On the Mark: Who's answering the phone in the call center?

There's no good way to spin the statistics about call center performance. They're bad and getting worse.

As it does every year, Dimension Data Holdings PLC, an IT services firm in Johannesburg, South Africa, polled 300 companies in 30 countries about call center performance. The numbers are distressing.

The percentage of calls answered in less than 10 seconds fell nearly 12% over the period of 1997 to 2007, and the average time it takes to answer jumped 69%, from 23 seconds to 39. The percentage of calls abandoned by those tired of waiting for an agent more than doubled, from 6% of calls to 13.6%.

Humans solving users' problems dropped to 69% last year from 85% in 1997. Interactive voice response usage was up 158%, but that's because companies force IVR on users. The time it took help desks to reply to an e-mail went from 11 hours to 20.

Given all of the technology that CIOs have thrown at the call center problem, you'd think things would have improved. But it's not a technology issue; it's a management issue.

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IGNOU to set up own call centre

NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from multinationals, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), in a bid to connect with its student in a better manner, is all set to ride the BPO bandwagon.

IGNOU, the biggest open university of the country, will set up its own call centre for answering queries of their 1.7 million students seeking courses in correspondence. The proposed call centre would be outsourced to a private company that would take up the calls round the clock.

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A cry for help at India's call centers

Those working nights answering calls from the U.S. and Europe face sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord.

NEW DELHI -- The call center job came with a good salary and good perks, especially compared to many other opportunities for young people in India.

But as 26-year-old Vaibhav Vats says, it was doing him no good. His weight grew to 265 pounds and long overnight hours gave him little time for a social life. Eventually, he quit.

"You are making nice money. But the trade-off is also big," said Vats, who spent nearly two years at an IBM Corp. call center handling customer calls from the United States.

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Calls to UK cops could soon be answered by Indian call centres

Phone calls to British police stations could soon be answered by someone in India, with police across the UK privatizing their call centres and backroom staff under cost-cutting measures.

Owing to a massive cash deficiency, the British government has been forced to relax the rules to permit forces to sign contracts with private companies, including foreign firms.

Up to 20,000 backroom jobs in forces across the UK could be transferred to private firms in the next year, with some possibly moving overseas.

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Opportunity Call - Benefits & Tips in Choosing Answering Service

In business, some opportunities often pass through a simple phone call. Phone calls that may give you the business deal which can be a stepping stone in which you may become a business tycoon. Especially nowadays where businesses are always on the go, you need someone that will professionally take the call and get all the information needed for your business transactions. As a business owner you definitely don't want to miss any important call from potential clients which will not hesitate to take other services if they feel any unprofessional treatment on your end.

For novice companies that promise 24/7 support to the services they are offering, answering service is the best solution to handle the extra work load. After all major contact center solution provider like AnsweringServiceCare.Com employs well-trained employees who can communicate well with clients and give them the answers they need. Hence, hiring answering service shall give your clients the impression of a big company towards your business that may further help increase trust and result to increase in revenue. For a businessman who invested years of hard work and large amount of money, the word "revenue increase" are two words which mean big reward for a job well done.

Now that we know some of the benefits of getting answering service for your business, the next step is to know the qualities that should be considered in choosing the answering service company. Here are some tips in order to choose the most qualified company to do the job you require.

1. Ask/Find out the Teleservice company how they train their staff before deploying them. With a standardized training program you can be sure that the staff that will answer your phone calls will give you excellent results.
2. A business phone usually rings a lot during business hours, so you need to know if the company you want to get answer service has enough staffs to accommodate your phone calls and minimize long rings and hold times.
3. A good answering service company should comply with the state, local and federal regulations and carry business insurance, including Errors and Omissions coverage.
4. A company that has been awarded for service excellence usually means they are reliable.
5. Getting an answering service from a company with years of experience gives you the advantage in quality of work, reliability and stability.

Now loaded with these tips you can get the right service your business needs.

About the Author

When a business opportunity knocks, shouldn't it always be open? In business, some opportunities often pass through a simple phone call. Phone calls that may give you the business deal which can be a stepping stone in which you may become a business tycoon.

Source : http://www.goarticles.com

Answering Call Centre Services

If you are in a business where your company needs to answer calls quickly, reliably and professionally, then call centre answering services may be the best business option for you. There are a number of situations where call answering services will work well for you:

• If your profession needs to attend to calls quickly but don't have the resources, call centre answering services help by taking messages for you and faxing, emailing or texting these to you - even calling you directly or patching callers in the case of very urgent enquiries.
• If you have a high call volume which you need to screen and only answer the important ones, a call answering service may do this for you by only taking bona fide messages and screening out cold callers.
• If you are expanding your business, then you may want to outsource to a call centre answering service.
• Call centre answering services benefit you in more ways than one:
• They help in saving you time and money investment in terms of infrastructure and manpower by providing you with both.
• They help you in providing better customer care service and support to your customers, making them feel important, and dealing with their problems correctly.
• They maintain your professional image and may even help enhance this.
• They help increase your profits and income by increasing your market share and accumulating information for your customer database.

There are a number of service providers who offer call centre answering services. Fully-fledged call centers provide all services such as taking messages from customers and callers, customer service, providing other technical assistance, etc and taking orders.

Armchair Answercall is an established service provider that offers professional telephone answering services to suit your business needs. The wide range of services includes:

1. Answering/ Message Taking Services: They answer calls from your customers and provide them assistance and take their messages, when your staff are unavailable.
2. Brochure and Order Line: They provide skilled operators who take orders from your customers, help in filling forms and collecting data, and processing credit cards. They even help in cross-selling your products, thus, increasing your business profits.
3. Lunch-time Receptionist: Their customer service executives answer your customers' calls seamlessly, as if they were working directly for your company, when your staff are away for lunch/ break.
4. Holiday Cover: Their highly experienced staff take calls on your behalf in a seamless manner, providing technical support and assistance to your customers even during holidays.

There are other services also to suit your needs, including Recruitment Hotline and Late Opening. You can discuss your needs with the sales team who will suggest to you the best service to meet your business requirements.

About the Author:

I write articles on call center services provided by http://www.armchairanswercall.com

Source: www.iSnare.com/

Call Center Operators Begin To Work At Home

If you ask any answering service owner what the biggest challenge that they face today almost all would answer employees. For a number of years employers have tried a number of methods to find a desirable employees to work in what is sometimes less than desirable circumstances. Today technology has delivered these answering service owners a new alternative; the stay at home operator.

Thanks to VoIP services it is very easy for an answering service operator to log on and work off premise with the same advantages as an operator has in the war room of the call center. There are several advantages to such technology and call centers who have implemented these advances are seeing major changes. Some of these answering services virtually had to beg for employees and the pickings were slim. Now these same businesses actually have a waiting list for employees, with highly qualified candidates.

Another advantage to the stay at home operator is that it allows the answering service to be able to fill peak time periods and cover absenteeism more efficiently. The answering service now has alternatives when there are weather related emergencies as well as filling those difficult to handle shifts. There are offices that will staff overnight shifts with work at home operators.

Still other offices have been slow to embrace this type of technology while other offices reluctantly use this technology only for emergencies or supervisory tasks. There is a general misconception that these operators are more difficult to supervise and that the only way to run a call center is from a centralized location. With the advanced statistical reporting capabilities that most answering services possess, coupled with voice recording technology these employees are as easy to supervise as they would be in your office.

As the answering services that utilize at home operators continue to flourish, others are following their lead. At home operators now make up the fastest growing segment of employees in the answering service industry. In addition this new trend seems to be an alternative to overseas outsourcing. With the advantages offered to work at home operators, answering service owners and the industry as a whole, stay at home agents seem to be the trend of the future.

About the Author: Todd Cardin is the east coast marketing team leader for Specialty Answering Service.http://www.specialtyansweringservice.net

Article Source: http://www.iSnare.com