Getting Ready for Your Next Big Step: Applying for Call Centres

Call centres are still booming in the Philippines, which leads to more career opportunities and is now being targeted by a lot of people, especially fresh graduates making a huge step in the corporate world. Most people think working as a call centre agent is an easy take. They usually think it’s not labour-intensive and often referred to as a dead-end job. This is not entirely true. The truth is, they need to undergo a thorough screening process and there are a lot of benefits you can get. Apart from good compensation, they impose career advancement for individuals.

So before you decide to apply, here are some of the things you need to consider: 

• Make a deep research on the company
• Just like in any job application, it is advisable to know more about the company and position you are applying for. It’s always a plus point if you know something about the company and their expertise. This only shows that you are interested to work for them. For example, if you are applying for sales, make sure you know the products or services they are offering. This can help you during the question and answer portion of the interview. 
• Be prepared with the questions that the interviewer may ask you
• One way to prepare for a job interview is to have an interview simulation with your friends or even yourself. You don’t necessarily need to have someone sit in front of you, although it would be better. Just try to picture out some of the questions that you think they will ask you.  Be articulate and professional at all times.
• Keep calm and wear your best clothes
• In order to be the perfect package in front of your interviewer, you need to look at your best as well. It is always better to look presentable at all times. This can also boost your confidence. Dress up well and formally as much as possible and always keep your composure during the interview process. As every young professional would say, “your resume is just a detail printed on a sheet of paper. It’s how you present yourself and prove you can be more than that.”  

Applying for call centres in the Philippines is not that easy. Just follow these simple steps and you will be on the right track. 

Should You Ring or Should You Reply?

A virtual receptionist is not only tied to the phone. Emails are also used by VRs to touchbase with their clients. However, since telephone communication is their main strength, the contention whether to ring instead of to reply a client is always present.

When is it best to ring (phone) than to reply (email)?

• Ring if, for some reason, your client is upset. When addressing sensitive matters with strong emotions involved, giving an urgent call shows that you care. It also eliminates the possibility of misinterpreting even a carefully-written reply sent through an email. The power of a friendly and concerned tone over the phone can spell a world of difference.
• Ring if you need to explain a complicated call or a long message received. When providing the details of a complicated call or message, you will have to make a long retaliation about it as well. It will take time if you do it on email. You need to find the right words, string them coherently and hope that the client will not have any questions or need for clarifications after that. Calling to explain not only saves you time and effort of explaining, but also provides your client the opportunity to ask you when something is not so clear.
• Reply if it is just a minor, non-urgent matter you need to inform the client about. If it is just to remind your client about an upcoming meeting he will be having (which your client will be most likely informed about too through an alternate route such as a phone or calendar notification), then a simple email should do. Otherwise, calling your client to remind him of every minor detail about his day can potentially be a source of annoyance. 
• Reply if you need to send clients’ files of official documents he specifically requested you to accomplish or gather. The age of snail mail is definitely out and the convenience of an email reply should not be discounted at all costs. 

At the end of the day, if you feel like calling, trust your instincts and go ahead. More often than not, it is easier, quicker and better for virtual receptionists to just give their clients a call than emailing them. You get their attention and you can engage with them with  thorough feedback process. Also, calling allows you to make a great impression. Whenever there is an opportunity to make an impressionable statement, get it. It doesn’t come so often. 

Why you Should Outsource your Customer Service?

More often than not, customer service is the backbone of any business. It indicates success and it’s opposite. While customer service is mostly kept in-house, a good number of small and large businesses today are outsourcing it. 

If you are not one of many industrial organizations still not outsourcing customer services, you might be missing out on a lot of benefits. 

Should you be outsourcing your customer service requirements? You should and we have 4 reasons here to help you do so, if not, even consider it.

Adding help without breaking the bank

More often than not, the quality of customer service can be improved by adding more people to answer the hotline. Increase manpower to your customer service department by outsourcing customer service representatives. Today where the process of recruitment and actual hiring can be done through digital means (Skype, anyone?) it is possible to get the best and most experienced set of people to add to your customer service department with confidence and ease. 

Immediate support available

We are all consumers at some point and all of us share the sentiment that being put on hold for 30 seconds translates to 30 minutes on the customer mood metre. The act of waiting can make customers angry, especially if they are calling to report a problem that needs immediate support as much as possible. 

As you double your customer service capacity, it means you can accommodate more people who are calling the hotline. Minimise, if not eliminate, the waiting time and greet customers who are calling quickly on the first 2 rings. Even if you cannot readily address the issue or the problem being reported, answering the phone immediately is good customer support at its finest.

Streamline customer service in general

Customers call the hotline for a variety of reasons. Some call for a very minor issue while some call for a major disappointment. By outsourcing your customer service needs, you can streamline the entire customer service process.

You can filter the customer’s query according to the level of complexity. If the query is simple, your outsourced customer service representatives can take it. If the query is quite complicated, then your in-house full-time customer service reps have to handle it since it goes without saying that they know more about the product or the service than the outsourced team. 

By streamlining your customer service in general, you can eliminate and reduce customer waiting times, produce happier customers and maintain a healthier customer service operation. 

Make a 24/7 operation possible

Ideally, customer service should not sleep even if your store is officially closed for the day. A 24/7 operation is best to have to give your customers the support they require when they need it. Your availability truly shows that you care.

Make the 24/7 operation possible by outsourcing your customer service. The beauty of outsourcing lies in the time zone. When you outsource people from the other side of the globe, you can achieve business continuity as there are people who will proceed running and answering the hotline even if you are asleep on your side of the world. 

Reap the benefits that only outsourcing customer service can offer. With so many contact centres available, it is certain to meet the provider who will meet your needs and specific customer service requirements. 

5 Ingredients of Great Customer Service

Regardless if it is done in-house or outsourced, the 5 essential ingredients of great customer service apply across. 

It is not a secret that great customer service is necessary for any successful business. What will propel your business to the top is not only the quality of the products you are offering to your consumers, but also the kind of help and support you give them when they need it. It is also quite a waste of time and energy to see everything you have built crumble down with customer services as the sole liability.

Pick up the phone

It is obvious, but the first ingredient to great customer service is to answer the phone. Let these statistics speak for itself. 

• 30% of callers will not bother to leave message when their call goes unanswered. You lose a valuable prospect and a chance to make an impression.
• 62% of callers will not bother to call back if the phone is busy. Why would they bother right?
• 79% of callers will not call back if no one picks up the receiver. Who would anyway?
• And to be put on hold is the last thing any caller would want to be. 60 seconds or less is eternity. We've all been a caller at some point and to be put on hold is not in everyone’s 

Always answer the phone. Do not let it ring on purpose unless you cannot pick up the receiver immediately. 

Make no empty promises

When pacifying an angry client, promising them what you cannot deliver won't do anything good. While it is easy to over deliver just to calm them down, it is best to remain practical at all times. Deliver only what you can and what is allowed by the company. It might even get you in trouble if you promise customers of a solution or an upgrade that you are not in the right position to call. 

Listen at all times

More often than not, the reason why we fail to deliver what our customers expect from us is we fail to understand what their concern is all about. Listening is the only way to avoid misunderstanding what customers need from us. It is also true that listening calmly allows us to understand what the customer’s issue is all about. 

Be kind and respectful

Nothing will make customers warm up to you than a kind and respectful tone on the phone. The voice you keep can also help pacify them on the get-go since they know you will take their problem or request well. A kind and respectful tone will be received well regardless of the demeanour the customer currently has. 

Own the situation

Especially if there is a problem that is completely the fault of the company, you need to own the situation and make the necessary amendments. Own the situation by making the caller aware that you will personally see that the problem will get resolved the soonest time possible. If you need to escalate the issue, inform the caller about that so they know their problem is being treated seriously and with urgency.

Invest on good customer service by hiring people who are best on the job. Invest on training too so you get the customer service reps who will not disappoint you and will not disrupt the smooth flow of your business.

Ways Small Businesses Can Lead the Game

A good number of small business owners like to think of themselves as invincible; they can do everything, be hands on as much as possible and have the level of expertise required for them to be successful at their small start-up venture. 

Even if small business owners have the drive and the will power to do it all, even the most organised and experienced small business owner need help running their enterprise. This is where outsourcing, among many other ways to cope and manage, enters the picture.

Although the idea of outsourcing is having offshore employees do the work for you, it is not just about sending work outside the country. It is about outsourcing expertise that you may not readily have available onsite. While small business owners like to believe that they have it all, it is a fact of life that there are professional expertise that can never be attained. Professional expertise such as IT support, marketing, advertising, logistics, bookkeeping and web development are examples of tasks that are best outsourced if not immediately available at hand.

Aside from outsourcing, another way for small business to lead the game is to have a web presence. More often than not, visibility is all it takes for businesses to be known, to take off and to be sought for their services. Poor and limited visibility in the commercial scene not only decreases one’s growth potential, but decreases the morale of the people invovled. After all, what good is the promise of being able to provide quality products and services if the means for exposure is not exhausted along the way?

The beauty of having a website for any small business is the cost-efficiency. There are websites that you can build on your own for free or websites that someone able can do for you at a reasonable cost. You can even outsource web developers, designers and writers for your website requirements. 

Advertising online is essentially free, but the time you need to invest on it comes with a price. If you can dedicate a small portion of your time updating your website, adding new content to your blog or engaging with your customers on your social media channels, then you will be surprised at how much you are able to save from the cost of advertising by investing time on these free tools. 

At the end of the day, it all boils down to the time a small business owner can ably put to the table. Even owners of large and well-established businesses need to invest on ways to properly manage and expand their time simply to accommodate the mountain of tasks that need their attention. 

Also, make it a habit to tap free tools that are widely available for anyone’s use. 

Aside from time and the use of free tools, it also boils down to the selection of the right people. Getting well-capacitated people to work for you is the best way to achieve success. And when resources for hiring manpower is not that high, there is always outsourcing to save the day.

Should You Outsource Your Telemarketing Requirements?

Telemarketing is the backbone of a majority of companies today. When products and services need to be marketed outside the walls of traditional marketing practices, the use of the telephone usually comes to the fore. 

Telemarketing is also called inside sale. It is a form of direct marketing where sales representatives call prospects to buy a particular product or service. While telemarketing includes web conferencing, the use of the phone is its main and most common element in making a successful sale. 

There are different categories filed under telemarketing. These categories are lead generation, sales, outbound marketing and inbound marketing. 

Lead generation is a process of gathering pertinent information about a prospective buyer. The name, the industry the person belongs to and contact details are the goals of lead generation. 

Sales is the process of persuading a prospect to buy a product or a service that is being marketed. 

Outbound and inbound telemarketing operate differently from one another. Outbound telemarketing is a form of proactive marketing where prospects and existing customers are directly contacted for a sales pitch and other sales-related requirements. 

Inbound telemarketing is the accommodation of incoming calls such as orders and requests. The rate or the number of inbound calls is usually a reflection of how effective an advertising or a publicity program fares. When more people call, it means that the advertising and publicity strategy were well-received. 

The question if you should outsource these telemarketing requirements can be answered wholly in the affirmative. 

Regardless of the category of telemarketing your company requires, telemarketing is both repetitive and essential. It is repetitive since it cannot be assumed that 10 out of 10 phone numbers a telemarketer calls during the day will yield into a successful sale. The process of making a call hoping at least one will convert into a sale is a long and repetitive process. 

Outsourcing telemarketing requirements provides that air of certainty. For as long as there are more than 10 offshore telemarketers calling at least 10 prospects a day, the statistical probability that one call will convert into a sale goes high. 

Instead of having your in-house employees in charge of your telemarketing requirements, outsource telemarketers instead. You can have your telemarketing procedures running round the clock even if you are officially closed for the day on your side of the globe.

Outsourcing telemarketing lets you free up your time and channel these instead on other income-generating aspects of your company. Telemarketing is income-generating also, but not the same as the other processes in your company that you cannot possibly delegate to other people. Telemarketing is a process in your company that you can have someone do for you with confidence. 

Moreover, since the majority of telemarketing transactions takes place over the phone, transitioning your telemarketing requirements to an offshore facility can be done with ease. Investing on the needed infrastructures may cost quite a sum on the upfront, but the benefits of outsourcing it will keep flowing in the company from that point.

With the peaks and valleys your company will be faced with, you need a solution to address it at the most cost-effective level possible. Outsourcing your telemarketing needs is one.

3 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Your Content Writing Requirements

Just as more and more companies offer their services to companies by virtue of outsourcing, the options on what kinds of services or jobs to outsource vary as well. While outsourcing call centre services have been the trend for a decade (and more) already, outsourcing web content writing is also gaining momentum. Thanks to the demand for websites, outsourcing web content writing has yet to keep up with pace. In this article, the 3 reasons why you should outsource your web content writing requirements will be discussed. 

• Outsourcing will help you find your voice

It is true that no one knows your business better than yourself. You are the founder, director and owner so it follows that if there ought to be one person to write your website, it has to be you. But that is not necessarily the case.

You may know the words to include in your website – your business’ history, vision, mission, products and services – but if you do not outsource your web content writing requirements to people who do so professionally, your website may look like an encyclopedia page.

The beauty of outsourcing a web content writer is they know what to highlight from all the details you want to reflect on your website. You can have great website content. And they – the web content writer you will outsource - do not need to be an insider. You just need to give them the facts and they will do all the talking. 

• Outsourcing will give you a fresh perspective

You will be surprised at how an outsider can view your business from his perspective. Outsourcing your web content requirements may be the answer to a perspective that works all along.  

In coming up with a website for your business, what is most essential is how it appeals to your audience more than how it appeals to you. You may know your business inside and out, but that does not mean that the audience you are targeting will think of it great equally. An outsourced web content writer will not only help you provide a fresh perspective, but a perspective that will be most appealing to your audience. 

• Outsourcing will take care of the minor details

Since an outsourced web content writer is all about writing great copy for website appreciation, contracting their services mean they will be able to proof your website copy and free it from errors on grammar and spelling to name a few.

Website content needs to be crafted well. No excuses. A website with errors is a website that loses its credibility to its audience, and you do not want that to happen all because of an error that could have been avoided easily.

Further, most web content writers are aware of SEO trends. SEO stands for search engine optimisation and it is the aspect of a website that allows it to be seen in search results such as Google. With SEO strength combined with their writing prowess, web content writers can help position your website at a favourable rank on search engines while making sure that it looks good and it reads well on paper.