Work from home as a call centre operator

The number of work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities is on the rise all over the world. These jobs involve crossing language and time barriers as local agents for dedicated companies from home. They also enable companies to reduce attrition in customer service jobs and save precious money on office utilities and equipment. This, at the same time, enables the home based business-person to make a living from home. Remuneration is based on different basis amongst different companies. This may take the form of a pay per call remuneration package, a fixed monthly earning or even in the form of hourly wages.
The advantages of work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities include flexibility of work hours. This is advantageous especially if you are dealing with a new born or physically-handicapped family member. The job scope of a this job includes general call handling, providing technical support, and handling all customer queries on behalf of the company. All you need to get started are the following basic essentials:
• A computer, either a lap top or desk top
• Basic computer skills, use of the programs within the software loaded
• Internet connection for quick connectivity and messaging
• Connecting to the computer operating system/system that the company provides
• Dedicated Internet and email applications for assured communication of vital data
• A phone line for the home-based call centre
• Good communication skills that ensure success with every call
Many work-from-home customer service operator jobs are provided by companies who provide you with the essential tools. Many stress on the completion of a crash customer service training course. Your experience in customer support, help-desk or any customer service helps a lot. There are a number of companies that hire customer service operators who are home based. The employment sections of these websites are always filled with advertisements. When you choose to work in this field, you will be taking on job responsibilities that include taking care of customer queries as best as possible, on behalf of the company. You would have to dedicate a time and space within your home to fulfil the job's requirement each day. However, bear in mind that such job opportunities are many and have low barriers to entry, thus competition is stiff.
Resources that offer work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities include online and offline recruiting agencies and newspaper advertisements. It also pays to network extensively and research for the best remuneration. Work-from-home customer service operator jobs enable you to tap the potential of your natural skills while tending to family responsibilities. With a little research and social networking, you can get started immediately. It does pay to plan before beginning work. Being methodical and charted is the only way to ensure the success of your home business venture. It will also do you good to maintain a space within the home from where you can take care of your of work-from-home customer service operator job, as this ensures you greater ability to work productively without mixing work and home responsibilities.

Call Centre Stress !

So what are the least stressful jobs in this world? As you know millions of jobs can be stressful but the main ones that come to mind are working for a boss that wants you to do a million and one things in a short time scale. Or managing many people and working towards sales targets can be a very stressful job indeed.
I should know what are the least stressful jobs because I've had plenty of them in the past. The most stressful job I ever had was working in a call centre and I was managing a full flour of sales people. I think it was around 1000 people and I had to make sure all the sales targets were met every week. This job really got on top of me and I had enough of my boss breathing down my neck every ten minutes so I quit.
And I'm so glad I did quit because if I didn't quit when I did I wouldn't have this stress free lifestyle I lead today. Now I work from home and I'm my own boss, I work my own hours and do what I want when I want and the best thing is the moneys grate. I get paid 100 times more now than I did back then working in that stuffy call centre pulling my hair out every day.
I bet your probably thinking am I really qualified to give you advice about what are the least stressful jobs? Well to be honest anyone can tell you what the most stressful jobs are most people you know are probably working in one right now. The question you should be asking yourself right now is am I the person that can get you into a stress free job?
Well you'll be glad to know I can and yes I am qualified to do this. You see I run my own highly successful online internet business and it's allowed me to live a very nice stress free lifestyle one which I'm very proud of. And get this when you get to my level in this business its not even about the money any more. It's more about living life the way you want and doing the things you want when you want and still having money coming in at the same time.
For many people it's hard to believe that I get paid even when I don't work friends and family can't get there head around it. I get paid 24 hours a day regardless If work or not. Don't get me wrong I had to put a lot of work in to get to this stage but once the works done its done and all you have to do is keep an eye on things from time to time. Now that's what you call a stress free lifestyle wouldn't you agree?
As you can see I'm more than qualified to give you advice on what are the least stressful jobs. But more importantly I can show you how to avoid ever having to work in a stressful job again ever. I can show you how to work from home and live a stress free life and it doesn't matter if your 15 or 55 because age isn't and issue with this business.
Now I have your attention you probably want to know what this work from home business is all about right? Well to find out more you can go to my website and read all about how I started out in life and were I am today. Then if you would like to start this business for yourself the option for you to do that is there.

Call Centre Jobs in Dubai

The call center industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, with many multinational companies outsourcing their customer service/contact functions to third parties located in other countries and regions all over the world, including the Middle East. This is called BPO or business process outsourcing, and the growth of this sector of the information technology industry includes call centre jobs in Dubai.
A few years ago there were labor disputes relating to salaries of call center agents working in Dubai, but conditions seem to have improved since then. If you browse the online job boards and the sites of international recruitment agencies, you'll see that there's no shortage of calls for applicants for call center positions in Dubai and elsewhere in the UAE. In fact, there have been reports that working in a call center can bring in an income of up to 8,000 dirhams a month - that's about USD2,000. Of course, not everyone who goes there to work as a customer contact employee can expect to earn that amount of money or salary immediately.
Nevertheless, it can be a novel and exciting experience - the combination of working for international companies in an always-evolving industry, using the latest and most high-tech telephony tools and software, interacting with other people from all over the world on a daily basis - in a city and country that's bustling with activity and replete with opportunities for career growth...all these and more can be offered by call center companies in Dubai to both locals and foreigners.

The Basics of Telesales

Telesales personnel are a growing number across the world in an ever-widening range of fields from Insurance, Double-Glazing and Healthcare, to Advertising, Building, Manufacturing, and National and Regional Newspapers. And the list becomes more and more extensive. Even Charities now employ Telesales personnel to increase donations.
Across the UK and internationally, many companies exist solely to contact people via the telephone, with contracts from a number of businesses. At a conservative estimate, there are many tens of thousands of full and part-time personnel engaged in the Telesales industry in the UK alone. Each of these wants to earn good commission, (because the basic wage is generally low). Turnover of personnel is high because of ‘burn out’ due to insufficient training.
• As fuel costs increase, on-the-road sales personnel become fewer. Telephone costs, however, are coming down in cost regularly, with more options available from the independent telephone companies.
• Postage costs remain prohibitive for the many, and e-commerce does not.
allow for person-to-person contact. Telephone contact is the viable option.
• Every individual Telephone sales person wants to earn more money.
• Managers and Telesales personnel alike want to highlight the skills and techniques of effective telesales management.
So what are the basics of effective telesales and how do you get them applied in your telesales department?
Openers
Very early on in the telephone conversation, your personnel will have created one of two effects: Interest or resistance. And it’s one or the other. Most callers can create a resistance almost immediately, bringing an early close to the telephone call and a sense of loss to the caller. Listen. Nobody is sitting in their office just waiting for your telesales department to call. Most often, the person you’re calling is busy, and has little time to speak on the telephone. How often are you ready and available to answer the telephone – nothing else happening, sitting comfortably and nothing else to do? The chances are that if those circumstances fit you too often, your P45 won’t be too long coming also. Those first moments of telephone communication are vital and all-important. Here’s a good procedure for telesales personnel:
• Introduce themselves and their organisation.
• Make a statement that stimulates interest and creates a curiosity, about some benefit the prospective client could gain from the telephone call.
• Ask appropriate questions in order to get the other person involved in a conversation. Then listen and respond with more questions – appropriate ones. Tell them that in order to deliver the potential benefit, you need to get information. Here are examples; "My name is Roger Aspen, with Apex marketing. We specialise in generating business for our clients at the same time as lowering their marketing costs. I've got a few ideas I'd like to discuss to see if this would be of any value to you and your company”. Or: "This is Sophie Grierson with Cleanways UK. I'm calling because we may be able to cut your expenses for the exact same cleaning items you're now buying. To determine this, I'd like to find out what you're using for . . . "
Get your telesales personnel to put themselves in the position of the person hearing it, and ask: “would you want to hear more if you were the buyer?” “Would you set aside whatever you were doing and participate in the call? If not, they need to work out a new approach along the same lines. The opening line must say as much as possible, with as few words as possible - that’s an interesting exercise in itself. By appealing to the prospective clients’ desire to gain, or his fear of losing something, will you cause them to spend productive time with you, and eventually buy from you.
Telephone image.
Others form an image of the way we are by our telephone manner. Try it for yourself. The next time you receive a telephone call from someone you don’t know, grab a piece of paper and a pen, and note down the positive and negative images of the other person which form in your mind as the conversation progresses. How does this affect any decisions you have to make about this person or their company? Image is all-important. Tone of voice, manner of speaking, the words we choose, all instantly position us in the recipients’ mind and cause judgements to be made of which we are unaware. Listen to yourself on the telephone. How do you rate telephone-image-wise? Have your telesales personnel do this as an exercise. It is very revealing! Anyone who works with words and voice, actors, speakers, musicians, - all listen to how they sound, because they know it is so vital.
Make time to review
Many telesales personnel make one call after another, as if there is a record to be broken. Many telesales and telemarketing companies give their personnel targets to achieve (100 calls an hour in some cases). To me, these companies have given up on true professional telesales. It has become ‘just a numbers game’ to them, so possibly this does not apply to them…. My advice here about reviewing your last call is intended for the telesales manager and caller who wants to get it as right as he or she can. If you were unsuccessful in your last call, if the potential client put the telephone down on you without ‘giving you a chance’, ask yourself – Why? What on earth did I do wrong there? Review the call - What did I like about this call? What would I have done differently on this call? Don’t think your personnel haven’t the time to do this on every call. You can't afford not to.
Preparation
Take the time to know something about the company you’re calling, and where your product or service would fit in with the likely needs and wants of that company. Prepare in advance the questions you will need to get answered in order to further qualify your potential customer.
Listening
Success on the ‘phone does not mean dominating the conversation. Listening experts say that most of us do not listen most of the time. Often, this is because we are so busy thinking about what WE are going to say next. Work on listening skills. This is very easy, and goes like this: Close mouth. Listen. Keep mouth closed. Keep listening.
The Receptionist
The Receptionist is there to receive people and telephone calls. That’s what she is paid for. Acknowledge this to yourself. Make friends with them. Don’t be in such a mad rush to get to the ‘main man’ that you intimidate them or ‘push their buttons’ into stopping you dead. To get to your buyers, all you need to do is help Receptionists to do their job, which is to protect their boss’s time from wasteful callers. "We're happy with who we're buying from." Says the Receptionist. “Well, I have some ideas that have helped other people in your industry cut down on their advertising expenses while generating more sales. I'd like to ask Mr./Mrs. Roberts a few questions to see if this could apply here also…”. Make friends with the Receptionist. She can often be of great assistance, so get her on your side. She knows what you want, but remember, you’re not paying her wages….
Sending literature
"Send me literature" can be a legitimate sign of interest. Often, it is not. Literature will never do your companies selling for you, most often it will never be read, even when it has been requested. Good quality literature will only ever be a compliment to the sales skills of your personnel. So sending literature is often just another way of deferring hearing ‘no’ from the prospective client. Have your people become more willing to hear the word ‘no’ and cut your overheads even more by not wasting literature
Questioning
Instead of having a list of features and benefits you're intent on presenting, take all your benefits and write them down the side of a piece of paper. Then draw two columns down the page to the right of the words. Label the first column "Needs Filled/ problems Solved." Then for each benefit write out what need or problem the corresponding benefit satisfies. Label the right-hand column "Questions to Ask." For each need or problem write a question that would determine whether that situation existed. Use these questions during your call. Make sure you don't present what you "think" is a benefit until you've confirmed it by asking the corresponding questions. Use questions. Find out.
Objections - legitimate or illegitimate?
Many objections are created by the Salesperson not qualifying well enough in the first place. An objection is usually defined as ‘the customer’s reason for not buying’. Many times, the customer has just not been qualified as a correct prospect for this particular product or service. Poor qualification of prospects will always equal a lot of objections and lots of failed sales. When a potential client does come up with objections, they may not be real to your telesales people, but to that potential client, they are very real. Contrary to many books and sales training courses, objections to buying your product are not always surmountable. It may be an inappropriate product or service; the client may genuinely not be in a position to purchase if he has a limited budget. Most of all, he may not really want your product or service. Why not? The best thing to do with genuine objections is to talk them through with the potential customer. If the product or service is genuinely not for that person at this time, it will become glaringly obvious. If you continue to advise your sales people that ‘all objections can be overcome’ then sooner or later, they will become disaffected from you and the company. Why? Because many objections are legitimate objections that place the potential client out of reach of your product or service for the time being. Recognise it.
Ask for the order
‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’. It’s an old saying, but so often true, particularly in business. Your salespeople want an order? Ask for it. They want a definite date on which to call again? Ask for it. Want to know exactly who will be making the decision? Ask. Find out. When will this person be available? Ask the question. Don't waffle, get the information you need, get the order if that's what the call is about. You can’t have the order? Well, when can we have an order? May we telephone you on that date? What then, would be a good time? Ask the question and get the answer.
Professionalism in sales is for all salespeople, not just the Field Salesman. It is brought about by really caring about doing it right, finding out why, when things don’t work, and wanting to sell appropriate products or services to people and companies who really want or need them. This is achievable over the telephone. Telesales can be as professional as the rest, nurture it!

Questioning Techniques

Questioning techniques are an important subject in telemarketing. Questioning is effective because it enables you to guide the conversation, find out vital information to close the sale and create rapport while checking your prospect's level of interest. Here are some dynamic questioning techniques you can instantly apply to telemarketing to be more effective and compelling in your conversation with your prospect.
Technique 1: Information Gathering
This is the most important reason why we question. When you sell on the phone, you need to gain vital information needed to close the sale. For instance, let's say you were teleselling computers to a large corporate account. You want to find out what their price range is for expenditure. You can ask: "What was your IT expenditure like for the previous year?
Technique 2: Clarify Information
When you receive information, you would sometimes need to clarify it with your prospect. Use who, what, when, where, why or how in questioning. This is important because you might sometimes misinterpret what is said.
Technique 3: Check level of understanding and interest
Through your conversation with your prospect, you need to see whether he comprehends what you said. This can be especially true when you are discussing something technical, you need to make sure what you say is understood.
For instance: "From the Inco Terms I just described, do you think this would be suitable for your department?" You also need to find out his level of interest in your offering, so you can fine tune your message to address what is more relevant to him e.g. "What are your thoughts on what we have just discussed?"
Techniques 4: Determine buying behaviour
You need to get an idea to how your prospect would like to buy from you. Is he honest and straightforward, or tends to keep his cards close to him? How decisive is he? Does he tend to be more spontaneous in decision making or more thorough and methodical? Different people have different strategies, so you need to adapt your strategy to theirs.
Technique 5: Gain Participation
When you sell on the phone, you can't see the person. And if you proceed with a product dump i.e. just reciting the benefits of your product, there is a high chance his attention would drift and he would think of something else. You need to ensure he participates in your conversation. There are two advantages, first, people always like to have their views heard. Secondly, you get to learn more about your prospect.
This always helps to improve rapport and understanding between you and him, building better relationships in the process e.g. let's say you were talking halfway and he got interrupted on his mobile, you can say: "Wow, you're quite busy, it's amazing you get so much done in a day?" Giving positive strokes by asking the right questions and you will help smoothen out your interactions.
Technique 6: Increase Receptivity to Your Idea
Here is a common observation, it is said that people like your idea more if it feels like it came from them. That means when discussing things with your prospect, try to make sure he has the opportunity to tell you that things need to be done better, then you telling him. For instance, let's say you were selling insurance on the phone and your prospect had not got his own travel insurance. Ask: "You are on a frequent flier program and you travel outstation every month, do you think you could be at a higher risk then others?"
These are 6 powerful questioning techniques you can use to be more effective and compelling in your telephone sales, implement all of these and you would find exciting improvements to your results

Telesales Tactics

In business to consumer telesales, the sales volume or conversion rates of your agents can make all of the difference to your businesses success. If everyone in the team can get one more sale per day that could make the difference between huge profitability and just getting by. To ensure the former, it's not good enough for management to have entrepreneurism at their core. Your sales team must have it too.
Product Knowledge
It's all well and good to teach your staff about the difference between benefits and features, but unless they understand your product they'll always have a long way to go. Much of this obligation falls on you, their employer. Make sure they have full product knowledge so that they can answer with confidence any questions they may face.
Track Performance and Reward Success
Businesses often advertise that they look for entrepreneurism as a key characteristic of their staff. If that's engrained within your employees, then motivate them by offering them incentives. Pay a basic wage plus high commissions based on gross profit earned, revenue generated or a commission per sale.
Another great way to unleash entrepreneurism within your employees isn't just to pay them for success, but to make it clear who's the best too. Competition breeds success, and if your staff have the right attitude, it will motivate them more than the just the potential to earn extra commission. Make people aware of how they compare to others for their sales figures.
Protect Your Brand
Entrepreneurism and motivation are great when it comes to getting sales, but they can often have the opposite result on how your brand is perceived. Over-eager sales people could put too much pressure on customers, become too frustrated when customers won't part with their cash, and give customers misleading information to entice them to do business with you.
Monitor Incoming Calls
Tell your agents what is acceptable, and what is not. Record their calls if you have any suspicions but make it clear that you listen to them and inform the caller using an automated message right at the beginning. The more they think they are being watched, and the more they are aware of the consequences of not following the rules the better the chances are that they will treat your potential customers with respect. However, try to give your agents a second chance when things go wrong and resolve any conflicts before they get out of hand.
Getting the Close with Integrity
Customers love to discuss things with their partner, find out how you compare, and think things over. These are all fine and well for the customers, but they do nothing more than slow your business down and limit your businesses potential for success. In reality, how many of these customers will get back in touch? That shouldn't be a risk you are willing to take. Encourage your agents to ask for the sale before the customer has a chance to start dithering.
Don't under estimate the drive of your sales force; make sure you encourage their competitive spirit and reward them when they perform

Telesales Manager

In graduate school, along with college teaching, I held down some part-time tele-sales jobs, enabling me to eat well, drive a sports car, and have a lot more fun than a lot of my academic peers.
One telemarketing place was owned by a couple of bodybuilders.
Looking at them, you just felt they were going to deter most misconduct that telemarketers would think of getting into.
I’m not saying all tele-managers should be able to bench press more than three hundred pounds.
But you do need to be tough, because tele-sales people, especially those you’ll find in major urban areas, will test your mettle, time and again.
Specifically:
(1) Managers or supervisors need to “own” the space in which their people are selling, walking down aisles, standing next to desks, dispensing coaching tips here and there as much as is necessary. Weak managers won’t spend enough face time in the selling environment. They’ll be cowering in corner offices, every chance they get.
(2) Managers need to compel compliance with rules and regulations. Do you remember Arnold in the movie, “Kindergarten Cop”? He blew a whistle to get the attention of his distracted little ones. You need to do something similar.
(3) It’s a pain to have to correct people when they stray from selling scripts, but no pain means no gain! EVERY SINGLE TIME PEOPLE STRAY THEY MUST BE GUIDED BACK TO THE PATH. This takes strength, commitment, fortitude, and yes, toughness to do, day in and day out.
(4) Managers need to fire people, fast. There is no such thing in a successful unit as giving people a month or two to prove themselves. A day or two is about right.
(5) Managers need to be vocal, outgoing leaders and motivators. Sales meetings need to take place frequently, and they should be upbeat, energetic exercises.
This job isn’t for the laid-back individual who wants to “retire on active duty.” It’s only for the tough, believe me!