In recent years many companies in the UK have outsourced their customer contact services to call centres overseas. This has mostly been to reduce overheads and to take advantage of lower staffing costs abroad. However, for many businesses, these offshoring experiments have been a bad experience, as they have seen a rise in complaints from customers relating to a lack of quality customer care. Disillusioned with offshoring, a high number of companies are now bringing their call handling operations back to the UK, and many proudly announce this strategy as part of their marketing drive. However the original underlying reason for using call centres abroad has not gone away; there is still a need for businesses to keep their staff overheads low, yet the demand for quality call handling is higher than ever. A solution to this problem can be found by creating a 'virtual' call centre which eliminates the need for bricks and mortar investment required to accommodate staff in an office. However simply giving your existing UK office-based staff a telephone and internet connection, then getting them to work from home efficiently, is not as easy as you might imagine. Indeed this has proved quite challenging for some companies and a logistical nightmare for others. A cost effective and highly efficient alternative for UK businesses today can be found by outsourcing to a virtual home-based agent service such as Live-Agent.co.uk With its mission to change the face of UK customer service for the better, this innovative solution could provide the answer many companies are looking for. Live Agent's distributed method of call handling utilises a network of pre-selected home-based agents located throughout the UK; experienced customer service staff with a proven aptitude for working from home. Selecting its agents from a large geographical radius, Live Agent enables companies to use the skills of the best quality staff throughout the UK, with the flexibility to up-scale and respond to changing demand quickly. Furthermore the system is supported by state-of-the-art call routing technology to ensure each customer enquiry is handled promptly and effectively by the best person available. A service such as this has none of the legacy issues associated with converting a traditional call centre to home working; instead it offers a proven cost-effective alternative for quality customer contact services. There are ecological advantages too. Without the need to heat and light under-used office space, a company using a virtual call centre can cut carbon emmissions and fulfil part of its corporate social responsibility. As evidenced both in the US and UK, home working is becoming more popular as it not only helps individuals achieve a better work life balance but also eliminates the daily commute - an attractive proposition for many UK employees during these times of rising fuel costs. From the many benefits associated with a virtual call centre solution, it would appear the world of customer contact is set to change for the better. For further information about how a virtual call centre can help your business improve its customer service, visit www.live-agent.co.uk or call 01270 503090.
Sometimes we're so intent on finding "the next big thing" to promote our businesses that we often miss opportunities that are already available. Sometimes we can find a brand new marketing tool where we're not looking for it. Sometimes our social and business lives merge to add a new dimension to our marketing strategies. Speed-networking and online forums are two classic examples of this. One of the more recent combinations of the personal and professional is the use of online social networking communities. Y ou may be aware of social networking communities already, but do you have any idea of their potential for marketing your business? Here's a brief introduction to the concept of Social Media Optimisation (SMO) and how it could work for you... What is social networking? Social networking is the use of online communities such as Myspace (TM) , Bebo (TM) and Facebook ® to connect and communicate with people around the world. Its advantages to businesses include tapping into new markets and generating new business. Promoting your company across a number of these networks is known as Social Media Optimisation (SMO). How does Social Media Optimisation work? Social Media Optimisation can be thought of as a trail of breadcrumbs that leads visitors to your main website. External profiles introduce your company to the members of these online communities and advertise your products and services. Think of it as the next generation of directory listings: members are attracted to your profile by its content, and then pointed in the direction of your website. Can it help me with my Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)? The short answer is YES. Most social networking communities register their members' profiles with the main search engines. The longer answer is that it depends on which networks you are a part of: different communities have different success rates with SEO. Each community does, however, have its own search engines, and your profile is optimised primarily for these. What other ways are there of attracting profile hits? Most of the communities promote profiles that are regularly updated, and members mark interesting content for other members' viewing. Regularly uploading fresh and interesting content to your profile will give it a greater chance of being noticed. An effective way of generating interest is to use your profile as the springboard for an online viral campaign. Pictures and movie clips are shared between members, so an advert could potentially reach millions via platforms such as YouTube (TM) and MyspaceTV (TM) . Do I have to pay every time someone views my advert? No. Although some communities offer pay-per-click advertising services, it doesn't cost anything for a movie to spread throughout its members. Providing your advert has interesting content it could be viewed all over the world without you paying anything for global distribution! I'm interested, but I don't have the time to manage all these profiles... We can do that for you - we'll set up the profile and design it to compliment your company branding. We can even provide you with video content if you don't already have your own! For a minimum of twelve months we'll maintain the channel for you, updating any news and uploading media at your request. We'll also keep your channel clean of spam, block unwanted visitors and pro vide monthly statistics depending on which community you choose. How can I find out more? You can contact us using the details below, or check out our website for further information on our products and services. If you're already a member of any of the major networking communities, find us using their search bar and see SMO in action... Thanks for reading; we hope it's got you thinking about the possibilities of using SMO for your business. Team Seraphim Seraphim Pictures LLP Registered in England & Wales No. OC329649 info@seraphimpictures.com www.seraphimpictures.com
Stopping thieves start with you and starts with me. As a retailer, you are responsible for also protecting your clients and consumers. Learn how to stop one of the quickest growing crimes in America – identity theft. According to a recent study complied by Javelin Strategy & Research, in the last two year alone, identity theft has struck almost 20 million people. Identity theft has also cost over $56 billion in the last year alone. According to the report released by the Justice Department, identity theft is now the number 1 crime in America. That averages out to $6,381 per person victimized by this crime. There is the chance you will be the victim of identity theft with a new victim being struck every 3.4 seconds. Just for the record, even drug trafficking is not as prolific. There are ways to protect yourself as well as your consumer base. With cyber-Monday seeing a profit raise of 37%, it is vital that you protect yourself and offer your consumers the ability to stay protected as well. 1. Remind your consumers, if you have a web-based retail storefront, to update anti-virus software. Anti-virus software is an ideal way of insuring there are no viruses on the computer that will record your keystrokes and transmit your personal data to an identity thief. 2. Teach your consumer how to always look for a lock icon on the status bar of any given website where private and/or financial information is given. The lock icon shows that the site is transmitting secure data that cannot be easily translated by a hacker or identity thief. 3. If you send out newsletters or e-mails, keep a generic copy on your website as an image. This will allow your consumers to investigate the validity of the latest information you sent to your consumer base. 4. Never ask for private or personal information to be transmitted via an e-mail sent from your consumer’s computer to your database. In other words, you may have links to forms, but do not have those forms in the e-mail itself. 5. Encourage your consumer to make purchases only via secured web pages, or web pages with the lock icon in the browser status bar. 6. Have a telephone number available for purchases as well as your online ordering form. Let the consumer know “you” are there to protect his or her assets. 7. Strongly encourage and remind your consumers to investigate their credit card statements especially after the holidays. In fact, as a retailer, you should do the same thing. If something looks awry, take appropriate steps to insure you verify the information is correct. 8. If you are a victim of identity theft, or if you are a retailer who has a consumer that is the victim of identity theft, prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Stopping identity theft will only succeed if each case is handled professionally. As a retailer and as a consumer, you have the responsibility as well as the ability to lower the number of cases of identity theft. You also have the power to reduce the damage of identity fraud. Each step you take insured someone else is protected. What are you doing to stop identity fraud for yourself as well as your consumer? Source: www.articles3000.com
