Learn Why the biggest and fastest growing companies TeleWork

Working Freedom
By: Jenny Gross

As is the case with many companies, employers are constantly looking to cut back on expenses but at the same time gain profits. Virtual Call Centers allow companies the freedom and flexibility to achieve the best of both worlds. Virtual Call Centers or Hosted Call Centers can replace an entire office and staff and provide a better and more efficient office. The way this can be done is through the power of the internet. Hosted Call Centers are controlled entirely through the web and are extremely easy to run and maintain.

With many unique features to offer, a Hosted Contact Center offers amazing options to any size company. Such features are: Interactive Voice Response, or IVR, Voice Broadcasting, Predictive Dialing with a unique Predictive Dialer and all the Virtual Call Center Supervisory tools. These tools are: Barge in mode, Whisper mode, Spy mode, as well as MP3 recordings of all calls, random screen captures of Virtual Call Center agents screens,and monitoring of keystrokes and mouse clicks. These tools are included in a Hosted Call Center to ensure that the agents are working properly and efficiently.

With all the amazing features that a Virtual Call Center has to offer, its hard to understand why any company wouldn't have one. Be it inbound or outbound, telemarketing or customer service, a Hosted Contact Center can really give a major boost to any company, says Steve Cohen, Vice President of Freedom TeleWork. With Interactive Voice Response (IVR), a company can handle and take charge of inbound calls as well as outbound ones. IVR acts as a virtual agent, thus providing the same results as attained through a regular agent, only costing a fraction of the price. IVR allows customers to call and take care of various tasks such as paying a bill or getting tech support.

I think companies, especially the bigger ones, love our Voice Broadcasting, says Cohen. Voice Broadcasting has recently swept through the business world as companies marvel and craze over this exciting new product. The reason is because Voice Broadcasting allows companies to reach the unreachable and lock in customers they would have never been able to get. Voice Broadcasting can send millions of calls in one shot with just one simple recording.

In addition to all these features, Freedom TeleWork has created the first and only online community of Virtual Call Center agents called TeleWorkers. The TeleWorkers community is so unique in that it provides benefit to both employer and employee. The employer can find thousand of TeleWorkers through Freedom TeleWorks cutting edge website. These Virtual Call Center agents are rigorously trained and tested to ensure quality and professionalism for the employing company. Employers can choose Virtual Call Center agents based on language fluency, price demand, time allowance, proficiency rankings and other preferences. The agents benefit tremendously in knowing that they can work from the comfort of their own home. This is a major plus for any worker, as the hassle and frustrations of preparing for work can drive anyone crazy.

 

Go GREEN with Freedom TeleWork Outsourcing
By: Jenny Gross

For Marci Gerdes it was a regular routine. Every Sunday, filling her SUV with $48 of gas to drive to her call center job 35 miles from home. Sitting on Interstate 95 one day she figured there had to be a better way. "I was stuck in traffic, breathing in carbon monoxide from the tailpipe of the guy in front of me and I thought ʻI have heard of the outsourcing revolution and Virtual Call Centers, maybe this could be an answer for me'"
Searching the Internet she found her outsourcing position at the virtual call center Freedom TeleWork. After applying online and taking a battery of tests, Marci became a certified TeleWorker and soon after took a position handling inbound customer service for an auto marketing and promotion company. 'I remember my first Sunday skipping the $48 fill up and thinking how between gas, wear and tear on the car, dry cleaning, lunches out, and all the aggravation I could handle, that this was going to be a very sweet proposition for me" said Marci.
Yes, sweet for Marci, but even sweeter for employers and the environment. Employers with a social consciousness and a good eye for their bottom line have been flocking to outsourcing their workforce through virtual call centers. Lloyd Gomberg, Senior Vice President of Freedom Telework said recently 'We have reached the tipping point where it is obvious to all that we must do our part in changing the track we are on, or we will all sink together. With technology solutions such as whisper mode, spy mode, barge in mode, and the recording of all conversations as MP3 files, there is no need to have employees all congregate in a central brick and mortar facility every day. It is too expensive for the corporation, it wears down employees, and it is the major factor in contributing to greenhouse gasses that are ruining our planet."
Gomberg continued, "Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Truth" said we must change the way the world does business. And Freedom TeleWork does that by making your firm socially responsible by eliminating carbon emissions using at home workers. What was once a source of pollution is now a source of convenience and pride for your company and your stay at home workforce. Every TeleWorker you hire saves the world from guzzling gallons of gasoline and keeps carbon emissions minimized. And these workers are able to pass that savings off to you, in the form of reduced overheads from brick and mortar facilities and bulky hardware." Gore's movie almost sets the stage for the proposition that Freedom TeleWork and other virtual call center outsourcers order up. In a quote the former Vice President said "If we do the *right* thing, then we're gonna create a lot of wealth, and we're gonna create a lot of jobs, because doing the right thing moves us forward."
According to Marci that is exactly what she is doing- moving forward with her life. Now that she has accepted her outsourcing position with the virtual call center she now has time for her 6 year old son Nate, and feels better without the stress and grind of the daily commute.
Corporate clients keen to take advantage of the big cost savings outsourcing and virtual call centers offer are flocking to companies like Freedom TeleWork . "They recognize that being socially and environmentally responsible is not an option anymore. People remember what they will have to explain in the future when their kids ask "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" said Gomberg quoting Al Gore.
Article Source: http://www.articlezineready.com
Jenny Gross is Vice President for Marketing and works at Freedom Telework Inc., a virtual call center company that offers hosted call center solutions and services such as progressive dialing, inbound call center, chat, predictive dialing, and many more.

 

Call Center Efficiency
By: Jenny Gross

Predictive Dialing is a call center tool used to generate higher margin talk time for teleworkers. The predictive dialer works by using a variety of algorithms to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers, adjusting the calling process to the number of agents it anticipates (or predicts) will be available. This article was prepared to educate the differences and postivies and negatives.

Traditional predictive dialers use auto dialing with voice messaging, with teleworkers who are prepared to handle calls initiated by the dialer. Answering machines, busy signals, and no answer calls are processed in a manner similar to that of a new-age hosed predictive dialing system. However, when a 'live' answer is detected, the dialer plays an introductory recorded message, giving the call recipient the option to talk with an agent to complete the transaction. This message is a consistent greeting that identifies the caller, the nature of the call, and the option to speak with an agent. This process requires a more sophisticated predictive algorithm to ensure that a phone agent is available when the call recipient asks to speak with an agent. Analyzing the pros and cons of the traditional predictive method and then further delving into the hosted variety of predictive dialing you can see which method is right for you.

Pros of Traditional Predictive Dialing:

• Call lists are pre-qualified without the introductory need for an agent
• Fewer agents are required to handle far more calls
• Agents are only speaking with interested callers
• Call list processing is far less expensive

Cons of Traditional method:

• Overall list performance may be less due to call recipient resistance to recorded messages
• Certain U.S. states do not allow recorded messaging (unless prior business relationship has been established). This may limit the use of this technique to only certain types of business or consumer campaigns in certain geographical areas.

Hosted predictive dialers
Hosted predictive dialers (aka Virtual Predictive Dialers, Web-Enabled Predictive Dialers, VoIP Predictive Dialers) use the Software as a Service (SaaS) model to provide organizations and individuals with a predictive dialer capability. Typically, the only requirement for a firm to use a hosted predictive dialer system is a computer with an Internet connection and a telephone line for each agent.

Pros:

• No required investments in computer or telephone hardware
• No required investments in software or licenses
• Administration and support are handled by the service provider
• Links into the system are remote, enabling agents and supervisors to connect from any location

Cons:

• Service is dependent on an Internet connection; when the Internet goes down, so does the service.