Below are motivation quotes where all of us can take as a source of inspiration!
Mark Twain
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Napoleon Hill When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.
Jack Welch
We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies – in the minds of those closest to the work.
Dale Carnegie Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all you heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.
Thomas A. Edison Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
It is common knowledge that to be part of the call center industry, one must be fluent and have strong English conversational skills. The primary reason is that, hired applicants would need to converse in the international language. Call center operations is primarily communicating over the phone, therefore, those who will be hired should be equipped with English tongue fluency and good comprehension skills. Commonly, aside from fluency in English, the call center agent basic requirements are at least some years in college for most Asian call centers, computer literate and should be amenable to work on graveyard shifts. Unlike other non-call center jobs, or the usual morning jobs, it is very important for the aspiring applicants to have the flexibility to work at night. The usual clients of the call centers are in the US and Canada and thus operating in their daytime hours. Computer literacy is also a big factor to consider. Aside from the phone as a medium of communication, applicants should also know how to use the computer. That is why call center jobs are fit to those who have considerable exposure to the computer world. Applicants should also be of good health. For some people, working at night takes a great tool to their health, resulting to absenteeism and attrition.
The call center yuppies enjoy attractive and competitive basic salary package. Basic salary for the entry level call center agents is usually twice higher than the regular non-call center employees. Plus, since they work at night, they also have hazard pay and night differentials. Some call centers even provide transportation allowance, meal allowance, dress allowance, laundry allowance and many other perks to make the job even more attractive. The usual shift of the call center agents start when they log in. There is a certain code assigned to each agent and serves as their personal identification. Once they are logged in, that is the time and start of their work assignment, whether to do inbound or outbound calls, chats and the like, depending on their job description. They are entitled to take their breaks as stipulated on their contracts. It is very important for them to adhere to their schedules. The service level is of utmost importance to any call center operations. This is why some scheduled breaks might be deferred or forfeited if they fail to follow it. Aside from their breaks, just like to all other non-call center jobs, all call center agents are entitled to have their vacation leaves, sick leaves, bereavements and emergency leaves. When it comes to career growth, unlike other non-call center jobs wherein employees should earn five or ten years of tenure to get promoted, in the call center business, agents could be promoted as early as 6 months upon regularization depending on their performance as measured by their key performance indicator (KPI). That is why agents could be a manager in as short as one to two years. With the promotion, a significant increase of their basic salary package is included.
The three prong foundations of Call Centers namely the Operations, Quality and Training, are both unique to each other yet all are aimed to the same goals. A good center should have these three foundations or departments working closely and harmoniously with one another. Potential vendors or clients look for a call center service provider that has a concrete and established Operations, Quality and Training departments. These are the main indicators towards fulfilling company’s success.
Usually, before launching accounts and signing any deals, clients look for competitive call center providers and check what they can offer. It is only after the intensive selections and deliberations that clients would commit a business deal. All call center providers have their own structured foundations of Operations, Quality, and Training. They only differ in implementation and minute processes.
Call Center Operations.
This is the department that handles the execution of the business. In a call center perspective, these are the operational execution of service as mandated by clients. Agents belong to this department. Agents deliver the service, whether in forms of telemarketing, back office, chats and technical support. Usually, it is being headed by the Vice President for Operations, followed by the Director for Operations, Operations Manager down to Team Leaders.
Call Center Training.
This department handles all the necessary development when it comes to product knowledge and familiarity when it comes to delivering the best service. Training department in a Call Centeris responsible in creating effective modules that will be used in instilling and inculcating work-skills to the agents. Commonly, the training department is sub-divided into two: Communication and Product training departments. Both are responsible in determining areas of training opportunities. It is being managed by the Vice President of Training, Director of Training, the Training Manager and the trainers.
Call Center Quality.
This department plays a very vital role when it comes to agent and process development. Quality serves as the watchdog of the entire call center business. Its main function is to check whether all the necessary tasks, policies and procedures are being followed by the agents when it comes to execution of the service required and set by the clients. The department usually monitors and audits calls. It generates scores based on the guidelines set by the clients. Then, it collates all the data week over week to see the trend and make necessary coaching for the agents’ development. This department is being headed by the Vice President of Quality, Director of Quality, Quality Manager, Quality Supervisor, down to the Quality Analyst.
The three prong of call center are interrelated. Each call center department plays a very important yet very different role to agents’ development and to the success of the call center business. These departments collaborate with each other; put together ideas to draw solid and concrete strategies to solve different opportunities of the account. As a usual management setup, they conduct several meetings from the management level, to agent-management level to make sure that there is a balance in delivering services to the catered clients. These three departments usually conduct their individual studies in forms of evaluation, survey and statistical data. After that, they will conduct a general meeting to present all the gathered data and their conclusions.
The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, more commonly known as call centers, have greatly impacted the business world by providing world-class services to any type of industry anywhere in the world. With this outsourcing booming industry, most people are wondering if this will ever stop.
Outsourcing is defined as obtaining services or even goods from suppliers or to contract work out outside your company instead of getting it done by your own employees. This could be done either within the same country or overseas. Today, the IT sector has the maximum potential for outsourcing opportunities. However, it doesn’t limit itself to just the IT sector. Manufacturing and back office tasks are now also outsourced. Since costs are fairly lower in other countries, this translates into more savings on the part of the employer.
During the campaign of now American President Barack Obama, he mentioned several times that if elected, he would pursue on discouraging American-owned businesses to outsource. At that time, the United States government didn’t have any clear policy on the said matter. The industry continued enjoying double-digit growths especially the countries of India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, spurring the economy of the said countries.
Until recently, a new bill was introduced in the United States Congress preventing companies that relocate U.S. based call centers to offshore or overseas locations from getting any federal loans and grants, directly or indirectly, for five years. The“U.S. Call Center and Consumer Protection Act”also requires employees of overseas call centers to reveal their location to callers from the United States and have them rerouted to call center agents onshore. Another benefit that the legislation also proposed is that it will limit cases of possible fraud and identity theft often encountered in call centers offshore.
It certainly did help return majority of the businesses back to the United States and helped lessen the unemployment headcount. But nonetheless, a lot of jobs still remain in offshore locations. Most of the business owners point at a lower labor cost in the said countries compared to the U.S. This also leads to lower product prices, together with a higher profit margin compared to onshore based call centers.
If indeed the bill is approved, will it really put an end to outsourcing? It really depends on how U.S. firms perform compared to outsourced companies. Both onshore and offshore industries need to stay competitive in order to get an edge over others by delivering the right quality at a lower cost.
Call centers which prefer to establish their business in Asian countries say that it’s more than just the cost. Asians’ innate hospitality is one, plus the natural adaptation of the American language gives them more reasons to invest. What the region’s outsourcing industry needs to do now is to continue striving for innovation and focus on delivering quality customer service.
Innovation needs to be incorporated in strategic planning processes of local BPO players. Industry bodies and governments of these locations should work hand in hand to promote and recognize the BPO sector’s innovation if they want to sustain growth in the outsourcing industry.
Outsourcing has become a part of the global market, and the U.S. definitely isn’t the only market who brings their businesses overseas. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada among other countless countries, have already invested in setting up call centers outside their territories. And with this, do you think outsourcing will ever stop?
In call centers, there is always constant stress and you tend to push yourself towards the perfection! You need to always leard to relax. We came across a funny comic, which always gets agent to try something new…..and……trouble follows!
