Low cost telemarketing - coments pls

kess070 · Nov 21, 2004

Hi All

Your thoughts and views on the below please.

We have just set up Indian Call Centre facilities to help businesses with outsourcing some of their activities at low cost. The STAR attraction of what we offer is a telemarketing programme that offers businesses the opportunity to have a dedicated telemarketing guy making calls (in accordance with your requirements) all day for less than £50 a day. The obvious benefits are:

No phone charges for you to pay
No need for you to hire extra desk space
Call handling by well trained and experienced marketing professionals
No need for you to pay wages or taxes associated with wages
No hassle of hiring and training telemarketing staff
No training or hiring costs

You can see more information on www.indiancallcentres.co.uk

How many people would be willing to take up the offer at this price? We feel that the price is a giveaway and are simply passing on the Indian low cost to clients. Im confident the price offers the biggest ROI if the money was spent on any other business development activity.

Please note the staff is well trained to UK standards, as our business is UK based.

Your comments welcome

Thanks in advance

regards

Kess
www.indiancallcentres.co.uk

10Yetis · Nov 21, 2004

Love it... love it all.

I think this a great offer especially if it really is as cheap as £50 a day.

You must have loved the CBI's comments last week that people need to basically 'get over it' when it comes to UK apathy and disalusionment against out of UK call centres.

kess070 · Nov 21, 2004

Hi Andy and thanks for the reply.

Yes the offer is as low as £50 a day, with no hidden extras

. It's low cost because we are simply passing on the savings from India to the end client (without being greedy). The idea of the business being to make the service much more affordable to help businesses grow.

Before offering this service, We thought long and hard about the apathy and disillusionment that you mention and whether we should go ahead with this service. The more we thought about it the more we realised that any sensible business owner should be be able to look beyond the dissillusionments and realise that he/she would find it very difficult to spend £50 a day in a better way to develop their business.

Do you have a link for the CBI report? i'm afraid i missed it

take care

Kess
www.indiancallcentres.co.uk

10Yetis · Nov 21, 2004

Howdy,

The comments were made at an event attended by the CBI. Not sure if they issued a report or not. Was in all the major papers around two weeks ago. Found an old BBC page here that will put you on the right track.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3993029.stm

Hope I helped, and don't forget (watch out, plug coming up) if you are looking for a positive PR capaign to support your business, i.e. to fight against UK perception of outsourced call centres, drop me an email and I will get in touch.

kess070 · Nov 21, 2004

thanks Andy,

kess
www.indiancallcentres.co.uk

iceman · Nov 23, 2004

hi, i have tried this but it didnt work as most of the customer could not understand what the telemarketer was saying as their accent is a major problem.

i myself am an indian but it just doesnt work. i personally feel the indian accent is the worst its so difficult to make sense of what they say.

anyway thats my suggestion, good luck tho.

kess · Nov 24, 2004

Hi Iceman

i'm curious to know what standard of english speaking guys did you choose? The guys we work with have UK standard certifications.

kess
www.indiancallcentres.co.uk

iceman · Nov 24, 2004

sorry i wasnt talking about the standard of english but rather their accent, even the 3g call centre in india have got people with excellent standard of english but their accent is so bad you can barely understand their english. i think dell had the same issue and have now shifted their operations back to the US.

another thing, id like to mention is that although you can find highly educated people in india, one thing they lack in is common sense. i know this because currently i am doing outsourcing work for clients in my city. and their lack of common sense is just shocking especially when the people i am working with are so highly educated.

nothing personal kess but am sure alot of people would agree with me on this.

best regards

Alpha · Nov 24, 2004

With regard to accents I think you would find very little difference between Indian and Scottish(both very difficult to decipher lol)

The biggest problem I have always come across when dealing with Indian call centres is that the person on the other end does not understand me!!

This problem can be overcome when talking face to face but on the telephone is almost impossible.

It is not purely accents although that is a lot to do with it but the people in India have absolutely no understaning of local traits , sayings, and information so as soon as the caller/call recipient deviates off the path of the standard questionnaire the person in India becomes lost.

This produces intolerance on behalf of the person in UK and then becomes detrimental to the business.

My honest opinion is that for most people it just will not work and the fact that it is 'only £50 per day' would still not persuade many people to use the service.

This point was demonstrated by the numerous 118 services that came into being following deregulation. Many people found that although the Indian based call centres were cheaper the calls cost much more because of an inability to get the information over and also a lack of local knowledge on behalf of the operator.

A negative resonse I know but I will stand to be corrected by anyone with positive knowledge

gary · Nov 24, 2004

If I take the comments from people I come into contact with every day, outsourcing a call centre to India is the quickest way of losing a customer! The problem usually comes from the fact that they have a script with set questions and answers and cannot deal with anything that deviates even slightly off that. I think it won't be long before companies start bringing their call centres back to Wales and Scotland just to stop losing customers. It's almost a selling point now to say that your call centre is based in the UK!

As always, you get what you pay for!

Gary

Deleted member 2816 · Nov 24, 2004

The question of Indian call centre staff is a really difficult one.

I have lived in Spain, for instance, & speak the language, having lived & worked there for years. However, just because you have a grasp of the language, does not mean that you would be effective in a call centre there. You have to know the colloquialisms, the culture ... and the swear words!!

And this is something you can only get by living in the relevant country, and without it all sorts of misunderstandings & embarrassments can occur - not to mention waste of time.

I've had experience of Indian call centre staff too, and have to say that on more than one occasion I've just given up, for the above reasons.

10Yetis · Nov 24, 2004

Some really good points made in this string... this is why UKbusinessforum is better than others, no one wading in with ridiculous comments.

That being said, what the fcuk are you all talking about? Joke!

A little story I have from first hand experience....

There was a young man (we shall call him Andy*, ) who worked inthe utility industry. The company he worked for was regulated by a government department (we shall call them OFGEM*, ).

When there was power blackouts customers would ring in and ask when the power would come back on. Ofgem would ask the utility company to log all the customers ringing in so it could ask how the customer felt the call was handled. Ofgem then used the response to this as a way of working out the pricing structure that the company could use in the 5 yearly pricing review. i.e. say how much the company was allowed to earn in profits.

The company I worked for came out worse than any other company in the UK, even though our response rates were good, our workforce was excellent and the power restoration was nearly always done on time. We could not understand why this was happeneing, especially as one of our competitors outsourced it powerloss helpline to India.

After months of hard work from the PR and Marketing people we found out that we were getting comments that our Powerloss helpline operators sounded depressed and un-helpful! We knew this was not the case so we ran a focus group (and why not...) and found out that it was all to do with the accent. People apparently associated the brummy accent with miserable people!

Does this story help this thread... no! But it was good to get it off my chest.

What I would add to the thread is... £50 for a days outbound calls is relatively not much at all, especially compared to UK operations. If from that days outbound calls you get 1 positive enquiry, it becomes our (as the business owners) responsibilty to convert that enquiry into a sale!

I honestly believe (not used Kes's service) that you SHOULD get at least one enquiry for a full days out bound call (assumption based on normal UK outbound marketing / call centre).

If you at look at what Kess service is offering, and remember what it is.. which is a cheap outbound call centre I would have to stick by original comment that this seems a good service.

By the way... I agree entirely with the comments about non UK call centres (whilst being highly educated) being totally devoid of common sense. If you are ever bored one night ring HSBC and talk to them. If you laugh randomly in the middle of your sentance the operator will to, as they must have been told to laugh at customers jokes... man it is fun.

<do I get an award for longest post?>

PS.. Kess, you should consider a (UK based) PR service to represent you and put the best side across (I din't pay any of the posters to say this!.. except Thais, but thats another story)

* No real names were used in this story to protect the inncocent and uphold the law.

iceman · Nov 25, 2004

hi kess, see as i mentioned its true about the accents and lack of common sense. its a major problem. no matter which way you look at it. and everything that these people have wrote is also very true.
i also feel most of the indian call centre operations will be brought back to the UK in the very near future.

even individuals with mba's lack the basic common sense no matter how good their standard of english they just cannot have a conversation with people who speak english as their first language.

dont believe me ring the 3 call centre in india and say something that has got nothing to do with their service e.g about english weather. and you will understand what i am saying

anyway i wish u the best of luck.

winton50 · Nov 25, 2004

From the recipient's point of view one problem seems to be that the calls from India are so quiet. It can be very difficult to hear what the other person is saying with or without an Indian accent.

kess · Nov 25, 2004

Hi Again

Glad to see so many opinions on the topic (as expected)

Must agree with most of them, but would like to emphasise one point again that 10 Yetis has already touched upon:

honestly believe (not used Kes's service) that you SHOULD get at least one enquiry for a full days out bound call (assumption based on normal UK outbound marketing / call centre).

If you at look at what Kess service is offering, and remember what it is.. which is a cheap outbound call centre

Now its a pleasant surprise that 10 Yetis spotted this point. Although i agree with much of the points above i still felt that this service would be beneficial to Uk businesses for 2 reasons:

1. The point 10 Yetis has mentioned already. Basically this was the main reason for us to set the business up. We felt that if we can get at least one lead converted into business from a full day of calling then its £50 well spent. Now we are assuming that one lead a day as being a MINIMUM there of course can be more.

2. Agreeing with the accent problems, the main reason why i decided to offer this service was that i thought if i can address these common problems and offer a better service to UK companies then its a win/win situation. 90% of the calls i have had from india have irritated me too, but what struck me was that the 10% of the "good" calls i had to sell me a service WERE actually very good. The guys spoke excellent english (accent) and i tested some guys deliberatley to throw them off guard to get some social chat going, but they coped well. Now the point being that there are people out there who are good and these are the people that will handle calls for my service.

The bottom line is make the calling affordable, by using people who dont have the deficiencies mentioned above, and we are all happy.

kind regards

Kess
www.indiancallcentres.co.uk

Alpha · Nov 25, 2004

Kess

Having now browsed your website(you have obviously generated a curious interest in your services!!) I have noted that although you deal with the technical setup and cost saving sides of telemarketing you do not deal with very important items such as providing/sourcing relevant databases(an absolute neccesity in providing a quality telemarketing service),are you expecting people to obtain/filter these themselves?.
How you would ensure that companies registered with tps are not contacted and what service levels you would provide in sourcing quality leads(eg guarantee a minimum of, on average, one quality lead per day) ?
What steps would you take to get a basic understanding of a clients business so that straightforward questions can be answered by the telemarketer?
How would you develop scripts which your client would agree are suitable?

I was also interested in your peripheral services particularly in HR and accounts which I would be grateful if you could perhaps provide further details on these by seperate e mail.

daveashton · Nov 25, 2004

Love the idea in principle but along with the other comments, it is the logistics that made me switch back and have now found www.contactfoundry.com

When you are doing this form of lead generation input into sales pitches, objections and the continual improvement program and general management are major considerations.

I would also advocate quality of quantity which is another major issue along with this type of service.

SharpShooter · Jun 18, 2008

I must say I agree with Gary and many others re this issue.

How often do you hear people complaining about speaking to someone in the indian call centre and not getting anywhere with their problems? It is the accent, but also it may be cultural as well?.. I have spoken to a few clients in the past who have tried oursourcing to a cheaper provider in India only to find them pulling out or having to finish the project early and bring it 'home'...

We are only a small telemarketing agency based in the UK but all our telemarketers work from home - that's how we found the best way of cutting the costs down and our recent offer for the new clients was £100 per day. However none of our telemarketers are newbies in telesales, but have been in the industry for a while so all have quite a lot of experience, but we still do a lot of training, managing, reporting and 'keeping an eye on'. I don't know why not bring all our call centres to people's homes (obviously it will not be suited to all individuals, but it improves life/work balance! A much happier and satisfied telemarketer is a much better achiever

Diesel · Jun 18, 2008

I have a love of India (and its food

) and have even learnt a bit of Hindi. However Indian call centres are counter-productive in my view - my heart sinks when I realise its a far away centre answering. This is particularly the case following my last conversation with Prudential about my pension. The lady the other end could tell me so little regarding costs for a payment holiday and then what she told me was completely wrong.

One way to kill a conversation with an Indian call centre is to say something funny. It throws them so completely it is unreal. Anything off script or not pre-planned kills it.

I had to laugh at Ikea when my father in law was buying a kitchen. He had to verify his ID to the credit card Co by phone. Much time passed and communications were poor and getting nowhere - he then switched to Hindi and the job was a good un! Many customer s******s all round I'm afraid...

D

sm1 · Jun 18, 2008

Just to say this thread is around 3.5 years old

Diesel · Jun 18, 2008

sm1 said:
Just to say this thread is around 3.5 years old

LOL

Well did he make the county court with the idea or the Bahamas???

sm1 · Jun 18, 2008

Not an active member I don't think!

fosvageorgina · Jun 22, 2008

I totally agree with Gary, giving you telemarketing projects to an Indian Call centre is not worth it as they read from a script and have everything written down infront of them. The reason i know this is because i used to work for a telemarketing company and we had to liaise with an Indian call centre that were working on the same project as us for the client and to be honest theyre very hard to understand. The price maybe cheap and they work hard for their money and do speak good English, but to get good results in telemarketing i believe that a UK call centre/telemarketer is the only way. oh i have just realized that this post is years old!!! anyway hope all went well!!!

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