SME - Call center

[ineedmorehp]

Inline with the Good investment or business venture thread,
and for the benefit of all here are some details on operating small-scale (5-20+ agents) call center.

First of all, call/contact center is not easy money. You need to have budget for x number of people/agents/I.T., rent of facility, and telco.

There are several ways to earn and below are the most common:

Inbound - basically agents receive incoming calls. These calls can be technical and non-technical (e.g.: inquiries, directions, help desk/I.T. services, order taking, and alike - madami pa). You get paid here either PER HOUR, PER HOUR PER AGENT, or PER PERFORMANCE - successfuly made sale, appointment, etc.

Outbound - opposite of inbound, wherein agents make calls to clients and businesses to sell, market/survey, make an appointment, credit/debit card pulling, and alike. You can get paid either PER HOUR/PER HOUR PER AGENT, PER PERFORMANCE (mostly).

And

Seat Lease - here you own a call center with complete I.T. equipment, offices, workstations (desk, computer, handset/headset, LCD, internet-ready, telco line, dialers, etc.). This involves huge amount of investment in order to complete the facility. This is the simplest way to earn. You get paid for each seat leased per shift and/or day. Shift = 8-9 hours; 3 shifts per day.

For the inbound and outbound, you need a campaign/program which is provided by direct clients/contacts or brokers.

Brokers are the people who look for prospect clients in abroad to outsource their telemarketing, inbound help desk/support, etc. and you don't have to worry going abroad. Of course, payment from client can be directed to you or the broker. Be sure your broker is not a fly-by-night; gone after receiving the payment of your client. Do you homework.

Direct clients/contacts - you happen to know a person who worked in a call center and dealt directly with brokers and/or clients. Sometimes, relatives and friends in overseas are asked to get clients for you. It is also possible that they center has overflow and just outsource the project to you or lease in your facility to handle such.

Other sources of clients can be off-shore/outsource directories and internet.

Now that you have client(s), you need people to run your program/campaign! ...Agents, team leader, Quality Assurance, Managers, and of course I.T. people.

Sana informative 'to sa inyong lahat...

[russpogi]

Ayos to Jan ah! Gusto ko sana nito kaso 'ala pang pera pang-invest!

[ineedmorehp]

Ei there! Kami we started small lang din 5 agents and the facility were given to us for free. Well not really free but in exchange of the services we rendered in building their call center.

There are lots of people we met and went into the biz. Some were successful while others "pinang hinaan ng loob" because of non-paying/payment of campaign/program, which we have experience as well.

Btw, we have some campaigns which is open to interested parties. THe reason why we're not running it is because of insufficient funds of course. Small time lang so we can't handle everything.

[Chip]

how are the calls setup ba? Voice over IP?
do all call centers need a dedicated leased line?

[vice]

ok to ah. We have an office space that can run as a small call center. Pano ko ba ma-contact yung mga brokers na yan?

[ineedmorehp]

*Chip - sir depends sa client and/or budget.

*vice - we have some campaigns that pays good at the same time reliable client and campaign for expansion. You might ask: bakit di nyo nalang patakbuhin kayo mismo? Answer: we don't have enough space and/or funds to do so. SME lang kami. Kaya kami nagkaron ng extra and/or for expansion dahil natuwa samin client and/or client referrals.

[Gumusut_Amige]

ser ineedmorehp, ano ang range para sa initial capital sa ganitong set-up?

[Chip]

ser ineedmorehp, ano ang range para sa initial capital sa ganitong set-up?

+1

say 10 seats and 12-14 hours/day lang operation?
magkano din kelangan revolving capital?
thanks sir

[ineedmorehp]

Hirap magbigay ng sample computation. For simple campaign/program you need atleast 200-400K/month.

[txtalert]

Sir, pls email me nga more details of this kind of business, interested din ako e. Thanks! txtalert*gmail.com

[dieselNUBI]

ditto !

darthjason2003*yahoo.com

[ineedmorehp]

*txtalert & dieselNUBI - nasa taas na yung detail ng call center biz. If you want to know more better to have a meeting and discuss further.

There are lots of campaign brokers but make sure you do your homework - are they reliable? do they have clients local and abroad? how many call centers are running the campaigns/programs he is offering?

For direct clients, if you can get advance payment the better. Security mo pero wag mo naman itatakbo kasi HINDI IKAW ANG NAKAKAHIYA KUNG HINDI HINIYA MO PATI PILIPINAS. One of THe reasons why off-shore, BPO, and contact center businesses are moving here in the Philippines is that we are honest as compared to other countries like... SO PLEASE DON'T SCARE FOREIGN INVESTORS.

You make money, you help create jobs and lessen unemployment, and increase productivity of our country.

[ineedmorehp]

Btw for those computer shops and similar setup can also do call center stuff. Of course don't expect to get big clients because most of them will ask what kind of facility you have... especially finance-related programs


physical security (building, facility, server room/network operation center/data center)
fire suppression systems (computer/electronic-friendly/dry system so-called)
surveilance systems
data security, network security
power backup, generators, UPS
brand name (I.T. equipment - servers, computers, network gears, etc.)
software and operating system used
network fail-over and redundancy
etc! Dami pa!

[sarah-gsky]

Its not hard to have your on call center. Kailangan lang you have budget and clients. The company that I'm working with right now started for a small seats and now we're expanding. Looking for client that could give you project is pretty easy all you have to do is to generate your own leads. Madali lang madaming sites na mapagkukunan.If you don't have the center yet pwede ka mag seat lease that cost $4/hr you don't need to worry the facilities, telco, computer,internet connection.

Sarah
sarah*global-sky.com

[ferdine]

Its not hard to have your on call center. Kailangan lang you have budget and clients. The company that I'm working with right now started for a small seats and now we're expanding. Looking for client that could give you project is pretty easy all you have to do is to generate your own leads. Madali lang madaming sites na mapagkukunan.If you don't have the center yet pwede ka mag seat lease that cost $4/hr you don't need to worry the facilities, telco, computer,internet connection.

Sarah
sarah*global-sky.com

Sarah, nice to hear from you. My question is how do I generate my own leads? What tools do I need?

[ineedmorehp]

^ ferdine, dunno if you already have conversation w/ sarah. anyway to answer your question: you need agent(s) to call in behalf of your company that these are your offshore products and services you can offer. well basically calling them to offer what you have. big call center of course started by going in another country and look for prospect client.

[ferdine]

^ ferdine, dunno if you already have conversation w/ sarah. anyway to answer your question: you need agent(s) to call in behalf of your company that these are your offshore products and services you can offer. well basically calling them to offer what you have. big call center of course started by going in another country and look for prospect client.

Thanks for the info.

[van_wilder]

what are the equipments i need to start? how long ang itatatakbo ng 1m?

[ineedmorehp]

you need stuff normally found in computer shop, plus server(s) (file, ip telephony, web/mail), and decent ip phone & headset(1-1.5k), internet, decent telco provider in US.

1m, hmmm est ko mga 2mos. (based on number and performance of agents) dapat after first 3-4weeks of operation you should have got payment from the client already and should be regulary based on the contracts. most that i know are weekly or bi-weekly.

[van_wilder]

how much dapat ang front end mo if gusto mo mag-run with 10-20 people tapos hindi ka nababayaran YET ng half ng clients?