Chapter I: Introduction

With the expansion of technologies into all facets of life, call centers shifted away from the traditional application of handling long-distance switching to provide a variety of support services. This increased usage of call centers created a larger user base, which, along with the evolving price drop in required hardware, brought the price of call center establishment and operation down to the point where any organization with a need could acquire the necessary components to create a call center.

While the applications of call centers expanded rapidly since the eighties, the late nineties brought a technology that made call centers cheaper, more efficient, and versatile. Internet telephony dramatically altered the nature of call centers in both the way they operate and the functions they serve.

Today call centers can operate anywhere in the world by routing the calls through the internet. This has not only expanded the ability for centralized call centers to operate in any location with a sufficient amount of bandwidth, but the explosion of consumer subscriptions to broadband connections allow call centers to decentralize operations by utilizing agents wherever they may be located, independent of where the call center is located.

Even though a corporation has an efficient call center operation, call center consultants can still help to reduce overall expenditures. Call centers can drain a substantial amount off of a corporation’s bottom line. Even the most efficient call centers generally cost about $1 per minute to handle calls, which average four to five minutes per call.

Call center consultants can gauge how much operational decisions will affect a call center’s cost as well as determine ways to make the operation more efficient. Consultants can determine how much a change in services or a rate hike will cost in the terms of increased calls. This will help operations not only determine exactly how profitable the change will be, but how much the call center must ramp up logistics in order to meet an increased demand and the most efficient way to do that.

Customers are affected by the changes in different ways. A rate increase can be viewed differently by different types of customers depending on age, location, economics, and a variety of other factors. Consultants can also monitor the stress level in the voices of customers to measure the emotional state of the callers. With all of these factors, consultants can determine exactly how much each customer costs the call center operation.

Remote call centers can be a real bonus, no matter if you want to use your customer service and phone skills to develop your own call center agent service, or just want to increase your home business income until it starts to pay for itself.

Remote call centers offer larger companies the ability to receive call center operations on demand. These call centers offer their contracts flexible and seasonal staffs to meet the demands those companies require. Most operations can provide inbound and outbound call center operations and can switch on the fly using well designed branched scripting.

These call centers offer their customers the services of remote agents, many of whom work from home. The agents can set a flexible schedule, the call center can decentralize the physical location while still maintaining centralize supervising and administration, and contracts receive the flexibility to expand or contract operations as the situation needs.

Advantages of Providing Remote Call Center Services

There are several advantages of remote call centers for those who wish to set up their own home business: flexible hours, financial savings because of decreased transportation and wardrobe costs, time savings because it eliminates commuting, more family time, and being able to take your job with you if you move or travel once in a while. A good hourly rate and excellent benefits are typically offered, also.

What Qualities are Needed by Home Business Owners Who Want to Work at a Remote Center?

You must have good personal skills and be articulate, with the ability to think on your feet. A good speaking voice and basic customer service skills are needed. You must be able to memorize substantial volumes of material quickly – usually a 2-3 week training period – and you must be able to follow prepared scripts and procedures.

If there is an inside sales position that is of interest to you, you might need some phone sales or customer service experience behind you; technical or help desk positions may need technical expertise, advanced computer knowledge and/or mathematical skills. You won’t usually need a degree. The typical turnover rate is 60% or more, so this means that remote call centers are almost constantly hiring and have plenty of room for advancement available.

For the people who have these talents, remote may certainly be a home business actuality.

In today’s economy, it has become increasingly difficult for debt collection call centers to collect fees. Even as the efficiency of debt collection is reduced, consumers are increasingly using debt avoidance as a means of staving off personal economic collapse. Thus, the opportunities available to debt collection agencies is on the rise.

Many debt collectors are turning to predictive dialers and auto dialers as a means to make the debt collection operation more efficient, thus increasing revenues. This is achieved by increasing the number of individuals an agent can contact over time by reducing calls received by answering machines, decreasing the dialing time, and increasing the efficiency with witch the agent can interact with the debt collection database.

These systems increase the ratio at which an agent is able to connect with a live contact. They can also be programmed to leave an automated message if a contact’s answering machine takes the call. They also filter out calls that are busy, unanswered, or lines that no longer exist. The systems can record this information and be programmed to act appropriately. For example, if a contact’s home phone has been disconnected, the system can try that contact again later, using a work phone.

Modern predictive dialer and call center software systems have the ability to connect to multiple databases. The contact list can be in one database and an associated script inn another. The agent can use the dialer’s ability to interface with different database to directly change a contact’s information, enter in payment information, suggest current refinancing options, and a variety of other services.

Orion’s Razor predictive dialer and call center system offer these options and more. The Razor software is entirely network based. This allows agents to work from homes and gives agencies the ability to scale up and down as their business needs demand.

Finding other companies to do business with your organization is very important. Business-to-business sales, or B2B sales, are crucial to several companies’ profit margins and to how they are sitting in their business.

There are numerous instances that show how good B2B lead generation is essential. Several manufacturing businesses call for companies to have a variety of parts available to them. The makers of the parts really should institute themselves with well-matched manufacturers so they can benefit both companies. An additional example would be a financial firm needing computers. B2B lead generation will assist them in choosing the best computer vendor to match their needs.

The method of making it easier for compatible companies find each other is B2B lead generation. The B2B lead generation market is presently larger than ever. Business-to-business lead generation can be done many different ways. It is not very often that traditional lead generation procedures like direct mailing and telemarketing are used, but tactics like trade show presentations and advertisements in trade publications are more familiar.

Trade shows are around for the precise purpose of assisting businesses to find other compatible businesses. A company must put on an impressive presentation if they plan on benefiting at all from a trade show. A professional, entertaining, and informative presentation is ideal for generating leads. Also, it is crucial that the right people are at the presentation. You don’t want to waste a wonderful presentation on an under attended or inadequately organized trade show.

One of the most profitable business-to-business lead generation tactics is trade publication advertisements. These ads are directed right at people in the industry reading the publication. Advertising on the radio or in a major city newspaper is not as effective as this.

Businesses rely on B2B lead generation. In order for a company to be successful, it must be respected within its industry. All companies involved are benefited by B2B lead generation.

All predictive dialers work along comparable standards, but the structural design by which dialing is carried out can differ very much between companies. There are two basic kinds of predictive dialers:

Soft Dialers

Solutions that are software only use ISDN messaging, or a CTI link to supply call progress analysis for calls dialed. Software only dialers are frequently less expensive because they do not command costly telephony components, but in some cases can present a smaller amount of functionality than more customary "hard dialer" solutions, especially when it comes to sensing answering machines. A software dialer is usually connected to a vacant PBX system by the PBX CTI link. In quite a few cases a specialized "call classification" card is put into the PBX to execute call progress analysis, and answering machine detection.

Pros:

• Low cost, fewer components in overall solution
• Accommodating structural design works well in multi-site and distributed environments

Cons:

• Depends on the answering machine detection and call progress detection qualifications of the basic PBX/switch platform
• Numerous PBX's will not work with a soft dialer design
• Dependence on the CTI link of PBX means that if the PBX is improved or altered, the predictive dialer will predictably need improved or altered also to make sure that it is correctly certified for the proper CTI link version

Hard Dialers

Hardware dialers use dedicated telephony switches to carry out call progress analysis and answering machine detection. Those switches typically have 2 key kinds of connections, agent audio and external audio. The agent audio connections are typically basic T1/E1/ISDN etc. telephony durations that is connected right to an existing PBX (although other connection kinds that do not call for a PBX are available such as Analogue or VoIP connections). When a representative first logs in for the day the dialer will make a call from the switch straight to the phone on the representative's desk. This open phone call between the representative and the dialer switch is kept open from then on for the rest of the session. The next kind of connection is the external audio connection which is the that will be used for making outgoing calls. These connections are usually ISDN/T1/E1 connections direct to the PSTN. When an outbound call is answered, the call is instantly connected to an already open agent audio connection of the representative chosen to take the call.

Pros:

• Fewer telephony connections are required for an implementation using an existing PBX (in hard dialers external audio connections can go straight to the PSTN, for soft dialers these all need to be connected to the PBX).
• Since customary telephony connections are the only link between the PBX and the dialer, the dialer normally will not require upgrading corresponding to PBX/CTI etc, and the dialer is affected less by software changes/types
• Advanced answering machine and call progress detection talents
• Remote representative capabilities - hard dialers can connect to any phone, anywhere on the PSTN. Very appropriate for working at home or remote sites
• Appropriate for establishing multi-site "virtual" solutions - where numerous call centers can work together on shared campaigns
• Can be used with just about any PBX or ACD as customary telephony connections are used, instead of proprietary CTI connections

Cons:

• More costly, more suitable for bigger (min. 50 seats +) call centers
• The majority of hard dialers are intended for the US market. As a result the management of dialer activity to meet EU/UK policies is often complex.
  

The majority of telemarketing companies in recent times provide lead generation outbound telemarketing services for their clients. The biggest reason for this is that leads play a very important role in the achievement of a telemarketing campaign. If the lead generation outbound telemarketing services are given professionally, it will lead to productivity and success. However, if the lead generation outbound telemarketing services are done inadequately, it will bring depressing failure. So, you must keep in mind a thorough selection of lead generation services.

As indicated by the “2004 Response Rate Report” from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), reports that telemarketing has come to an end have been very much embellished. Telemarketing still sells more products than any of the other direct-response marketing methods, with a 5.78% response rate, even since the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry was formed.

“What we found was that in spite of a lot of talk about telemarketing’s end, people are still buying,” says Louis Mastria of the DMA. “About 66 million consumers bought at least once through telemarketing last year.”

Tim Searcy, American Teleservices Association CEO, says inadequate telemarketing industry pursuing was a main reason in forming the DNC Registry, which, indicated by the FTC, now holds 64 million telephone numbers. Still, companies are able to contact present customers and customers who have previously bought something with offers and information even if they put their names on the DNC list.

“Companies are surviving through better targeting. If you’re on the DNC list and are receiving telemarketing calls, you have an existing relationship with the people who call,” explains Searcy. “Because clutter is reduced, it’s easier to get through to the customer.”

Mastria is of the same opinion that companies that had been using telemarketing correctly from the beginning are still profiting. “A legitimate company isn’t going to waste time and money to keep calling someone who has said that they don’t want to be contacted.”

What are the telemarketing laws in the United States? The primary law is the National Do Not Call Registry (read our article on the DNC List Here)

From the FCC Website:

“In an effort to address a growing number of telephone marketing calls, Congress enacted in 1991 the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA restricts the making of telemarketing calls and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems and artificial or prerecorded voice messages. The rules apply to common carriers as well as to other marketers. In 1992, the Commission adopted rules to implement the TCPA, including the requirement that entities making telephone solicitations institute procedures for maintaining company-specific do-not-call lists.

On July 3, 2003, the FCC revised its TCPA rules to establish, in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a national Do-Not-Call registry. The national registry is nationwide in scope, covers all telemarketers (with the exception of certain nonprofit organizations), and applies to both interstate and intrastate calls. The registry went into effect on October 1, 2003, and is administered by the FTC. To reduce the number of “hang-up” and “dead air” calls consumers experience, the Commission’s telemarketing rules also contain restrictions on the use of autodialers and requirements for transmitting caller ID information.”

However, in addition to the DNC Registry there are indeed other laws dictating what call centers can and cannot do.

DNC FAQ:

• The DNC Registry only applies to residential lines. Businesses are not covered under the law.
• A person may still receive calls from political organizations.
• A person may still receive calls from charities.
• A person may still receive calls from those conducting surveys.
• A person may still receive calls from companies with which he or she has an existing business relationship for up to 18 months after his or her last purchase, payment, or delivery from it, unless person specifically asks the company not to call again.
• A person may still receive calls from a company up to three months after submitting an application or inquiry to that company, unless the company is specifically asked not to call.
• A person may still receive calls from bill collectors (either primary creditors or collection agencies.). These callers are, however, regulated by other laws, such as those limiting them to calling during “reasonable hours.” Some creditors may not call debtors who file for bankruptcy protection.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that require anyone making a telephone solicitation call to your home to provide his or her name, the name of the person or entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a telephone number or address at which that person or entity can be contacted. The original rules also prohibit telephone solicitation calls to your home before 8 am or after 9 pm, and require telemarketers to comply with any do-not-call request you make directly to the caller during a solicitation call. In June 2003, the FCC supplemented its original rules implementing the TCPA and established, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the national Do-Not-Call list.

Auto-Dialers (Outbound IVR)

Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems and Artificial or Prerecorded Voice Calls

The FCC has specific rules for automatic telephone dialing systems, also known as “autodialers.” These devices can be particularly annoying and generate many consumer complaints. The rules regarding automatically dialed and prerecorded calls apply whether or not you have registered your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list.

Autodialers can produce, store, and dial telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. They often place artificial (computerized) or prerecorded voice calls. The use of autodialers, including predictive dialers, often results in abandoned calls – hang-ups or “dead air.” Except for emergency calls or calls made with the prior express consent of the person being called, autodialers and any artificial or prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact numbers assigned to:

• any emergency telephone line;

• the telephone line of any guest or patient room at a hospital, health care facility, home for the elderly, or similar establishment;

• a paging service, wireless phone service (including both voice calls and text messages), or other commercial mobile radio service; or

• any other service for which the person being called would be charged for the call.

Calls using artificial or prerecorded voice messages – including those that do not use autodialers – may not be made to home phone numbers except for:

• emergency calls needed to ensure the consumer’s health and safety;

• calls for which you have given prior express consent;

• non-commercial calls;

• calls that don’t include or introduce any unsolicited advertisements or constitute telephone solicitations;

• calls by, or on behalf of, tax-exempt non-profit organizations; or

• calls from entities with which you have an EBR.

Caller Identification (ID)

If you have caller ID, a telemarketer is required to transmit or display its phone number and, if available, its name or the name and phone number of the company for which it is selling products. The display must include a phone number that you can call during regular business hours to ask that the company no longer call you. This rule applies even if you have an EBR with the company, and even if you have not registered your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list. Before these rules took effect, the words “private,” “out of area,” or “unavailable” might have appeared on the Caller ID display.