Archive for October, 2011

Outsourcing Outbound Call Center Services to India

A call centre is a service company which provides operator-assisted voice services. It is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. These calls are termed as outbound and inbound calls respectively. Inbound calls are calls that are made by the consumer to obtain information, report a malfunction, or ask for help. These calls are substantially different from outbound calls, where call center agents place calls to potential customers mostly with intentions of selling services to the individual.

In this article we will be basically discussing about Outbound Call Center Services. Outbound call centers provide services, which are outbound in nature, like providing telemarketing or appointment filling services. The following is some of the outbound call center services that can be outsourced to India:

o Telemarketing

o Database Selling

o Direct Mail Follow-up

o Appointment fixing

o Deal closing support

o Dynamic order filling services

o Customer satisfaction surveys

o Payment reminder

o Debt Collection

o Credit card verification solutions

o Outsourcing program notice

o Advertising and brand management solutions

o Business correspondence assistance

o Registration and confirmation functions to a call center

o Market Intelligence

o Database Selling

o Direct Mail Follow-up

o Lead Generation Services Qualification Management

o Seminar Population

o Product Promotion

o Information and Literature Fulfillment

o Decision Maker Contacts

o Up Sell/Cross Sell Campaigns

o Surveys

Outsourcing is beneficial for the organizations as it is cost effective and the energy of business can be directed at the competencies of a particular business. It is also beneficial in terms of making more efficient use of labor, capital, technology and resources.

India has become an ideal location for outsourcing business primarily because the same services with the same level of quality are offered in India for a much lower cost in comparison to other countries. It saves hidden cost like training, overheads and saves infrastructure cost which can eat up your investment. Organizations don’t have to spend on setting up the right kind of technology and later maintaining it.

The prime advantage of outsourcing in India is that as it has a large number of manpower available which is educated and is fluent in English. People work for lesser salary in comparison to European countries, and are more hardworking. Due to India becoming a hub of outsourcing business – availability of skilled labor is getting easier day by day.

The organization that is willing to outsource do not have to develop the competencies in the area which they want to outsource. The outsourcing organization already has expertise available for their business and work by providing greater efficiency and quality which results in providing faster services to customers and in term resulting into higher customer satisfaction rate. India also gets benefit from time zone which enables faster work for customers.

India’s democracy and stable government along with an inclination toward IT development and open door policy also makes it inviting choice. India also has a large pool of highly technical skilled manpower which enables these outsourcing organizations to be technically excellent, which in turn helps in providing high quality solutions.

Last but not least the prime reason of the growth of outsourcing business is that an organization which is outsourcing becomes free to concentrate on core business functions and can reap high amount of profit by directing energies on these areas only.

Flatworld provides Call Center Services and Solutions, Inbound Call Center Services, Outbound Call Center Services, Technical Support Services, Telemarketing Services, Call center Disaster Recovery Services, Email Support Services, Chat Support Services, etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=V_Samuel

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Outbound Marketing Links Versus Inbound Marketing Links

PR is an effective outbound and inbound method. Traditional outbound marketing techniques are no longer as effective when used in isolation. We are blanketed by traditional marketing in our daily lives (radio, TV, print, etc) and so we have become immune to its message. Today you need to use the hub and spoke method of marketing to reach your audience. The hub and spoke method uses your web site as the center of your message and the spokes are the ways that visitors are directed through various local and global search mechanisms on the internet to find you. They may find you via a local map search, a social media site, a business networking site, an article you post, or through the blogosphere.

How do you make your hub and all your spokes attract more prospects? You have to go find where they are hanging out and then create an extensive web presence that contains lots of rich valuable information that tracks back to your company. You should build outbound links where you work with specific outlets (bloggers) to get people talking about your company. Get people to read what you have written or posted on your blog or in your articles and then encourage them to post them on their sites or to bookmark them through Digg, Del.icio.us, or StumbleUpon.

Digg is a social media bookmarking site where articles are submitted and voted on. The more popular your article the more likely it is to land on the front page of Digg and generate more traffic to your website. Del.icio.us is a personal bookmarking site that also results in more traffic to your site.

StumbleUpon is an interest based community of people who share and review websites, videos, blogs, articles, etc. Most business and social networking sites like Biznik, LinkedIn, and Facebook all have ways to create outbound links to these bookmarking sites. They are extremely useful for creating more chatter about you and your business on the internet. Inbound links are created when you go out and post a summary of an article that exists elsewhere (as in Ezinearticles.com) on your website. These inbound links feed the SEO spiders and provide your prospects with useful pertinent related information.

Inbound marketing is a lead generation tool that has a long term focus as opposed to the faster outbound links. Inbound links are usually permission based and as such is a stronger link to have. It is critical to provide content that is interesting, useful, and pertinent to your target customer base. If you are just posting and trying to generate ads then you will waste your time, run off your dedicated followers, and hurt your rankings. Serious inbound marketing techniques that work require compelling, thoughtful links for prospects to follow and stimulate them into a conversation. When people link to your discussion and then go off and talk about you and your link on other sites (like Biznik, Ning Rings, Digg, etc) you begin to generate more chatter and more inbound links. Your spokes branch off and create more hubs and spokes. In this way the outbound and inbound links now become interconnected. In many cases, the outbound can actually become an inbound link.

You can actually use your website to help draw people in and opt them into your conversations in the market place. Do this by having quality content directly on your website that is educational in nature. Good marketing techniques no longer focus on cold calls, radio/TV ads, and spammy emails. Instead of targeting the masses who may or may not be interested in your message, go out and connect with the community of people who are already having conversations about your topic and searching for content. Spamming and unwanted advertising only takes away from the value of your brand and your products/services. Go for the warm leads that come from conversational inbound marketing links. This is where you can really measure the actual customer conversion relative to your marketing campaign.

Shannon Evans is recognized in the Puget Sound as an expert in how to make your business have a web presence rather than just a web page. Her conversational marketing techniques and practices outlined by Practical Local Search, LLC you will see your small business presence on the web increase: http://www.practicallocalsearch.com/ She is a consultant for social marketing campaigns that allow you to organize your marketing and sales efforts in an inexpensive delivery platform that is easy to set up and manage. The ability to send, deliver, and track any installed resource gives you the power to create a marketing program quickly and easily in a scalable format that can grow with your business.

Shannon is also a co-author of Get Found Now! Local Search Secrets Exposed: Learn How to Achieve High Rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing and multiple business ebooks. Her books teach entrepreneurs how to leverage the internet to attract new clients.

Shannon has a wide and varied background in both the practical and the pragmatic aspects of the business world. Shannon loves nothing better than teaching local businesses how to think globally and to be searched locally.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shannon_Evans

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What is B2B Outbounding?

B2B outbounding is all about keeping your relationships with your clients or potential clients in order. It’s not as easy as it sounds unless you have some expertise in the area.

Your B2B outbounding communications should typically form part of CRM (Client Relationship Management) coupled with Sales & Marketing prospect development.

Many companies appreciate the benefits of effective client communications both in terms of account maintenance but also ongoing development and growth. Some also refuse to accept the concept of a “lost customer” and work hard to re-develop and recover such clients over time.

Equally important is having the ability to identify new prospects and to convert these into live leads and hopefully new accounts as fast as possible.

In both cases, data quality and accuracy is critically important and typically, a thorn in the side of many organisations.

The trouble is that over time, your existing business client information becomes out-of-date and regular maintenance is imperative – unless you are willing to accept the unprofessional impression made when, for example:

· your letters and communications are sent addressed to key personnel that no longer work for your client;

· you send propositions and advertising material that is now inappropriate to your customers’ activities;

· different people from different parts of your organisation are operating with the same client but actually oblivious to each others’ activities.

In the case of new prospects and marketing, the need for highly professional and targeted B2B outbounding is equally critical. Time in front of a live lead is in short supply and it’s unlikely to be secured unless all communications are pertinent and immaculately crafted.

Converting a prospect into a live lead can be even more of a challenge.

Few businesses have the time to take communications from potential suppliers seriously. Even fewer will be prepared to do so if the communications are misdirected or show anything less than an accurate understanding of their business and its needs. Initial promising prospects will also vanish overnight if their requests for information and responses are not promptly followed-up – few will forgive the “sorry, your request never reached us” syndrome

In other words, you may have one initial chance of ‘getting it right’!

To make all of the above things happen certain key things are required:

* you must know your existing clients and hold accurate intelligence on them;
* you must be able to access good contact lists and critical data for prospective clients;
* supporting administrative and management systems must be in place.

Ideally, B2B outbounding must form part of an integrated set of process and communications culture that takes time and expertise to develop. There are companies who specialise in this area, so it may be worth investigating a little further.

Trevor J Roberts is the editor of TBO Services, who have over 16 years of Marketing, Data and Contact Strategy experience together we aim to provide a fresh approach to customer contact. We have a range of services including: B2B Outbounding, Data Services, Live Leads, and Email List brokers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Trevor_J_Roberts

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Outbound Links Are Important Too

Link building is an important aspect of SEO. However, people tend to only think about the inbound links that point to their site and worry about developing those. While inbound link building is an important strategy that establishes the relevance of a website or blog in the search engines and increases rankings over time, website owners sometimes forget about outbound links. When incorporated into a site correctly, outbound links can be beneficial too.

Outbound links also connect a website to the web and provide social proof. They tell just as much about your link “story” as inbound links do. Outbound links prove that you are willing to provide valuable information to your visitors. A good place to incorporate these links is in a blog. If you see something interesting online that is related to your specific industry, write about it and link to it to give credit to the source.

Outbound linking is a good way to get noticed by others in the industry, and this is an especially good strategy for new websites. Webmasters check analytics on a regular basis to see where traffic is coming from. If they see that you are linking to them it’s likely that they will click over to your site to check you out. They might even return the favor by linking to you on their website or blog at some point. Outbound links can lead to inbound links over time and can establish relationships with other website owners.

It’s important to note that a good outbound linking strategy is different than a link exchange. There needs to be a legitimate reason to link to another site. Never create a page full of links to places that have nothing to do with the product or service that you offer. If the purpose of a link is not clear, it will confuse target audience members.

Inbound link building is a strategy that should occur over time. An outbound linking strategy is most valuable in the early stages of the life of a website to establish value. Once the value has been established, inbound links will occur naturally.

While it’s a good strategy to include relevant outbound links every once in awhile there are a few important things to consider. Make sure that the site that you are linking to is of good quality. It’s mostly common sense- does it look good and provide good information? However, it’s a good idea to check its traffic and domain information too. Linking to another site is like a “vote”. Essentially, you are endorsing them. You don’t want to “vote” for a bad site. Also, every link out of your site provides an opportunity for someone to leave. You can include code in the link so that it will open in a new window, but website visitors are easily distracted and it’s very possible that they won’t return or will forget where they had been. Once your website or blog is established, it’s best to use outbound links sparingly.

Nick A Stamoulis is an SEO and SEM veteran and owner of the company, Brick Marketing. For more information, please visit: http://www.brickmarketing.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_A_Stamoulis

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