The Call Center Culture in the Philippines

Manila is very much alive by night. Were not talking about the Red light district. Rather, the lights are thrown by high-rise buildings hosting a number of call centers in major business districts in the Metro. Most of the clients of call centers in the Philippines are located in the United States and other developed countries, usually in the West, that is why the operating hours is usually at night.

Call center agents tend to be night owls. Thankfully, Philippine call centers offer lots of benefits to compensate for this. There are night differentials and even transportation allowance for agents traveling from different parts of the Manila so that they will not feel the brunt of transportation costs. You might say that employing call center agents may be costly. Yet, if the salary level is compared with those from developed countries, this is still way cheaper.

Call center agents tend to be young and independent-minded. Most of them are fresh graduates from the universities and colleges, except of course those who have been in the industry for three to five years now. Yet, these call center agents are able to assert their individuality and start developing a career early in their lives. In some cases, call center agents also support their families.

The holidays in the Philippines are not in conjunction with the all the holidays of other countries. Even if that is the case, customer service requires that the agents are in the office during holidays so that customers can still call about their most urgent concerns. Its not an easy job but call center agents in the Philippines has gotten used to it. After all, the difficulties are just part of the challenges that agents have to face in building their careers in the call center industry.

Filipino call center agents do have good phone call management skills. This can be attested to by a lot of callers who have talked to a Filipino agent. It is not easy to deal with rude or irate customers, yet Filipino agents manage to do that. What they do is to put themselves in the shoes of the customer and diagnose what they need. They offer the best solutions there is with a smile. That is one of the most important features of Filipino culture the ability to smile even in the most difficult situations.

Filipinos are also known all over the world for their hospitality. This trait is also translated in the way that Filipino call center agents deal with the people they talk to on the phone. They are courteous and always aware of the customers.

The call center industry in the Philippines has encouraged the economic mobility of young people. In fact, even at a young age, a number of call center agents are now in the process of buying their homes or their cars because of the success they meet at Philippine call centers. Of course, they will not arrive at such a success if they did not work hard for it first.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Empowering Philippine Call Center Agents

In the drive to improve performance and the bottom line, organizations, call centers include, tend to forget that their people are their best resource. It is good to bring in addition resources, motivate people to perform more or sell more. Without the necessary motivation, however, all of these will just fall on barren soil and will not yield richly.

The call center industry in the Philippines has been investing on its most important resource people. They are the ones on the frontlines: they answer calls from customers with different moods, they process requests, they provide their time and their skills for the benefit of the company they work for and for the customers that purchased the products and services of the company they represent.

The first empowerment that call center agents receive, of course is the basic training in handling calls and using the computer systems being used to provide service to customers.

Although Filipinos are generally considered to possess the strongest English skills in the region, the regional accent needs to be toned down so that customers from different parts of the world can understand them. In this case, most call centers have included accent neutralization training as part of their onboard training and orientation to call center agents. As time goes on, the agents can acclimatize themselves with the accent being used by customers. In some cases, the agents are even able to use the very accent of their customers.

The compensation for call center agents in the Philippines is commensurate to the kind of work that they do. Because most call centers conduct their operations at night, the call centers provide night differentials and transportation allowance. Some call centers even go as far as provide shuttle service for their agents. This way, their safety is ensured and the operations of the call center are not jeopardized.

Another way of empowering call center agents is the provision of fun learning activities both in the work setting and outside. Most Philippine call centers conduct out of town team building activities to strengthen the relationships among call center agents. This way, they develop stronger bond with each other and with the company. In the long run, this translates to stronger loyalty to the company and lesser turnover rates. When an agent stays longer in a company, he is able to develop his full potential and becomes more versatile in dealing with complex issues brought by customers.

Call center agents provide the backbone of the industry. Through their willingness to contribute to the companies they represent, the Philippine call center industry has grown to where it is now. Although the industry has accomplished a lot, it can do more by investing on its people and helping them become professionalized.

The most important part of the agent empowerment is the inculcation of the values of the company, which is of course centered towards the service provided to the customers. Philippine call centers exist to provide excellent service to customers and realize the goals and objectives set by the company.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Supporting Call Centers in the Philippines

The call center industry in the Philippines rests on a number of pillars supporting it, making it possible to rake in millions, if not billions, of revenues. After all, the industry can never exist in a vacuum. Through the support it is receiving both inside and outside the call centers, it is able to navigate through difficulties and rise to be one of the prime industries in the Philippines.

The call centers number one support comes from its agents who tirelessly render their services in order to provide services to different kinds of customers all over the world. In most cases, call center operations in the Philippines happen at night when most people in the Philippines are sleeping.

As they say, the worlds best businesses never sleep. Because most of the clients of call centers are located in the United States, Canada, and Europe among others, agents have to work during the graveyard shift in order to help the customers calling the centers. Even during Philippine and international holidays, agents render their services just to get the business going.

There are also non-voice personnel within the call centers including the email support teams, the IT personnel, the human resource people, together with the managers and senior officials of the company.

Non-voice personnel also provide important support to the call centers. Some customers prefer to write letters and not to talk on the phone. This is why a number of people in the customers are dedicated to answer queries directed via email and fax. As they say, there is something for everyone in the call centers.
The IT personnel in the call centers are also important part of the edifice of the industry. They design the computer systems and make sure that everyone in the call center is connected so that they can easily communicate important information that could be used by everyone in the center.

Business continuity in the call center industry is very important. In the event that there are very strong typhoons and even political issues that disrupt the operations of call centers, there should be contingencies and alternatives for the business to continue. These people are always on the lookout for hot issues that could suddenly erupt.

Human resource personnel, on the other hand, ensure that agents are well supported and provided with the salary and benefits they are entitled to. The HR department also ensures that there are enough agents hired to take care of the attrition rate and bring in fresh people to help the call centers deal with the volume of calls being received.

Lastly, the Philippine government also provides support to the call center industry. It encourages investors to bring their money to the Philippines and direct them to the call center industry, which has been experiencing a boom in the past five years or so. The government also highlights the importance of the industry among its citizens so that more professionals could be encouraged to enter the said industry.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Offshore Call Center: Destination Philippines

Developed countries have higher standards of living. It follows also that the salary level of employees there should be high as well. This is a marked difference in developing countries, where the standards of living are lower. In addition to that, there are currency differences, which make it possible for people in the developing countries to earn more if they receive dollars. In the Philippines a large percentage of the population has decided to work abroad so that they can earn more and help their families deal with the increasing cost of living.

Several years ago, however, the call center industry in the Philippines was born and started growing. Because of this, most Filipinos, especially those who belong to the younger generation, now have a choice to stay in the Philippines and be employed as part of the call center industry.

The boom in the call center industry in the Philippines also benefits foreign companies and multinational corporations. Due to their large scale, large corporations face increasing costs in their labor, as well as in their business processes. By offshoring some of their business processes such as call center operations to the Philippines, they can generate savings and earnings too. Philippines is the destination for most call centers worldwide because of the lower labor costs as well as the quality level of ICT and English skills.

Offshore call centers in the Philippines stand a chance to become large companies in the Philippines. In fact, the larger call centers have grown exponentially since they were established in the Philippines. The rate of growth is estimated to be at 100 percent. This percentage of growth is phenomenal indeed. They could hire as many as 100 new employees in a week. In addition to this, the revenues generated have exceeded USD 1 billion in the early parts of 2006. The outsourcing industry in the Philippines is still young yet it has bested other industries in the Philippines.
A number of call centers in the Philippines are locally owned, usually by telecommunications companies. There are also call centers whose main headquarters are located in the United States or other developed countries. Most companies that secure the services of Philippine call centers are located in the United States. This is partly because Philippine culture and language have been greatly influenced by the United States. Several call centers are from Australia due to its proximity and the apparent benefits of outsourcing to the Philippines. The call centers in the Philippines employ around 500 to 5000 employees with office buildings spread out across the business districts in Metro Manila.

For companies that are looking for outsourcing bids and contracts, Philippine call centers provide almost all of the business process outsourcing services worldwide. Such services include customer service, financial services, travel reservation services for hotels and airline companies, as well as technical support for telecoms and computer companies.

As Philippine call centers continue to grow, foreign companies are expected to troop to the Philippines for business process outsourcing.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Why Professionals Join Philippine Call Centers

As eight-to-five employees go out of their buildings and get a ride home, young Filipino professionals dressed in a combination of slacks and collared shirts or even jeans and shirts troop to the skyrise buildings in Makati or Ortigas. Armed with their spill-proof canisters and their good English language skills, they enter their offices with pride and dignity.

There are people who look with derision at the call center industry as well as at the professionals who choose to work for the industry. They think that those professionals who work for call centers are those who do not have a choice and those who opt for easy money.
Nothing could be further from the truth. A lot of call center agents are finding their place in the call center industry. The reason behind this is that call centers offer challenging jobs with good compensation and benefits. In most instances, call center jobs in the Philippines offer the highest starting salaries. Who wouldnt want to have a high starting salary?

When this happens, young professionals are able to build their lives early on. They get to earn a living, establish their savings and start realizing their dreams early in life. They do not have to wait for retirement in order to enjoy the things they love.
Call center agents also find a community in their places of work. They can easily establish friendly relationships that can help them manage stress and challenges better. In most cases, the friendship developed in these call centers spill over into their personal lives outside of the work context.

The call center industry in the Philippines helped in curbing the unemployment rate in the country. Previously, newly graduates from universities and colleges in Metro Manila and other parts of the Philippines found it difficult to look for a job that suits them well. But with the call center industry booming, more than 200,000 Filipinos have become employed in call centers in 2006.

This sharp growth is driving the Philippines to capture a greater segment of the global call center market. Although the Philippines is but second to India in the number of business process outsourcing companies, the gap is being bridged now and it is expected that by the year 2010, the Philippines shall have employed more than one million professionals in the call center industry.

Another good impact of the call center industry is the way that the industry is helping other industries such as coffee shops and restaurants among others to cater to the needs of these call center agents in different business districts in Metro Manila. Because of the availability of thousands of young professionals in the Philippines, the market is likely to grow in the next few years.

The industry will grow in the next few years. This means that more young Filipino professionals can use their skills and their talents in customer service for the benefits of companies abroad. On the other hand, call centers give these young professionals an option to help their families and help them establish their careers.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Good English Skills in Philippine Call Centers

Even as early as preschool, Filipinos already receive instruction in the English language. This continues well into grade school and high school. By the time they graduate from elementary, most students in the Philippines are already proficient of the English language and are able to express themselves and communicate in this language. Although Philippine English accent tend to be close to the American accent, there are regional influences, which make Philippine English accent distinct.

In the Philippines, there are more than 150 vernaculars. This is because the Philippines is an archipelago composed of around 7,100 islands. Good thing, however, there is a national language called Filipino. Together with Filipino, the English language is an official language, too. This is perhaps a legacy of the American occupation, which lasted for 50 years. Because of the American occupation in the Philippines, a number of Filipinos acquired the proficiency in the English language. More than a hundred years since the Americans arrived in the Philippines, the country is now one of the English-speaking countries in the world. This proficiency in the language is but one of the reasons why a number of multinational companies are off-shoring their business processes to the Philippines.

Accent, however, can be tweaked for call center purposes. Communication skills in the English language, however, are harder to acquire and nurture. Due to the educational system of the Philippines, these communication skills of Filipinos are enhanced early in their childhood. In addition to this, Filipinos are easily exposed to TV shows and movies from the United States and other countries. This also helps Filipinos in learning about the culture of Americans and other countries.

To further develop the English skills of Filipinos, the government, through its Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education, is always on the lookout on how the Filipinos English skills are faring. There are also a lot of projects and drives in high school and college campuses to further enhance the English language skills of students, who will soon become part of the workforce.

In addition to this, there are a number of call center academies in the Philippines. The purpose of these academies is to help Filipinos enhance their accents so that they can be easily understood by customers located in other parts of the world while at the same time, being able to understand different accents from al over the world.

As a testimony to the English language proficiency of Filipinos, a lot of Koreans and other Asians come to the Philippines to learn English and expose themselves to the culture of the nation. In fact, another growing industry is online English tutorials. The boom of this industry is no less than the result of the good English proficiency of Filipinos.

With the continuous development of the call center industry in the Philippines, the country needs to ensure that the skills of its citizens are at par with the rest of the world. Yet, English language skills is but one side of the coin. Excellent customer service is the other side of the coin.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Training Philippine Call Center Agents

Getting into call centers in the Philippines requires confidence, College education, good English communication skills, and customer service skills. These capabilities are all gauge and examined in the recruitment process in Philippine call centers. Although this process is not easy, those who are truly good can enter the call centers and start a financially-rewarding career.

Getting into call centers, however, is but a step in the process. It is also equally important to develop oneself and improve the skills that the agent already has. This way, he will be able to face the challenges and the rigors of the job of the call center agent. After all, there are a number of things that a call center agent should master in order to provide customer service satisfactorily.

Accent Training. Even if Filipinos have good English communication skills, there are still traces of regional accent in their oral English. The goal of accent training therefore is two-fold, one is to neutralize the Filipino regional accent so that other nationalities could understand Philippine call center agents better. The other reason for accent training is to help a call center agent understand the accent of the customers that they will be serving.

The United States has a variety of accents the Black American accent, the Southern and the Northern accents. For ears that are untrained, some of these accents would be difficult to understand causing the agent to ask the customer to repeat his questions or requests again. If this happens a lot of times, it would be annoying for the customer. So call centers in the Philippines have to make sure that their agents can understand their customers well. Customers in Australia also have a different kind of accent, which closely resembles the British accent. As such, the agents should be able to approximate, if not totally copy the accent of Aussies.

Computer System Training. Depending on the account being handled by a call center, the agent also need to learn how to manipulate the customer relationship management software being used. Since most Philippine call center agents have skills in using the computer, this training would be much easier to implement. Part of this training is to help the agent know the kinds of technical requests he need to make in order to help the customers whose calls are routed to the call center.

The training of Philippine call center agents usually last for 4-6 weeks. The first two weeks is usually dedicated to accent training and the remainder is for product and services training and system training. Along the way, the trainees will be made to listen to actual calls in the center and make them evaluate the call in terms of its strengths and weaknesses and how they can apply their training to the particular situation depicted in the calls they listened to.

Part of the assessment in the training is for the trainees to handle actual calls. This is usually done on the last few days of the training in preparation for the agents to accept live calls. An effective training program will enable a Philippine call center agent to deal with customers and provide the service that they deserve.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Recruitment of Philippine Call Center Agents: An Inside Look

To facilitate the needs of the corporations that secure the services of Philippine call centers, they need a large number of employees. Yet, call centers cannot simply hire anyone with good English skills. Decidedly, English skills are important but this should also be coupled with a lot of other things such as ICT skills, and good customer service. In this regard, Philippine call centers have dynamic human resource management personnel to facilitate the recruitment, training, and even retention of Philippine call center agents.

There is a significant time difference between the Philippines and the home countries of the companies and corporations that they are serving. There is a three to four-hour difference between the Philippines and Australia. On the other hand, the time difference between the United States and the Philippines is between 11-13 hours. As such, call center agents in the Philippines should be willing to work on the graveyard shifts. Because of this work hazard, call center agents receive night shift differentials on top of their basic salary.

The willingness to work on a night shift is only a part of the requirements of being a call center in the Philippines. There are several qualifications being looked for in a call center agent. For one, a college education is necessary for full time call center agents. College level students have the option to apply as part-time agents to help them with their education costs. Since the medium of instruction in the Philippines is English and Filipino, these young professionals applying at call centers do have good English communication skills although there may be some exceptions.

Another criteria for recruitment is problem-solving skills. Since customer service is basically a problem-solving process, prospective agents should be able to demonstrate this important skill. Good thing, most University and College graduates do have excellent English skills as well as the skills needed in solving problems. Moreover, the naturally-hospitable culture of Filipinos enables them to provide excellent customer service. Philippine call center agents therefore have a natural advantage in providing customer service to people of different nationalities.

Applicants to call centers undergo an examination that seeks to gauge the level of their English communication, problem-solving, and customer service skills. If they pass this examination, they are scheduled for an oral examination or interview. The applicant should be able to articulate himself clearly in terms of accent and the meaning that he wants to communicate. He should also be confident in expressing himself. Phone skills are also evaluated through simulated phone calls, together with a typing test since this is also an important part of the job.

The final interview will be the ultimate assessment of the applicant. More often than not, the final interview is where the candidate gets assigned to the account most suitable to his capabilities. He may be put to a sales, customer care, or technical support accounts. These types of accounts are usually present in different departments of a large call center.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Business Process Outsourcing and the Philippines

As of now, the Philippines is considered as second only to India in providing business process outsourcing services in the world. The Philippines, however, is quickly catching up to bridge the gap. As the need for cost-cutting measures of developed countries continue to diversify and increase, the Philippines is set to take the lead in the outsourcing industry. In fact, the government is very busy in attracting investors from different areas of the world to bring in capital flows into the Philippines. This way, the call center industry, including the rest of the business process outsourcing in the Philippines, will further develop and help companies worldwide provide great customer service.

In the Philippines, around ten percent of the population has decided to work abroad. This is because they encounter a dearth of job opportunities in the Philippines. In order to provide for their families, they have to brave loneliness and a foreign culture. Good thing, however, Filipinos, in general can easily adapt to the culture of other people.

This cultural adaptability of Filipinos is one of the strengths that they possess in providing good customer services in different parts of the world. The influence of the United States on the Philippines can be easily seen because of the occupation of the former on the country for fifty years. The BPO industry in the Philippines has also grown to provide services to other nationalities such as Spanish, French, and even German. There is a growing number of call centers that provide services to these nationalities.

In addition to the cultural adaptability of Filipinos, they do have good literacy and communication skills, which are essential in providing customer service to people from other nationalities. Although the educational system in the Philippines is facing a number of issues, it is able to develop the skills of Filipinos across different age groups all over the country.

These skills and capabilities of Filipinos have contributed to the growth of the call center industry in the Philippines. It is a relatively young industry, which started growing in the year 2001. The industry now employs around 200,000 employees all over the country and this is expected to grow to a million employees by the year 2010. As the industry continues to grow, more and more jobs are being created, making it possible for more Filipinos to have jobs, earn, and save their money while being the country.

The tradeoff in working for a call center is the time of working, which is, most of the time, on the graveyard shift. Yet, call center professionals and those who are willing to work for the industry do not mind the work hours so long as they have a job to support themselves and their families. Compared to working abroad and working in a call center in the Philippines, the latter is a better choice because then, call center professionals do not need to endure loneliness and homesickness. As the industry continues to grow, the Philippines will be able to take the first place in providing business process outsourcing services in the world.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

The Preferred Florist List - Important in Today's Internet World

What makes a good florist? A good florist should not only know the ins-and-outs of the flower industry, he must also know the business side of it. Our company specializes in both. We care for your needs so we choose only the best to work with us.

The best florists therefore have a Preferred Florist List, developed over years of experience and tens of thousands of long distance floral delivery, that allows us to choose exemplary florists nationwide to make your flower-ordering easy as one two three.

Our preferred florist list includes the best of the best, most professional florists in the country. We've developed relationships with these florists for many years and we can personally guarantee that they are top-quality. The shops included in our Preferred Florist List have a big following, have a wide selection of flowers and they diligently rotate for supreme flower freshness.

When you call a florist you found on the internet, the shop is aware that you might be in another state and most probably won't be able to see the flowers. This is why we tell people to Trust their Feelings to Us. The members or a Preferred Florist List are guaranteed to take all your needs into consideration. They follow the strictest and highest quality standards as well as timely delivery of the freshest flowers, and have been tested many times in the past.

A professional florists also knows the concerns of our consumers. They start by helping you through the process of deciding what you want. They guide you along as you choose the perfect arrangement suited for your budget. Being a real florists, they have a good idea of which flowers go best with what, what types and colors of flowers work well for a particular occasion, how much they are and what flowers are in season. Most importantly, however, they will have a keen sense of the feelings and emotions you might want to convey through the flowers.

The Preferred Florist List allows them to come up with the best florist that can help you select the floral arrangement that can truly express your deepest emotions. Indeed, this sort of service isn't just something you can simply get out from picking out a florist from an online floral directory or the yellow pages.

Their employees also should undergo extensive training in flower and floral arrangement their our own flower shop. All inquiries and orders are handled through them. Their shop can be considered a haven in this busy world of hours, with its bright, cheerful environment and friendly assistants to answer your concerns.

They know every floral order to be an important emotional statement, and should proud of the exemplary service they give, using the "Golden Preferred Florist List".

They only want the best for your customers so they constantly strive to make their services more efficient and your experience easier and more comfortable. They should have round the clock customer service to serve you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And also offer money-back guarantees and unconditional replacements.

Their interest lies in finding out how they can serve our clients in the best way possible. Our aim is to expand their reputation as the best floral service, one satisfied customer at a time.

Jonathon Boundy is the webmaster for inbloom flowers online - an internet marketer of flowers and promoter of the popular website http://www.inbloom.com

The Essentials of Good Customer Service

For some people, customer service seems to be an insurmountable job. For Filipinos working as contact center agents, however, customer service easily becomes second nature. This is because the culture of Filipinos is generally hospitable and they treat visitors (or customers) with utmost respect and with the best treatment that they can.

The following principles are usually followed by contact center agents in the Philippines whether they are talking with fellow Filipinos or customers located in other countries.

Getting the name and the account number of the customer is of utmost importance so that the personal touch can be established easily. By calling the customer by name, the agent is able to establish rapport with the customer, making him more comfortable in talking about the problems that they may have. Technical problems do occur in phone conversations so it is also a good idea to ask for the number of the customer if no caller id is available so that the agent can call the customer back in case of a cut line.

Contact center agents also provide their names to the customers they are talking to so that they know who the person they are talking to. This also enhances the accountability and responsibility of the agent serving the customer.

Apology is given for any inconvenience experienced by the customer. Sincerity is important, however. Without it, we do apologize line becomes nothing more than just a scripted attempt to appease and patronize the customer. When a contact center agent says sorry, he had better mean it because the customer can detect an insincere apology.

When a customer reports a problem, the contact center agent should be able to ask the right questions to provide a good diagnosis of the problem and the right solutions could be put forward. The agent should also repeat the problem or query of the customer to ensure that he has understood the concerns of the customer.

Before hanging up, the problem of the customer should be solved; otherwise the customer service process has not been given adequately to the customer. The easiest and simplest solutions should be provided first to the customer. If that does not work, then alternative solutions should be put forward to the customer until everything shall have been covered.

The contact center should always remember to extend courtesy and politeness to the customer no matter what the mood of the customer is. If a customer is difficult to deal with, it is very easy to be frustrated and lash out at the customer. The agent might not openly curse or berate the customer but the tone of the voice and the words used will betray the true feelings he has. The key to this would be to smile often. Even if nobody is seeing the agent, a smile on the face translates to the smile at the voice. With such amiable personality, the complaints of the customer will be defused. So even if the customer is annoying, contact center agents should keep in mind that it is them who make it possible for contact center agents to have their jobs.

Contact centers in the Philippines make use of the strengths of their agents. Through these, they are able to make waves in the offshore contact center business.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Virtual Call Centers vs. Philippine Call Centers

Due to the increasing popularity of home-based jobs, there is a new breed of call center agents that do not have call centers. These agents work in the comfort of their homes, sometimes even inside their bedrooms, accepting calls from callers from the United States and sometimes elsewhere all over the world.

This works best for the agents. After all, they get to manage their own time, they do not have to go to an office since all work is done at the comfort of their home. They do not have to drive to work or suffer the rigors of commuting.

On the part of the company employing them, there are also obvious benefits. They do not have to purchase new computers, phone lines, and other kinds of equipment needed for the additional employee. In addition to that, they can do away with extra paper work and relational issues that may be present at the workplace. The company also generates savings because the home-based employee will not consume electricity, as well as other consumables in the office.

Before companies, however, decide to hire a home-based call center agents, there should be a thorough assessment of the impacts and the adverse effects of making such a move, especially in the workflow, in supervision, and in monitoring calls, and the employees as well.

Call centers in the Philippines have made significant progress in the area of monitoring their employees and ensuring that their call center agents are performing according to the standards of the company and based on the service level agreement that they have entered into with the company that secured their services.

Virtual call center agents may generate savings, but monitoring their attendance, the quality of their service, and the security of the information that passes through them may be compromised. Security particularly is an important concern in the call centers. If information leaks outside the call centers premises and servers, then this poses a risk on the part of the customers calling the customer service number as well as to the company employing such virtual call center agents. Apparently, such danger is not present in the Philippine call centers.

Philippine call centers have proven their worth since they first made their appearance in the country. They have been consistent in meeting their targets, as well as the agreements they entered into, whether this be in terms of sales, service, and technical support. Increasingly, there are also call centers now catering to English learners online and through the phone.

Virtual call centers are still a novelty at this stage. In the future, the issues faced by such kind of call centers may be addressed and the process will be improved. As technology continues to develop, such arrangement may even be implemented in the Philippines. However, at this stage, given the needs of companies all over the world and the demands of the call center industry in general, call centers with physical buildings and actual offices are still the best choice.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Philippine Call Center Prospects for Growth

The Call Centers in the Philippines and the entire Outsourcing industry has very good prospects in the next few years. In fact, the outsourcing industry has been considered as the sunshine industry in the whole Philippines. This trend will continue as multinational corporations and even small and medium enterprises in the United States and other countries of the world outsource basic services to the Philippines.

One of the reasons why these companies continue to use the services of Philippine companies is the obvious advantage of the huge number of English-speaking young professionals in the country. The Philippines enjoy a high level of literacy and University education is popular among youth in the country. The technological infrastructure in the country is also sufficient for the needs and purposes of the companies that outsource their business processes in the Philippines.

Relatively, if a call center is operated in the Philippines instead of in the home country of the company, the cost savings generated in the labor alone would amount to fifty percent! This is a very big amount of savings, which could help companies in prioritizing their spending in the most optimum way. This is one of the strongest points in the operations of offshore call centers in the Philippines. Services offered by call centers in the Philippines include technical support, customer service, lead generation and sales, the integration of business to business operations, as well as telemarketing. The staff of Philippine call centers are dedicated and focused to achieve the service level agreed upon by the Philippine call center and the foreign company using their services.

If a call center becomes located in a city in the provinces north or south of Metro Manila, there are also more savings generated because living allowance in the provinces is definitely cheaper than in Metro Manila. This trend was even bolstered by the support of the government through the establishment of special economic zones, which minimizes the taxes of call centers.

For the year 2007, the outsourcing industry in the Philippines is expected to rake in 12 billion US dollars in revenues. This is definitely a great improvement from the $8.4 billion revenues in 2004. As the industry becomes more mature and more players enter the market, the share of Philippine call centers in the outsourcing industry will even become greater. As such, by the year 2010, less than 300,000 jobs shall have been created.

The Philippines is competing with India in the top spot for the destination of choice of call centers and other offshore outsourcing services. Yet, as the business trends continue to become more dynamic, in the near future, more outsourcing deals will be struck up with businesses from the United States, Australia, United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries. Such trend works two ways. It will benefit the Philippines because there will be more jobs and the boom in the industry will contribute to economic development. On the other hand, Philippine call centers will be able to contribute more to the efforts of companies and organizations to save costs while at the same time delivering excellent and quality service to their customers.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

The Call Center Industry in the Philippines

Due to the cheaper labor costs in the Philippines, it is considered as a preferred business location for call centers and other business process outsourcing companies all over the world. In fact, since year 2000, the call center industry has been growing very fast in the Philippines, mirroring the global trend in the growth of contact centers all over the world.
The Board of Investments of the Philippines has put the growth rate of the call center sector to 100 percent per year since the year 2000. According to the Asian Call Center Review, in the year 2003, the Philipppines had 72 call centers, which was greater than the number in India during that time.

Right now, around 250,000 people are working in BPO companies all over the Philippines. Although the concentration of call center offices are in Metro Manila, the trend is now spilling over to major cities all over the country such as Davao, Cebu, and Baguio. The cost of labor in the cities in the provinces is even cheaper compared to that in Metro Manila because of lower standards of living. As such, when call centers are located in these cities, BPO companies are able to derive more cost savings.

The revenues generated by the call centers in the Philippines in the year 2006 are estimated to be at around 3.8 billion US dollars. This shows a tremendous growth compared to 24 million US dollars in the year 2000. The government of the Philippines is expecting to target half of the world market share in call center services by the end of 2008. As such, the government is stimulating investments in the call center sector, thereby providing every support it can give just so the industry will become more dynamic and responsive to the changing needs of the market. The support of the government to this industry is crucial as it contributes 12 percent of the total Gross National Product, thus helping the county sustain its economic development goals and financial targets year after year.

This boom in the call center industry is powered by the good English skills of Filipinos. Most of the employees working at call centers are usually fresh from college. Through the call centers, young professionals in the Philippines can start developing their careers and contribute to the development of the Philippines. The industry helps the country curb its unemployment rate while young professionals find a way for them to achieve upward mobility.

The call center industry is indeed a very dynamic sector in the economy of the Philippines. Not only that, because of the proven effectiveness of these call centers and the customer service skills of Filipinos born out of their hospitality, it is expected that the industry will grow in the next few years. Most probably, by the year 2010, the revenues generated from the industry shall have reached 12 billion US dollars with a million Filipinos working for call centers across the nation. Since the skills of Filipinos in ICT, including their English skills, are still one of the best all over the world, this trend in the industry will continue unabated in the next few years.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

The 5 W's of World Class Customer Service Training

The preamble to the United States Constitution begins, 'We, the people.' I feel strongly that we, the people, are what make the difference in life, both personally and professionally.

The interaction anyone has at any level with your company, your employees, including you, gives a customer-- whether current, potential, or internal or external--an opportunity to make a judgment about you, your company, all companies like yours in the industry.

With continued focus on customer satisfaction, customer retention, and lifetime value of the customer, it is no surprise that contact center operations continue to increase in importance as the primary hub of a customer's experience. For the customer, the person on the other end of the phone is the company. The contact center is still the most common way that customers get in touch with businesses. In fact, Gartner reports 92% of all contact is still through the center. And its been reported that 70% to 90% of what happens with customers is driven by human nature, having nothing to do with technology. State of the art technology is certainly a necessity today, but it is meant to enable human endeavors, not to disable them.

I often talk about taking customer service and kicking it up a notch. In the food industry, the word lagniappe is often used. Its definition is a small present given to a customer with a purchase. For example, when you go to the bakery and buy a dozen donuts or bagels, you oftentimes get a free one or a baker's dozen. That is what customer service should be about--giving the customer more than they expect! Let us bring lagniappe into the contact center.

If were going to speak about world class customer service, Here's my working definition so were all on the same page.

Customer service is those activities provided by a company's employees that enhance the ability of a customer to realize the full potential value of a product or service before and after the sale is made, thereby leading to satisfaction and repurchase.

Let's look at the first W which is Why?

The state of customer service today is not good, be it over the phone or self service. Because 92% of people feel their call experience is important in shaping the image of a company, this reinforces the importance of branding the image of your companies.

In a Mobius Management Systems Survey, here's what happened because of poor customer service:

60% cancelled accounts with banks
36% changed insurance providers
40% changed telephone companies
35% changed credit card providers
375 changed Internet service providers

Are you one of these statistics? I certainly am.

In a study done by Purdue University/BenchmarkPortal, in answer to (1) how did agents satisfy your needs and handle the call, and (2) based on any negative experience, would you stop using this company in the future? the findings reveal a strong correlation between the participants age and the tendency to stop using the company after a bad experience.

What does this mean? Younger participants were less tolerant and more likely to move to the competition. People over 65 were found to be more demanding than those in middle age.

What can you do? Give younger callers a wow experience--maintain their loyalty. People over 36 probably have more of an emotional bank account with the company they are dealing with. Maybe they had some good experiences and therefore are more willing to forgive.

In a recent study (CRM Magazine/PeopleSoft Web Seminar on How Usability Helps to Drive a Profitable Contact Center), the number of applications required for agents to access customer inquiries were:

3.7% just 1
81.5% 2 to 5
7.4% 5 to 10
7.4% more than 10

As you can see, the majority of applications are 2 to 5. The goal? Link every point of contact to one central location for a customer-centric, synchronized approach satisfying customer experiences with every interaction.

It's important to point out that today's pressures on employees are different than in the past. They are asked to handle more customers, more volume, more complex and/or complicated calls. After all if we could handle our issues with self service, we probably would not call. But if we tried self service and it didn't work, then were upset and its an escalated call from the get go.

They are also asked to provide more information, do it faster and be available and accessible. But they also are tasked with lowering costs, generating revenue, incorporating new technologies, ensuring closure and commitment, delivering great service and when? Yesterday, of course.

The #2 W is Who should receive customer service skills training?

We encourage front line agents/representatives, supervisors, team leads, senior reps, managers, assistant managers, internal customers and other departments--anyone who is a touch point so that they can learn to speak the same language, and more importantly, not be in an adversarial position, but rather, together serve the external customer or end user.

The #3 W is Where should the training take place? Offsite vs. onsite has advantages and disadvantages for each. Certainly it is most cost effective to have training on site. However, distractions are rampant as is the participant's availability to a manager or project

Offsite is more costly. However, there are no distractions and the participants are not available to other departments, managers, or any issues. I further believe there is psychic value in taking people away from their work stations and off site to acknowledge the tough jobs they have.

The #4 W is What should be included in any training? The following modules provide a robust, powerful, and succinct training curriculum:

Quality Customer Service
Rapport Building
Customer Expectations
Language Skills
Perception Shifting
Conflict Resolution
Anger Management
E-Mail Protocol
Stress Reduction
Empathetic Responsiveness
Change Management
Communication and Listening Skills
Interaction/Role Play
Service with a Smile

Further suggested is university certification to up the ante. Ultimately, the more professionally you treat your employees, the more professionally they will treat your customers.

The #5 W is When. We urge training not only for new hires but monthly, ongoingly, consistently, whenever change occurs, when stressors increase, and as needed.

We further recommend that each employee receive a minimum of 24 hours per year of ongoing training, spread over time for the most optimal absorption/retention. We deliver our trainings in two four hour sessions per day and deliver 6 days per employee. If there has been no ongoing training, we do four sessions once a month for four months and then one three months later, and then another three months later. Or, every other month providing sessions for the entire 12 month period. All training is customized, in real time, and can address whatever challenges are presented when they occur.

Together we can raise the bar in the area of world class customer service. Take great care of your employees and they will take great care of your customers. Everyone wins.

Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D., customer service expert, provides needs analyses, customer service training; authors Wake Up Your Call Center, Customer Service & the Human Experience, Lay Your Cards on the Table, Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch; a tips newsletter at http://www.HumanTechTips.com

Performance of Call Centers

Call centers in the Philippines are always on the go in ensuring that they deliver excellent performance. This has led to the tremendous growth of the call center industry in the Philippines. In fact, the Philippines is now considered as the destination of choice of offshore call centers all over the world. This is not only because of the cheaper labor costs but also because of the excellent English and ICT skills of the labor force of the Philippines.

Filipino call center agents possess strong potentials in delivering excellent customer service. Such potentials, however, need to be augmented by training and by effective monitoring of the performance of individual call center agents, as well as that of the whole call center. To enable call center managements in the Philippines to do this, several factors have been identified for monitoring.

One of such factors is the time spent by a caller on the queue. If the number of callers at any given time is greater than the number of call center agents, then there will be a queue. If a caller spends a long time in the queue, there is a big chance that he will drop the call and be irate the next time he calls. The number of calls dropped while on the queue also contributes negatively to the level of service of the call center. The service level percentage (SL%) refers to the percentage of calls at any given time such as a day, week, or month.

Call center agents are also monitored for the time they spend in addressing the customers concern. This is usually called the average handling time (AHT), which includes the length of time spent in talking with the client (average talk time or ATT), the time spent for wrap-up such as sending requests for back-office support and the time that the customer was put on hold.

To effectively monitor the workload that an agent can handle, the number of calls per hour is also monitored. There are also times that the call center agent is not answering calls. This is when he is doing some After Call Work (ACW) encoding comments and sending requests or when he is on a restroom break. First Call Resolution is the aim of call centers for most calls that they receive. If this were done, then it means that customers become more satisfied with the service that they receive.

The metrics mentioned above are regularly monitored by call center management since they provide an indication of the level of service being given by the call center. In addition, the quality of the calls is also ensured through the Quality Assurance (QA) Team. Call center agents are supposed to display good attitude at work according to prescribed company code of conduct. In some instances, there are also spiels that agents have to follow. If they deviate from the prescribed conduct or if they intentionally say anything that insults or abuses a customer on the phone, then the quality of their call will be assessed negatively. The aim of Philippine call centers is excellent performance and happy customers.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Telemarketing and Philippine Call Centers

More and more Filipinos are going to other countries to look for work and earn for themselves and for their families. It is estimated that around eight million Filipinos are abroad. However, due to the increasing popularity of outsourcing and the Call Center industry in the Philippines, more young professionals are choosing to work in the Philippines and be with their loved ones. One of the tasks that Filipino call centers do is telemarketing. In fact, when the call center industry was starting out in the Philippines, most of the call centers then were engaged in telemarketing.
The primary task of telemarketing is to promote a product or a new promo through the phone to prospective buyers of the product or service. In some instances, telemarketing also involves web conferencing if the customer agrees to do so. In some instances, telemarketing is done through the music or voice over being played while a person is waiting for a phone operator to become available.

Generally speaking, telemarketing can either be directed to businesses or to consumers. In any given call center, there are different purposes why an agent would call a prospective customer. One of these is lead generation, which is simply another term for gathering information that will be relevant to the company and to the product or service being sold. This is a tricky task, however, since there are customers who are very much concerned with their privacy. Nonetheless, Philippine call centers have taken pains to study the privacy regulations and precautions of the countries that they provide service to.

Another aspect of telemarketing that Philippine call centers engage in is sales. Filipino call center agents are chosen from a pool of qualified applicants, a lot of them are newly graduates from universities and colleges all over the Philippines who are eager to start on their career paths. When they have undergone the accent and the training and the call center training, they are also trained in the process of closing sales that are legitimate and that will truly answer the needs of customers.

Some of the calls made by Filipino call center agents are outbound. They call prospective customers who have already indicated some interest in certain products and services and they call to follow up on those interests. On top of that, there are also inbound telemarketing sales. Usually, inbound calls are received in response to some advertisement or marketing campaigns launched by the company. These campaigns usually take the form of take-one brochures at public stations or brochures handed out by marketing agents. Inbound calls tend to be easier to handle because most customers are decidedly interested in purchasing the product or service being offered by the company.

Since the boom of the call center industry in the Philippines, a number of companies and organizations worldwide have contacted the services of Philippine call centers for their telemarketing needs. The Philippines has already captured 20% of the call center market in the world and it is expected to grow in the next few years because of the preference being given to the Philippines by companies outsourcing their telemarketing needs

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Technical Tools for Philippine Call Centers

In the quest to effectively manage calls, maximize the workload of call center agents, and the desire to help customers solve their issues and concerns, several technical tools and refinements have been devised by call centers in the Philippines. These tools serve the agents, as well as the management in dealing with the thousands of calls being routed to the call centers on a daily basis.

Philippine call centers are now using software that predicts the length of time that an agent spends in helping a customer. For outbound calls, the system then makes a call even before the agent completes the call. This way, another customer will be served right after the agent concludes the call with a customer. The logic behind this Predictive Dialing is that not every call made will be connected. Some lines will be busy, some calls will not be answered, and still others will be disconnected. By dialing more calls than the number of agents, predictive dialing software makes provision for the calls that are dropped along the way.

Credit card holders enjoy different features and level of service. As such, when Platinum card holders make a call, they are automatically sent to agents specializing in the Platinum card. This example illustrates that call centers in the Philippines do use prioritization of their calls. This is accomplished through the IVR or through the number dialed by the elite customer. Those who are also calling for the second time after abandoning a call are put on the priority of call queue.

In addition to this, call center management in the Philippines, are increasingly recognizing the importance of specialized agents. In any given account, there are different levels of service that should be provided, and there are different expertise called for depending on the nature of the call. As such, the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) has been designed. Through this system, callers are able to choose from a set of menu what kind of service they are looking for. Depending on the choice they make, they will be routed automatically to the department or agent that can best help them. For simple queries and tasks, customers are sent to generalists who lack in-depth training on different aspects of a product. But if their concern is a little too difficult for a generalist, the customer is routed to a different person.

Lastly, telephone and computer software have been integrated so that the computer program is able to detect the number input by the caller on the telephone and determine if the customer has entered the correct PIN. This way, service can proceed immediately, thereby contributing to more efficiency and effectiveness. This also helps lower the average talk time and average handling time of the agent.

These tools for call centers have been designed to help customers and agents to enjoy the best service there is. For agents, however, these tools can only do so much and there is still no substitute for genuine and honest concern and willingness to help the customer.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

What is a Call Center?

When you call queries about any product such as soap, food, or when you want to check your phone or credit card balance or even make a complaint about a service you received, your call will be directed to a contact center, which most likely will be located in the Philippines or another country providing such kind of services. But what are call centers really?

To put it simply, a call center is a place that houses a number of employees for the purpose of providing customer service over the phone. The services the employees provide may be trouble shooting product problems or addressing complaints and grievances or simply answering questions about products and services.

A call center is established by a company essentially to provide different kinds of support and give important information to their customers concerning the companys products and services. There are different kinds of calls being made or received in a call center. Outgoing calls are usually made for the purposes of marketing products and services over the phone. In addition, the collection of credit card and other types of debts are also made in a call center.

A call center may house, not only phone customer service officers. When the center also employs people who take charge of responding to letters via snail mail and email as well as with faxes, then it is called a contact center.

When you visit a call center office, you will see a wide space inside the building filled with computers and workstations divided into cubicles. Each cubicle has a telephone and desktop computer. The agent working in each cubicle is armed with the usual headset and microphone connected to the phone. The phone is in turn connected to the computer as the phone also generates important data that will help the agent perform his or her job. The phones and the computers are connected in a network. Thankfully, computer telephony integration technology has been developed. This technology puts together the best in telephone systems and the computer.

The call center is usually equipped with state of the art computer access and high-speed internet bundled with a phone line so that calls made in the home country are routed to a different country.
Increasingly, large businesses are no longer the only ones outsourcing their call centers. A number of medium-scale and even small-scale businesses are offshoring their call center services for the purposes of cost savings.

Usually, call center operations are centralized in order for the company to maximize its performance and generate labor cost savings. By centralizing operations, the business is also able to ensure that standards are followed and the processes followed for each customer are the same across the board.
To ensure that the level of customer service is excellent, quality control is established for call centers. This is also a way of ensuring that contact center agents are doing their job according to what has been agreed upon. Given the obvious benefits of offshoring contact center operations, more and more companies are outsourcing call centers to the Philippines.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Training Contact Center Agents for Good Customer Service

There are a huge number of frustrated customers in the world today. Granted that there are power interruptions, unavoidable circumstances, and even terrorism and sabotage these may compromise the delivery of services promised to the customers. What is inexcusable, however, is when customer service fails to deliver! Instead of helping customers deal with their issues, they might become even more irate because of the customer service that they receive.

Customer service, which comes in different forms and settings, is very important for any company. It may be in the way that customers receive smiles in a store, or the way that they are treated on the phone. It might even be as simple as providing relevant information when they are shopping. It might be a little easier to provide customer service face to face. On the phone, however, things may become a little more difficult. For one, there is neither eye contact nor body language to be read; there are also no visual clues as to the real state of mind of the customer. Instead, the contact center agent answering the phone has to depend solely on verbal clues that the customer may present.

In this regard, contact center agents should be trained effectively in dealing with customers that are calling in with their concerns and complaints. What then, makes good customer service training?

The vision, mission and goals of the company being served should be inculcated well in every contact center agent. If this were done, every contact center agent will know the reasons for existence of the company, why they are serving customers and how their service works. When these become owned by the contact center agent, then their loyalty to the company will be better and they will deal with every customer with care and concern.

They say that intention should always come with capability. Even with the best of intentions, a contact center agent may not be able to deliver excellent customer service. Why? The simple reason is that he may not be equipped to provide such customer service. When this is the case, no matter how willing an agent might be to provide good customer service, he simply could not. Even if he is willing, if he is not able to successfully navigate through complex computer programs or understand the nitty-gritty details of the customers needs, then good intentions will amount to nothing.

This is why the technical aspect of excellent customer service should be taught to contact center agents. This includes the manipulation and effective use of the computer and the Internet. The nature of the business as well as the service being provided should also be known by the contact center agent be heart and by mind. Such knowledge and skills should complement with the intention of the agent to provide excellent customer service.

If you are looking for a place where contact center agents provide excellent service and if you want your customers to be satisfied with the level of service they receive, then you should consider contact centers in the Philippines. Filipino contact centers are not only teachable, they also have the intention of providing help to customers whenever and wherever they can.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Irate Customers and Contact Centers

There are a number of reasons why customers who call contact centers become irate. The number one reason of course is dissatisfaction with the product or service that they receive. But these problems may be easily remedied with good customer service. Without these, the customer may transform into a phone monster because of a rude phone officer or because of inappropriate handling.

Customer service officers from the Philippines have been dealing with a number of irate customers since contact centers became popular. Hence, the contact center agents have put forward several suggestions as to the proper way of dealing with irate customers while at the same time helping them with whatever concerns that they may have.

The foremost rule to remember is to always be cool even in the face of an irate customer. By showing that the situation is manageable, the contact center agent shows confidence. This confidence will also be a way of saying to the customer that everything is under control. If the agent suddenly goes into panic mode and starts speaking very quickly, out of sync, the customer will also know that the agent does not know what to do. The initial response would be to request for a supervisor or anyone who is able to deal with the situation.

Also, contact center agents need to possess the ability to look past the negative words and shouts of the customer and cut through to the issue at hand. Is it a matter of bad product or a difficulty? Is it because of a promise made and not fulfilled by another customer service officer? There may be sometimes that the customer is wrong. However, the agent should be willing to do everything in his power to help the customer no matter how obnoxious he or she may be.

There should also be a way for customers to talk to and contact customer service. For call center agents in the Philippines, they do not seek to be elusive. Although some contact center agents may claim that they are located in the country of their clients. However, if this is not true, why claim it to be so? It would only complicate matters. Being elusive is not a good sign of customer service. If a company becomes elusive, then customers may even suspect that something fishy is going on.

Contact center agents in the Philippines also embark in an effort to look at the specific aspects of a complaint. A complaint can never be solved unless the customer service officer can look at the needs of the customer and suggest different ways of dealing with it. This also calls for clear language and without the confusing words so often used in sales and marketing.
In resolving complaints, it is necessarily for customer service agents to ask probing questions and make the complainant talk about their experience. There is no other way in understanding the customers complaints. After such reasons shall have been understood, then the contact center agent can proceed in enumerating possible solutions to the problem.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Getting Value for Your Money: Freelancer or Affiliate Company

Outsourcing has changed the landscape of business all over the world. Through the Internet, it is now easier to get a freelancer or an affiliate company abroad to fulfill the different needs of your company from writing marketing copies, creating company logos or the actual website of the company.

You just need to make a choice between a freelancer and an affiliate company to do the jobs you need. Affiliate companies are usually located overseas and tend to be composed of at least five employees. You do not blindly choose between the two. There are several considerations you have to think through before awarding the project to a freelancer or an affiliate company.

Determine your budget
Before contacting freelancers or affiliate companies who can work on your project, you need to determine how much budget you have as this may make an impact on whether it is best for you to contact a freelancer. The benefit of hiring a freelancer is that he usually works by himself and because of this the price may be negotiated through the interview and the negotiation phase. Affiliate companies, on the other hand, have more costs to think about as compared with freelancers. They will have to pay their staff as well as the other fixed costs they will entail.

The drawback in hiring a freelancer, however, is the possibility of delays and late submissions. If this happens, then the schedule of the project will be severely affected. Affiliate companies, however, offer stability and may assign more than one contractor to work on your project.

Resources Needed
Another important consideration is the resources that may be needed for your project. Will your contractors be telecommuting or will they need to work on site? For on site kinds of job, an affiliate company would be more reliable because of their capability to assign more than one personnel to work on your project. A freelancer on the other hand may be more flexible in terms of visiting the site, especially, if the project becomes his priority.

Establish the Kinds of Skills Needed for the Project
In determining the nature of the project, the list of skills also needs to be listed down so that the contractor will be able to fulfill every requirements of the project. If an affiliate company will be contacted, they will be able to offer a wider range of skills and expertise while a freelancer may only offer a limited range of skills. This is one of the limitations of a freelancer. Furthermore, if the freelancer that you will contact is highly skilled and is capable to deal with a greater degree of complexity and problems, chances are his rates will also be more expensive.

Other Considerations
Technical skills, however, are only half of the picture. Another thing needed is the sensitivity and flexibility of your chosen contractor in completing your requirements. Without such flexibility, it might be more difficult for you to maximize the skills of the freelancer. Also, an affiliate company can be more easily traced and made accountable. You just need to ensure that the affiliate company or the freelancer that you will contact has good track record.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Honesty and Good Phone Customer Service

Customer service on the phone is more challenging than a face to face encounter. Whenever a customer feels unhappy about the product or the service being provided to him, the only clue that the phone officer will get would be the tone of the voice of the customer and the words that he uses. If the phone officer does not listen well, the customer will remain angry and might never use the product or the service again.

Although there are regional accents and language and cultural barriers that have to be surmounted, customer service officers on the phone from the Philippines as well as from other parts of the world would do well to listen to the following tips and advice. Honesty is still the best policy.

It is very easy to make promises on the phone. It is also easy to deceive the customers into the best option there is for the sake of gaining financial or social advantage. However, if there is no honesty, then soon enough, the customer will find out about it and they will be very unhappy with the service.

In troubleshooting problems such as rebooking of flights or hotel accommodation, incorrect credit card finance charge, customer service officers on the phone should not make promises they could not keep. If a promise to call back has been made then it should be done because customers will be expecting that. Otherwise, it will only create more damage than what has already been done.

If a customers request cannot be done, he should know that and the customer service officer should look for other alternative, which would be acceptable to the customer. That is how honesty works, it puts both parties on a level footing and they would know what to expect from each other. That way, there will be lesser phone calls and lesser headaches and ulcers. Tend to each customer and do not pass them from department to department.

Weve all experienced it before sitting on a couch with the phone on our ears waiting for what seemed like eternity before a phone officer answers. But when somebody answers, we are told we have to be transferred to another department and the cycle begins all over again.

On the part of phone officers, they have to ask the customers first about the nature of their inquiry and pass them directly to a person who can help them. Transferring them from department to department would be time-consuming and irritating. On the other hand, customers should also be careful with the number options that they press so that they could go directly to the department that can answer their queries. This will save time and energy for both parties.

Phone customer service is tough. No doubt about it. But given honesty and sensitivity, it will become an enriching experience for both the customer and the company. Without both, then a meaningful relationship cannot be established and a cycle of discontent and complaints will just be in place.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

The Truth About Call Centers

Even though call centers are helping developing countries such as the Philippines stay competitive in the global economy, there have been a lot of criticisms directed against call centers in general. Critics say that the work atmosphere of call centers tends to dehumanize the employees. This is because the employees have to work on graveyard shift in servicing clients overseas, particularly in the United States. In this case, call center agents in the Philippines has to stay up from 8 pm to 5am to deal with the 12-hour time difference with the United States. They say that such work situation provides health and safety hazards for those working so late.

To deal with the transportation issue late at night, call centers have instituted a kind of shuttle service where people can go to and be transported to the call center office. This way, safety hazards are minimized. For Westerners, the salary level given to call center agents may seem small. However, in the standards of the country such as the Philippines, such rates are considered as one of the highest starting salaries in the market. In fact, a lot of young professionals are opting to work for call centers while finishing their masters degrees.

Although call centers in the Philippines are strict with time, the time of agents in the toilet is respected to prevent them from contracting any disease. Moreover, they are provided with medical insurance so that in case of illnesses, they can easily be treated.

Another criticism concerns the level of salary being given to call center agents. The amount of money being paid to them is not enough to cover the hazards they have to face. Another issue is the way in which the time of the agents in going to the toilets is limited. In some cases, agents spend 15-minute breaks once in the morning and once in the afternoon and the total time that they can spend in going to the toilet is 10 minutes for the whole day. In worst cases, the agents might develop some kidney trouble if they are not given enough time in the toilets.

Customers have also complained regarding the level of proficiency of call center agents. They say that some of the agents are not very helpful with their concerns and that they tend to lack the technical skill and knowledge in helping them out. What is even alarming is that some agents appear to be apathetic in the face of very irate customers.

Call centers in the Philippines recognize these criticisms directed against call centers. As such, what they do is to ensure that their agents are remunerated well. They are provided with hazard pay and transportation allowance to deal with the graveyard shift. In fact, in most call centers in the Philippines there are sleeping quarters where agents can rest and refresh themselves before or after their shifts.

Employee development programs are also instituted in the Philippine call centers so that the agents do not remain where they are. Refresher trainings are provided to them, and time for recreation is also provided to ensure that there is a good work-life balance in the lives of call center agents. The job is stressful at times and recreation is needed so that the agents sensitivity to the customers is at par with company expectations.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Fixing The Gap So That You And The Customer Wins!

The CMO Council is promoting their newest research findings - a report entitled "Profitability from Customer Affinity".

In an email promotion, they start the document with this finding from the research: "56% of vendors view themselves as being extremely customer-centric, but only 12% of customers agree. Despite an increased focus on customer engagement, most B2B technology companies continue to fall short of meeting customer expectations and commitments."

What a gap!

The various business gaps are all too often taken for granted.

There is a gap between sales and marketing. This shows up as all those leads generated by marketing have a checked pattern of concise follow up.

In the trade show world, there is a statistic that 80% of trade shows leads are never followed up.

Many marketing departments just waste their precious dollars with little or no results demonstrated.

Why? The biggest reason is the lack of accountability within an organization.

Some one who is at the top of the organization should be asking the tough questions.

Your department - marketing - spent so much on these lead generation activities - what is the return on that investment?

If your management is not asking the questions, possibly you can start creating the metrics to show them what happen (the good, the bad and the ugly) on the last marketing campaign.

It is OK to test some ideas to see if they work.

Maybe you want to get into a new market space, so you try a few things to see if it generated any interest.

Afterwards you: Analyze - Learn - Improve

It is a constant process of reviewing the results to see if they were good enough and then what can you do that would improve the next campaign.

Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch in his blog posting on December 7, 2006 - has said so well what should take place:

"The gap between generating a high quality, ideal lead and that lead becoming a client requires harmony between sales and marketing and the joint development of an ideal client profile, core marketing message based on customer input, and the education based tools required to nurture a lead along an evolving, logical path to becoming a converted lead or client.

There is no money in us and them, sales and marketing. Get the sales folks, the marketing folks and a handful of ideal clients in a room for a day and figure out what really makes each one tick."

This is the best first step to fix the gap.

WOW - what a novel idea - listening to the customer.

For 25 years Joyce McKee has helped companies succeed in the trade show and event world. Keep up with the latest trends her new site at http://www.letstalktradeshows.com

Technology and Organization of Call Centers

Contact centers do not only use the computer and the telephone in conducting their day-to-day affairs. Rather, they make use different technologies in ensuring that the customers enjoy the best kind of service there is. For example, the computer and the telephone has to be integrated, hence, there should be a program handling that. In addition, the options available when a customer calls a number have to be programmed through the interactive voice response system.

These technologies make it easier for both customers and customer service officers deal with their tasks. The patents to the technologies being used in different call centers have been licensed to a number of companies worldwide such as Citigroup, Convergys, AT&T, and IBM among others.

There are essentially two types of calls in contact centers. The first one is inbound, which means that customers call the number of the customer service of the company. This is usually done by the customer to report any problem, to report any untoward incident regarding the product or service, to request for information such as balance, or generally to ask for help regarding the product or service.

The second type of calls in contact centers are outbound, which means that the call center agents make the calls to the customers for the purpose of informing the customers about latest promotions and products and services being offered. The primary intention is to sell these products and services.

Call centers in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world are organized into different levels to handle customer concerns according to their complexities and difficulties. The first level usually consists of operators who talk to the customers, ask them about their concerns and transfer them to the appropriate department. In most cases, operators are able to provide the most basic information and help the customers with concerns with minimum complexity.

If the first level agent is not able to resolve the concern of the customer, then the latter is directed to a second-level agent with a higher level of technical proficiency and knowledge. Most issues can be resolved at this level. If, for some reasons, however, the problem is not yet resolved, a third level still exists for highly technical matters such as product engineers, developers and technical support agents.

In the case of customer service, however, there are also supervisors standing by at the floor to deal with customers that complain about the products and services. In addition to a complaints team that specifically deals with difficult issues, the supervisors on the floor can provide assistance to first level customer service agents that may be having difficulty in resolving the issues of the customers.

Through this efficient manner of organization, contact centers maximize the technologies available to them in dealing with the concerns of the customers. Phone and computer integration are very important in customer service so that all the systems work smoothly for the customer. This is the model being followed by call centers in the Philippines. Through the integration of technology and the provision of excellent customer service, they help customers all over the world make use of their products more effectively.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Contact Centers and the Philippines

The Philippines has been one of the favorite destinations of companies all over the world to provide contact center services. And why not, contact centers in the Philippines have proven that it has the capacity to deliver excellent customer service and maintaining the level of service agreed upon by the contact center company and its clients. Whether in the area of sales, customer service, technical support and other kinds outsourced customer service, the Philippines is a booming destination for companies in the United States, Australia and Europe for outsourcing customer service support.

The contact center companies, however, are only as good as their contact center agents. Having been under the tutelage of the United States for more than fifty years, the Philippines can easily adapt to the cultures of different nations, particularly English-speaking nations. Its citizens can readily speak English. While, training might be needed to deal with problems with accent and pronunciation, Filipinos can easily adapt culturally to Americans, as well as other nationalities.

In addition to this, the Philippine government has expressed its support to the contact center industry and outsourcing in general. Hence, it has created special economic zones to cater to call center companies servicing companies abroad. Depending on the area chosen by the contact center companies, they may enjoy tax breaks as well as favorable treatment by the government.

The labor in the Philippines is also cheap. By deciding to outsource customer service, companies can generate thousands and thousands of savings on labor costs. If the contact center is located in the Philippines, savings generated in labor costs would be great considering that Filipino contact center agents are paid less than half than their counterparts in developed countries. Such level of income, however, is already big in the economic setting of the Philippines. The savings generated from outsourcing can then be diverted to other company activities, which can help the company expand and improve its products and services.

Outsourcing in general, and contact centers in particular, have become part of the economic landscape of the Philippines. Through the revenues generated from these industries, the Philippines is able to sustain its economic growth. Although there may be other reasons for its growth, outsourcing has truly provided an important positive impact to the economy of the Philippines.

On the part of Filipinos, working on a contact center has become an alternative to going abroad. Why work abroad when you can earn the same level of income at home. College level students and young graduates are lured into the contact center industry because of the good pay as well as the good prospect for career growth over the long term.

There are a number of countries hosting contact centers nowadays, yet Philippines is being considered as one of the most preferred ones. And why not? The Philippines is a great place to establish a contact center. Its location in Southeast Asia is good and its citizens can easily adapt to different cultural situations that they are in. In the area of customer service, this is of paramount concern.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Outsource Your Accounting Business Processes to the Philippines

They say that trust is the essential foundation of any relationship. True enough. Whether such a relationship is personal, social, or business in nature, people cannot and would enter into relationships without any kind of implicit or explicit trust. Once that trust is broken, it would be very difficult to re-establish. As such, the relationship usually, breaks down, too after the trust is broken. This is the reason why in businesses, it is of utmost importance that such trust is established, maintained, and improved.

In the realm of business and its multifaceted transactions, such trust is maintained by ensuring that there is transparency and that those who are engaged in business processes do not have any conflicting interest with the interests of the business. Hence, the accounting process has been put in place to protect the business and ensure that all the funds of the business are being put to good use and for the business.

There have been several instances in which management has colluded with accountants to hide the truth and gain some monetary rewards. However, the result has been a major backlash. We remember Enron with pangs of regret and wish that accountants and the management should have used their ethical sense in dealing with the matters.

Well, in this regard, outsourcing your business accounting needs to the Philippines can help prevent such kinds of collusion and scam. There are also other benefits that such outsourcing brings to your business. For one, your business will be able to save money in the process. Such outsourcing might not have been possible ten years ago, but thanks to the advances in the Internet; you can now take advantage of this process.

If you hire an accountant for you company, the costs will be greater. In addition to that, there will also be a period of adjustment to the company and he would warm up to his colleagues and his bosses. In the long run, if such an accountant has developed good relationships within the company, there is the risk of collusion. But more than just that, the issue of the cost would be good enough consideration for you to consider outsourcing accounting processes to the Philippines. Why spend more dollars on a piece of job that could be done at a cheaper price?

There are a huge number of competent accountants in the Philippines. In addition to that, the level of access to the Internet in the Philippines is high. If you want to monitor the progress of your accounting process that can be easily done through instant messengers and email. There are already a number of firms offering this kind of services in the Philippines.

If you are concerned about the quality of the work, then you simply need to check the background of the vendor that you are dealing with. Again, such a crosschecking is possible nowadays because information is easily exchanged in the Internet and if there are negative feedbacks about a company, that would surely surface in the World Wide Web.

For excellent accounting at a cheaper price, outsource your accounting business processes to the Philippines.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Technology and Customer Service

The level of technology is not the main criteria for assessing the effectiveness of a companys customer service. True, there may be more avenues for customers to contact the company through modern technology. Yet, in the end, the technology available, the brand, the advertising campaigns and even the feisty salespersons do not matter the bottom line is that the problems of the customer should be solved.

There are a number of benefits that technology has offered to business all over the world. For one, technology enables companies to manufacture products and communicate more effectively with their customers. Technology, however, is not an end in itself that is why contact centers in the Philippines are doing their best in training their agents in providing adequate and excellent customer service. Technology is good, but technology graced with excellent customer service is even better.

Speaking of technology, the world has shrunk in terms of the means of communication available. That is why, people from the United States, Australia, and Europe can communicate effectively with those who are located in the Philippines. The Internet has also facilitated the rapid growth of different websites and services. Through this, businesses have learned to utilize the Internet for their transactions and their business processes.

The internet has also made it possible, not only for big companies, but also for small and medium scale enterprises to take advantage of the outsourcing process. By undertaking extensive research and looking at the track record of contact centers and other outsourcing companies in the Philippines, they stand to gain a lot of savings from labor costs, being able to focus on core business processes and other conveniences that contact centers in the Philippines make possible.
On the part of contact centers in the Philippines, the best way to establish a good customer base is by providing the best customer service there is. This is because the contact centers in the said country are aware that customer service can make or break the companies that they are serving. Whether these are in the area of computer sales and technical assistance; credit card sales and customer service; air ticketing and hotel reservations they put both of their feet forward. This is because not only one of the feet are good but both.

The level of technological development in the Philippines may be lagging behind some of the countries in Asia such as China and India, yet the Philippines remain one of the best, if not the best, countries for good English speakers. If it is any testimony, thousands and thousands of Koreans and other nationals are going to the country so they could learn how to speak better English. So, as technology continues to improve and be developed, the English proficiency level of contact center agents in the Philippines would continue to develop.

Technology is amazing! The pace of its growth can no longer be measured by years in fact, technological breakthroughs come to people s attention within weeks. As these trends speed up in this Information Age, businesses still need that one of the oldest concepts in the business world customer service in order to make a difference in this insanely competitive business world.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

When Enough Is Not Enough: Delivering Extraordinary Customer Service

Business climate is always changing. Products and services come and go. Due to advances in technology, there are businesses that close their shops because they are no longer relevant to the market. Even if a product is still very much in use, there are a number of innovations in the market that can turn the tide of competition to the organization that is willing to make changes and innovate. However, even in the case of good products and services, there may still be some organizations that thrive in the business, not because of their top quality products and services but because of their very good customer service.

There is a mindset in the business world that equates customer service with contact center agents or dealing with customers with what they ask for. Such a mindset, however, gives customer service that is either enough, or falls short of the standards of excellence and goodness in the field.

Enough customer service means that the customer is able to enter a store, buy what he needs and then zooms out of the store before you could say buy another one of these. Given the situation of the market nowadays, enough customer service is no longer enough. What is needed is a strong foundation in the companys products and services coupled with excellent customer service.

In this regard, the company would do well to offer good products and services together with superb and excellent customer service. By outsourcing contact center services to the Philippines, the company is able to capitalize on its strength and let the pros handle the customer service issues of their company. There are several things needed for this.

The company should first define how it envisions serving its customers and clients. In addition to that, a definition of excellent customer service should be arrived at. Without this definition the company will be trying to fulfill unreasonable expectations without systematically looking at things. For contact centers located in the Philippines, excellent customer service means cheaper labor costs, excellent handling of customers, meeting the demands of quality assurance, and meeting sales targets and quotas.

When the definition of extraordinary customer service has been arrived at, the organization needs to ask itself whether it is performing according to the criteria it has established. The sources of under performance also need to be taken into account. This might necessitate a company audit, which might reveal a great deal more of insights on the firms level of customer service. If it were found out that the company is not meeting its goals in terms of excellent customer service, especially in its contact centers, then it is high time for them to consider outsourcing such service to third parties that are knowledgeable and professional. For this purpose, contact centers in the Philippines are the best option.

The role of subordinates should also be taken into account since they are crucial in delivering the kind of service that the company espouses. If the workers are treated like trash, then more often than not, they will exude the same attitude towards the customers using the organizations products and services.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Chat Support in the Outsourcing Industry

If you think that live chat is only used for social networking, you are badly mistaken. Some technologies such as instant messengers and even Voice over Internet Protocol are being used by people all over the world to communicate and maintain their relationships even across the distance.

Yet today, businesses are now recognizing the importance of these technologies as a means to improve customer service. As long as a company employee is able to type at least 30 words a minute, the concerns, issues and questions of the customers will be addressed very quickly, thereby preventing such issues and concerns to fester and grow into unmanageable proportions.

In comparison with calls, using online chat will be beneficial for both customers and customer service officers. It removes the opportunity for racist comments and other abusive tones and language over the phone. As long as the customer service officer has effective communication skills through the words that he uses, then he can deal with people with different nationalities by communicating through online chat.

Online chat is also a way to lessen the stress being felt by the customer service officers. In most contact centers in the Philippines, calls from irate callers tend to give contact center agents nervousness and ulcers. Even if part of their training is on how to diffuse the negative emotions of the clients, it is still very difficult to let go of the stress that contact center agents contract.

Even the customers may be able to benefit from using chat support. They would not have to wait for several minutes on the phone pressing several buttons. Rather, they can type their questions away and the contact center agent will be able to get their concerns right away. Most of the contact center agents in the Philippines understand the urgency and the importance of responding quickly to the concerns of the customers and they are very well versed in the use of instant messenger.

Using instant messengers appears to be second nature for most Filipino young adult. As such, when they enter the customer service industry, using such technology is no longer a challenge. However, if they are not proficient in using the system yet, the company can train their employees in using such technology. Given the natural propensity for technological learning of most contact center employees, they learn the process after several days and they also enjoy using it. To ensure that the contact center agents are performing well, regular feedback from customers is needed.

Contact center companies are also aware that they need to ensure the professionalism of their staff in dealing with their customers even in using chat support. As such, the rules of using chat support professionally should be integrated in the training program for contact center agents assigned to chat support. Companies in the Philippines are aware of this and that is why, as a result of the trainings, most contact center agents can use both phone and chat support effectively.

Phone and chat support are but the means of dealing with the customers. The bottom line is that contact center agents in the Philippines are able to deal with the customers in a timely and effective manner.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Current Trends in Offshore Outsourcing

The Internet is an ever evolving tool. It is vastly different from where it was five years ago. The frontiers of technology have been conquered and new horizons are being pursued; growth has been achieved and there are still different strategies being devised to deal with the trends in the market. In addition to that, online networking process and communities have sprouted everywhere and outsourcing has become a major industry utilizing the Internet.

Small and medium businesses, even large scale enterprises have recognized the Internet as an important component in developing their business strategies. Not only that, because of the integration of the Internet in the business processes of various companies, offshore outsourcing for IT and for other business processes have become the norm nowadays. Although, there seems to be no stopping for these trends, it would be important for businesses and for professionals; too, to foresee the directions that offshore outsourcing is taking so that new strategies can be devised to deal with these matters.

Offshoring simply means the relocation of various business processes to other countries or location, usually to one that has cheaper labor costs. Due to this process, secondary operations are now being transferred to outside actors, thereby streamlining the processes of the business and focusing on the most important processes of the business. In any cases, multi-sourcing is an option that most companies are taking. Under this scheme, different vendors and providers are contacted to provide services for the purposes of making sure that the best services are secured. Several countries are being targeted for multi-sourcing strategies of multinationals. Among these are India, the Philippines and China.

There have also been mergers and acquisitions in the industry because of very intense competition. As a result, the resources of outsourcing companies have been used together by these mergers and acquisitions. Indias place in the outsourcing industry is also declining. As such, markets such as that of the Philippines and China are on the rise. Consultation and strategic planning, nonetheless, is still needed so that the competitive advantage of companies is maintained and that they will continue to show robust performance in the global economy.

In this ever-changing landscape of the Internet, offshoring has shifted to a person-to-person approach. In addition to that, most of offshoring are now in the area of redeployment instead of starting new ventures or branches in other countries. This is partly because of the infrastructure and different situations in the environment of the receiving country.

Offshore outsourcing has greatly benefited the economy of India and of the Philippines. It should be remembered, however, that the cheaper labor cost is the usual reason for offshoring and in the coming years, as the labor of Indians and Filipinos rise, then the preferred countries for offshoring may change. The flip side of the coin is that there is an increasing job problem in the United States and other countries that are offshoring services. Because of offshore outsourcing, companies has learned how to manage their resources better, save costs on labor, and ensure quality work at the agreed upon time, thereby leading to greater profitability and better performance.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Understanding Cultural Differences Key to Successful Outsourcing

Cutting costs is one of the important benefits of outsourcing. A drawback, however, is that cultural differences may limit the effectiveness of the outsourcing process and may create misunderstandings between the contractors and the company outsourcing the services. It is, therefore, of utmost importance for businesses to understand cultural differences and how to address them before deciding to bring the business overseas. If these cultural differences were understood and the corresponding safety measures were put in place, then businesses will be able to maximize the benefits being offered by outsourcing.

Miscommunication is perhaps the leading problem faced by companies in the United States when it comes to outsourcing. People from different countries have different modes of communication. Furthermore, even if the workers in the foreign country are speaking English, several layers of meaning or connotations are sometimes left out. More than half of US business executives face issues of miscommunication in their dealings with the persons who do the work for them.

Miscommunication, however, is not the only problem that they face. Oftentimes, there are also different management styles that work best for different nationalities because of differences in work habits and work ethics. Even the manner of resolving conflicts and disagreements also vary from country to country. The management style for Indians may be different from Americans and Europeans. As such, a one-size-fits-all style would just cause bigger problems.

Given the nature of the outsourcing industry today, where a number of companies are tapping the services of a very diverse set of nationalities, cultural issues present a very significant matter that should be addressed. This means that prior to the migration of the services, a thorough study should be conducted regarding possible cultural issues so that the necessary precautions and safety measures would be built into the transition process. This would lead to less frustrations and misunderstandings between and among the management team and those performing the outsourced jobs, as well as between the company and its customers.

Large scale enterprises tend to favor outsourcing to other countries because of the economy of scale that they can get. For small and medium scale enterprises, however are increasingly preferring vendors and service providers that are located in the country where they operate. For large scale enterprises, they have the option of setting up an office in a foreign country while small and medium businesses do not have this capacity.

Regardless of the scale of the enterprise, cultural issues should be addressed by any company thinking of outsourcing services to foreign providers. The main consideration for outsourcing in the early stage of the industry is only the savings generated by cheaper labor from foreign countries. However, as time passes by, and as the industry is getting well acquainted with the outsourcing process, the issues in communication, in culture and in dealing with foreign workers are being highlighted.

The challenge now would be how to address these cultural issues. As a result companies are now on the lookout on how to solve cultural differences by bridging gaps or by choosing service providers from the companys home country.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Bring Down the Cost of Outsourcing

India is being considered as the number one destination for companies that want to outsource their business processes. This is partly because of the cheap labor at India. However, the wage rates in India have been rising recently because of the saturation of the market by the outsourcing industry, thereby affecting the level of cost of Indias outsourcing customers. This will have serious effects on the viability of the said industry in India, as well as the development of this industry in other locations all over the world, most notably, in Southeast Asia and in Europe.

Because of the increasing costs of doing business in India, particularly in Bangalore, companies that do business there are now looking at other countries and locations so that their costs would be kept low. Actually, even Indian corporations are now setting their eyes to other countries so that the level of their profits will remain and their customers would choose to stay with them. By employing this strategy, the companies are able to diversify themselves and reinvent their manner of doing business, thereby winning the loyalty of some of their clients.

Some analysts have come to understand that Indian companies tend to show off only in the beginning. As soon as they have garnered the experience in the industry, they tend to pack up and look for alternative locations in other cheap labor countries in Asia and even in Russia.

The strategy of global giants, however, has been similar. Accenture, Genpact, IBM Global Services and other similar corporations have been gathering their talents from all over the world so that they can harness what a particular location can offer to the rest of the world. EDS has been cited by BusinessWeek that it is working with the Continental airlines in several programming and software development projects. Low cost regions such as India and the Philippines are being cited as the most dominant areas in which these big corporations are utilizing in their efforts to promote the outsourcing industry.

Increasingly, however, companies are realizing that cost considerations are not everything. What they truly need are locations that do not have significant time zone differences. Furthermore, the economic disparity should not be very keen as well as the language barriers. As a result of this, there are regions in Europe that are now gaining prominence. Among them is Bucharest, Romania. With Europe taking center stage in the outsourcing industry, there will be a number of changes that will take place.

The issues of intellectual property rights are now slowly being addressed by companies that are engaged in outsourcing. In fact, some companies have removed the USB drive feature so that employees could not easily get files and send them to unauthorized locations. There are a number of concerns with the outsourcing industry, however. Workers and employees in the United States as well as in other areas in North America are finding it more difficult to compare with their overseas counterparts that are being paid less than half of their wages. On the whole, however, moving beyond India may be a big step in making the industry more diversified and more efficient.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Earning More Through Outsourcing

It has been mentioned perhaps a million times already that the Internet has made it possible for individuals and corporations to multiply their profits. If you are a working professional tied up to the eight-to-five routine, you can look at the possibilities of earning more through outsourcing. Or even if you are already in the outsourcing business, youd be surprised to learn that there are still a lot of things you could to earn more. On the other hand, you may also be a person engaged in a small business and are very busy in looking after the myriad business processes, ensuring that everything is working smoothly.

No matter what you are engaged in, it is so easy to get distracted by a lot of routine jobs that you should not be looking after anymore. Instead of spending your time thinking about ways to improve your business and make more money, you are just too busy you no longer make more.

If you are caught in this vicious cycle of allowing your job to control your schedule, then perhaps, it is high time you sought ways to be more efficient and effective. In this regard, you can be sure that outsourcing can work best for your schedule and for your business. By delegating minor tasks to other people, you make more room for the more important things. Hence, you are able to prioritize and just do the business activities that you feel like doing.

Instead of hiring a new employee, you can hire an expert consultant and you no longer have to invest on an employee who needs time to become an expert on the business activities you want done. Because these consultants are the experts, they can do the job in a shorter period of time that you can. As a result, you can have more leisure time for yourself and for your loved ones or you can also devote your time in thinking about new strategies for your business.

You can outsource just about any kind of skill or project that your business may have writing manuals, copies and other needed written materials, marketing, promotions, project management, customer service, and even developing your companys website. In addition to that, you can also hire an excellent virtual assistant who does not need to report to your office to do the jobs you want done.

The outsourcing process is simple, easy, and mind, you, it is way cheaper than if you did the job yourself. There are a number of consultants in the Philippines who can help you with just about any project that you may have. You just need to know where to look for the right persons and the right websites. For a start, you may go to getafreelancer, scriptlance and rentacoder among others. You simply type in your query through google and it will turn up hundreds, if not thousands, of websites who can help you.

If you are new to this, you may consult a friend of yours who has outsourced a number of projects. Or you may read about the process in websites. As long as you are creative and willing to do your research, your business can grow exponentially.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

How To Help Your Prospect See The Problem

Everyone has their own little idiosyncrasies, like counting steps or washing their hands or trying to memorize pi to the 10,000th decimal point. At least I think they do, don't they? And, even though I've never admitted this before, I too have my own idiosyncrasies.

From the time I was a little boy I would subconsciously ask myself this question when I was with someone. "Do I like this person more or less now than I did a minute ago?" It was not until I was an adult that I realized that everyone asks themself the same question. Maybe not as frequently, and maybe not out loud, but they ask just the same. That leads me to last Saturday.

Last Saturday afternoon my wife and I invited a couple over for lunch and a swim. Now it's important to keep in mind that this is my house and my swimming pool, and I'm proud of it. Just like you're proud of your property.

As soon as they arrived my guest jumped into the swimming pool and popped out of the water rubbing his eyes. "This chlorine water is horrible" he said. "It burns my eyes. I have a saltwater swimming pool and this is never a problem with my pool."

Sixty seconds had passed and I concluded without hesitation that I liked him less. But what did he do that caused me to feel this way?

He insulted me by implying that I was either stupid for having a chlorine swimming pool or that I was incompetent for not taking care of it properly. (As a side note, my pool is perfectly maintained.) I don't think he intended to imply that I was stupid or incompetent, but he did. He then went on to tell me why I should get a salt pool just like his. And guess what? I thought even less of him then I did 60 seconds earlier.

Here's one of the many rules of likability that sales people seem to misunderstand. When you make a negative comment about any aspect of a persons finances, business, car, property, clothes etc., (what ever it is you're trying to sell them) you're causing that person to think less of you. Period.

You might be under the impression that your job in the selling process is to point out the prospect's problem so that you can persuade them to buy your product or service. It's not, at least not in the way described above.

So here's the question that must be answered. How can you help your prospect see their problem without overtly pointing it out to them? The way to do it is through asking appropriate questions. Let me explain.

Let's assume that my friend wanted to sell me on converting my chlorine swimming pool to a saltwater system. Here's what he could have done differently. He could have started the conversation by complimenting me on my swimming pool.

"What a beautiful swimming pool Bob. Did you design it yourself?"

Everyone loves a compliment. And his compliment implied that I'm both smart and talented. I like him more.

At this point he could have asked me about my chlorine system.

"It see you have a chlorine system on your pool. How do you like it?"

Great question. He's obviously interested and he's asking for my opinion. I like people who ask for my opinion. I like him even more.

At this point he could easily bring up the saltwater system without offending me.

"I love your pool Bob and you've done a wonderful job maintaining it. You really know how to keep the water crystal clear.

"Our condo complex recently converted from a chlorine system to a saltwater system and it's really different. I understand from the guy who takes care of the pool that it's easier to maintain and cheaper to operate. Have you ever been in a saltwater pool are seen how they work?"

Now I'm interested. I'm interested in learning how a salt system is different, how it's easier to maintain and how it is less expensive to operate. And best of all, I'm not offended. I like him even more now.

If you have a choice of telling your prospect that they have a problem and helping them see the problem for themselves, it's always best to help them see the problem for themselves. If you allow that to happen, they will like you more ... if you don't, they will like you less. And remember, there's a direct correlation between how much your prospect likes you and how willing they are to buy from you.

Here are three things to keep in mind when you're trying to get your prospect to see the problem.

1. You don't have to be the one to point out the problem. Let your prospect discover the problem on their own (with your help of course) and be there to help them with the solution.

2. Be diplomatic. What you think is a problem could be the same thing your customer perceives as their finest piece of work.

3. Some things are best left unsaid. I did not need to know that the chlorine in my swimming pool caused my guests eyes to water. It probably wasn't true and if it was, he didn't need to bring it to my attention.

In ancient Persia the messengers who brought bad news were executed on the spot while the messengers who brought good news were rewarded handsomely. Things are not that different today.

Bob Sommers is the host of the Recognized Expert Marketing show http://www.RecognizedExpert.com on Maui. Listen to Bob and other marketing experts talk about how you can position yourself as the expert in your field.

Outsourcing Data Entry Services

Passion is very important for a piece of work to be done. When you are passionate about the work that you are doing, chances are, you enjoy it and at the same time youre doing it excellently. What a beautiful world it would be if everybody is doing what he or she is passionate about. In the real world, however, there are different kinds of jobs that are difficult to do yet they are very crucial for the business.

One of these kinds of work is data entry. It is very mundane, it requires not so great thinking skills because it is routine job. In short, data entry is rather boring. But then again, because it is important for the organization, then professionals should handle this work efficiently and excellently. Even if it were done very quickly, if there are numerous errors, then it would be inimical to the performance of the organization.

Hiring in-house personnel just doing data entry may be a little too costly and the personnel working for data entry may become low in morale because of the routine job that they have. In this regard, outsourcing your data entry processes may be an excellent option. After all, a number of companies are already doing just that and because of the success of this outsourcing, such number is already on the rise.

By outsourcing data entry kinds of work, your company will be able to save a lot of money. The money saved on this can then be diverted away and be transformed as additional asset of the company. If you outsource data entry services to the Philippines, your work will be done by competent professionals who are meticulous and excellent in doing the job for you at a much lower cost. At times, such cost is even 50% lower. These professionals are great in doing their jobs since most of them do possess bachelors degrees from reputable universities and colleges in the Philippines.

The kinds of data entry services you may outsource may be vastly different. These may be in the form of personnel information of the company, application forms for credit cards or any other products, as well as other kinds of processes that requires encoding the responses of the persons utilizing the forms. These data may contain numbers and letters, so the skills of those handling such data would be of important consideration.

By outsourcing data entry services to the Philippines, you can be sure that the service will be very professional and that they will be done on a timely manner. Because of the good service being done by these Philippine companies, there are an increasing number of businesses from Europe and the United States that are availing of this. If you are unsure where to turn to, you just have to do some research with business magazines offline and online. In order for you to verify that the company is indeed excellent, then you just need to let them do some sample work for you and you will not regret it.

James Stinson is Owner and Founder of Global Sky Inc. He employs a team of 50 in a high quality call center facility based in the Philippines. For more info on outsourcing your project visit: http://www.global-sky.com

Simple And Effective Ways To Create Your Successful Small Business

If you're a small-business owner, you probably already know that you have lots of competition out there. Some may be like you, where they are small business, while others will be larger and have a bigger budget to attract competition. Even though you might think your size puts you at a disadvantage, it doesn't have to be that way. There are lots of ways that you can make sure your small business is successful and profitable. In fact, they will require little to no work on your part.

One very simple yet effective way to turn your small business into a success and keep it that way is by making sure you smile. When customers or clients come in, a smile can help break the ice or make someone's day, so when someone goes to buy a product or service, a smile can help them feel appreciated. It may even make you the one to go to if you've got a close competitor. At the very least, customers will feel appreciated, and at the very most, it will increase your business. Either way, it costs you nothing and takes very little effort. And remember that the customer is the reason you are succeeding in the first place. If you didn't have the customer, you wouldn't have your business. Therefore, make sure to smile when you can, not by faking, but by being sincere and wanting to do the best possible, including putting your best face forward.

Small talk, too, can make you more attractive to customers. Simply approaching customers and making sure that they know you're available without being intrusive can make them feel appreciated. For example, you can help a customer find something or ask about their day. Again, make sure you're not intrusive or too personal, but a small amount of small talk goes a long way to making a customer feel more important, noticed and appreciated. In fact, the better customers feel they are treated, the more likely they are to buy as well, so this is another reason to make sure even a simple pleasantry is offered to customers when they come in.

As with small talk, or a smile, simply saying thank you to a customer who takes the time to come in and give you your business is a simple way to offer much deserved appreciation. After all, remember that your customer has the option to go elsewhere or even to shop online these days, so whenever they come in, make sure they know you appreciate their business. What can set you apart even if she can't always offer the best prices is your customer service. Making sure customers are as happy as possible with what they buy from you is also important, but simply offering a good atmosphere and making yourself approachable by saying thank you and "please come again soon" if appropriate will help ensure return business and positive word-of-mouth advertising as well, which in turn will bring you even more customers.

Another way to help ensure that your business is successful is to make sure that you're polite on the phone to every caller. Although this is probably common sense, this can easily be forgotten. If potential customers call with questions about store hours or a product at times not convenient for you, you can't let them know it. After all, if they're calling during business hours, they're just doing what customers do and it's your job to help them. If you must, you can ask the customer to hold for a moment, but not for too long. Again, just as with any other behavior, your behavior on the phone is important and can draw customers in or drive them away. Make sure you maintain a pleasant attitude regardless of the situation. In fact, it helps to keep a smile on your face if you're on the phone, just as you do in person. The smile on your face will show in your voice when you talk.

The advice offered here is really simple common sense, but all too often these days, it's forgotten. Yet if you're friendly, patient and pleasant to be with, you're much more likely to attract new and return business. Your attitude alone can help make a positive name for yourself. This can help keep your business in effect for many years to come and give you a profitable livelihood as well.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business. http://besuccessfulnews.com/

Priceless Removals Around London

Take a look at the auction list for Christies in London and you will find it littered with antique furniture and fine art sales. Furniture dating back to Louis XV, made from the finest materials and expecting to carry price tags running into hundreds of thousands of pounds are on sale. Their most recent fine art auction saw the sale of an Old Master with an estimated value of 6 pounds million.

Wealthy people are well aware that antiques just do not lose value and are an excellent investment for the future. Unlike the precarious property market and unstable banking systems, antique furniture will hold its value, if not gain more, and can be enjoyed for what it is by the owner.

But what happens to this furniture leading up to the sale and immediately after?

Furniture has to be moved from the current owner, stored and then transported to the auction. Transportation after the sale to the new owner is of utmost importance as, of course, the owner wants it to arrive in the condition in which he purchased it.

Antique furniture removal is an incredibly specialised operation. Furniture and fine art has to be moved and stored with meticulous care and handling.

There is also the safety aspect to consider. With the top auctions going on in the heart of London, hosting sales of items worth up to millions of pounds, secure storage is of paramount importance. Choosing the right company to store and move your antique furniture will ensure that fully trained and security cleared personnel will take care of your valuables.

Using the most sophisticated electronics as well as fire detection and prevention, the right antique furniture removal company will treat your treasures as if they were their own. Only the top companies will receive, unpack, assess and report the condition of your antiques as well as offer a restoration and conservation service.

Whilst in possession of your furniture, they will keep a record of its condition and location, from the moment of receipt up until delivery. Not restricted to London, a reputable antique furniture removal company will be able to safely and securely ship your purchase to any worldwide location.

Of course, everybody has a duty to care for the environment in the light of the risks of vehicle emissions - particularly in and around London where the volume of traffic is so enormous. Auctions in London are taking place constantly with hundreds of lots per sale, requiring many deliveries and removals.

Choosing a removal company that considers the environment is essential. Storage containers made from wood from sustainable sources, with the option of re-using the packaging is a wise decision. Using electric hybrid vehicles with low emission levels is also an environmentally friendly option.

Antique furniture removal companies are also able to remove complete households and offices and relocate them, providing a complete packing, storage, removal and relocation service. To ensure your own investment, ask the removal company you use to compose a full survey and report, detailing all possessions and exactly what they intend to provide.

Antiques expert Catherine Harvey looks at the business of antique removals in and around London. To find out more please visit http://www.cadogantate.com/

Successful Project Management in Real Estate

If you're managing a real estate project, you're going to have a job on your hands. Project management is always a difficult task to keep on top of and it can become quite complicated at times, especially with a number of different components to bring together. However, with a logical and persistent approach, combined with effective and careful planning, project management needn't be too much of a headache.

The first thing you need to think about is planning your project. This stage should take place well before you even begin to secure funding or even think about hiring labor. Plan out your project: what are your aims and objectives, what resources will need to be in place, and when do you expect to complete the project? Ultimately, these questions will be posed by investors, and if you don't know the answers, you're in for a tough time.

Get everything down on paper and make sure you give your project some direction. Set milestones and know exactly when the builders leave, or when the finishing stages begin. Furthermore, allot your expenses between each cost center and stick to it rigidly. Budget in a miscellaneous account, but make sure you don't dip too far into it too easily. Make realistic predictions and you'll do better for it, which will be reflected in your project at the end of the day.

Project management in real estate project also relies heavily on running a tight ship, that is to say ensuring everything runs to plan and nothing takes longer or costs more than it should do. This is obviously also dependant on your planning stage, but if you take a no-nonsense approach and make sure everything is done to the deadline, you will realize that project management become a whole lot easier.

Be brash and be in your face - don't sit back, and don't accept what your told. To get your own way you've got to be assertive enough to command a situation. After all you're the boss, so do things your way if you want to achieve the results.

Project management is often seen as a problem area, and it can be if you don't grip the reigns. Provided you think things through and implement your plan, you should be ok, and improve with experience. Project management really shouldn't cause you too many problems, but remember it is a full time job, requiring effort and dedication like any other.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles for http://erecreationstation.com/ - In addition, Jonathon also writes articles for http://wonderfulworldofsports.net/ and http://igolfcentral.net/

Six Sigma Makes Its Way to the Contact Center

Contact centers have benefited so much by implementing Six Sigma that now it is impossible for them even to think that they can manage their operations without it even for a single day.

Why Six Sigma Is Better Than Other Quality Initiatives

Six Sigma may have been originally devised as a quality improvement tool for use in the manufacturing sector, but that has not stopped it from making its way to the services industry such as contact centers. It is different because it makes use of foolproof statistical tools and techniques that help in making the most accurate assessments, predictions and calculations, necessary for making effective and long-lasting quality improvements.

Six Sigma has stood the test of time when others have failed because it was quick to embrace emerging technologies, something that helped quite a bit in designing and developing newer and more effective quality improvement tools and techniques.

How Is Six Sigma Helping Contact Centers?

Most contact centers act as a vital link between a company and its customers. As such, it becomes quite important to provide high-quality services that will motivate customers to remain loyal to the company. By implementing this process, contact centers have been able to achieve this objective quite easily, which in turn has proved beneficial for both the company and the customers.

It has also helped to improve the efficiency of agents by reducing their workload and by providing improved work conditions to them.

How Is Six Sigma Helping Contact Centers To Expand Their Operations?

Contact centers that have implemented this process have saved millions of dollars over the years, which are now being used for expansion through the establishment of newer contact centers. Getting work for newly established contact centers is not a problem because every satisfied client automatically recommends the name of the contact center to other potential clients, bringing in more business for the contact center.

Handling the increased workload is also not a problem because 6 Sigma helps in streamlining operations so as to achieve optimum efficiency. Thus, we see that it actually creates a highly profitable business cycle that can be used by any contact center to expand its operations.

The Future Of Six Sigma In Contact Centers

Six Sigma is probably the only quality improvement initiative that has survived the test of time. We can say with quite a lot of conviction that it will continue to be used by contact centers as long as some other more effective quality improvement technique is not developed.

It's effectiveness can be verified by the fact that companies that had implemented it ten to fifteen years back are still using it in spite of the huge changes in technology. After considering all these factors, it becomes much easier to predict the positive future of Six Sigma in contact centers.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six
sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Six Sigma And The Customer

Analyzing Customer Needs And Expectations

Six Sigma utilizes a customer centric approach for understanding the basic needs of the target audience. Understanding customer needs may seem to be an easy task, but in reality it is quite difficult because it calls for quantifying vague customer needs such as "better quality", "low price" and others into measurable terms. Six Sigma helps in proper assessment of customer needs because it is based on a data driven approach and makes use of statistical tools that give accurate results.

In the initial stages, a vast amount of data is collected based on the feedback provided by customers. For an existing product or service, the feedback may include improvement suggestions provided by customers - in the case of a new product launch, the feedback will include product features or preferences as suggested by the people belonging to the target audience.

The data is then categorized according to its relevance; for example, data related to the physical appearance of the product and data related to the features of the product are categorized under two different sections. Categorization is necessary as it helps to avoid confusion, which can occur any time due to the vast amounts of data that is being handled. After categorization, the data is analyzed with the help of statistical tools and the results or reports generated thereon are passed onto functional departments.

Satisfying Customer Needs

Once customer needs are quantified, the design team starts working on the product so as to make it more customer-friendly. In the case of an existing product, the design team suggests all the different alterations that can be made whereas in case of a new product, the design team creates the blueprint of different types of products having the same basic features. After this, Six Sigma tools and techniques are used for selecting the best from amongst the available options based on their relevance to customer needs and the costs associated with the design and development of the product or service. The selected design or features are then put through further testing before making them available for actual production. With the help of Six Sigma testing tools, the design team can develop products that not only satisfy basic customer needs but also exceed their expectations.

Six Sigma goes a long way in determining the success of business organizations as it provides the necessary tools and techniques that help in increasing customer satisfaction. This in turn helps to develop customer loyalties, something that is vital for the long-term success of any business organization. Based on this, we can say with certainty that the scope of Six Sigma is a lot more than just reducing defects or improving efficiencies.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six
sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.