The Niche Marketing Blog

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By Scott Spooner

The dream of many niche marketers – whether on-line or off – is to discover, or create, that first mega-hit product that will take sales through the roof, bringing both needed cash flow and financial stability to the company.  Whether from a wildly successful product launch, or a leading edge affiliate program, it is envisioned that the cash flow from the product sales will fund everything from marketing, to R&D for the next product, and will both pay the bills and fatten the salaries.

Let’s say that you are clever enough to identify this mega-hit product, and smart enough to leverage that product into an avalanche of sales orders. Have you considered what will happen next? Specifically, have you considered the order fulfillment and customer service functions that are about to be impacted?

Should you find yourself in this position, now would be the time to consider outsourcing these functions to a call center.

What is a call center?

A call center is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of customer requests by telephone. Call centers do more than just answer your phone calls during office hours. They can also offer you a comprehensive package that includes handling after-hours inquiries, total customer service, technical support and collection of orders. Call centers are typically operated by third-party companies to administer both incoming product support and information inquiries from consumers, along with outgoing calls for telemarketing, product services, and, possibly even debt collection. In addition to a call center, the collective handling of letters, faxes, live chat, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact center.

Most large companies use call centers to interact with their customers. If you find your company in a position with sales orders suddenly going vertical, you will likely want to outsource to a call center as well.

Outsourcing to a call center can do a lot for your company in the way of saving precious employee time and resources while, at the same time, promoting growth management.

Types of Call Centers

When it comes to call center outsourcing solutions, there are many options from which to choose. The following is a list of different types of call centers that you will want to consider, depending on your company’s required level of service, type of customer interaction, and budgetary constraints:

• Inbound call centers generally accept rather than make calls, and are typically used for customer service and technical support. Outbound operations call selected people or companies, often to support a marketing or sales campaign or survey.
• An in-house operation would be staffed by your own employees, working within your own facility. An outsourced call center, on the other hand, would be a separate company that you hire to care for your customers while using its own staff and facilities.
• Offshore call centers are typically located on another continent, while nearshore call centers will be in a country that is adjacent or very near yours. For example, Canadian call centers are nearshore if you’re based in the United States. Irish call centers are nearshore if you’re in Great Britain.
• Call centers with shared agents will have the same person handling calls for more than one company. Computer-telephony integration (CTI) will allow those agents to be surprisingly seamless in their work for each of the companies, letting them see which company’s call is coming in, with the proper greeting and even the caller’s information appearing on their computer screen before the call is even answered. Dedicated agents meanwhile will handle only one company’s calls. Using shared agents can significantly reduce a company’s costs, and is often the first step for a growing company that wants to outsource, but does not yet have a heavy call volume.

How to Choose a Good Call Center for Your Company

With so many surveys showing customer service to be even more important than price for consumers, and especially businesses, it is no wonder that few business decisions have as much potential to positively impact your customers’ impression of your company as choosing the right call center. A great call center can quickly transform the way people think about you and your products or services; from helping them to resolve difficulties, to allowing you to build brand loyalty.

Whether your company is a multi-national conglomerate, or a two-person, back room affair, it’s important to remember that the call center is the face of your company. There are several different types of call centers so you’ll want to assess your company’s level of need, and depth of services, before making your selection.

The best place to begin your call center search is on the Internet. Point your web browser to either “call center guide” or “call center directory”, and you will find several companies with which to compare.

Different types of call centers charge differently; some charge per “dedicated client service rep” while others charge “per minute”. Checking on both rates and service packages will help you make a smarter decision.

Make sure that the prospective call center understands your industry and the type of contact you are expecting with your clients or customers. For instance, if your business model requires you to participate in web chats with clients, or replying to service-oriented e-mails, make sure that the call center can meet these needs.

Once you’ve narrowed your call center list down to a few good prospects based on their costs and services rendered, you’ll ant to turn your attention to their performance histories. Call center performance levels can be determined by several standard traffic measurements (performance metrics). Some of the most important questions to ask when determining performance metrics include:

• What is the percentage of calls that resolve the customer’s issues entirely? Resolving it completely means that the customer does not find it necessary to call back regarding the same problem at least for a specified minimum period of time. This is called “First Call Resolution” or FCR.
• What is the average amount of time a caller is required to wait while waiting in a queue?
• What is the “Average Handling Time” (AHT) or the typical amount of time spent dealing with the customer? The AHT is equivalent to the ATT plus time spent wrapping up as well as time spent holding on.
• What is the number of calls that an agent answers in one hour? In call-center-speak this is referred to as CPH.
• What is the “Average Talk Time” (ATT), or the typical amount of conversation time?
• What is the amount of time that an agent spends while processing customer requests whilst not actually talking to the customer? This is referred to as NR- “Not Ready Time”, or ACW – “After Call Work”.
• What is the percentage of calls that a customer abandons the call completely due to having to hold on for a long time in a queue? This is called “Percentage of Calls Abandoned” or “Total Calls Abandoned”. This happens in call centers that do not have sufficient staff to handle high call volumes.

Knowing Your Best Options

There is great value in finding a call center that has experience in your industry. Their understanding of callers’ needs and the best approaches for various situations can deliver great value to you and your clients.

It is always to your advantage to know what you need before you start shopping around for a call center. However, if this is your first time in using a call center, you would be wise to seek input from the call centers themselves. With the constant advancement of technology and increasingly specialized call center management techniques, you will likely discover options that you did not know about, or hadn’t even considered. It is always best to understand your options.

The right call center can deliver exceptional value to you and your customers. When you are considering the best call center outsourcing solutions for your company, take your time to make the right decision based on the needs of both your company and your customers.

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• Call Center Customer Service – Work From Home – Cloud 10 (avocationsunlimited.com)
• 5 Ways to Maximize Call Center Sales (croweconsultinginc.com)
• Call Center Services Company Expanding in Philippines (prweb.com)

Technorati Tags: call center, Call centre, Outsourcing

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[Editor's note: Today's guest article focuses on grabbing customers from your competitors through the strategic use of location based marketing campaigns. Brick-and-mortar businesses who compete in localized, niche markets will find these tactics especially thought provoking. Tell me what you think: would these strategies and tactics work for your business? Leave me a comment, below. Also, if you like this article, consider sharing it with your friends (but not your competitors!). ~Scott]

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Want to increase your number of customers and get an edge on your competitors in terms of customer acquisition? New social media tactics can help you do just that for pennies on your regular marketing dollars.

Location based marketing’s greatest strength is its ability as a customer acquisition tool. Location based marketing for businesses with tough competitors or rivals can make a big difference in your bottom line and help you steal away customers from the competition. The relative cheapness of mobile marketing strategies like this also makes them very favorable when compared with traditional restaurant and retail marketing strategies.

How can location based marketing help you acquire customers? The simplest way is by offering a compelling value proposition to new clients in the form of coupons, discounts, or other rewards for checking in. Forward thinking customers who actively use social media platforms like Foursquare can be a great new customer base to tap into.

The first step in stealing your competitors customers is to set up your location based marketing campaign and get it rolling. After that, there are three key strategies for stealing new customers with location based marketing.

First, make sure your specials and dealers are advertised within the platform you are using. For example if you use Foursquare for business promotion, customers who are in the area and using Foursquare will automatically see your specials and deals available. This is a great way to reach new customers who otherwise might not have visited, by offering them specials that they can browse on their mobile device when they are nearby.

Second, online deal databases offer a great way to list your specials and make them available for customers looking for bargains on the internet. If someone spots your special or deal and is in the area, they can stop by and visit.

Third, window or sign advertising outside of your store gives you the opportunity to attract walk-in customers. By offering unique specials and deals you can attract customers who may have been on the way to a near by competitor.

Whether it be a free ice cream cone or order of fries, you can entice new customers to stop by and check out your deal simply by setting it up on a location platform like Foursquare. Once that customer knows your restaurant or shop offers these specials location based deals, they will be tempted to return to get the great value you are offering.

Matt Bodnar is a restaurant entrepreneur with a passion for social media. Visit http://www.locationbasedmarketing.biz to learn more about location based marketing and download a free how-to guide giving you tips and strategies for using location based marketing.

(C) Copyright – Matt Bodnar. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Bodnar

http://EzineArticles.com/?Steal-Your-Competitors-Customers-With-Location-Based-Marketing&id=6021134

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• How To Use Foursquare For Businesses (thenichemarketingblog.com)
• Seven Applications Every Location Based Marketer Needs (thenichemarketingblog.com)
• Location Marketing – The Latest Small Business Tool (thenichemarketingblog.com)
• Help Your Business To Grow Using Social Media (techattitude.com)
• 6 Successful Foursquare Marketing Campaigns to Learn From (mashable.com)
• 5 Innovative Food Truck Social Media Marketing Campaigns (mashable.com)

Technorati Tags: Foursquare, location absed marketing, niche marketing strategy

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[Editor's note:  Today's guest article not only discusses the "how" of location based marketing, but also the "why"; that is, why should businesses embrace and use this technology. In today's economy, both niche marketers and mass retailers need every edge they can get. Location based marketing is quickly becoming a "must have" tool that every marketer should learn and use. What do you think about location based marketing? Leave me a comment below. ~Scott]

ByAjay Prasad

The basic concept of location based marketing has been around for years but the internet, social media websites as well as ‘smart phones’, together are set to change it forever.

Simple yet brilliant phone applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla which rely on Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) have made it possible for business to communicate with their customers online. More commonly known social networks such as Facebook, Google Maps and Yelp too are catching up and helping make social media become an integral part of real world commerce.

Social networks and the so called ‘lo-so’ networks are an all new medium for Advertising and Marketing and the quicker do business comprehend them and adapt to take their advantages the better it is for them.

How does it all work?

Everything’s digital. Gone are the days when everyone kept a phonebook and a hefty copy of the Yellowpages directories, most of us today look for services and businesses online. Say it’s your first ever evening in San Francisco and the only thing in on your mind is ‘Sushi’. What do you do? You pull out your smart phone or switch on your laptop, visit a search engine website like Google and type “Sea Food in San Francisco” or perhaps even “Sushi in San Francisco”. Trust me, Google will let you in on thousands and thousands of results and is quite capable of leaving you all confused. What do you do? You click on the new Local Search Result Only feature. This would enable the search engine to provide you with results relevant to your physical location. You can then choose from a handful of restaurants, where you may relish your Sushi.

How does Local Marketing help Businesses?

Anyone on the streets, round the corner or even a mile away can, only with a couple of clicks on their ‘smart phones’, instantly find out about the services and goods your business offers. This new possibility naturally increases the on-foot traffic to your store and also encourages impulsive buying. Being published on online business directories allow anyone in the city to find your goods and services.

Local social media marketing is a form of direct marketing; your promotional material reaches out to real potential customers who are already making an effort to find you. Your promotional material is delivered electronically and on demand. It is, in comparison, an eco-friendly form of advertising as there is no hard copy paper wastage involved.

How do Businesses use Local Marketing?

Business register themselves on local marketing feature of search engines like Yahoo, Google, Bing etc, and on Business directory websites such as yelp to gain online visibility. It’s important to fill the business profile on such websites carefully.

Some companies opt for professional search engine optimization (SEO) for their websites. The importance of (SEO) is only to rise in the near future for not only would the website require to be indexed properly so they may be found within the general internet top search engines but would soon also require to be found by physical, geographic, location as well.

Another way businesses are using social media and location based marketing is to engage with their customers. Applications like Twitter allow building an intimidate relationship with customers. They act as an online mouthpiece where a store may talk of a new product launch or an art gallery may speak of a special event.

Related articles

• Small Business Local Search Essay (pointblankseo.com)
• Maximize Social Media Traffic to Your Blog (problogger.net)
• How To Check Your Rankings In Search Engines (hobo-web.co.uk)

Technorati Tags: Foursquare, Gowalla, location-based marketing, niche marketing, niche marketing strategy

Image via CrunchBase

Many niche marketers have found success setting-up and actively promoting a business page on Facebook. With the arrival of Google+, these same niche marketers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a similar functionality on Google+.

The wait might be nearing an end. In a recent Search Engine Land blog post, Greg Sterling writes about Google’s apparent designs for incorporating businesses into their future evolutions of Google+.

This is significant in that Google is now going head-to-had with social media rival Facebook. If Google can score a hit with their Google+ features, then the increased competition will be a boon for both online and offline businesses.

What do you think? Leave me a comment below.

Related articles

• Google +: Google’s New Social Network (seroundtable.com)
• Google+ “Pages” Coming For Businesses (searchengineland.com)
• Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives (downes.ca)

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Google, Greg Sterling, niche marketing, Search Engine Land