Call Center Outsourcing: Evaluating a Providers Customer Support Processes

With a number of companies turning to contact center outsourcing today to cut costs and increase customer satisfaction, there are important criteria decision makers should consider that can make or break success.

Because there are some many providers offering call center outsourcing services they claim are “the best” it can be difficult to narrow down the service that truly meet a company’s needs.

A recent Forrester (News - Alert) report by analyst Elizabeth Herrell, with Simon Yates and Lauren E. Nelson, “Twelve Criteria for Contact Center Outsourcers,” reveals 12 key requirements and considerations to help guide decision makers.

Aside from considering costs, the organizational structure of a provider and identifying the technology in use, it is also essential to examine the outsourcer’s customer support offerings and their internal processes.

A closer look at these elements will help decide if the provider can effectively manage its operations and deliver quality service for customers with every interaction.

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Call Center Tender - Call Centre ( INBOUND ) and Back Office Outsourcing

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Projects Details:

Type : Tender

Id : 19672776

Category : Call Center

Title : Call Centre ( INBOUND ) and Back Office Outsourcing

Total Requirement : 5 Years Contract

Description :

We are UK’s leading water and wastewater Services Company seeking innovative solutions for right shored voice and back office solutions from a mutually beneficial partnership with the successful Service Providers. The Service Providers will be required to support challenging targets of reducing the ‘cost to serve’. The customer centre serves the whole region handling 9500 calls from customers per day and 2000 letters. Services may expand due to additional service contracts managed by the Utility. The work required is for participation in customer contact management and service fulfillment, and will include customer contact management, telephone/written/e-mail for billing and/or operations. Additional requirements may include some or all of the following:

• Service related inbound calls plus outbound sales fulfillment calls;
• Outbound dialing and campaign management;
• Billing support activities;
• Cash and credit management;
• Data integrity.
  

We will require centers for following work:
A. We are seeking voice solutions to manage clean and waste accounts through the entire lifecycle of a customer. This may include account set up, information requests, account management such as taking payments and initiating debt recovery, and finally account closure.
B. We are seeking Back Office solutions to manage written, web and email enquiries from customers regarding their metered and unmetered accounts. This would include outbound voice contact where appropriate.

We are attaching the further details in the attachment. The closing date for this tender is 15th of January 2008, 12:00.

Interested companies are requested to apply for this tender before the DEADLINE.

Budget Estimate : Looking for Best Proposal

Country : United Kingdom

Status : Closed

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Top 5 Reasons to Simplify Customer Service Desktops

Make agents happier, increase efficiencies, build loyalty, reduce costs, and improve performance.

Desktop complexity is a relatively new problem. As little as 10 years ago, the typical customer service desktop was not so complex; maybe one or two green-screen applications and a phone sitting next to the computer was all an agent needed. Today, we see desktops with 5, 10, 20 or more applications. But complexity is not only dictated by the number of the applications on the desktop. Many agents are befuddled by a single application whose screens are cumbersome and getting in and around the application to get the data they need is akin to brain surgery. And agent 'productivity' tools like email, chat, soft-phone, scripting, and the like only add to the chaos.

In fact, some call centers have tried to solve this problem by giving each agent two or three monitors!

Desktop complexity presents one of the biggest obstacles to call center success and it resides on nearly every agent's desk and pervades every call. Given call centers' continual focus on cost reduction and hesitancy to change existing applications and systems, the problem continues to worsen.

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Call Center Project - Sell suite of software products

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Projects Details:

Type : Project

Id : 70735060

Category : Call Center,Internet Marketing

Title : Sell suite of software products

Description :

We are India Based and looking for service providers for our requirement of sell suite of software products. We are currently selling this suite of software products in United States of America and Middle East Countries. We need to sell this product in India now. Payout would be 4 to 10 % of commission on amount of product price. Interested service providers are requested to contact us with their profile as soon as possible.

Budget Estimate : 4 to 10 % of commission

Country : India

Status : Closed

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Call Center Project - Credit Consulting, Repair and Management.

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Projects Details:

Type : Project

Id : 16233287

Category : Call Center

Title : Credit Consulting, Repair and Management.

Total Requirement : Looking for call center with at least 20 seats.

Description :

We are a USA based company providing services like credit consulting, repair and management. We are currently seeking call centers/agents that can help us expand out market share in the credit consulting industry. We are currently developing a campaign that will offer our clients the ability to enter into phase I of credit restoration. The service includes a 40 min professional consultation, analysis of all 3 credit reports and letter generation for open disputes. We pride ourselves in doing all of the leg work unlike most free credit counseling services. Our phase I service cost the customer $189.00 upfront. Your payout is $89.00 which is paid weekly. Center will be responsible for supplying calling data, the campaign makes a great add on to a current project or previous list used for sub prime mortgage. Center will also be responsible for collection of financial information to close the sale; this will be limited to taking checking/savings account information to accept payment. All sales must be recorded, verified and submitted with each daily report. We want to try the same for 1 week. Interested Centers are requested to contact us as soon as possible.

Budget Estimate : payout is $89.00

Country : United States

Status : Closed

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Call Center Project - Inbound Call Center Services

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Projects Details:

Type : Project

Id : 70108486

Category : Call Center

Title : Inbound Call Center Services

Total Requirement : Work for 48 months

Description :

Contracting Authority based in Ireland wants to outsource their call center facility. The company operates 25 racecourses in Ireland and also has an Internet and Telephone betting service offering betting on Irish and UK racing 363 days in the year.
The company is seeking to outsource the operational element of its Internet and Telephone betting service.
The requirements are given below:

1. Accepting telephone calls from their customers to place bets.
   
   
2. Provider needs to give telephone and e-mail services for customer queries in relation to client account activity and information.
   
   
3. Provider needs to allocate a panel of 30 to 40 agents who will be specially trained to take bets and deal with customer service queries.
   
   
4. The volume of calls is 350k calls per year with average call duration of 1 minute.
   
   
5. The most bulk of calls come in during the 5 minutes prior to the off of horse-races in Ireland and the UK.
   
   
6. Provider needs to update the database of clients in regular basis.
   

The closing date for receipt of tender or request to participate is 10th January, 2008 by 12:00 (Ireland Time). Tender documents must be received to the address given in the tender document before the closing date. For more information download the attachment. Please refer the Tender Document for more information and apply accordingly that. Payment system will be negotiated with the provider only.

Budget Estimate : 9,00,000 to 11,00,000 Euro

Country : Ireland

Status : Closed

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Call Center Project - Insurance Claims

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Projects Details:

Type : Project

Id : 54374615

Category : Call Center

Title : Insurance Claims

Description :

We are Uk based and looking to outsource our requirement of Insurance Claim. We require lead generating service providers for outgoing call to the general public in England and Scotland to obtain the accident and insurance leads. They also have to take details of accident - date, time place (Two sets of form to be completed of 2 pages each). The centers have to arrange their own leads according to different areas. The approximate budget for the project is more than USD 1000 and we are looking for centers to collect 10 to 50 leads per week and increasing depending on quality of leads. All the leads will be verified in UK. Only a short script will be needed of 4 sentences to start the call and the rest will be read from the sheets that will be provided by us. Interested centers are requested to contact us as soon as possible with their profile. Note- We strictly prefer initial contact by email.

Budget Estimate : Above USD 1000

Country : United Kingdom

Status : Closed

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Call Center Project - Canadian Landline Process

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Projects Details:

Type : Project

Id : 19637679

Category : Call Center

Title : Canadian Landline Process

Total Requirement : Minimum 10 Seats Require

Description :

We are India based company looking for experienced call centers for our requirement of Canada Landline Process for ROGERS.We need Center's having executives with good communication skills and knowledge of English accent.Database will be provided by client . Calling script will be provided by us.We require minimum 10 seats.Pay out will be 25$ (Canadian Dollars) per installed sale and it will be on weekly basis.We want to start our process as soon as possible. So interested call centers please contact with their profile and proposals immediately.

Budget Estimate : $25 (Canadian Dollars) per installed sales

Country : India

Status : Closed

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Call Center Project - Upgrading Contribution Amount

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Projects Details:

Type : Project

Id : 13409595

Category : Call Center

Title : Upgrading Contribution Amount.

Total Requirement : 50,000 calls in 25 days.

Description :

We are India based and looking to outsource our requirement of Call Center. We are Non-Governmental Organization and we need to call our donors and ask them to upgrade their contribution amount. We are looking for the center that can make 50,000 calls in 25 days time; we will provide you with the training script as well as the leads. Interested service providers are requested to contact us as soon as possible with their quotes and proposal.

Budget Estimate : Looking for best proposal

Country : India

Status : Closed

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Call Centers Earn Less Than Ringing Reviews from India’s Grads

Call centers, once the star of India’s outsourcing industry, are increasingly viewed as an undesirable employment option by Indian university graduates, reports TIME.

In fact, several colleges have barred call center recruiters from their campuses. Call centers have gotten a negative image due to the long hours and stressful conditions they impose on their employees, according to TIME. Retail, airline and hospitality industries now offer salaries equitable to call centers, and the most skilled students aspire to jobs in more sophisticated sectors like product development.

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Biggest Philippine call center to open

MANILA, Philippines--Contact service provider Teleperformance will launch Friday what officials say is the country’s biggest call center with 2,500 seats, at the EDSA Central in Mandaluyong City.

Called New EDSA IT Center 2, the center is a two-level building occupying about 16,000 square meters with 2,500 fully equipped workstations.

Teleperformance, which has corporate headquarters in Paris, France, and Miami Beach in Florida, also plans to open two more sites in two years to bring its workforce here to at least 10,000 people.

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Choosing the best call center technology

Selecting effective call center technology is a matter of following a highly defined process and identifying the risks associated with each product being considered.

Many firms rush through the important organizational stages of call center technology selection projects and chaotically leap into analyzing products based only on the functionality that's needed -- or worse, they start the selection process with a specific vendor already in mind, Brian Hinton warned a roomful of ACCE attendees.

"How are you going to sort through all of the options?" said Hinton, a senior consultant with Strategic Contact, who boasts 10 years of call center consulting experience. "The way to find the right [software] is to apply a structured process to analyze your options."

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Verizon Introduces Broadband Video Call Center Link for Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Customers in Mid-Atlantic Region

Customers in the Mid-Atlantic region who are deaf or hard of hearing can now communicate directly with Verizon about their services, using videophones and American Sign Language.

The new option for engaging Verizon's Center for Customers with Disabilities is available here and in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Customers can communicate directly via videophone with representatives in the Verizon center who are proficient in using American Sign Language (ASL) to handle orders, change services or answer questions.

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Virtual call centers driving VoIP adoption

Contact centers are increasingly turning to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to run their operations, and the interest in "virtual call centers" is driving much of that change, according to some recent research.

VoIP is helping enterprises to do away with their large call centers -- with rows and rows of agents being monitored by on-site managers -- and turn to the "virtual call center," a strategy of distributing agents across multiple locations, including home-based agents and offshoring.

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Globe telemarketing campaign unethical--NTC

An official of the National Telecommunications Communication said it was unethical for telemarketers representing Globe Telecom to call up subscribers of rival operator Smart Communications and offer them to switch to their service.

“The practice is not ethical,” said NTC Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento in a text message.
He said the NTC will be looking into the matter.

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Senior Citizens Pick Up on Call Center Jobs

"We have quite a few senior citizens that work for us and most of them work part-time. We may have a few that work full-time," said Convergys manager Ray Mason. "They are very stable employees, and they usually have some good reason for wanting to work -- sometimes it's just enjoying continuation of work."

He's been a sheriff, an entrepreneur and a school custodian. At 70, he's still a political activist and handyman. However, this elder statesman of Pueblo, Colo.'s Democratic Party has added another career twist to his life -- call center worker at Convergys.

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Call Center Agents: On the Frontlines of War

Everyday, wars are raging around the world. And its not a battle being fought by soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan using guns and missiles for democracy. Instead, this battle is being fought by call center agents in office cubicles using a sophisticated network of computers and telecoms switches to deliver great customer service. The war between companies to put their products on the forefront of the consumer's consciousness has driven them to use customer service as a weapon against the competition. Companies have learned that great customer service can make customers flock to their camp and patronize the products or services that the they are offering. This is where call center agents come into play.

Call center agents are service representatives hired by a client company to handle support and information for a specific product usually through phone calls, faxes or emails. Call centers may be described as a set of functions or actions that can be carried out in a number of ways using multiple delivery channels by merging information and telecommunications technology, Among the services they offer are toll free customer service, direct response, interactive voice response (IVR), 24 - hour help desk, appointment scheduling, order taking services, emergency response, conference and registration, virtual receptionist, and infomercials which can be tailored to suit your company's specific needs. IVR systems are set up to handle the initial stage of customer contact, and is programmed with a set menu for predictable customer questions, which gives them prerecorded answers and tells them how to proceed. If their issue is not adequately addressed by the IVR, customer calls are routed to knowledgeable representatives who have speedy access to information.

Call center agents are soldiers in the front-lines of war. They are a channel between a company and its customers, giving the latter a forum in which their concerns may be addressed and complaints resolved. It is also a way for companies to improve the product or service that they offer because customers can tell you directly exactly what they want. These dedicated soldiers are ready to deploy anytime, anywhere. Call center operations continue like a well-oiled 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that your company can cross the boundaries of distance and time zones so you can do business with people worldwide. Because this vital service may be costly for companies to put up themselves, the service is frequently outsourced to a call center company. Outsourcing the service to a call center at a set price is a cost effective solution for any business, large or small. This leaves companies free to concentrate on delivering the product or service without having to worry about the large cost of putting up their own call center and hiring employees to man the phones while being assured that customer satisfaction is being closely monitored. Performance markers for call center agents may include call handling time, call queue length, hold times and customer satisfaction level. Agents who fail these markers are subject for calibration with company standards or retraining as their progress requires. As soldiers are aware that one mistake can cost them their life, all call center agents are aware that every customer contact is a unique opportunity to create more business and cement the loyalty of the customer, so efforts are made to improve and retain relations. Seasoned agents are like war veterans; they know all the tricks of their trade and are keen to impart their hard earned knowledge to new recruits to ensure the same level of service for every customer call. They know that providing great customer service is winning yet another battle for market supremacy.

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Tomorrow's Call Center: Two-Way Video Interaction

We've heard a lot about the "fast approaching day" when agents will be able to interact with customers via two-way video. This is a really cool idea -- and I see a wide variety of ways that video communications could be used to enhance our daily routines in the not-too-distant future. People in the call center industry have been exploring the idea of integrating Internet Protocol Video in the contact center for years, and now many of the software and equipment makers, including CosmoCom, Verint, Genesys, Radvision and others are finally ready to make this prophecy a reality.

Future of Customer Service
Within the next few years, experts say, two-way video communications will be the new cutting edge way of doing business.

The banking industry is already starting to deploy "virtual tellers" at branch offices (this in addition to completely branch-free, Internet-based "virtual banks") -- while the retail industry is apparently gearing up to introduce "virtual store clerks."

Banking Industry Leading the Way- For now, it appears the banking industry is taking the lead in bringing this new technology in play. Numerous banks have already deployed "virtual tellers" at branch locations, and some banks are doing away with branches altogether and going to a pure "virtual banking" model (where all transactions are handled electronically via the Internet).

For most of us, using a "virtual teller" at a branch office will not be too different from using an ATM, except you'll be able to communicate via video link with a "virtual teller" who is, in fact, a call center agent located miles away. In addition to handling basic transactions (such as cashing and depositing checks, which in many cases will be handled via pneumatic tube), these "virtual tellers" will be able to answer questions about your account, as well as cross-sell and upsell new products and services that the bank is offering.

This new technology also brings tremendous advantages to the banks themselves, as they will be able to centralize and reduce staff, lower their real estate costs (as branches can be made much smaller) and deliver more consistent service to all customers. This "kiosk-based" form of video communications at bank and retail locations is the prelude to the much larger rollout of fixed-line and mobile two-way video communications, which will ultimately bring this new form of communication into the privacy of our homes.

Hurdles need to overcome- Obviously, there are still hurdles to overcome before video communications becomes commonplace. For one thing, there's still the basic problem of not enough bandwidth on our last-mile networks (in fact, almost half of the U.S. is still on dial-up).

Then there's the simple fact that most consumers do not have video phones or even video cameras and microphones connected to their PCs at home. Perhaps more importantly, there is still a question of how many people really want two-way video communications -- whether actually seeing the person you are speaking with offers enough value to the consumer to make the cost of rolling out IP video communications worth it.

However, with the major wireless service providers of the world working in concert with the handset makers and aggressively rolling out video capabilities on their next generation networks, we are no doubt getting closer to the day when two-way video communications will become a reality. As advanced new mobile devices (i.e., videophones) come onto the market, and consumer demand for them increases, it only makes sense that the call center industry will follow suit.

Show and Tell
Similarly, the retail industry is gearing up to introduce "video kiosks" where you'll be able to ask virtual store representatives questions about the products the store sells -- maybe even take a "virtual tour" of the store before you go inside.

Perhaps one day the "virtual clerk" at Home Depot (NYSE: HD) will be able to tell you that, yes, they do have 12-inch Milwaukee Super Sawzall Blades in stock, that they're in aisle 12, and that they cost $21.97 each before you spend 20 minutes wandering the aisles looking for something that might not even exist.

Farther down the road there's the potential for using IP video for a wide range of customer service and support operations, which people can access from their homes. For example, one day an agent in a tech support center will be able to "show" a consumer who just bought a new computer how to load some new software, or perhaps troubleshoot a set-up problem, right on the consumer's computer screen.

The ability to "show" a consumer how to do something, in real rime, rather than "tell" them over the phone will no doubt have powerful applications in the future.

I see tremendous potential for video in the contact center and I see plenty of applications for it that make sense. However, like all things in technology, this isn't going to happen overnight: the software and equipment makers are going to have to work on it slowly, in bits and pieces, and experiment with it as they go along.

Still, I look forward to the day when I'll be able to get a truly "personalized" customer service experience with a call center agent who I can almost reach out and touch.

Source: http://www.callcentersindia.com/

Call centre jobs are safe as new owners take over

STAFF at Aviemore's TSC contact centre have been assured that their jobs are safe and not going to India after a change in ownership.

Telecom Service Centres – one of the area's largest employers – has joined forces with Hero ITES, a Hero Group Company, in a multi-million pound move.

TSC presently employs over 130 staff at their base on the Cairngorm Technology Park at Dalfaber.

Bosses have said that the changes not only safeguard present jobs but will also help create more employment throughout the UK.

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Call centres do nothing to help the customer

WHOEVER thought up the idea of call centres must have had a stake in the medical industry. There is nothing more sure to send your biological being into a spin as trying to get hold of a company and being completely stone-walled.

Call centres were invented with cost-savings, and not customers, in mind.

You first listen to an automated message of how important your call is, and that it will be recorded for quality purposes. (The first is a lie, and if they ever listen to those recordings, they will immediately abandon them).

Then comes the inevitable list of up to nine options, with an additional one to speak to an agent. Some companies have even added the option of listening to them all again.

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