Thursday, October 22, 2009

Should You Use an Overseas Call Center?

Increasing numbers of corporations are looking to overseas call centers as a way to cut costs in a tough economy. Aside from the obvious benefit of lower costs, outsourcing your customer service calls can offer a number of advantages to your business.

Call centers, especially those located overseas in countries such as India, take the need to compete with their counterparts in the U.S. very seriously. Many hire well educated and computer savvy workers and provide customer service training from top companies. These centers have acquired substantial bandwidth and have established strong connections to the global networks using satellite links and undersea optic cable.

The best of overseas call centers have committed to providing the best customer service in the industry. It is what they do, and they do it well.

Your business can reap the benefits of their expertise, and at the same time eliminating the expense of establishing your own call center and continually hiring and training workers.



A few things to look for when choosing a call center:

  • Customer references that verify the call center’s reliability and professionalism.

  • An understanding of your particular industry.

  • The ability to forecast and schedule for expected call volume.

  • Technology such as performance management and data analytics.

  • The ability to make changes and readily adapt to market conditions.

  • Above all, excellent customer service.










Sunday, October 11, 2009

Is It Time You Outsourced Your Payroll?

If your business has grown to the point where this question is necessary, kudos to you.

Of course, now you realize that in order to keep your business growing, and to maximize profits, you will need to spend your time on things other than bookkeeping.

One way to determine the best solution for your payroll needs is to look at what other successful businesses are doing in that regard.

A recent survey of over 800 businesses overseas found that 86% of these successful companies deemed it wise to outsource their payroll because of several advantages they received by doing so. Many felt that outsourcing gave them more control. It allows managers to plan and analyze this area of business, and to quickly implement changes when necessary. These companies also found outsourcing to be a more cost-effective means of handling their payroll.

Benefits of outsourcing your payroll:

  • You are free to manage other aaspects of your business such as customer service.

  • Payroll service providers can offer professional advise on difficult payroll issues.

  • The cost of outsourcing will likely be less than hiring an in-house payroll staff.

  • You don’t have to worry about your bookkeeper getting a new job and leaving you without payroll help.

  • Many complicated payroll tasks are an automated part of payroll services.

  • Outsourcing your payroll allows you to offer direct deposit to your employees.

  • A payroll service can be an invaluable help when it comes to paying taxes accurately and avoiding tax problems.

  • It eliminates the headaches involved with trying to use payroll software.


If your company is large, and you decide to go with payroll software as an alternative to outsourcing, you will you will need to hire payroll staff to run the program and deal with the many complicated payroll scenarios that can arise in a business with many employees.

If your business is smaller, you could probably choose a less complex software to meet your needs, but you will still need an employee or two who are adept at applying all of the payroll functions. Using payroll software does cost less initially than outsourcing your payroll, but you will want to weigh that advantage against the time spent implementing and using it.

Outsourcing your payroll easily solves all of these issues. Most business owners who make the move toward outsourcing find that their only regret is not having done it sooner..