen as a critical enabling factor for continued growth of the industry. Today BPO companies are recognizing women on board at all levels and this helps the organization to make good business sense. Therefore BPO companies are trying to develop and involve women for higher roles and functions.

Most of the people talk about exploitation of women in call centers. Despite the physical stress, mundane nature of the job and low status of call center work, women constitute about 70 percent of the total workforce in BPO sector. According to an independent research it has been found out that women are satisfied and enjoy their work at call centers. A call center job gives them more freedom and autonomy.

Women especially in India have found out that, the wages that they earn through a BPO job help them to experience freedom and autonomy. In India the women mobility has always been controlled by men even in case of highly educated and independent women. According to a study carried on call center workers in India, it has been found that women are happy to learn new skills and have learnt to become more assertive.

The acquired call center skills ranging from soft skills like communication, interpersonal and listening skills to product knowledge and technical knowledge have given a sense of confidence in women. This helps them to deal with customers as well as society at large. However there are women who opt for call center career for short span of life while others continue to pursue their careers in call centers.

The interpersonal skills of women are now being recognized and valued in call centers. In most of the call centers, a premium is attached to women's voice and interpersonal skills. This is because the quality of customer care jobs ultimately helps a company to gain huge profits. The exact number of women working in Indian BPO's is not exactly known but the development of IT industry in India had a clear impact on emancipation of women.

According to the studies of village pay phones in Bangladesh, advancement of computer aided technologies and networking in India show that the household income has increased and women have a say and mobility in household matters. With introduction of communication technologies and new information the workload of every woman has increased. They have to do the unpaid household chores in addition to the paid work in the BPO industry.

There is no doubt that technology itself is gendered and is strongly shaped by the patriarchal yardstick of class and gender. Despite all these the most important issue is to restore and carry forward the empowered participation of women in the development of technology and enhance the participation of women through skills, education and creative knowledge. The Indian BPO industry has set high standards in gender inclusivity. Today women play a vital role as the part of the BPO workforce. It has been suggested that the professional skills of women needs to upgrade therefore a number of mentorship programs are being organized.

These programs help women working in BPO to have a definite career path and fulfill a certain criteria in the empowerment of women. India has the largest number of women working in BPO's than any other single country in the world. This can be partly attributed to the growth of BPO's in India.

Ivana Lewis has written a wide range of articles on business process outsourcing. Moat of her write-ups are about BPO, inbound customer service and inbound call center.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ivana_Lewis

Call Center Outsourcing Service - Pros and Cons

Many mediums to large sized businesses are shifting towards outsourcing customer service operations. As a result, many call centers are known as 'customer care centers' 'contact centers' or 'service bureaus'. Due to the increasing popularity of customer services, call centers are becoming huge business enterprises in themselves. Typically, the call center works 24/7, with employees coming in shifts to carry out their designated duties.

In the West though, there is a raging controversy about the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing work. So, what are the pros and cons of call center outsourcing service?

Pros:

• Availability: Businesses with a global presence are required to provide round the clock service to their customers. For the average business owner, matching business hours with clients located in different parts of the globe is a challenge. Round the clock availability is often vital to customer allegiance. By employing for customer service, it becomes possible for the business to offer immediate service to customers, any time of the day and night.
• Time: When a business makes use of call center outsourcing service, it frees up precious resources for more useful activities like developing core competency or sales and so on. Thus, the company can dedicate its trained resources to business developmental activities.
• Cost: One of the most important reasons for the development of call center outsourcing service is the cost savings. If a company were to employ their own trained personnel for the job, they would have to invest in new equipment or scheduled upgrades in equipment over and above the cost of hiring, training and retaining employees. If round the clock service is required, the cost may go up even more. On the other hand, customer services are much more affordable as the outsourcing partner generally charges competitive rates for the same.

Cons:

• Communication problems: One of the main concerns that some companies have when outsourcing work is the problem of communication. Serious problems could arise if terms of service are not laid down properly and if requirements are not laid down accurately at the time of engagement.
• Security: Reputed outsourcing partners generally employ powerful information security tools to encode data and thus prevent the theft of data. That said, data transfer could never be 100% foolproof. That is why it is vital that you shop around for an outsourcing company that has established credentials in the market.
• Regulations: Since most companies employ offshore outsourcing, laws and regulations pertaining to these may vary from country to country. Terms of service may be subject to regulations and policies, and these need to be considered carefully.

As you can see, the cons of outsourcing may largely be avoided by working with a reputed company.
 
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Call Centers in India: Favorite Hot Spots of Outsourcing

Call centers in India need no introduction but a special mention, indeed. Organizations from all over the world have preferred to outsource call centers services to India than its competitive counterparts. India and its BPO industry has emerged as powerful contender and leader of outsourcing. No wonder, India has become an attractive option for outsourcing call center services.

Thanks to the wide array of services, favorable government policies and infrastructure and facilities to meet the international demands and varied range, types of business needs. There have been several reasons that count and work in favor of Indian outsourcing industry. Some of them are:

1) Educated and inexpensive workforce
Given the large numbers of highly qualified and IT savvy people who are skillful and English proficient as well, call centers in India are attracting huge work demands across the world. It is to be noted that India has the highest English-speaking population after the United States. The increasing numbers of college graduates and reputation of call center workers have also made outsourcing popular which accounts to never ending resources and facilities in India.

2) Specialized and Customized Call Center Outsourcing Services
Be it inbound call center services, telemarketing services, end to end software or application processing, email support services and chat support services or help-desk services, you name it and call centers in India have it. They have equally authority over inbound and outbound call center services. Offering expert solution based on international quality standards and technology framework, their operational expertise is unparalleled.

3) Time Zone
India has the classic advantage of ideal 12 hours gap that helps Indian BPOs to run 24/7 call center operations.

4) Policies of Indian Government
Indian government has shown extensive and friendly support to Indian outsourcing industry. The government has issued policies, such as tax exemption on IT export, duty free export of goods, and encourages establishments of software technology parks equipped with latest of telecom and IT technologies.

5) Cost-effective call center services
It can be termed as one of the major reasons for which organizations outsource to India. As per a survey, Indian outsource cut the operational costs by more than half and their round of clock services come as an added advantage.

Article Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/call-centers-in-india-favorite-hot-spots-of-outsourcing.html

Various BPO Services

Internet and better communication strategies made various outsourcing services easier. Low pricing, rapid service and accurate result also attract business for outsourcing. There are many types of bpo services available in market depth. In call centers, a particular process task is outsourced. An example would be payroll. BPO services work could be either back office related or front office work. By front office functions we mean customer oriented work like marketing, answering calls, technical support and so on, whereas internal work like billing and purchase come in the back office bpo services category.

Book keeping, business consultancy, call centers, DTP, data entry, proof reading and editing, typesetting, handwriting services, marketing, medical billing and transcription, web design and development etc are all services that could be put under the BPO services category.

The new global scenario requires that each organization find its own niche field that can add value to the world economy. Thus companies now try to focus their resources on areas that give maximum yield. As a spin off of this trend, service providers who focus on narrow business providers these enterprises need also emerged. Thus the term BPO services came into being around 1995. The proliferation of the Internet and its emergence as a business tool helped to make call centers highly popular.

The sub categories of services that comes under BPO services:

Customer Contact Management

Finance / Accounting Processes

Logistics

Travel Management

Telemarketing

Health care

Utilities

Apart from these, Human Resources is emerging as another highly useful outsourcing services field, Consulting, Insurance, Documentation, Telecommunications are all sectors that are catching up on the bpo services trend.

Inbound Call center services would include Answering service, Customer Care Service, Order Taking Services and Debt Collections.

Outbound Call center services would include Center Appointment Setting, Telemarketing, Market Research Services, Voice Broadcasting Service, Virtual Assistance Services and Lead Generation Services.

Description: In present era of globalization, it is required for any type of business to manage all data and information handy and easy accessible. In this competitive business world no one can afford time so the bpo (Business Process Outsourcing) services have become most favorite term.

Brief Overview on Outsourcing and Call Centers

The term Outsourcing is used when a company contracts with another person or company to do their business operations or functions. In today’s era, almost every other company outsources in one way or the other. Usually, the function that is to be outsourced is considered as non-core to the company who will be using outsourcing services. The functions or processes that were previously done or performed in –house are now contracted out of business to an outsourced organization or an external provider. Any two or may be more organizations may enter into a contract wherein exchange of payments and services takes place. Majority of the work is being outsourced to companies or providers outside the nation, which is a big concern and this is termed as offshore outsourcing services or also many times as off shoring. Both these are quite odd terms in the sense that if a company decides to do business with any other company, it does not necessarily mean that the parent company have to go offshore.

The word outsourcing has been in existence from the day work specialization is there but it is only that in the past 20 to 30 years that many companies have implemented or started to use this concept or model to perform various processes or functions to include, but not limited to data entry and processing, account receivables and accounts payable, billing, and telemarketing etc. The primary reason that the companies go for outsourced services is that these processes or functions can be performed more cost effectively and at the same time increases the efficiency when these same functions are performed by call centers or external providers who possess the necessary skills, tools, facilities, and well trained employees to carry out these tasks.

The whole process of hiring or employing any external company to handle/perform business activities for any other organization is termed as Business Process Outsourcing. Call Centers as they are often called are the companies that provide these outsourced services. Many a times they are also known as service providers. At present, the most common forms of these outsourced services are business process outsourcing services and information technology outsourcing services.

Those companies who are not so big and have limited resources and money usually go for both internal as well as service providers so as to bring timeliness in their business functions and speed up their work processes. These sort of companies tend to hire many service providers who takes care of and handles almost all the aspects of an existing or a new project and this include marketing, sales, product design, software coding as well as software testing.

A centralized office or a workplace which is utilized for receiving, producing, and transmitting a very large number of complaints, requests etc. via email or telephone is commonly known as a call center. A call center typically consists of workspace for employees with many workstations inclusive of computers that is a must for all the agents, a telecom headset with a telecom switch, and managers managing the work force. Most of them are operated independently but recently the trend of additional networked centers has also come up.

A majority of business primarily in the US and UK are utilizing call centers in order to interact with their customers and resolve their queries and address their issues and concerns. Call Center Services include telemarketing, customer helpdesk support, email support, chat support, debt collections, inbound support, outbound support, data processing, claims management etc. There are many companies, which service their internal functions also with the use of service providers.

Description: Call centers have been a boom in the past decade but as it is with every other booming industry, they do have their critics, majority of them argue about the work atmosphere, especially the odd timings and office environment.

Advantages of Outsourcing to India

India offers many advantages that make it the favorite outsourcing services hub in the world. Thanks to its large pool of computer literate and English-speaking professionals, India is still the leader in delivering the world-class bpo services to the rest of the world. The wide gap between personnel costs in India and developed countries has enabled foreign companies for outsourcing jobs. India has exceptional resources and availability of highly skillful professionals that turn out a capable, proficient and a low cost work force.

There are a lot of advantages in setting up call centers in India:

The "English" Advantage

India has the highest number of English speakers among other developing countries. In India, English is taught in schools and Indians start conversing in English right from school. This has proved to be advantage to India, because with the coming of call centers, and the internet as the medium, Indians could readily cater to the bpo services industry because of their fluency in English.

Effective Communication

Outsourcing has only become possible because of the improvements in the way we communicate today. Advancements in calling, emailing and chatting have made communication throughout the course of a project easy. Since communication has become so fast, easy and simple, distance is no longer a barrier between two organizations, no matter where in the world the organizations are located. Companies no longer hesitate to set up call centers in India because of such advancements in communication.

BPO companies in India can send the completed work to organizations in the US for reviewing many times and work can go back and forth with ease. This is yet another reason why outsourcing services to India has become an ideal choice for outsourcers.

The cost advantage

Companies have been able to save 30-40 percent by outsourcing services to India. Infrastructure costs in India are lower thus saving significantly on capital. For organizations who are still in there initial days of operations, every penny spent, counts. They need to cut down on their costs. Outsourcing here would prove to be enormously beneficial. India, where quality is available at a competent price, huge reduction in costs is a guarantee. Outsourcing, rather than carrying out operations in-house, certainly looks to be lucrative. Outsourcing services is proving to be extremely cost effective for organizations that are going for it. Outsourcing enables companies to do-away with the expenditure on bench labor, as the bpo services company allocates the bench employees to projects for other clients or bears the cost of inefficiency.

Time Zone Advantage

Earlier the distance between countries was a barrier, but today this distance has become an advantage! India, for example has a different time zone when compared to US and Europe. This has also increased the volume of outsourcing services to India. For India, this is a major advantage as jobs sent during the evening in the US can be completed in India during the day and sent back to the US. This has increased delivery time and organizations in the US are happy about this. The time zone advantage between India and US has increased job outsourcing to India.

Globalization

Globalization brought along with it several factors such as, lower costs of communication, transportation and production. Globalization has also broken down barriers such as, trade barriers, cultural barriers, language barriers etc. With the coming of globalization, the relationship between countries has improved and the world has become a much smaller place with no boundaries and no distinction between countries. With the advantages that globalization has brought in, outsourcing services industry has been on the rise.

In the wake of outsourcing and BPO services being a big revenue generator for the Indian economy, the government has taken appropriate measures to ensure that prospects derive maximum benefit from their experience of working with the Indian professionals.

Big Workforce advantage

Prior to outsourcing, India's large population was a major drawback to the country's growth. But with the coming of call centers, it has proved to be a boon to India. The people in India are satisfied to work for lesser salaries and what people earn from the outsourcing services industry is much higher than what they will earn elsewhere. The large number of human resources has enabled India cater to even large volumes of job outsourcing. India can thus meet any need that job outsourcing offers with its readily available human resources. India's human resources are skilled, professional, highly educated and talented. This advantage of India has resulted in setting up a lot of international call centers in the recent years.

This manpower is skilled and quality conscious. The cost of such qualified manpower is the lowest-50% to 60% cheaper in the world.

New India

With an incredible growth in the outsourcing services sector, India has emerged as a new nation regarding the following factors which earlier crippled India's growth in business. With democracy, support from the government, more freedom for businesses, fewer restrictions and regulations, lesser interest rates and fewer restrictions concerning outsourcing, India has become a more ideal place for bpo services.

Description:

India offers many advantages that make it the favorite outsourcing services hub in the world. Thanks to its large pool of computer literate and English-speaking professionals, India is still the leader in delivering the world-class bpo services to the rest of the world.