BPO to Long Term Career

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How is a BPO Run and Managed Part 2

Starting a BPO in not at all like it was in late 90s when BPOs started. Starting a BPO organization then was like the following: Finding an Infrastructure which is seating area with phone, electricity, Internet Finding a company / client that is willing to outsource their work mainly to cut cost through labour arbitrage Hiring workforce after understanding the client / business requirement like: knowledge levels, proficiency, qualification etc Training the work force like process training, voice and accent training, culture training etc Starting the service and sending invoices to the clients on an agreed frequency Today, BPOs are shrinking and BPMs are evolving which means outsourcing of typical jobs like customer service, complaint handling, account information calls etc is diminishing as the world is moving towards automation, chatbots, self service portals, account information on Apps and IVR. Instead, there is a new world of outsourcing which is growing ...

How is a BPO Run and Managed Part 1

Let's again go back to the basics and understand this in detail. While I am using the term BPO very often, I also want to talk very briefly about the difference between a BPO/BPM and contact center. Example: Company A: This is a US telecom company that sells monthly subscriptions to customers and selling the subscription includes the following: Lead Generation: Finding the customers Sales: Getting in touch with the customer, explaining various subscriptions to them and eventually getting the customers onboard Billing & Collection: Sending monthly invoices and collecting payments Customer Service: Servicing customers by handling their queries and addressing complaints to ensure that the customers are happy For this kind of a business the company will have to set up various departments and teams and maintain large pools of staff. Let's take a look: Lead Generation Team Back-office Research team for online research team Calling team that calls the customer...

Life of a BPO associate / agent !!

Associate is the starting level of a BPM and in some organizations they are called as Executives. They are basically the backbone of any/all BPM companies and no company can survive without Associate level employees. While associates are extremely important for BPM companies, the companies also have some key expectations from them. The employees stay in a company only if they meet these organizations and they grow in a company if they exceed these expectations. Minimum expectations from a BPM Associate: He / she should be a graduate in any field even though some companies still accept HSC passed candidates He / she should have good communication skills (Written and Spoken) He / she should be willing to work in shifts He / she should have long term plans to work in the company and BPM Industry as well Interview Process of an Associate generally includes three interviews which includes: An HR round where a candidate is assessed on basic fitment, reason for applying for the po...

What can you learn in a BPO, BPM? Skills, Certifications, Knowledge

Whether you are a fresh graduate or you have a professional degree, there is something for all to learn in a BPO company. First and foremost, if you are working in a voice business process you get to attend the language, culture and voice & accent training . This is really helpful and adds a lot to your career achievements. Personally, I have gained a lot from many of these language and culture trainings that I attended during my early days in the Industry and it helps me now when I have become a part of the senior management team. While things like Culture training etc sound very basic, only those who have ever travelled abroad will know how important it is to know the culture of the place where you are planning to travel. So far I have attended culture training of US, Australia, UK and all of that has been immensely helpful. After going through the call center voice and accent training and then talking to the customers from a foreign country, one can ...

Who works in a BPO ? - Qualification, Designations, Organization Structure

Business Process Outsourcing Companies are like any other corporate companies with various levels and organization structure that has: Freshers Seniors Middle Management Senior Management Top Management I joined a BPO in 2001 and now I am a part of Senior Management of an organization which is not a BPO though. In my blog, I am going to answer the following questions: Who can join a BPO ? Educational Qualification, Skills, Other needs BPO Industry is one of the few that employs people with any degree or qualification with a minimum requirement of HSC (Higher Secondary School). Now it is not compulsory that all the companies will allow HSCs but many companies do. Now a days BPOs have evolved to be BPMs i.e. Business Process Management companies that support various domains like Hospitality, Technology, Travel, Insurance, Retail so graduates and post graduates can also look at joining their industry specific BPOs and build long terms careers. Some o...

Definition of BPO, Business Process Outsourcing

I would like to start with the definition of BPO, Business Process Outsourcing. While the definition is easily available on the web, I would like to make it layman and easy to understand. Business Process Outsourcing means moving a company's work to another company that has the expertise in the work. For example: If I open a sales company with 100 employees, I will have to give them salaries which needs attendance tracking, time tracking and calculation of salaries accordingly. All this requires accounting knowledge and in my company I will only have sales people. So, instead of hiring a team of accountants, I will move my salary calculation work to an accounting company which has expertise of doing this. Here, moving salary accounting is called outsourcing.