| How To Make Effective Use Of An Overseas Call Center |  Anthony Tobin |  Jun 17, 2009 00:40 PDT | Anthony Tobin offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print.
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Article Title: How To Make Effective Use Of An Overseas Call Center
Author: Anthony Tobin
Category: Telesales, Lead Generation
Word Count: 526
Keywords: overseas call centers, centres, telesales, telemarketing, sales by phone, search, australia
Author's Email Address: to-@bigroo.com.au
Article Source: http://www.articlemarketer.com
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In many Western countries the term "overseas telemarketing" conjures up images of sweat shops in India and other Asian countries. It also evokes jokes about heavy foreign accents and the grammatical errors they make.
The way to deal with this is training and honesty.
We are making effective use of a call center in Manila, capital of the Philippines, but it hasn't been easy.
The call center itself is first class, housed in a modern high-rise building, with state-of-the-art communications technology. Anyone visiting the offices in the early hours of the morning will find a hive of activity as a work force of up to 1,000 young people service clients all over the world, but mostly in the US. The names of some major brands can be heard as operators make and receive calls at their work stations.
In my opinion it is essential to take a very hands-on approach when setting up in one of these call centers. Doing it long-distance will not produce the best results.
We sent trainers to the Philippines to spend time with the sales team and explain the nuances and pronunciations of English as spoken in Australia. Briefings on the history of the country, its culture and national pastimes (mostly sport), have also played an important part of the training process.
Honesty is another factor. We insist on our sales team not making false or exaggerated claims in their sales pitch, and if asked for their physical location we insist that they answer truthfully, with a statement like, "I am in Manila, Philippines. We have been appointed to help in the marketing of this service in Australia.". Honesty at all times will be appreciated by customers.
If the sales agent pretends that he/she is located nearby, the prospective client will be suspicious and the caller will lose credibility immediately.
Another criticism is that by employing an organisation overseas you are taking away jobs from locals in your home country. Moving jobs overseas!
However, these same critics will knowingly purchase cheaper goods and food produced overseas, rather than pay premium prices for locally produced items.
Criticism of this type aimed at us is easily countered by pointing out that without the low-cost overseas operation there would be NO jobs at our offices in Australia.
An overseas call center can provide a number of services (inbound and outbound) for small, medium and large companies in Western countries. Including inbound (customer service, enquiries, etc) and outbound (sales, appointment setting, surveys, etc)
We have only used the Manila project for outbound sales, a system that has worked very well for us, but only after a lot of effort was put into training.
We also looked at a number of service providers before making the decision on our current center. Do your research and make sure you are dealing with a reliable overseas company.
The guys and gals in the sales team are a very decent bunch of people doing a hard job in difficult conditions, so it is sad on the odd occasions when they are subjected to abuse by uneducated (and some highly educated) customers.
However, they take it in their stride and are able to keep smiling. Not a bad attitude in these difficult economic times.
Anthony Tobin, a former journalist, now based on Australia's Sunshine coast, is the founder and owner of Big Roo, an Australian business search engine. Link http://www.bigroo.com
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