Recently, an article was posted by CBC news discussing the U.S. dollar devaluation affect on the Canadian Call Center sector.  

Recognizing the danger in the devalued U.S. dollar for the Canadian call center market, CBC suggested that the industry needs to refocus itself.   It recommended that these call centers now target high-value customer care financial services.   Presently call centers have provided services for businesses that concentrates on low-value transactions.

“Economists are warning that global competition, the high value of the Canadian dollar and the tight labour market are reshaping the future of the call centre business, especially in the Maritimes. David Campbell, an independent economic consultant in Moncton, N.B., says New Brunswick should take a page from Nova Scotia’s business plan and put more emphasis on attracting financial service and hedge fund centres, which pay bigger salaries.”

An outsourced telemarketing service or provider of Call Centres can help a business with its inbound needs.

Posted: April 14th, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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How important is a telemarketing script?…they are good for actors in the movies, but how important in a call center? Customers are looking for specific solutions in products and services that they purchase, so ready-made scripts may be unhelpful when catering to the needs of customers.

For example, the UK based Lloyds Trustee Savings Bank stopped using scripts after 90 percent of its clients complained about their use. Its staff performs best not by learning scripts or sales techniques’ but by just being natural, open, honest and friendly. But John Price, managing director of Price Direct feels that scripts have an important role to play in outbound calls used to solicit customers.

Some feel that call center staff are more intent on following the script rather than listening to what they are saying. But, scripts are valuable when it comes to following the specifics and details of the product or service, according to Kevin Norton, account manager at the UK-based business marketing, data management and analytical services provider LBM.

Training your staff to stick to the script while still being conversational is the key.  Skilled staff should have the expertise to use the script as a tool to explain the company’s selling points, and also be flexible enough to deviate from it when the need arises.

Posted: April 11th, 2008 under Appointment Setting, Call Centers, Lead Generation, Telemarketing Sales, Telemarketing Services.
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China Telecom is launching its new CRM telemarketing services and has selected PacificNet Epro to provide Consulting, Telemarketing Management and Call Center Training Services.

PacificNet Inc. is a provider of telemarketing services, call center, ecommerce and value-added services in China. PacificNet Epro will strengthen the service level and telemarketing management capability of China Telecom’s customer service center.

PacificNet Epro provides their expertise and assistance in increasing the overall performance of the contact center management workflow and telemarketing efficiency and service quality. Their telemarketing knowledge and understanding about China will help China Telecom improve overall . At the same time, PacificNet Epro will increase and expand its global customer base.

The CEO of PacificNet said, “With over 15 years as a leading provider of telemarketing, CRM services and contact center management in Hong Kong and China, we believe PacificNet is well positioned to capture a significant share of this rapidly growing market.”

Posted: April 10th, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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A recent study by industry publication Global Services (and investment advisory firm Tholons) showed what countries (by city) rank best in offshore call center services. 

Based on scale and quality of workforce, financial infrastructure, risk environment and quality of life, these are the top 15 ranked cities in Offshore countries:

1. Chennai, India
2. Hyderabad, India
3. Pune, India
4. Ceba, Philippines
5. Kolkata, India
6. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
7. Colombo, Sri Lanka
8. Shanghai, China
9. Chandigarh, India
10. Beijing, China
11. Cairo, Egypt
12. Hanoi, Vietnam
13. Shenzhen,China
14. Buenos Aries, Brazil
15. Sao Paulo, Brazil

So, India still remains the #1 technology outsourcing destination, but concerns of a rising rupee and soaring wages may slow their competitive edge.

Posted: April 9th, 2008 under Call Centers, Off-shore Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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When we hear the following announcement, what does it mean to us?

“Atlanta, GA. - April 4, 2008 - S1 Enterprise, a division of S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: SONE) and a provider of multichannel financial services software, today announced an agreement with Zions Bancorporation to implement the S1 Call Center application across six of Zions Bancorporation’s affiliate banks.”

This announcement goes on to say:

“With the implementation of S1 Call Center, our agents will no longer have to master multiple applications to handle our customers’ needs,” said Dianne Wynne, executive vice president, enterprise customer service for Zions Bancorporation.

“The new solution will give them one-click access to complete information. We expect training costs to decline and customer satisfaction to increase.”

Here’s the translation:

“S1 Call Center’s built-in referral management capabilities will enable Zions Bancorporation’s 350 agents in three centers to efficiently refer opportunities to other areas of the bank. Because many call center referrals are for Internet banking, this is expected to reduce calls and move customers to a more cost effective way of doing business.”

Call centers are important inbound customer service providers, so the referrals from these centers are hugely important to a large company’s business operation.  This announcement shows us, once again, that technology is continually trying to keep pace with business needs.

Posted: April 7th, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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Maybe you have used List Brokers for telemarketing leads that you qualify by certain demographics: age, gender, location,etc.  But sometimes these lists don’t give you the updated  leads you want or you think they are too costly…

Here’s a way for creating your own telemarketing sales lead list: 

• Check your local newspaper for classified ads , you will notice a variety of business listings every week, many of these are repeats which means they are making a profit. So your business owner already is “ in the game “ as they spend money on increasing their business.
• Your local business advertisers will include a wide range of subjects including Real Estate ( mortgage leads ) , Gardening, Auto loan leads and even work at home leads. This is not the same as buying a massive telemarketing sales lead list or mailing list lead but you will find business owners also have a bigger budget.
• You could also use the internet for sales lead lists, just create a landing page and collect your telemrketing lead details with the incentive of a free gift or discount off your product.
• Also be sure to check out your local sports and leisure facilities, you can pick up telemarketing leads from companies who advertise on billboards or even radio advertisements. Check out trade magazines also as you can pick up some good targeted leads

Or you can always do it the old-fashion way and simply create a telemarketing sales lead list by contacting everyone in your local phone book.  But, you are advised to consult a professional company beforehand as many of your leads may be on the “Do not call“ list and you will not want to break the law.

Posted: April 6th, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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India remains the #1 technology outsourcing destination, although concerns of a rising rupee and soaring wages could blunt the country’s competitive edge.

A recent study by industry publication Global Services (and investment advisory firm Tholons) placed the Indian cities of Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune at the top of a list of 15 emerging outsourcing destinations for global companies.

Kolkata (at number five) and Chandigarh (at number nine) were the other two Indian locations on the list, which also contained three Chinese and two Vietnamese cities.

Three top cities for outsourcing from China were Shanghai (at number eight), Beijing (at 10) and Shenzhen (at 13). Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi placed at sixth and 12th, respectively.

Cebu in the Philippines was fourth, the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo (seventh), Cairo (11th), Buenos Aires (14th) and Sao Paulo (15th).

The list was based on criteria such as:

• scale and quality of workforce,
• financial infrastructure,
• risk environment and
• quality of life.

Posted: April 5th, 2008 under Telemarketing Services.
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WebAstra by 3CLogic is one of the fastest growing Web-based VoIP Call Center solutions.

With WebAstra’s hosted software, you can launch a full-featured next-generation contact center anywhere in the world in as little as 30 minutes. All you need is broadband Internet, some PCs and some headsets.

Just add people, and your contact center is in business! The WebAstra  hosted call center is a tightly bundled suite including advanced dialing, state-of-the-art VoIP and broadband Internet to provide a complete, web-based, call center solution that’s graceful and robust.

There are many advantages that the VoIP call center solutions can bring to your company.

Posted: April 4th, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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Microsoft announced recently that it is changing the name of its “software-as-a-service” CRM solution from Dynamics CRM Live to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

This affects the name only, and is an attempt to avoid confusion between the SaaS CRM solution and Microsoft’s other “Live” named solutions.

“Whereas the Live brand is focused on consumers and small businesses, the Online brand is fully aligned with our existing Dynamics CRM strategy of delivering outstanding solutions for small businesses, midsized companies and large enterprises,” wrote Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Saas has been known for its implementation for Telemarketing Services Call Centers.

Posted: April 3rd, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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Large and small service providers are looking to fiber access technologies, like GPON, for ultra-bandwidth to residential customers as well as to provide high-speed Ethernet and voice services to businesses.

 For example, ADTRAN, Inc. announced on April 2nd, the addition of Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to the Total Access 5000 Ethernet Multi-service Access and Aggregation Platform.  ADTRAN GPON modules provide 2.5 Gbps to each optical line terminal (OLT) port, enabling the delivery of advanced, very high bandwidth services such as high definition IPTV.

The multiservice capabilities of the Total Access 5000 allow for the support of native Ethernet services like GPON from the same platform used to support POTS, DSL, Bonded Copper, ATM and legacy copper services.

The ADTRAN optical network terminals (ONTs) work in conjunction with the Total Access 5000 to support a wide range of applications for both residential and business applications, ranging from DS1 to Gigabit Ethernet.

The ADTRAN Total Access 5000 also provides fully integrated voice options, including support for both TDM trunk interfaces as well as VoIP, eliminating the need for costly external solutions.

Posted: April 2nd, 2008 under Call Centers, Telemarketing Services.
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