Have you ever called in for customer service and been greeted by someone who barely speaks your language? Many consumers today have, since many U.S. operations have exported their call center function overseas to save money.
Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the "Show Me" state, wants the government to show her constituents some new jobs -- perhaps at call centers. She is drafting legislation that would require call center agents working beyond U.S. borders to reveal exactly where they are located.
"I don't know about you, but I have called for help sometimes and I can't get them to tell me where they are, (in cases) when I've been frustrated because there's been a language barrier," said McCaskill during a news conference on the floor of the call center at Missouri Book Services in Columbia. "I think (the legislation) gives a boost to American-centered call centers because I think most Americans would prefer to use a call center that's located here in the United States," she told the Missouri News Horizon.
Calling On Talent
McCaskill told her listeners that the number of call centers in Missouri has declined from 13,000 in 2007 to 9,000 today. She points to call center outsourcing to foreign countries as the culprit.
"These are good jobs, and as we are trying to grow jobs, if we can do something that's not expensive that helps promote jobs growth in America, I think we need to jump on it," McCaskill said.
Outsourcing is big business . The Philippines contract center industry alone grew 15 percent annually from 2006 to 2010, according to a recent market report from the Contact Center Association of the Philippines. The industry there is expected to grow in the next five years, climbing from approximately $6.2 billion in revenues in 2010 to about $14.7 billion in 2016. And that's just the Philippines.
"Depending on the company, there's been a lot of interest in bringing call centers back on U.S. shores, for the most part because there's been a real problem with talent retention overseas," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. "When you get someone trained in English and trained in the technology, they often get a higher paying job at some other company."
A New Movement?
Call centers have been a hot topic in recent months. In a move to sweeten its T-Mobile acquisition proposal, AT&T in August promised to bring back to the United States 5,000 wireless call center jobs that are currently outsourced to other countries, if the deal goes through.
What's more, AT&T said the 5,000 new wireless call center jobs would offer among the nation's most highly competitive wages and benefits. The company did not say where those jobs would be located, but the announcement was the largest commitment by an individual American company to bring jobs back to the U.S. since the economic crisis began in 2008.
"Customer satisfaction scores tend to go up when you have domestic talent as opposed to outsourced talent, and customer satisfaction tends to lead to better customer retention," Enderle said. "So there are a number of other reasons beyond legislation to actually bring call centers back to the U.S., which is probably why AT&T doesn't have a problem doing that."
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Small BI
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Netflix Apology Pours Salt on Price Wound
Some might call it pouring salt into a wound. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings apologized for how he handled the price increases on the company's service, but his words seem to be akin to picking a scab.
Hastings started out his apology with candor, admitting he "messed up" and owes everyone an explanation about why Netflix was separating its DVD and streaming services, and the price changes that go along with that move. He then went into a long explanation that started back with AOL dial-up and Borders bookstores and noted how these companies made mistakes by moving too slow.
Hasting's error, as he sees it, is not communicating well enough during the company's rapid evolution. Now, he's trying to do what he believes he should have done from the get-go: communicate. But customers don't seem to be buying the spiel.
Foot in Mouth
"I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail," Hastings said. "We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service."
Hastings went on to say the DVD by mail service was getting re-branded as Qwikster. DVD members will now have to go to qwikster.com to order discs -- and now, the addition of video games -- by mail. The name was chosen because it refers to quick delivery. Netflix will be reserved for the streaming service.
That complicates things for Netflix subscribers, who now have to subscribe to two separate services that are no longer integrated. If you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or e-mail address, you have to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn't show up on Netflix, and vice versa.
Angry Movie Fans
For this, Netflix is charging consumers more than before. Qwikster unlimited DVD-only plans in the U.S. are $7.99 a month for the one-DVD-out-at-a-time plan and $11.99 for two DVDs at a time. The unlimited-streaming plan will remain at $7.99 a month. The price for getting both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be $15.98 a month.
"You're diluting your brand with 'Qwikster,' you've financially drilled and disrespected your customer base with the cost increases, and now you are making it harder for them to manage their queues and basically charging them for it," Ross Brandt commented. "My personal solution was simple: delete DVDs."
Hastings started out his apology with candor, admitting he "messed up" and owes everyone an explanation about why Netflix was separating its DVD and streaming services, and the price changes that go along with that move. He then went into a long explanation that started back with AOL dial-up and Borders bookstores and noted how these companies made mistakes by moving too slow.
Hasting's error, as he sees it, is not communicating well enough during the company's rapid evolution. Now, he's trying to do what he believes he should have done from the get-go: communicate. But customers don't seem to be buying the spiel.
Foot in Mouth
"I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail," Hastings said. "We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service."
Hastings went on to say the DVD by mail service was getting re-branded as Qwikster. DVD members will now have to go to qwikster.com to order discs -- and now, the addition of video games -- by mail. The name was chosen because it refers to quick delivery. Netflix will be reserved for the streaming service.
That complicates things for Netflix subscribers, who now have to subscribe to two separate services that are no longer integrated. If you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or e-mail address, you have to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn't show up on Netflix, and vice versa.
Angry Movie Fans
For this, Netflix is charging consumers more than before. Qwikster unlimited DVD-only plans in the U.S. are $7.99 a month for the one-DVD-out-at-a-time plan and $11.99 for two DVDs at a time. The unlimited-streaming plan will remain at $7.99 a month. The price for getting both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be $15.98 a month.
"You're diluting your brand with 'Qwikster,' you've financially drilled and disrespected your customer base with the cost increases, and now you are making it harder for them to manage their queues and basically charging them for it," Ross Brandt commented. "My personal solution was simple: delete DVDs."
Sunday, April 17, 2011
CRM solutions help companies boost their business efficiency.
CRM solutions help companies boost their business efficiency, thereby increasing profit and revenue generation capabilities. Let us take a quick look at some of the measurable benefits that your organization can gain by implementing a CRM solution.
- Increase Customer Lifecycle Value
In most businesses, the cost of acquisition of customers is high. To make profits, it is important to keep the customer longer and sell him more products (cross sell, up sell, etc) to him, during his lifecycle. Customer stay, if they are provided with value, quality service and continuity. CRM solutions enable you to do that.
- Execution Control
Once the business strategy is put into motion, the management needs feedback and reports to judge how the business is performing. CRM solutions provide management with control and a scientific way to identify and resolve issues. The benefits include a clearer visibility of the sales pipeline, accurate forecasts and more.
- Customer Lifecycle Management
To keep the customers happy, you need to know them better. At the minimum, you need a centralize customer database, that captures most of the information from your entire customer facing departments and partners. Integrated CRM solutions, like CRMnext enable you to manage customer information, throughout all stages of their life cycle, from contact to contract to customer service.
- Strategic Consistency
Because CRM offers business and technological alignment, it enables companies to achieve strategic company goals more effectively, like enhanced sales realization, higher customer satisfaction, better brand management and more. Additionally, the alignment results in a more consistent customer communication creating a feeling of continuity.
- Business Intelligence
Due to the valuable business insights that CRM provides, it becomes easier to identify the bottlenecks, their causes and the remedial measures that need to be taken. For example, CRMnext provides real-time business focus dashboards with extensive drill down capabilities that provide the decision makers with the depth of information required to identify the causes and spot trends.
Small Businesses and CRM to 2011
These small-business owners have different expansion recipes, but both have the same goal: to take their firms to the next level.
Like millions of other entrepreneurs, they must determine how to best allocate their limited time, and funds, to foster that growth.
"It's a lot of picking and choosing, and it's not like I have thousands of dollars at my disposal," says Bellacicco Breault. "I go with my gut with what I foresee myself doing, and I take it six months at a time."
Early indications of an economic recovery -- along with increased consumer spending and government efforts to loosen credit -- have business owners nationwide considering the best ways to grow.
After hunkering down during the recession, company chiefs are itching to invest in their firms again. And many expect they'll have the cash to do that.
Three-fourths of small and midsize business CEOs anticipate increased revenues in the year ahead, according to a survey released last week by executive-mentoring group Vistage International. Nearly six in 10 expect rising profits.
About half of those chief executives plan to increase investments in new plants and equipment, and 54% expect to bolster hiring.
"Small businesses have been playing on the defensive side so much -- they've conserved cash, cut costs and trimmed staff for two to three years," says Dan Murphy, co-founder of the business-coaching franchise The Growth Coach. "But now there is renewed optimism. They're starting to see some hope."
As owners breathe out, they're also considering what's next.
"They think, 'I've gotten through the storm. It's time (to invest again),'" he says.
A New Challenge
To offer guidance to expansion-minded entrepreneurs, USA TODAY last fall published a six-part series titled "Growing Your Small Business." It provided tips on topics such as exporting, filing trademarks and working with family and friends.
At the time, we asked business owners to apply for our 2011 Small Business Challenge, a three-month series that would chronicle a business' triumphs and troubles as it expanded.
For the 2010 challenge, USA TODAY followed five small businesses as they evolved from the idea stage to serving their first customer. For six months, the entrepreneurs discussed their progress, challenges and opportunities with three small-business experts.
Like millions of other entrepreneurs, they must determine how to best allocate their limited time, and funds, to foster that growth.
"It's a lot of picking and choosing, and it's not like I have thousands of dollars at my disposal," says Bellacicco Breault. "I go with my gut with what I foresee myself doing, and I take it six months at a time."
Early indications of an economic recovery -- along with increased consumer spending and government efforts to loosen credit -- have business owners nationwide considering the best ways to grow.
After hunkering down during the recession, company chiefs are itching to invest in their firms again. And many expect they'll have the cash to do that.
Three-fourths of small and midsize business CEOs anticipate increased revenues in the year ahead, according to a survey released last week by executive-mentoring group Vistage International. Nearly six in 10 expect rising profits.
About half of those chief executives plan to increase investments in new plants and equipment, and 54% expect to bolster hiring.
"Small businesses have been playing on the defensive side so much -- they've conserved cash, cut costs and trimmed staff for two to three years," says Dan Murphy, co-founder of the business-coaching franchise The Growth Coach. "But now there is renewed optimism. They're starting to see some hope."
As owners breathe out, they're also considering what's next.
"They think, 'I've gotten through the storm. It's time (to invest again),'" he says.
A New Challenge
To offer guidance to expansion-minded entrepreneurs, USA TODAY last fall published a six-part series titled "Growing Your Small Business." It provided tips on topics such as exporting, filing trademarks and working with family and friends.
At the time, we asked business owners to apply for our 2011 Small Business Challenge, a three-month series that would chronicle a business' triumphs and troubles as it expanded.
For the 2010 challenge, USA TODAY followed five small businesses as they evolved from the idea stage to serving their first customer. For six months, the entrepreneurs discussed their progress, challenges and opportunities with three small-business experts.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
What are the advantages of CRM?
CRM solutions help companies boost their business efficiency, thereby increasing profit and revenue generation capabilities. Let us take a quick look at some of the measurable benefits that your organization can gain by implementing a CRM solution.
- Increase Customer Lifecycle Value
In most businesses, the cost of acquisition of customers is high. To make profits, it is important to keep the customer longer and sell him more products (cross sell, up sell, etc) to him, during his lifecycle. Customer stay, if they are provided with value, quality service and continuity. CRM solutions enable you to do that.
- Execution Control
Once the business strategy is put into motion, the management needs feedback and reports to judge how the business is performing. CRM solutions provide management with control and a scientific way to identify and resolve issues. The benefits include a clearer visibility of the sales pipeline, accurate forecasts and more.
- Customer Lifecycle Management
To keep the customers happy, you need to know them better. At the minimum, you need a centralize customer database, that captures most of the information from your entire customer facing departments and partners. Integrated CRM solutions, like CRMnext enable you to manage customer information, throughout all stages of their life cycle, from contact to contract to customer service.
- Strategic Consistency
Because CRM offers business and technological alignment, it enables companies to achieve strategic company goals more effectively, like enhanced sales realization, higher customer satisfaction, better brand management and more. Additionally, the alignment results in a more consistent customer communication creating a feeling of continuity.
- Business Intelligence
Due to the valuable business insights that CRM provides, it becomes easier to identify the bottlenecks, their causes and the remedial measures that need to be taken. For example, CRMnext provides real-time business focus dashboards with extensive drill down capabilities that provide the decision makers with the depth of information required to identify the causes and spot trends.
- Increase Customer Lifecycle Value
In most businesses, the cost of acquisition of customers is high. To make profits, it is important to keep the customer longer and sell him more products (cross sell, up sell, etc) to him, during his lifecycle. Customer stay, if they are provided with value, quality service and continuity. CRM solutions enable you to do that.
- Execution Control
Once the business strategy is put into motion, the management needs feedback and reports to judge how the business is performing. CRM solutions provide management with control and a scientific way to identify and resolve issues. The benefits include a clearer visibility of the sales pipeline, accurate forecasts and more.
- Customer Lifecycle Management
To keep the customers happy, you need to know them better. At the minimum, you need a centralize customer database, that captures most of the information from your entire customer facing departments and partners. Integrated CRM solutions, like CRMnext enable you to manage customer information, throughout all stages of their life cycle, from contact to contract to customer service.
- Strategic Consistency
Because CRM offers business and technological alignment, it enables companies to achieve strategic company goals more effectively, like enhanced sales realization, higher customer satisfaction, better brand management and more. Additionally, the alignment results in a more consistent customer communication creating a feeling of continuity.
- Business Intelligence
Due to the valuable business insights that CRM provides, it becomes easier to identify the bottlenecks, their causes and the remedial measures that need to be taken. For example, CRMnext provides real-time business focus dashboards with extensive drill down capabilities that provide the decision makers with the depth of information required to identify the causes and spot trends.
Is Business Intelligence for Small Businesses too?
If you don’t know everything you’d like to know about what makes your business tick — what works, what doesn’t and how much it all costs — you need business intelligence or BI. Business intelligence solutions pull data from multiple operational systems (finance, sales, supply chain management, etc.), integrate it, analyze it and present it in easily digestible form as graphs, charts and dials on screen-based “dashboards.”
“Business intelligence is about empowering people with the data that will help them make better decisions,” said Dyke Hensen, senior vice president of product strategy at Pivotlink, a vendor of software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence solutions.
Business intelligence answers questions such as: Which are my best customers? Which are my most profitable products or services? Which are my most efficient locations? How much will it cost to open a new territory? Where am I wasting money?
Rapid ROI
The classic, often-repeated business case for business intelligence revolves around reducing inventory. If business intelligence lets you see up-to-the-minute sales and/or consumption trends and real-time inventory levels, you can delay re-ordering until you actually need items, saving the considerable costs associated with inventory management.
According to Anthony Deighton, senior vice president of products at QlikTech Inc., a maker of QlikView susiness intelligence software, the benefits of business intelligence software are enormous.
“It’s about being able to make smarter business decisions and gain insights into what drives the business: where the costs are, where the costs are leaking, where the opportunities are — real tactical issues that make a bottom-line difference in how you run your business,” Deighton said.
A study commissioned last year by QlikTech from IT analyst firm IDC concluded that the average payback period for a QlikView implementation was an impressively short 198 days. The average return on investment (ROI) reported across all QlikView implementations was 186 percent, and the ROI benefits included an average 16 percent increase in revenue and 20 percent reduction in operating costs.
Business Intelligence in the Cloud
Business intelligence is not the type of software solution SMBs have typically been able to afford, but it has been moving down market in the last few years. SaaS offerings from companies such as myDIALS Inc., Birst, Pivotlink and others have helped make it more small-business friendly — and more affordable.
“I like the whole SaaS model for business intelligence,” said analyst and consultant Laurie McCabe, a partner with the SMB Group. “Business intelligence is something that would be tough for small businesses to implement on their own.”
Buying a SaaS solution will also save small businesses the cost of setting up and then managing servers and network connections. “It really is a change in the paradigm,” said Pivotlink’s Hensen. “When done correctly, a SaaS solution levels the playing field for the small-to-medium guys.”
But SaaS is not the only route to business intelligence for small businesses. Deighton claims his company’s product is easy enough for SMBs to implement quickly on their own or with the help of a consultant.
QlikView is available for anyone to download and use for free until they’re ready to roll it out to end users. “Small businesses tend to be risk averse,” Deighton said. “This helps take some of the risk out of the buying process for them.” (QlikView is also available as a hosted solution from QlikTech partners.)
Do You Need Business Intelligence?
Is business intelligence really ready for small-business prime time? The answer depends on the size of your small business, how data-intense it is — and how much pain your current lack of insight is causing you.
“The place to start,” said McCabe, “is to ask yourself what you need to know about your business that you don’t know already. What questions do you have that you can’t get answers to today? Everything should be driven from that.”
There is a real danger, she said, of small businesses spending too much on business intelligenceand ending up with something that’s overkill and too hard to use for their requirements.
The Price of Business Intelligence
Business intelligence solutions — even the ones geared to smaller organizations and that take advantage of the economies of scale of cloud computing — are still expensive by the standards of many, possibly most small businesses.
Pivotlink, for example, mostly targets organizations with revenues in excess of $50 million a year. Prices for its SaaS solution start at $1,500 a month for 50 users. (Most BI solutions, whether SaaS or on premise, are priced per user, with only selected managers and analysts getting direct access to the system’s dashboards.)
According to QlikTech’s Deighton, it costs somewhere between $20,000 to $200,000 to implement QlikView. It is used by some small businesses, however.
SaaS solutions from vendors such as myDIALS may be somewhat more affordable. myDIALS charges from $25 per user per month for Lite users (who can only view dials and change timelines), and $75 or $90 a month for Standard or Professional users who have more complete access to information and settings.
If you don’t know everything you’d like to know about what makes your business tick — what works, what doesn’t and how much it all costs — you need business intelligence or BI. Business intelligence solutions pull data from multiple operational systems (finance, sales, supply chain management, etc.), integrate it, analyze it and present it in easily digestible form as graphs, charts and dials on screen-based “dashboards.”
“Business intelligence is about empowering people with the data that will help them make better decisions,” said Dyke Hensen, senior vice president of product strategy at Pivotlink, a vendor of software-as-a-service (SaaS) BI solutions.
BI answers questions such as: Which are my best customers? Which are my most profitable products or services? Which are my most efficient locations? How much will it cost to open a new territory? Where am I wasting money?
“Business intelligence is about empowering people with the data that will help them make better decisions,” said Dyke Hensen, senior vice president of product strategy at Pivotlink, a vendor of software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence solutions.
Business intelligence answers questions such as: Which are my best customers? Which are my most profitable products or services? Which are my most efficient locations? How much will it cost to open a new territory? Where am I wasting money?
Rapid ROI
The classic, often-repeated business case for business intelligence revolves around reducing inventory. If business intelligence lets you see up-to-the-minute sales and/or consumption trends and real-time inventory levels, you can delay re-ordering until you actually need items, saving the considerable costs associated with inventory management.
According to Anthony Deighton, senior vice president of products at QlikTech Inc., a maker of QlikView susiness intelligence software, the benefits of business intelligence software are enormous.
“It’s about being able to make smarter business decisions and gain insights into what drives the business: where the costs are, where the costs are leaking, where the opportunities are — real tactical issues that make a bottom-line difference in how you run your business,” Deighton said.
A study commissioned last year by QlikTech from IT analyst firm IDC concluded that the average payback period for a QlikView implementation was an impressively short 198 days. The average return on investment (ROI) reported across all QlikView implementations was 186 percent, and the ROI benefits included an average 16 percent increase in revenue and 20 percent reduction in operating costs.
Business Intelligence in the Cloud
Business intelligence is not the type of software solution SMBs have typically been able to afford, but it has been moving down market in the last few years. SaaS offerings from companies such as myDIALS Inc., Birst, Pivotlink and others have helped make it more small-business friendly — and more affordable.
“I like the whole SaaS model for business intelligence,” said analyst and consultant Laurie McCabe, a partner with the SMB Group. “Business intelligence is something that would be tough for small businesses to implement on their own.”
Buying a SaaS solution will also save small businesses the cost of setting up and then managing servers and network connections. “It really is a change in the paradigm,” said Pivotlink’s Hensen. “When done correctly, a SaaS solution levels the playing field for the small-to-medium guys.”
But SaaS is not the only route to business intelligence for small businesses. Deighton claims his company’s product is easy enough for SMBs to implement quickly on their own or with the help of a consultant.
QlikView is available for anyone to download and use for free until they’re ready to roll it out to end users. “Small businesses tend to be risk averse,” Deighton said. “This helps take some of the risk out of the buying process for them.” (QlikView is also available as a hosted solution from QlikTech partners.)
Do You Need Business Intelligence?
Is business intelligence really ready for small-business prime time? The answer depends on the size of your small business, how data-intense it is — and how much pain your current lack of insight is causing you.
“The place to start,” said McCabe, “is to ask yourself what you need to know about your business that you don’t know already. What questions do you have that you can’t get answers to today? Everything should be driven from that.”
There is a real danger, she said, of small businesses spending too much on business intelligenceand ending up with something that’s overkill and too hard to use for their requirements.
The Price of Business Intelligence
Business intelligence solutions — even the ones geared to smaller organizations and that take advantage of the economies of scale of cloud computing — are still expensive by the standards of many, possibly most small businesses.
Pivotlink, for example, mostly targets organizations with revenues in excess of $50 million a year. Prices for its SaaS solution start at $1,500 a month for 50 users. (Most BI solutions, whether SaaS or on premise, are priced per user, with only selected managers and analysts getting direct access to the system’s dashboards.)
According to QlikTech’s Deighton, it costs somewhere between $20,000 to $200,000 to implement QlikView. It is used by some small businesses, however.
SaaS solutions from vendors such as myDIALS may be somewhat more affordable. myDIALS charges from $25 per user per month for Lite users (who can only view dials and change timelines), and $75 or $90 a month for Standard or Professional users who have more complete access to information and settings.
If you don’t know everything you’d like to know about what makes your business tick — what works, what doesn’t and how much it all costs — you need business intelligence or BI. Business intelligence solutions pull data from multiple operational systems (finance, sales, supply chain management, etc.), integrate it, analyze it and present it in easily digestible form as graphs, charts and dials on screen-based “dashboards.”
“Business intelligence is about empowering people with the data that will help them make better decisions,” said Dyke Hensen, senior vice president of product strategy at Pivotlink, a vendor of software-as-a-service (SaaS) BI solutions.
BI answers questions such as: Which are my best customers? Which are my most profitable products or services? Which are my most efficient locations? How much will it cost to open a new territory? Where am I wasting money?
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