USB, Analog Or Multimedia Headsets Whats Better
Been using all threes of these headsets for years and now really thinking what is the best ones that you can use because I have tried all of them and at the end of the day it comes down to your budget because you are going to get what you pay for as always. When I first started out here operating a call center I thought that analog was the best out there because that is what I was sold on and soft phones for computers were just starting to come out so I bought a bunch of dial pads and analog headsets costing some thing like $60 dollars each and a Diguim E1 card and a channel bank. One of the reasons that we used this type of set up was I was thinking is to have each station with a port with voice and then a port for internet but later on learned that this was something that was not needed and now I have about 100 dial pad’s and headsets setting in my office at my house that is pretty much junk. Now then we made our way into the USB faz’s because then I was hearing it was the way to go and I way able to buy USB Platonic headsets for the same cost of one of the analog headset’s so it worked out. Later on while using this should be nice headset’s I found out that they were very easy to break and only had a 6 months warranty which cost me thousands of dollars because I kept having to buy new ones every month and I tried a ton of different USB head sets which I have talked in my other post about what the best headset you can buy. This month been using multimedia headsets because they are allot cheaper some thing like $10 dollars a headset and have been working great which has been starting to make me think twice about getting the USB headset because they cost any where from $30 to $100 dollars depending on the brand that you buy.
For get about analog headset, they are total not worth it and they cost way more then both USB and multimedia headset’s.
I would suggest starting your new agents out on multimedia headsets for about a month and then once they are starting to look like they are long term then go and buy them one of these headsets and then make the agents buy them over the course of 6 months and then the headsets are not going to cost you a dime.
Philippines Call Center MANAGEMENT!
Please take note I have not edited this yet but will do tomorrow.
There are a shit load of call centers in there Philippines doing all types of project’s from inbound to outbound and many other things you would never think of outsourcing. When you are outsourcing to a call center here in the Philippines you have many things to consider when you are going to pick a company, quality, price and management. Being here in the Philippines for the last 7 years I have learned about everything that you can about working in a call center managing a call center and operating one. The last couple of years being hear I have gone through about everything that you could think of from dialer’s, soft phones, VOIP, managing agent, offices, getting around, lawyers and a shit load of other stuff that you are going to have to learn on your own, maybe, if you are not stupid.
Now here is the most important thing I would ever teach you on this site is management!!!!!
Any of these sites or companies that have the work from home bull shit is bull shit, there is now way to over see your staff because they are in another country at home with family, kid’s and a freaking roster in the back ground.
Is that some thing you would like to have your clients here in the back ground while they are talking to you customers?
You need foreign management this is the most important thing when you are outsourcing your business or operations to the Philippines, in the office they need some one that can look after your staff and make sure they are doing it the way that you would do in a first world country because this is a third would country which is very different from a first world country no matter what any one says and if they say its the same as the States or some other place they are full of shit, other then India and you don’t want to outsource there.
You don’t need some one with a masters in business management degree you need some one that thinks like you or brought up in a similar way that you were because here in the Philippines the way people are brought up is very different. So when you are dealing with your outsourced call center you need to have some one that you can work with and talk to about how your project is going that under stands what you want.
I’m not shitting on the Philippines like I have said in many other blogs I have wrote before the Philippines is by far the best place in the world that you could ever outsource to but you gotta know what you are doing and you are going to need allot of advice from people or website like this one before you make the jump.
The whole point about this blog is that you need American, British or Australian management that is going to over see your team in some why but they are going to have to be there in the same office they the call center agent is working in. There are many web sites that say that they have American management or what ever but most time it’s bull shit because what you are going to fly to the Philippines to make sure and even if you did you meet an American guy and everything is fine but what about when you leave that guy is out the back door as soon as you.
This is a hard thing for me to say but you should never trust a Filipino, I have only meet one in the 7 years I have been here and I loved him like a brother but for me to find a friend like that was dam near luck but they are out there. Everything in the call center world is business business business it’s one of the most cut throat business you could get in so in a way trust no one! Some one telling you that they are your best friend and they would do any thing for you is really hard to find but most time if they are Filipino they are just looking to work on a way to cheat you, it’s a doggy dog world here.
This whole article is changing from how you outsource to operating a call center sorry just so many thing’s following right now about the things I have been through I hope in a way that it helps you in some way.
What Type Of Headset Should I Buy For My Call Center In The Philippines
I have tried many types of headsets from Analog, USB and plain old shit headset but the best of that I have found is this Logitech Premium Notebook Headset the reason I like it was because it was nice and small and the agents would be able to take it home with them everyday. I got tired of pay for all of these costly headsets over and over the years and once I found these headset I decided that I was going to make the agents pay for them which worked out very well because I did not have to pay for them and they lasted longer because the agents took better care of them because they paid for them. I just took at 300 Peso out of every pay I gave them which was twice a month so really did not hurt them nor did they get up set most like it allot because they were able to take it home and use it.
I started do this about two years ago and most of the agents still have them and are in good working condition.
You can go for the Shit cdr king ones but they break pretty easy because it’s junk but they do the job if your a tight ass.
Free Screen Capture Software For Training Your Virtual Agents
A friend gave me a open source Screen capture software about a month ago that I used to make some instructional video’s that I made for my agents and also clients that works great called Cam Studio. It’s a very small down load and pretty much plug and play, so if you have some thing that you need to show or explain to your virtual agent then I would strongly suggest you using this free screen capture software.
If you know of some thing that you would think is better please comment.
What’s The Best Call Center VOIP I Can Use?
I have been doing the call center thing for many years now and have tried many different call center VOIP provider that are out there on the net but I have only found two that worked the best.
The first one is my friend Aaron he owns a TELCO provider called PYNK Global, they are very a very good VOIP provider to use and they have a very good rate, about 1.2 cent’s per minute calling to the States with 1 second billing but you might have to twist his arm behind your back to get the 1 second billing but sure if he heard it from me your ok. One thing with PYNK is that they only provide out going calls all over the would with great rates but do not supply DID or 800 numbers.
Next is APN, I have been using them for years and it has never missed a beat same as PYNK, there rate is around the same 1.2 cents a minute but they do provide DID’s and 800 numbers along with many other services related to VOIP or TELCO. One of the things I like about they is they are all around meaning about everything I need VOIP related they can offer so I don’t have to worry about paying so many companies, I only have to pay 1 but some of there other services are not cheap but the quality is A class.
I’m sure that there is allot of other great companies out there that I have not used so if you would like to post a comment below that would be great but other then that these are the best in my experience in a Philippines call center.
Elastix Hosting For Your Philippines Call Center
Here is another great software that I have been using for years and I have loved it but had some trouble finding one that would work good but also a company with low level support in times of need and I will tell you what oboy did I find one. I loved the support that I got with Synapse Global every time I had an issue that I was not able to fix I would submit a ticket to them and they would reply back that it had been fixed but also it was not a problem the Elastix hosting it’s self but I needed a costume configuration done that was not a part of there service and they did it any ways. I was under some super pressure to make sure it was done before the lunch date of one of my new clients and they had it up and working 4 days before we went live. I would not suggest working with any other company then the, they also Trixbox hosting and allot of other services.
Great Cell Center Online Invoicing & Billing Software
About a 2 years ago I got really tried of using all of these invoice and billing software so I started looking for some thing online and better that I would be able to use in case my account was out of the office or if I did not have an accountant to put an invoice together and then keep track of it. When you have a client saying we want to wire the money to you today and your accountants not around to do it and you have to say sorry my accountant is sick can I send it to you tomorrow, it don’t look very good. I ran into that problem a couple of times so I started drawing out my plan for my own call center billing software some thing costume made but some how ran into Fresh Books and have loved if from the day I started using it. It was very easy to use and was cheap like $20.00 dollars a month or if you would like to try a free account then you also can. The free account is only good for one person and you can only have 3 clients on it but to try it out well worth the time. You can set up clients very easy and also have them on auto bill so you don’t even have to worry about sending the invoice off, you just set the date and the amount that needs to be sent every month and then you never have to touch it. If you get the paid version you can have it total branded to your company so who every you send an invoice to it looks like its coming from your company but if you have the free account you are going to have some Fresh Books on there. Also works with my types of merchant gate ways like Paypal and Authorize.Net
The Philippines Is Not Disneyland
I have been really getting into allot of these podcast the last couple of weeks, some I like some I don’t but there are not many of them and it’s good to listen to what everyone has to say. Now there is one problem about some of the podcast or people trying to sale ebook’s, videos ect, they are sugar coating everything sound way to make. They are giving good information out but not giving you information on what you can expect. I will give you an idea on what I mean, take a look at replacemyself.com this guy John Jonas has put together some what of a guide on how to find, hire and train a virtual agent here in the Philippines and from what I heard he is doing very well but also heard he is a prick. I did engoy listening to his hour long video and how he has put the pack together but everything just sounds so easy but I guess it would be hard to sale if you put outsourcing to the Philippines is complicated.
How to hire a Filippino agent
Finding some one to work for your company is not difficult there are many sites out there that you can post looking for call center agents like Sulit, classifiedsph, craigslist and many others. Now here is the problem when you are hiring a agent or virtual agent or call center agent in the Philippines is that you are going to have to go through about 3 to 5 Filipino’s before you find the correct one and So you are going to lose money in that process, so might be a good idea to to hire two at a time and keep going through them tell you get one that is going to work for you. Also you can use a Philippines call center to insure that you get your biggest bang for your buck but it’s going to cost you around $1,000 or more per agent which for some people or companies is to much but at the end of the day is going to be your best bet because your going to be insured your people are there in a office being over looked after. It’s very hard to find some one here that you can really trust if you have them working from there home, I’m not saying it’s impossible but difficult you need to have the right tools and knowledge to do this successfully. I would really suggest coming out to the Philippines and hire your people that you need if you can afford it, a plane tick cost around $1,200 dollar round trip from the States and hotels are around $100 dollars a night but if you are on a budget them you can get a hostel or cheap hotel for about $20 to $50 dollars a night just depends on the part of the Philippines you are staying in.
When you are hiring a Filipino agent couple things to look into before hiring them
How old is the agent, are they signal or married Kids because if you are having them do some type work over the phone you want it to be professional as possible.
Which part of they Philippines is there house located at where they are going to be working, the Philippines has allot of power outages and some places are worse then others.
What type of Internet connection are they using and how fast is it, some people are using the 3G which works pretty well but really depends on the location of the agent, out side of Manila it don’t working well.
What type of computer are they using whats the specs.
You don’t have to come to the Philippines to hire some one, you can stay in your office or house but it’s going to be more difficult because you are not going to be able to meet the person face to face and getting to see the Philippines first hand to under stand what you are getting into.
The culture here is very different from the US, UK or AU – Here are some idea’s on what I mean
There is what you call Philippines time meaning 8:00am is really like 8:30am
Some people wipe there ass with there hand
local transpiration is very dangerous, it’s like getting in the back of a truck and then going to work or going home
Waiting in lines here is ok, no good thing about Filipinos are very patient
corruption is very poplar
Family here is very important which Im not saying is a bad thing but it almost always gets into the way of work because they will not show up for work. Most the time I call if bull shit because they just don’t want to come to work.
Because of the weather is so up and down people get sick very often then in other countries again I really think some times it’s bull shit because they don’t want to come to work.
Every one here is very religious
There are many more differences but that’s all I got for now. So this is gives you an idea on some of the differences from the Philippines to where you are from. Don’t get my wrong I like the Philippines and plan on living here but for me have have come to the point where I know or under stand the cloture because of being here for so long.
Is Call Center Seat Leasing Good For Your Company?
I started out my business years ago with seat leasing but later built my own office once we got to a bigger size that made scene and now I’m currently rent seat off a friends company called Pynk Global cost is around 150 dollars a seat but don’t include dialer and telco. Which is a good deal.
Seat leasing is by far the cheapest way to run a company in the Philippines but then you have some draw back because you are in a shared environment which can be a real pain because you are going to have five or more companies in one room all running there companies how they want to. With seat leasing you gotta remember that its not your office so it’s really hard to have any say if one of the other companies is doing some thing that could be affecting you or then reporting it to the floor manager or owner to help solve the problem but most times some one will talk to the other company that you are having the problem with but most times they will stop doing what ever you don’t like or unprofessional for 2 or 3 days and then it will start all over again so really at the end of the day you are going to just have to live with it.
Next you gotta allot of people in one room so it can get loud depending on how the office it set up also can get hot if company don’t have the correct amount if aircons set up. Also you have no control bandwith some one else from one of the other companies could be downloading allot of shit like I’m doing right now and it would be very hard to figure it would which most times would cause you choppy lines and slow internet, if your phones are shit then your shit.
One big problem that is very hard to solve in your own company is getting your agent to speak English only not this flipper bull shit but now not only do you have to worry about your company you have to worry about every one else to in the office. Most soft phones have back ground noise blocking but it don’t work that well and if you have some one behind one of your agents talking flipper chances are that the customer is going to hear them and bammmmm!!! your kicked in the balls the customer is going to know that it is an over sea’s call center which is not going to make the call any easier or if your agent is trying to close a deal say good bye to it.
With seat leasing also I would suggest your getting your own computers and headset and request to the company that you are seat leasing with that they are not used make sure its in the contact that they are not allowed to use your PCs also make sure you lock them up tight so no one can get into them.
Also make sure that you have your own router or firewall so you can have your agents all connect to your own net work, so you can manage it also make sure this is in the contract.
Get your own voip if you can APN and Pynk are good.
Getting allot of your own stuff slowly over the first couple of months is going to make it easier on you because bye the time you move into your own office you will have a couple of the basic needs when setting up a call center.
I think its a good idea to seat out seat leasing problem that your project or campaign is working then set up your own office and company. I don’t think I would seat lease for over three months, that should be well enough time to see if your going to make it.
Or if your loaded set up your own office.
Cheap Call Center Outsourcing
I getting a couple of leads a month from all of my websites but most of them are commission type jobs or a very low hourly job sorry pretty much put them right in the trash but then I would thinking what would be the cheapest way to hot source. I’m shooting my self in the foot because this is a good way in saving or 75% of outsourcing cost but it is a little risky and might take you some time and money to get it correct.
Now couple things you have to under stand about setting up a call center in the Philippines running it and maintaining it. Every one things that it is dirt cheap here and its not when you are running a call center or operating a business cost are a little bit less in some areas and allot more in other, take internet here for a 2MB for $1,00 dollars a month which is a must have if you are operating a call center. Setting up a corporation here cost around $1,500 to get all your bs paper done for you and then setting up your office is about $700 to $1000 dollars a station but that is not including a predictive dialer, Predictive dialer can run from free all the way up to $400 dollars a person. Now you got to renew all the company shit every year which is going to cost another $500 plus dollars or more and then if you are leaving here you are going to have to get a so type of visa which most of them run about $1000 dollar or so and are a pain in the because its at the other side of town and getting there takes about and hour and you got to go there like 4 times to do a much of interview that are all a joke.
You got a couple of call centers here in the Philippines that will let you operate seat leasing office and allot of them don’t care if you have a company here or not so that gets rid of setting up an corporation here. Next with seat leasing the cost is very low some thing like 200 dollars a seat but most times you have some plus pluses in there like voip or a predictive dialer Or you can go for a work at home type set up but not suggested unless you are doing some type of back where there is no incoming or out going calls. Now you have to find a call center agents, there are allot of place to post adds for free like Sulit or you can go paid Jobstreet your going to get allot of bull shit on sulit so it will take some time to find some good applicants but Jobstreet will be allot easier but cost around $150 dollars.
Here is one of the problems you are going to run into if you are not here in the Philippines to get the office set up. You will not have any one on site to manage the place and you are going to get allot of cases where you talk to an agent and they don’t show or they agents are messing around. Couple of things I would suggest when you are getting started, ask the person managing your office to set you up on your own net work for you to manage so it don’t affact you or them so pretty much you want to have your own router if they dont have one tell them you will pay them to buy one cost is like $50 dollars, the reason we want our own next work is because you are going to want to set up open DNS this is a free fire wall program that is very easy to use and set up. Next you want to have a fresh installed Window XP I suggest but don’t matter what windows you use. Next you are going to want to install Team Viewer This is a free remote desktop program that will allow you to get access to our agents pc to install software of if you need to show them some thing on your computer, software works great. Now how do you pay your agents, best is Western Union payments should only be on the 15th and 30th cost of an agent is $350 dollars which is good because they are not going to be paying any taxes and its some thing that you must explain to them so they under stand that it’s an under the table type job. If you are only starting with one agent above will work but if you are starting with a couple of agents you are going to want to hire some one to work and manage them because it gets a little tricky the more people that you have working for you.
Every thing I have said you can do cheap as hell, pretty much around $600 dollars a month around $3.75 an hour which is a price you can’t get any where.
Ok now here are they problems with doing them. Agents are going to be harder to find and hire because you are not here in the Philippines plus they will be working out of a seat lease office which is some but strange. Next you might get some agents come in and work and then you will never here for them again or the will get there pay and there gone. Depending on the Phone system you are using its hard to track the agents time again to see what they are doing. If you are doing some thing long distance like in the Philippines you are going to have to be really hands on to back sure the agent is doing the job that you want them to.