Selling your services using offshore call centres seems a risk free way of increasing sales but very few companies have actually made it work. Rob O’Malley, COO of Asian Call Centers examines why pro
March 13, 2005 (Press Release) --
To understand why so many fail, it is important to see what happens in projects which succeed.
The first thing for all parties to bear in mind is that programs don’t develop as quickly in offshore locations. A project which takes 2-3 weeks to start working successfully in a domestic centre will normally take 8-12 weeks in offshore. In this time, clients become impatient and their effort to help the centre get the project working can often wane. This starts a chain reaction which leads to the centre dropping the program prematurely. It then becomes common knowledge around that the program is “unworkable” which means that other centres won’t touch the project.
Many clients or brokers often pre-empt the notion that their program is “unworkable” and take on many call centres very quickly. The client and/or their intermediaries then generally spend a minimal amount of time with each centre hoping that 1 will make it work. Setting up a telemarketing project to the UK from an offshore location is not a part-time job. It requires the full time focus of many people for a sustained period of time. Splitting this focus across multiple centres is destined to failure. The better centres who can pick and choose their clients will actually avoid working on multi-centre projects because they know they have a lower chance of success.
Many companies simply email the centre a list of prospects, a script and a set of objections and then leave the call centre to fail. Some people underestimate the agents in offshore call centres but they all know that when there is no input from the client, the client doesn’t have faith in the program. When agents start to think like this, then failure becomes a self-fulfilling destiny.
For those who get past the first couple of months, there are still challenges. It is important to remember that the deal must be a win-win situation. Among other things, this means paying the call centre on time. Given the history of unscrupulous clients and brokers, call centres are now often more concerned about getting paid than making profit. There is also one company who has used a lot of offshore call centres. They find one call centre in Manila making the project work and they tried to reduce commission rates believing that the call centre did not need that much money. However, the reason the centre had made the project work was because of its superb training, develop and management systems it had in place. In fact, these were the same reasons they have made many campaigns work. With the revised commissions, the program was then the least profitable campaign they had and so dropped it. The moral of the story is that there are very few good offshore call centres and so when you find one; treat it well. For most, this just means paying them enough money on time.
Offshore telemarketing is still a viable option for many businesses. Although it is not something taken lightly, the rewards for those who supply the effort to develop the program are great. You should definitely consider working with an intermediary such as ourselves as the learning curve can be very steep when dealing with developing nations. It’s also important to be patient.
The first thing for all parties to bear in mind is that programs don’t develop as quickly in offshore locations. A project which takes 2-3 weeks to start working successfully in a domestic centre will normally take 8-12 weeks in offshore. In this time, clients become impatient and their effort to help the centre get the project working can often wane. This starts a chain reaction which leads to the centre dropping the program prematurely. It then becomes common knowledge around that the program is “unworkable” which means that other centres won’t touch the project.
Many clients or brokers often pre-empt the notion that their program is “unworkable” and take on many call centres very quickly. The client and/or their intermediaries then generally spend a minimal amount of time with each centre hoping that 1 will make it work. Setting up a telemarketing project to the UK from an offshore location is not a part-time job. It requires the full time focus of many people for a sustained period of time. Splitting this focus across multiple centres is destined to failure. The better centres who can pick and choose their clients will actually avoid working on multi-centre projects because they know they have a lower chance of success.
Many companies simply email the centre a list of prospects, a script and a set of objections and then leave the call centre to fail. Some people underestimate the agents in offshore call centres but they all know that when there is no input from the client, the client doesn’t have faith in the program. When agents start to think like this, then failure becomes a self-fulfilling destiny.
For those who get past the first couple of months, there are still challenges. It is important to remember that the deal must be a win-win situation. Among other things, this means paying the call centre on time. Given the history of unscrupulous clients and brokers, call centres are now often more concerned about getting paid than making profit. There is also one company who has used a lot of offshore call centres. They find one call centre in Manila making the project work and they tried to reduce commission rates believing that the call centre did not need that much money. However, the reason the centre had made the project work was because of its superb training, develop and management systems it had in place. In fact, these were the same reasons they have made many campaigns work. With the revised commissions, the program was then the least profitable campaign they had and so dropped it. The moral of the story is that there are very few good offshore call centres and so when you find one; treat it well. For most, this just means paying them enough money on time.
Offshore telemarketing is still a viable option for many businesses. Although it is not something taken lightly, the rewards for those who supply the effort to develop the program are great. You should definitely consider working with an intermediary such as ourselves as the learning curve can be very steep when dealing with developing nations. It’s also important to be patient.
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