Call Center Scripting

Call Center Scripting

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A call center “expert” was just explaining to me why call center scripting has no place in the customer service environment. I mentioned that only BAD scripting and POOR delivery of the script has no place in the customer service environment. We agreed to disagree.

Call center scripting is a valuable tool. When used correctly, it helps a call center agent deliver the correct message, consistently and with confidence.

I know that call center scripting gets a bad rap. We’ve all received telemarketing calls from agents that are clearly reading from a script or have called a company for service and had to deal with a scripted customer service agent that could only say canned responses that where totally useless.

Is that a scripting issue? I think it’s most likely a training issue, a management issue or a mix of both.

When actors deliver their “scripts” in the movies, we sit and watch for two hours without once thinking to ourselves, wow, he really followed the script well. This is because good actors are professionals. They hone their skills so that the script sounds natural. As though the words where theirs. Same with a call center agent.

A scripted sounding agent is a product of lack of training, lack of desire or a mix of both. Usually caused by poor management or a client that does not want to pay for training and believes that agents can just be thrown into the deep end and learn to swim as they go.

Call center agents that sound scripted need more training. They need to understand the business they represent, their customers and the call flow. They need to memorize their scripts. They should know that script inside and out. They need to understand where the emphasis needs to be placed and the pace necessary in delivering. They should practice it until people believe it’s their own words coming out of their mouths.

But what about customers questions? What about building empathy? I have scripts for that too haha! I’m just kidding but just partially. I do find that most customers questions tend to repeat themselves over and over. For this I would suggest creating FAQ (frequently Asked Questions) scripts and you guessed it, have the agents know those just as well as the other material.

In coaching customer service, listening skills are key. There are many opportunities within a conversation to build like and trust with the customer. Even though we have a script for agents to follow, if agents are trained well, they can find “bonding opportunities” with their customers. In fact, it should be encouraged that agents find these opportunities within the call if only for a moment.

A script takes agents on the road from start to finish of the call in the most efficient way possible. Learning how to take a quick detour on the trip to bond with the customer is the icing on the cake for great customer experience.

Call center scripting is designed to scale a great message across a large group of agents. When used correctly, it offers consistent and measurable results and most importantly, great customer service!

GuateCall is a nearshore contact center located in Guatemala Central America/ Latin America. Our contact center solutions offers multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and its services in voice, chat or email in both English and Spanish, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com .

call center outsourcing

call center outsourcing

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Call center outsourcing helps businesses deliver best in class services to their clients and prospects. Heavy competition and reduced margins are becoming today’s norms and given that, companies are looking for a competitive advantage. Call center outsourcing companies help businesses be more competitive, allowing them to focus on their core competencies. Call center outsourcing gives companies the flexibility they need to focus on what they do best and still deliver a high touch and effective service to their clients and prospects through the use of a call center outsourcing company.

Businesses have major investments and decisions to make when setting up call centers to help with customer interaction in-house. The first question is do they have the experience necessary to set up a call center? If they do that’s great! If not, the first risk is hiring the right person to manage the whole call center setup process. After that, there are plenty of needs such as experienced call center management, call center technology, call center agents, the space necessary for today as well as considerations for growth. There is training, retraining, HR, QA, supervisors, payroll, benefits, taxes, labor laws and the list goes on and on. This is why the majority of companies, large and small choose to use call center outsourcing services.

Call center outsourcing has major benefits such as:

  • Experienced management
  • Experienced agents
  • Low start up cost
  • built in infrastructure
  • scalability
  • Latest technology
  • HR and recruiting departments
  • Experienced Supervisors & QA Staff
  • Bilingual Capabilities

The key to successful call center outsourcing success is to understand your business needs, be able to articulate your vision and team up with a call center outsourcing company that shares your vision and will do whatever it takes to help your company succeed!

Part of helping your company succeed is to make sure that you get the most value for your money. Call center outsourcing companies range from very inexpensive offshore call center locations to US call center outsourcing locations that can reach $28 an hour or even more.

Finding the right balance of price and quality services is crucial for success. This is why we believe using GuateCall, our nearshore call center outsourcing solution will be of great benefit. We are nearshore which means you have access to talented agents that are less expensive than US agents but have similar if not better abilities. This gives a company the financial flexibility to hire the correct amount of agents necessary to give the best possible customer experience.

GuateCall has been in business for over a decade and have consistently become the best performing call center outsourcing provider for our clients year after year. Our CSAT scores as well as our statistics have been #1 of each of our customers month after month. We set the standards that other call center outsourcing centers and even in house call center teams strive to achieve. Our enthusiasm and desire to help our customers creates an environment that is conducive to high achievement.

When evaluating cost, quality, service, flexibility, scalability, technology, experience and culture, GuateCall comes out ahead of our competition. We reduce overhead and invest in paying our employees hire salaries than other call center outsourcing companies which reduces turnover for our customers. We invest heavily in technology and redundancy to make sure our service offerings are reliable and consistent. We also constantly reward our agents on a job well done through public recognition and monetary incentives. This keeps our employees happy and motivated.

Are you looking for bi-lingual call center agents as well? The US Hispanic population is a major consumer group that is growing in size and income. Companies would be wise to consider this market when looking to grow sales.

GuateCall, Our bi-lingual call center outsourcing company, is located nearshore in Guatemala, Central America. Guatemala is a major call center outsourcing destination for the largest fortune 100 businesses. This gives us a large pool of experienced and talented bi-lingual agents in the local call center outsourcing industry. We select from the top 20% of that work pool to work with our customers. This gives our customers the best call center outsourcing experience as they work hand in hand with a talented and experienced team that has its sole focus on the success of the business.

Call center outsourcing services include:

  • Inbound customer service
  • Web-Chat
  • E-mail services
  • Market Research
  • Appointment Setting
  • Retention
  • Cross Sale & Upsale
  • Answering Services
  • B2B & B2C Services
  • Outbound offerings

There are lots of call center outsourcing companies to choose from. The key is to find a provider that best delivers on your needs. That aligns with your vision and that can build a lasting relationship with your business.

As a premier call center outsourcing company, We strive to find creative ways of improving processes and use technology to improve current systems. Our call center outsourcing will improve your business success by using our experience and award winning team while saving you money in the process. Give us a try!

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish call center services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and our outsourced call center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

 

 

 

English Spanish Call Center: Outsourced Bilingual Inbound Customer Service

English Spanish Call Center: Outsourced Bilingual Inbound Customer Service

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Outsourced Bilingual Inbound Customer Service to our English Spanish Call Center

Outsourcing bilingual English and Spanish call center inbound customer service involves planning, implementation and constant monitoring to maintain the highest level of service possible. Outsourcing to a company that specializes in high quality bilingual customer care is imperative.

At GuateCall, we continually look for ways to improve your customer’s experience and have consistently rated as the highest performing outsource provider to our customers. Our QA team live monitors our call center agents and looks for areas of opportunity when giving feedback. Sometimes just a high five for a job well done makes all the difference.

Inbound customer service can come from multiple channels such as:

  • Phone calls
  • Web chat support
  • Email services
  • Social Media interactions

Delivering a great customer experience starts with proper planning and implementation. GuateCall has been in business for over ten years and our management has led customer service teams for well over twenty years. This experience creates a clear understanding of the value of the customer and the need to go above and beyond.

U.S. vs NearShore Outsourcing Services 

The U.S. based outsourcing provider is a great option for companies to outsource with. One of the biggest setbacks with outsourcing in the U.S. is the high turnover rate of call center employees. Also, the price of doing business with a U.S. outsourcing call center is typically between $23 to $30 an hour. This makes outsourcing the correct amount of call center agents a bit challenging.

At GuateCall, we become your brand advocates. We are able to service your clientele with our bilingual agents in both English and Spanish for one competitive price. GuateCall’s Nearshore call center is located in Guatemala. Just south of Mexico, Guatemala is known for its scenic landscape, friendly culture, warm service and robust nearshore call center services industry. The coffee is amazing also, but we’ll leave that for another discussion 😉  The Guatemala inbound customer service industry has consistently received accolades from the biggest corporations in the U.S.

Being nearshore allows companies to outsource to a highly trained bilingual staff, while significantly reducing the cost per agent. This will give your company the ability to dedicate the correct amount of agents to best service your customer’s needs.

Bilingual Customer Service Agent recruiting

Delivering a great customer experience starts with great customer service representatives. At GuateCall, we hire the top 20% of the market. We have a great reputation among agents in the call center industry in Guatemala which helps recruit staff quickly.

If you have a need to outsource all or part of your inbound call center services such as customer care, order taking, order processing, retention, appointment setting, web chat support and email response services, give us a call. You’ll be glad you did!

 

A DIME A DOZEN-How to Choose a Bilingual Inbound Customer Service Call Center Outsourcer!

A DIME A DOZEN-How to Choose a Bilingual Inbound Customer Service Call Center Outsourcer!

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Inbound customer service outsourcing call centers are so plentiful, they seem as though they are a dime a dozen. Many countries have inbound call centers that will help you with the outsourcing of your customer service support, email support, web chat support as well as back office services.

What makes inbound customer service outsourcing support different from one country to the other and one outsourcing call center to another outsource call center?

When deciding on a location for outsourcing your bilingual inbound customer service and support, consider the following:

  • Country
  • Cultural affinity
  • Cost
  • Size of outsource call center
  • Management

Choosing a country when outsourcing inbound customer service that is in close proximity to your target market helps increase face to face interaction between your team and the outsource provider. Shorter flights are not only more cost effective, but are less draining on your employees. The similar time zone is also a major benefit to increasing communication between your company and the outsource call center provider. Email response is faster and a quick phone call, even multiple times a day, is easily managed.

Cultural affinity plays a major role when selecting an inbound phone support outsourcer for customer service calls. When outsourcing to nearshore outsourcing call centers, the agents working in those centers are familiar with their nearshore neighbors and most likely have family and friends that live in the U.S. and Canada. They are also highly influenced by North American TV, music as well as other media. This influence greatly increases bonding on customer service phone calls.

Cost control does not have to mean a reduction in customer service. Spending the time to find the right outsource call center provider helps control costs, while looking for ways to increase your customer service experience. Inbound customer service outsource call centers located Nearshore (close to the U.S.) offer a significant savings to their U.S. and Canadian outsource providers. More so, they also offer bilingual services, such as Spanish, usually at no additional expense. Nearshore inbound customer support outsourcing can also be cost controlled by a mix of other services such as email response and web chat response. These services are usually offered in both English and Spanish. Other languages are also available.

Who says size doesn’t matter? 🙂  A key to finding the right inbound outsource call center partner is deciding on the size of the company you want to work with. There are multiple call center sites in different nearshore locations offering phone support, email response, web chat support and BPO services. Many have well over 1000 seats per center. There is also the smaller, more nimble call centers that run from 100 to 500 seats. For medium to smaller companies, these size centers have the ability to offer a more personalized customer service experience while still being large enough to be technologically advanced and current in the latest outsourcing technology and processes.

Management is a key element in the outsourcing process. It’s very important that management’s style from both the customer and the outsource provider share the same vision and common beliefs when it comes to providing customer service support. Having a clear understanding of the targets needing to be achieved is a given. A good outsource management team will also find creative solutions and find ways to help reduce overall cost to benefit ratios. Better yet a good outsource provider will have a team learn the business and help suggest ways to increase revenue while maintaining costs to net a higher revenue to cost benefit.

GuateCall has built a reputation of delivering high end bilingual English and Spanish call center and BPO services from Guatemala, Central America. The Multi channel services offered include but are not limited to phone, email, online chat and social media response. GuateCall offers its services to companies in the United States, Canada as well as throughout Latin America in countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and a host of other Central and South American Countries. The key to GuateCall’s success is its ability to become an extension of the brand it represents and instilling a can do attitude within the culture of the company. This helps build a great customer experience for both the end consumer as well as the outsourcing client.

GuateCall is located just a short 3 hour flight from Multiple destinations in the United States, such as Miami, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Newark and Atlanta. This major convenience allows for more face to face contact opportunities with our clients.  With its beautiful scenery and friendly people, Guatemala is an ideal destination to mix both business and pleasure.

Another great benefit to the bilingual Guatemalan call center agent is their accent neutrality. It’s a given that we employ agents that are easily understood in English, but did you know that Guatemala is famous for its accent neutral Spanish? No wonder Guatemala has become a hot spot for learning Spanish by so many tourists. Our bilingual agents can help your business tap the $1.2 trillion U.S. Hispanic consumer market by being able to communicate with your clients not only with an easily understood Spanish accent but with a cultural connection as well.

Guatemala is a major player in the inbound customer service contact center outsourcing space and provides contact center support to many of the top Fortune 500 and 100 companies in the U.S.  This leads to a tremendous pool of qualified, well versed employees in all ranges of work from inbound customer service, click to chat services as well as email response and all types of back office work.  Needless to say, at GuateCall, we target the top 20 percent of the contact center workforce in Guatemala. This gives us access to a well versed, highly tenured and skilled staff. Since GuateCall is not a public company, as most of the call centers in Guatemala are, we have the ability to cut a lot of the fat from our competitors prices and offer the highest standards at a fair price.

Isn’t it about time you learned more?

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and Call Center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

 

Outsourced Call Center Services – Top 3 Reasons To Outsource

Outsourced Call Center Services – Top 3 Reasons To Outsource

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Outsourced call center services are at an all time high. Customer’s expectations are at an all time high as well. Businesses are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition and meet their customer’s needs. Outsourced call center services allows companies the ability to cater to customer’s expectations while maintaining the flexibility needed to control costs.

Companies must find outsourced call center services companies to meet the demands of their business.

Outsourcing companies are plentiful. They key is to find the outsourced call center services company that is the best fit for where the business is now and its plans for the future. The outsourced call center services company you select needs to be managed with the same priorities as you would have in house and communication between management and employees must be fluid.

Most larger companies choose to outsource their customer service, web-chat, back office services and other call center services. There are multiple reasons for this. One of the main reasons is the ability to spend their resources on increasing their brand awareness and allow specialized call center services companies to help with customer interaction. Also due to their size, they can use different outsourced call center services companies in different parts of the world to best maximize their cost to value ratio.

Today’s outsourcing environment and more specifically technology, has helped level the playing field in the outsourced call center services space.

Smaller companies now have the same access to outsourced call center services as larger businesses. As technology advanced, smaller boutique outsourced call center services providers have jumped into the market and have created the ability to help service smaller companies. Smaller businesses now have the ability to take advantage of outsourced call center services which were not around just a few years ago. With more call center outsourcing companies using cloud services, it is now a more simple process to have outsourced call center services used in a more transparent manner. Live call monitoring, QA calibrations, real time data entry and reporting are just a few of the ways that companies can feel more secure and part of the process when it comes to working with call center outsourcing services companies.

Here a few benefits of outsourced call center services:

Experienced management

Today’s companies are under more pressure than ever to do more with less. It’s great to know that when outsourcing to a reputable outsourced call center services company, you not only get a great call center agent, but an entire infrastructure of management that helps from recruiting staff, to motivating them, to monitoring the quality of calls and taking care of things such as payroll, absenteeism and other employee related issues. Just as important, an experienced management team spend time to understand your business and help advise and implement ways to benefit the utmost from the outsourcing relationship.

 Scalability

Call centers focus a lot of time, effort and resources to hire the best talent. A dedicated HR staff is constantly recruiting talent that fits their client’s needs. With larger spaces and room for growth, call centers can quickly ramp up when a customer needs increases. More so, since ramping up is a normal occurrence in the outsourced call center services industry, management is well versed and capable to handle the needs of their client quickly and efficiently.

Cost

Lets face it, the cost to run an efficient call center is high. The rent, maintaining the facilities, equipment as well as the operations management and staffing are a major drain on a company’s budget. Call centers have the benefit of spreading these expenses across their entire client base allowing for a more affordable solution. There is also the cost of salaries, health insurance, retirement plans, lunches, prizes, the list goes on and on.

When comparing costs of outsourced call center services, companies can choose outsourcing onshore to a local area call center. They can outsource offshore to drastically reduce the cost of labor or they can choose nearshore, greatly reducing cost while still having most of the onshore conveniences.

GuateCall, which is located nearshore in Central America, is perfectly situated to help your business. Located just south east of Mexico in Guatemala, we offer high end bilingual English Spanish call center services and superior customer interactions while reducing costs by 30-50%. We offer inbound, outbound and a blended service, as well as web chat and email response. Our multicultural, fully bilingual staff will help deliver the high touch service customer’s have grown to expect while still controlling costs with our lower labor rate in Guatemala.

At GuateCall, we pride ourselves on being an extension of your brand and working hand in hand with your team to meet company targets while upholding the vision of your company. Take the opportunity to reach out to us and see how GuateCall will help your business grow!

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and our outsourced call center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

Outsourced Bilingual English Spanish Call Center Support – GuateCall

Outsourced Bilingual English Spanish Call Center Support – GuateCall

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GuateCall’s bilingual English Spanish call center services will help you penetrate the U.S. Hispanic market and build a loyal Spanish speaking customer base. Whether you need inbound customer service, web chat or email support, our fluent Spanish call center agents are here to help. Our Spanish call center also helps by providing outbound services to generate new customers as well as other services such as market research and follow up calls.

The U.S. Hispanic population has an immense buying power and is growing rapidly, not only because of its size, but because its average household income is growing considerably. Major companies have focused on this population for years and other savvy companies are now targeting this market as well. GuateCall’s bilingual English Spanish call center support is prime to help you reach this growing market. GuateCall offers a best in class outsourced call center support experience. We do this through our American owned and run bilingual English Spanish call center support center located nearshore in Guatemala, Central America.

The U.S. Hispanic population is now over 57 million people and growing.  In 2015, Hispanics controlled $1.3 trillion in buying power, an amount larger than the GDP of Australia or Spain, according the Selig Center for Economic Growth, up 167% since the turn of the century. The increase is more than twice the 76% growth in non-Hispanic buying power during the same period. The center’s projections show U.S. Hispanic buying power continuing this trend, reaching $1.7 trillion by 2020.

Worldwide, the Spanish speaking population is growing and with the developed internet connectivity that is now well established in Latin American countries especially Mexico, Guatemala and the rest of Central America as well as South America, the need for Spanish call center support has never been greater. The Hispanic population and more specifically, the younger Hispanic population is very brand aware and love to shop. They use their mobile phones as their preferred method of shopping online. They love seeing brands speaking their language and appeal to their culture. It creates a unique connection between them and the brand which translates to loyal customers and a large revenue stream.

When picking a bilingual Spanish call center to help service the Hispanic population, the choice between using a US based call center and a nearshore call center become clear. The obvious choice would be to look at nearshore call centers. Here are a few of the great benefits to outsourcing nearshore to a bilingual English Spanish call center company:

  • The ability to have a large supply of native Spanish speakers to service your customers.
  • No need to pay the premium wages for Spanish call center agents like in the US. This is a significant savings that can range from 30-50%.
  • Guatemalan Spanish Call center agents in particular have a very neutral Spanish so they are easily understood by all Spanish speakers.

GuateCall’s bilingual nearshore English Spanish call center is perfectly situated to help you penetrate and service the Spanish speaking Hispanic market. Guatemalan Spanish Call Centers are so successful because they are known throughout the world as having a very neutral, easily understood Spanish accent. No matter where the Spanish speaker is from, our Spanish call center agents will be easily understood.

GuateCall’s Spanish call center agents can help you with maintaining and or creating ways to target and service the Hispanic population. Some of the offerings for our Spanish call center services include:

  • Inbound Spanish Call Center Support
  • Outbound Spanish Call Center Services
  • Spanish Customer Service
  • Spanish Up-Sell and Cross-Sell
  • Spanish Retention Programs
  • Spanish E-mail Services
  • Spanish Web Chat Solutions (Click to Chat)
  • Spanish Business to Business Programs (including Demand Generation & Appointment Setting)
  • Spanish Market Research
  • Spanish Satisfaction Surveys
  • Spanish Lead Generation and Qualification

At GuateCall, we pride ourselves on being an extension of your brand. We work hand in hand with our customers to meet targets while upholding the vision and mission of the company. Take the opportunity to reach out to us and see how GuateCall will help your business grow!

How to Choose the Right Outsourced Call Center?

How to Choose the Right Outsourced Call Center?

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There are so many options to choose from in the outsourcing industry today, how does a company decide in who’s hands to put their customer interaction?

Usually, when speaking with companies or industry experts, the first question we hear is what do you charge for bilingual inbound customer service support? There is usually a target range broken down to some country average such as Guatemala is X Dollars per hour, Mexico is Y Dollars per hour and the U.S. is Z Dollars per hour etc etc.

My thought is, how long is a piece of string? What kind of support?  What level of knowledge does the agent need to give the customer experience necessary? What level of English does he or she need to have? What quantity of agents and how many hours? In what way can our call center be a difference maker in the customer’s business? The list goes on and on.

So how to choose? Obviously price plays an important role in any buying decision. We always want to strike a balance of affordability and high end service. The key is to give great value. At Guatecall, we positioned ourselves as offering a higher level of service while staying in a more affordable price range. We did this by locating our call center nearshore in Guatemala, Central America.

Being nearshore and employing people from the top 20% of our robust contact center industry, mixed with our can do attitude and environment, allows us to give our customers great service and value, our employees a higher pay as well as give back to our community.

Given all that, you might say, great but other companies say similar things. That’s true and some might also actually do it ;-).

When I read about companies and what they speak about when it comes to customer experience, the word passion pops up often. But what is this passion about? Every company is, or atleast was, passionate about something. The key is to understand what the company is passionate about and if we, as an outsourcer, share the same passions and set of values. If so, we are well on our way to a mutually beneficial relationship. If not, well that’s why there is chocolate, vanilla and every other flavor under the sun.

By aligning your company with our Latin American bilingual English Spanish call center, you will be well on your way to scaling your business and increasing revenue. Our call center is well versed in inbound and outbound services, web chat (click to chat), email response, surveys and other critical business needs. With our aligned passion and can do attitude, the sky is the limit! How can we help you succeed?

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish call center services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and Call Center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

Guatemala’s Bilingual English Spanish Call Centers – GuateCall

Guatemala’s Bilingual English Spanish Call Centers – GuateCall

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GuateCall has built a reputation of delivering high end bilingual English Spanish call center and BPO services from Guatemala, Central America. The Multi channel services offered include but are not limited to phone, email, online chat and social media response. GuateCall offers its services to companies in the United States, Canada as well as throughout Latin America. The key to GuateCall’s success is its ability to become an extension of the brand it represents and instilling a can do attitude within the culture of the company. This helps build a great customer experience for both the end consumer as well as the outsourcing client.

GuateCall is located just a short 3 hour flight from Multiple destinations in the United States, such as Miami, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Newark and Atlanta. This major convenience allows for more face to face contact opportunities with our clients.  With its beautiful scenery and friendly people, Guatemala is an ideal destination to mix both business and pleasure.

Guatemala is a major player in the contact center space and provides contact center support to many of the top Fortune 500 and 100 companies in the U.S.  This leads to a tremendous pool of qualified, well versed employees in all ranges of work from inbound customer service, click to chat services as well as email response and all types of back office work.  Needless to say, at GuateCall, we target the top 20 percent of the contact center workforce in Guatemala. This gives us access to a well versed, highly tenured and skilled staff. Since GuateCall is not a public company, as most of the call centers in Guatemala are, we have the ability to cut a lot of the fat from our competitors prices and offer the highest standards at a fair price.

Another great benefit to the bilingual Guatemalan call center agent is their accent neutrality. It’s a given that we employ agents that are easily understood in English, but did you know that Guatemala is famous for its accent neutral Spanish? No wonder learning Spanish in Guatemala has become such a hot spot for many tourists. Our bilingual agents can help your business tap the $1.2 trillion U.S. Hispanic consumer market by being able to communicate with your clients not only with an easily understood Spanish accent but by connecting with your clients via the same mentality and culture. You don’t need to be limited by the staff and space you have at your current location. Our contact center outsourcing solutions enables your business to partner with a preferred contact center that has consistently out performed our customers’ current in house and out sourced solutions across multiple platforms.

Isn’t it about time you learned more?

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Nearshore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and Call Center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

 

Belief in the Concept!

Belief in the Concept!

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In the previous post we spoke about how a contact center interaction can essentially make or break relationships with customers and/or potential prospects.  We spoke about how many call centers whether on shore, near shore or off shore need to improve their game both through infrastructure as well as processes and personnel.

We touched on the concept that millennials working in call centers today are feeling the pressure of management on one side and customers on the other.  They are looking to earn an honest living and are looking to do just enough to maintain their position and earn a paycheck.

Being that these representatives are the face of the company, we surely expect maximum effort and genuine desire from our agents on every contact whether by phone, chat or email.  So how can we achieve this ideal?  How do we motivate the age group that seems to be unmotivated?

At GuateCall, our Central American contact center in Guatemala, we believe that our people need to be inspired and motivated by a higher purpose.  A higher paycheck is obviously a great place to start and the bigger the pay the more motivation it brings. The question becomes is it the sustainable type of motivation that looks to benefit, not just the “I”, but our customer and our customer’s customer?

We found that a key element in meeting and exceeding our customer’s expectations is by applying the three Beliefs. These beliefs are at the core of our training and are constantly referred to throughout the call center.  They have become part of the culture of our company.

The Three Beliefs are:

–Belief in the Concept

-Belief in the System

-Belief in Yourself

Today we will be discussing the first belief, Belief in the Concept. A typical customer trains our trainers on their company, what they do, how they do it, how long they’ve been doing it and all their systems and processes.  These trainings are obviously a key to understanding our customer’s needs and how to accomplish the tasks necessary.   When these trainings are completed and we establish GuateCall’s trainings to our employees, we have our trainers and managers look at the customer and figure out the “why”.  The “why” this company is needed and what purpose do they serve?  How they benefit the life of their customers and what makes them a “needed” part of the customer’s life?

Once this is figured out, sometimes it could be a bit challenging ;-), we apply these ideas to our training and our Quality Assurance. We also create interactive training sessions that allow our trainees as well as our seasoned agents to come up with their own ideas as to why this company is needed by their clients. They also come up with new benefits that maybe have not been thought of before. We then consistently remind our team about them.  These reminders could come from a team lead mentioning it on the floor, a QA analyst messaging the team or just a quick who has a new benefit they’d like to share with the team message. (Many times those get rewarded with a treat or a round of applause.)

It’s crucial to get a strong buy in from the agents about who they represent and their importance to society.  The key to making this a core belief for the agent is the consistency in which it is discussed.  All ideas are great, but could be easily put in the back of the agents mind if not brought up consistently.

Our next Belief system is the Belief in the System.  This will be discussed in a future post so please look for it on www.guatecall.com .

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and Call Center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

 

 

 

It’s Not The Call Center – It’s The Company

It’s Not The Call Center – It’s The Company

News

Companies are spending lots of time and money trying to increase customer engagement and sales.  There are new roles, departments, endless meetings.  There are new tools, new metrics, gamification, QA structures, bonuses, Multi-lingual service. The list goes on and on.

Yet with all of that, customers are generally dissatisfied with the service they receive when reaching out to companies via phone or chat.  More than that, customer service representatives are generally just as excited to give exceptional service as the client is to reach out to the company (a bit of sarcasm).

So why is this the case?  First thing that comes to my mind is Classical conditioning, think Pavlov’s dogs.  If you’re not familiar with this term, look up Pavlov’s dogs on the internet.  It’s a study done in the late 1800s by a Russian physiologist named Ivan Pavlov. (Pause here and read up on it if you don’t already know.) Customers today are conditioned to assume they will receive an uninterested, unknowledgeable, scripted customer service representative on the phone or web-chat and the customer service agent is assuming they will get more complaints, more issues and generally just wants to do good enough to hit his metrics, get good QA scores and make a living.

So what is a business to do?  How do we break this cycle?

From a call center operations perspective it’s nice to think that the reason that people don’t do what you need them to do, or conform to your standards, or make good choices is simply that they don’t know enough.  If the problem is a lack of knowledge than its easy to give more training, give them a couple of tests to make sure they got it and you’re good to go.

What about those dreaded employees who constantly show up a few minutes late to their station to log in? Oh, that’s easy you say. Just let them know that being late isn’t allowed.  Give a DP. Threaten to fire them if this happens. It tends to fix the issue.

The thing is all these and more are symptoms of a bigger issue. Your reps most likely view their job as a temporary necessity.  They want to do what is expected and get paid.  They don’t necessarily care about the same things that the company cares about and the reason they don’t care isn’t that they don’t know what you know or can’t figure out how to show up to work five minutes earlier.

The challenge for a company is to understand their call center IS their touch-point with the customer.  It is the key to customer experience and must be treated, not as a necessary evil that constantly gets budget cuts, but as a marketing opportunity that can be utilized to increase company revenue and customer satisfaction.

A great way to start making a change is to educate our people about our belief systems.  What is it that we care about as a company? What DRIVES us, what’s our PURPOSE  and WHY it matters.  This coupled with great training, good pay, fun atmosphere and a SINCERE caring for our people, not only in words but by action, will help drive a change in the culture of the contact center. Invest in the contact center and watch a truly measurable difference occur.  Not in your KPI’s, but  in your company’s bottom line.

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English / Spanish services located In Guatemala, Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222  or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com