Archive for the ‘Philippine Telemarketing’ Category

Outbound Call Center: Basics of Telemarketing

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Because of high competition in the global market, organizations around the world are looking for more cost effective way to reach their customers. It is a way to link the efficiency of automation to the real marketing needs of highly competitive business world. Telemarketing is the systematic use of the telephone by trained people to increase profits and reduce selling costs. It is all activities connected with, anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements by phone.

 

To succeed in telemarketing, you should also be fully aware of the main purpose of the call as well as what you want the recipient to do after the call. It is also best to set a secondary objective that seems realistic. When it comes to generating sales leads, you have to remember that time is money for both you and your potential client. Be concise, clear, and spell out your intentions before the client gets the chance to hang up on you. However, you should also be ready to listen to what the he is trying to say. If he does not seem interested in the products or services you are offering, you have to respect their decision and thank them anyway. It is also important to ask meaningful questions that will illustrate problems that your clients may be experiencing. Do your best in sounding natural because there is nothing worse than listening to someone who sounds like he is reading straight from a book. A good telemarketer is a good listener but also someone who can make others disclose in him or her to a degree from the onset. That’s because the telemarketer must get his/her prospect talking. And that’s not possible unless the telemarketer’s manner evokes some trust in the other person. This is a vitally important make-or-break point of telemarketing.

 

 

 





Philippine Telemarketing: Adapting to Night Shift Work

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

While everyone else calls it a day, Philippine call center agents are just starting theirs. This is how it is when you work in the inbound or outbound call center.  Working the night, or graveyard, shift can change your life in many ways; you need to learn to sleep in the day, find new ways to keep yourself alert, your body’s rhythms and hormones can begin to shift, and eating takes on a whole new set of challenges.

 

Sleep is one of the most important gifts you can give your body. But you are fighting your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle by staying up through the night, and sleep loss can be dangerous. Even if you are sleeping during the day instead of the night, you still need an average of eight hours to keep your body functioning properly. Go to sleep as soon as you can after work. Relax in a warm bath and then hit the bed. It’s also important to make your room as dark as possible and avoid the overuse of sleep aids.

 

Eating healthy when your timetable seems so backwards is difficult. To maintain a nourishing diet, it’s vital to adjust your meal routine around your schedule. Do not skip meals. To avoid pumping in empty calories from vending machines or fast food, plan ahead. It is easy to eat to pass the time, but you’ll gain weight this way. Bring a healthy meal with you to work. Drink lots of water. Sufficient water in the body improves alertness. Limit your consumption of caffeinated drinks. Consume no caffeine at least 4 hours before sleeping. Cut down on your alcohol intake, especially before sleep. Alcohol usually induces sleep, but it reduces the quality of sleep.

 

Proper sleep and a healthy diet are especially important for night shift workers. Treat your body right so you can withstand the challenges of working in call center.





Inbound Call Center : Understanding Customer Engagement

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

In this newly social online world, it can’t be denied that it’s the age of smarter consumers wherein customers are really challenging. They incorporate new technologies into their daily lives and their philosophy is they want to be served, listened to, known and empowered. They see consumption as far beyond a transaction with a more experiential view and seek through this experience to fulfill their needs.

 

All this has had a significant impact on how brands are now positioning themselves, and how they re approaching their customers. In this period of intense competition and fleeting customer loyalty, the ownership of the relationship is now with the customer.  Companies need to strengthen customer relationships and optimize business outcomes by proactively engaging customers with the ideal customer service through any channel the customer favors. Interaction is an important factor. Every interaction with your company creates a lasting impression on the customer that’s why social media is providing an empowering platform for customers to very publicly discuss your company’s product and brand. In achieving your business goals, you also need to optimize your resources including inbound call center agents, business process outsourcing, back-office and automated systems. Legacy infrastructure and disparate hardware and application systems must be integrated to empower every employee responsible for customer service, sales, and support.   Another is every customer interaction incorporates an underlying customer process to ensure that the back office achieves similar efficiencies as its contact center counterparts.  Performance management and analytics will also increasingly play an important role in helping business executives determine customer engagement effectiveness and guide the decision-making process.

 

Customer engagement involves developing and fostering a sense of trust, emotional commitment and an ongoing involvement with your company. Your brand is not just viewed therefore as a functional benefit to be purchased for a price rather its a relationship partner in your customers life.





Call Center in the Philippines: Building Strong Relationships at Work

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Every Philippine call center is a relationship business. The quality and impact of your work, and the profitability of your business, depend upon relationships — with customers, co-workers, and competitors; with suppliers, distributors, and support services; with direct reports, senior managers, and boards. Being customer service and telemarketing agents is so tedious that in most cases, stress eventually takes its toll on them. That’s why it often affects an employee’s productivity and relationships at work. However, the way you manage key relationships with even the most difficult people will determine your level of success. Building strong relationships with others heightens your ability to gain support for your work and manage barriers that will inevitably come up along the way. There is also a personal benefit with effective relationships in that they can make you feel more engaged with your work which can lead to greater job fulfillment.

 

When you take the time to understand another’s’ feelings and positions you can create strength in relationships, both parties allow each other to communicate without being judged. Effective relationships require parties to openly express their feelings and positions on all matters pertinent on the level of the relationship. Respect is the key to relationships, you can show respect just by listening to the other party and by trying sincerely to understand what is important to them, you can also look at their communication style and personality to better understand what makes them tick, a person can also show respect by reinforcing the person when they are doing something well or offer to help when they are needing some extra help.

 

Respect, communication and working toward a win-win situation are the very foundation for a great relationship. When parties fail to express whatever is on their mind or their feelings, it can get in the way of building an effective relationship.





Philippine Telemarketing: Guidelines for Choosing the Right Lead Generation Service

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Good lead generation is critical to the financial success of any company, whether large or small.  With the growing popularity of internet marketing, several different b2b lead generation companies have appeared on the internet.  That’s why if you opt to use an outbound call center for lead generation services, it’s very important to select one that gets you qualified leads. In so doing, you get to customers who will probably buy your products or services instead of those who will throw your marketing materials away without even looking at them. Below are great tips of a great lead generation service.

 

Choose an organization that has knowledge. If you choose an existing firm for lead generation services, you can also assess their history and discover wherever they are successful and where they’ve got battled.

 

Your outbound call center needs to work with you to definitely build a policy for lead generation. This helps to ensure that their services are part of your current marketing and advertising strategy. Interact to ascertain goals and then have them produce a plan that will allow you to reach these targets regularly. Your telemarketing agents will have to be associated with this method as they will be the methods ultimately get in touch with the leads.

 

Personal references must be requested and checked into. A professional outbound call center is often more than thrilled to provide this info. If the lead generation services firm hesitates to provide references, you need to keep looking.

 

Locate an organization which provides customer service when you need it most. If you find that your leads aren’t exercising, you might want someone you’ll be able to speak to. Will you be estimated to pay for leads which might be remote or will the organization give you new leads to make use of? This needs to be proven up front.





A Positive Approach to Call Center Stress

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Stress indeed has been regarded as a major threat to call centers in the Philippines. The cost of workplace stress is a serious matter in a company. How do inbound and telemarketing agents react to increased job stress?  They are more likely to use sick time, have low morale and experience interpersonal conflict on the job, and this stress leads to decreased productivity, increased injuries, accidents and even workplace bullying and violence. Your employees are working longer hours and you need to take some steps to ensure they don’t burn out. Disengaged employees cost you even more when they leave. Philippine call centers that are sensitive to the importance of how stress can affect their workers as well as their workplace as a whole need to do what they can to be proactive in helping employees deal with stress, instead of waiting for problems to happen. Being pro-active rather than reactive is the key to having a healthy workplace. Promote a sense of justice and fairness. You need to convey to the employees that they have a place to turn to if they feel like they are not treated fairly, and this information will be confidential and handled without retaliation. Coaching is also a good way to inspire your employees. Effective workplaces offer coaching from either in-house or outside consultants to supervisors who need help in learning how to manage and lead effectively, thereby improving their communication skills.

 

A workplace that is proactive at recognizing employees at risk, and not turning their heads when problematic behavior occurs, will be more effective at limiting workplace stress. Find out what’s eating your team, and figure out how you can make changes to re-inspire and re-energize them so they can contribute their fullest to your business.





Call Center in the Philippines: Principles of Leadership Coaching

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Leadership qualities in professionals at all levels of the management hierarchy play a key role in success of Philippine call centers. It is not something with which you are born, it is not inherited–it is something you decide to do. Leaders are those who are bold enough to make a decision when they are faced with a defining moment.  To build a successful business, you have to be a leader and being a leader implies you must be a coach. Leadership coaching therefore; is the art and science of helping individuals to develop the necessary traits and skills required to become a good leader.

 

Be a good listener. Good listening skills are critical to the coaching process. Being a good listener and being an active learner go hand in hand. Ideal candidates understand that listening is like throwing a ball back and forth. One person listens while the other talks and vice versa.

 

Trust yourself. Your behavior as a leader can either change or inspire it. To guide your team successfully, you have to follow your intuition and practice fundamental leadership skills. If you trust yourself, you can be a better leader whether you’re an inbound or outbound agent.

 

Empowering people. A great leadership coach should know how to empower other individuals and as well raise high performance individuals and consequently high performance teams. A good leadership coach must have confidence in other players in the organization, so that they become empowered to unleash their true potential.

 

Taking Responsibility. Leadership begins by setting a direction and developing a vision for the distant future. Leadership is much more strategic and looks toward what could be. Leaders focus on aligning the right people against their vision. You must ensure that you clearly communicate your vision and that it is understood and that people are committed to it.

 

 

 





Philippine Telemarketing: Lead Management

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Lead generation is as important as driving good sales for the company but now the most critical challenge for many organizations is ensuring sales resources are focused on qualified, sales-ready leads in order to maximize sales results. Your sales pipeline and your ability to hit revenue targets all begin with good lead management.

 

Establish an effective CRM tool. This can lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and retention, ensuring that your good reputation in the marketplace continues to grow and improved profitability by focusing on the most profitable customers and dealing with the unprofitable in more cost effective ways.

 

Define a qualified lead.  For better sales effectiveness, your sales staff and the rest of the company need a more granular definition of when a prospect becomes an actual lead that should be forwarded to sales.

 

Nurture your leads.  The point being that with a good potential customer, you would be able to make an effort to get to know him or her so the next time you make an offer it would be worth it. You can be sure to keep a business relationship if you continue to stay in contact with your leads.

 

Track the source. It’s important to capture the source of each intervening event so you can determine such things as how many times you need to touch a customer or what order of touches work best.

 

Motivate your staff about each prospect. The best inbound call center agents focus on detailed qualifying. The more information you have about a prospect, the more excited your salespeople will be about the lead.

 

Measure everything. You need to decide what you want to measure and why. Then you can capture the correct information upfront. And once you have the right information, you can determine the return on investment of your campaigns and focus on the campaigns and prospects that will increase your sales pipeline.





Philippine Telemarketing: Developing Appointment Setting

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

One of the many ways in which businesses can use outbound telemarketing methods is through telemarketing appointment setting. Telemarketing appointment setting is a great way to improve business development efforts, but successful telemarketing appointment setting requires extensive skills and particular techniques. It also needs to be carefully monitored and measured by the business conducting the campaigns to ensure that they are being undertaken correctly.

 

Qualify the Prospect. This refers to making sure that the person you are trying to meet with is a good fit for what you are trying to sell. The best way to qualify the prospect is to ask a couple of questions during the cold call to see how they fit with what you have to offer.

 

Decrease Guard. There are very clear and practical things that you can do to do this.  Two things in particular are that name drop other individuals in the organization that you are calling into and you can disqualify the prospect.

 

Build Rapport. This can be challenging on a cold call as you really only have between two to five minutes to work with.  But there are some minor things we can do to build rapport like confirming they are available, disqualifying, delivering a value statement, active listening, qualifying, etc.

 

Build Interest. One of the keys is to finding pain. If there is no pain, there is no reason to meet with you. Once you uncover pain, you can focus and connect to it the business value that you have to offer.

 

Tell, Don’t ask. Once you have effectively built interest, you should go trying to get the appointment set. One thing to help with this is to shift from asking for the meeting to telling.

 

 





Call Center in the Philippines: Green Office Tips

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Many Philippine call centers talk about social responsibility but how many of them actually understand that? Unfortunately, when it comes to deciding profits and the environment, the last is often loses.  But, despite this, a few call centers in the Philippines are proving that eco-friendliness and profitability do go hand in hand. Going green at the office can be very effective in demonstrating practical benefits of being environmentally friendly as well as saving business money.

 

Say it through e-mail. E-mail and instant messaging make interoffice communications quicker and easier than distributing paper memos. E-mail newsletter distribution means your customers receive information about your business sooner. Your company can use social media similarly, by offering promo codes and discounts for mentioning tweets and other messages from your business.

 

Making paper cuts. Print and copy on both sides of the paper whenever possible, and post instructions near the copy machine and printers to eliminate excuses. Or consider making this the default option on office equipment. Use a smaller font to print documents when possible. Reduce junk mail in a variety of ways.

 

Use it again. In situations where maintaining your corporate image is not necessary, re-use envelopes. Cover your address with a mailing label, or buy specially designed labels that identify the envelope as “recycled.” This habit may even boost your image as a “green company”. When you receive packages, keep bubble wrap and other packing materials for re-use.

 

Think before you buy. Ask inbound and telemarketing agents to bring in their own mugs instead of stocking the break room with styrofoam cups. Use rechargeable batteries whenever possible, and buy recycled printer ink. Bulk purchases can save your business money, but wasting supplies is never an efficient use of your company’s funds.