e4 BPO

Posts Tagged ‘business process outsourcing’

e4 BPO awared top blog for BPO

e4 BPO is proud to announce that we are now the top blog on Facebook and Networked Blogs for the BPO and Business Process Outsourcing industry.  Thanks to all of our current followers and future followers for making this blog a success.

Networked Blogs is an application on Facebook that offers Facebook users the ability to follow blogs on topics they like which are then updated to their wall.  Bloggers such as e4 BPO submit blog listings to Networked Blogs and then people can follow those blogs based upon the topics.

Through Networked Blogs, the user on Facebook can see the actual blog post without having to go out and visit the blog directly as it contains all the information from the original blog post.

In addition to Networked Blogs and Facebook, e4 BPO has received a large number of followings to this blog directly as well.  We appreciate your support and we look forward to interacting with you through this blog and through our various social networking sites.

Below are some links to other places you can find e4 BPO on the internet:

View e4 BPO photos online via Picasa:

e4 BPO Business Process Outsourcing

Or view as a slide show from Picasa:

Corporate video for e4 BPO.

e4 BPO - What does e4 mean?

One question I get asked a lot is what does the e4 of e4 BPO stand for?  Most people understand we do Business Process Outsourcing from the BPO portion of our company name.  But the e4 part is what throws some people wondering what it is and why we chose it for our company name.

I did have one guy who asked “If the e stands for internet, what does the 4 stand for?”  Another guy asked “Do you only work with military folks and is the e4 related to the rank in the military.”  In both cases, both guys were way off target on what the e4 of e4 BPO really stands for.

First of all, if you look at the logo itself, you will notice behind the e4 is a black and white checker board.  And if you look at the “O” in BPO, you will notice that there is a pawn chess piece instead of the normal circle that would fill the “O.”  And before you ask, no we don’t do business process outsourcing for only chess companies.

However, what we do with business process outsourcing can be related to chess.  If you take a look at the tagline of our company, you will note that it says “Your strategic move for business leverage.”  This is something we take very seriously here at e4 BPO, ensuring that our strategy helps our clients obtain greater profits, reduce costs and increase productivity.

The first moves of a chess game are termed the “opening” or “opening moves.”  A good opening will provide better protection of the King, control over an area of the board (particularly the center), greater mobility for pieces, and possibly opportunities to capture opposing pawns and pieces.  e4 is actually a chess opening move, sometimes called “The king’s pawn opening.”  This is where our company name comes from.

It is white’s aggressive opening move which opens lines for the queen and king’s bishop and fights for control of the squares.  e4 is the most traditional of White’s first moves, is popular at all levels of the game and is the favored opening move of world champions Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov, Fischer calling it ‘best by test‘.  Openings with e4 tend to emphasize violent tactics over slow maneuvering.  At this point Black must decide how to face White’s aggression.

But what does that have to do with business process outsourcing?  EVERYTHING!  I have personally visited many BPO offices, and one thing that seems to be lacking is strategy.  Here at e4 BPO, we take a vested interest in our client’s businesses.  We look at the big picture for our clients, not just individual projects.

Think of it this way.  You own a business.  If you are the CEO/President of the company, you are the “king” in the game of chess.  If you have a co-owner or stock holders, they would be the “queen.”  Your managers are the bishops, knights and rooks.  Your employees are the pawns.  Don’t get offended if you are a pawn, as all pieces in chess are very important to winning the game.  Therefore, your company is all the chess pieces on your side of the board.

Your competitors for your business in real life can be related to the opposing side in the game of chess.  So, if for example you are the white pieces, then your competitor is the black pieces which represents your competitor’s company.  Each of you have a game to play and the company with the best overall strategy will ultimately win.

This is why e4 BPO believes we are a cut above and beyond our competitors in the BPO market.  We take the time to get to know each of our clients and what their needs are.  We also study your competitors as well, so that we know what their tactics might be in order to develop a proper strategy.

The possible opening moves of chess have been extensively studied for hundreds of years, and many of these sequences have been given names to simplify discussion of a game.   The same can be said for e4 BPO as we have extensively studied all aspects of each area we assist our clients in outsourcing.

In all openings of chess there is a struggle for key territory, in particular the center squares (your market and your customers), and an effort to deploy pieces and pawns in useful positions.  Some are direct, while others are more subtle and indirect approaches toward these goals.  At e4 BPO, we use many different strategies to assist our clients in meeting their overall goals.

White (your company) can start by moving its King’s pawn 2 spaces, i.e. playing “e4.”  This move has many strengths – it immediately works on controlling the center, and it frees two pieces (the Queen and a Bishop).  Just like in chess, your first move is critical in any area.  We understand this and that is why we are here to help.

The great chess player Mikhail Botvinnik put it this way, “Every great master will find it useful to have his own theory on the openings, which only he himself knows, a theory which is closely linked with plans for the middle game.”  Here at e4 BPO, we help our clients gain control of the center of their board being their market, and create strategies to beat out your competitors.

From a statistics standpoint, leading with the e4 opening move in chess results in White winning 39% of the time, draw 29% and black 32%.  So as you can see from chess, e4 gives you a higher chance of actually winning.  In real life, e4 BPO should be your first move when choosing a company for business process outsourcing, thereby also giving you the best advantage for winning.

Contact us at e4 BPO today to learn more about how our business strategies can help your business win.

How e4 BPO Saved Our Business

I thought I would share a letter I received from one of our clients.  It tells a great story about how outsourcing to a call center and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) can help a business to achieve better profits and increase productivity for their company.

To whom it may concern:

I wanted to write a letter to you to thank you for the services that e4 BPO has provided for our company.  In 2008 when the recession hit, we were really not prepared for it.  By the end of that year, we saw our revenues cut by almost 50%.  This, coupled with clients paying at a much slower rate, caused major issues with our cash flow.  At this point, we knew we must act fast in order to survive during the slow economy.  We had already seen several of our competitors go out of business, while others were being acquired by other companies, and we didn’t want to follow either path.

During a slow economy, there are only 2 real choices.  Either cut costs or increase revenue, or both.  Luckily we found e4 BPO to assist us with both areas.  At first we were fairly skeptical that e4 BPO could really help cut costs and increase our revenue.  We were wondering how our clients would react.  As they say, hindsight is 20/20.  Looking back now, we know that we made the right choice.

In our first year of working with e4 BPO from 2008 to 2009, we were able to cut operating expenses by over 50%.  We were also able to have more personnel to handle areas like technical support, sales, lead generation, appointment setting, marketing, website design and SEO – Search Engine Optimization.  This allowed for a massive increase in our productivity which thereby increased our revenue as well.

During our 2nd year of working with e4 BPO from 2009 to 2010, we continued our efforts and increased even further.  Now that we are in our 3rd year with e4 BPO, we are excited about all the opportunities for our company for 2011 and are able to once again look at expansion even though the economy has not picked back up to the level it was in 2007.

I wanted to take this time to thank the team at e4 BPO for the exceptional services you have provided for our company.  I would highly recommend your services to any business.  Your team of employees are very professional and it has been a joy to work with such a highly respectable company as e4 BPO.  We look forward to the years to come of working with e4 BPO.

Sincerely,

Richard F. Burrell, Director of CRM Technologies, MTSI

Philippines Beats India Officially as Number 1 in BPO

December 6, 2010 – Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) – After challenging India for the top position for several years, the Philippines is now the world leader in business support functions like shares services and business process outsourcing, according to the latest reports and trends analysis.

In fact, the country overtook India in these categories last year, according to IBM’s latest Global Locations Trend Annual Report, released recently in New York.

India now ranks No. 2, the first time it was not in the leading position for these activities, according to the IBM report, launched in October but made available online last month.

“The Philippines has taken over the lead in the global ranking from India,” the report said.

The IBM report said the Philippines offered a similarly attractive business environment for international business support functions as India. Unlike India’s BPO hot spots, however, labor costs here have not increased as much.

On Thursday (December 2), the Contract Center Association of the Philippines said the country had become the call center of the world, with around 350,000 Filipinos working in call centers against India’s 330,000-strong workforce.

Revenues from the country’s call center industry are also expected to reach $5.7 billion this year, higher than India’s $5.5 billion, the CCAP said.

The call center industry, which provides so-called “voice” services like customer support and sales, is part of the BPO industry.

Call centers make up 70 per cent of the BPO industry in the Philippines.

Currently, there are 600,000 Filipinos employed in the country’s BPO industry, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

India is here

In yet another sign of the Philippines‘ BPO dominance, Tata Consultancy Services, the information technology services, business solutions and outsourcing arm of India’s giant Tata Group, opened its first BPO center in Southeast Asia at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig on Thursday.

“We believe that the Philippines has a very high quality of talent that can represent the company before our Asia-Pacific customers and our global customers,” said Vish Iyer, head for the Asia-Pacific region for Tata Consultancy Services.

Iyer also said Tata chose the Philippines because it “wants to be here to see the Philippine BPO industry grow from its current $9 billion (in annual revenues) to the projected $25 billion in 2016.”

The BPO center that Tata Consultancy inaugurated will have 400 seats, and a target of three clients, including Citibank.

Abid Ali Z. Neemuchwala, vice president and global head for business process services and process excellence, said the company expects to more than double this to 1,000 seats and a target of five clients two years from now.

The firm generated revenues of about $6 billion last year.

Support for BPO industry

In November, Philippine senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said she would file a measure to “jump-start” legislative support for the BPO industry, especially its workers” and urged other legislators “to formulate laws supporting this booming sunshine industry.”

According to the International Labor Organization, the BPO industry may be broadly divided into voice services such as call and contact centers, and non-voice or “back office” services, like finance and accounting, data processing and management, and human resource development.

An ILO report released last July noted that Filipino BPO employees were earning 53 percent more than workers of the same age in other industries.

Local BPO employees also work 44.7 hours per week on the average, with overtime work averages of 1.12 hours per week.

Night work

The study also found that 42.6 per cent of BPO employees in the country work at night, and that respondents have reported sleep disorders, fatigue, eye strain and body pains.

Following India in IBM’s ranking of BPO leaders were the United States, Poland, China, Britain, Columbia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Australia, Egypt, Chile, France, Canada, France, Singapore and the Netherlands.

The IBM report said Sri Lanka was another Asian country that had succeeded in positioning itself as an alternative to India. (With Inquirer Research)

Why Companies Choose Call Centers in Cebu, Philippines

Because of its highly skilled labor force, consultative and customer service mind-set, government support & incentives, World-class English language aptitude,  strong work ethic,  affinity for U.S. culture, attractive location for U.S. expatriates, and its robust infrastructure, the Philippines is the prime choice for overseas outsourcing companies compared to other Asian countries.

Metro Manila is the political and fiscal hub of the Philippines, and predictably, the country has a Manila-centric economy, receiving a large portion of the government budget. More than 30% of country’s GDP is made here, making up for almost 50% of the growth in earnings. With more than 18,000 people per square kilometer, Manila has a dense population–more than 70 times the national density of 260, which means that companies should have more to choose from.

So why are overseas outsourcing companies setting up call centers in Cebu?

Since Manila is the political and economic hub of the Philippines it turns into a weakness of the city. Businesses don’t exactly find Manila’s media image tempting. Businesses put up their call centers in Cebu to keep away from the economic and political chaos that is Manila. The government is conscious of this and has put up a presence in Cebu with the Malacañang Palace of Cebu, shifting some of its political/economic power outside Manila. Despite having a smaller population density, Cebu province, with its 6 cities, had overall population of 3.1, the biggest among the country’s 79 provinces.

Moreover, Metro Manila has one of the most polluted air in the country at 66 micrograms of particles per cubic meter compared to Cebu City’s 45.Traffic jams is also another thing that the city is notorious for. A 20 minute ride in Cebu will easily go an hour or more in Manila, predominantly at rush hour.

But why are the call centers in Cebu?

That question will be addressed by the Thorton study. Cebu surfaced with top results for the Top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities list. The record is an evaluation of Global Outsourcing settings according to their competence as service delivery centers. Cebu City received the highest over-all total marks on infrastructure, degree & superiority of workers (including academics), risk profile, business mechanisms, expenditures, and quality of life.

There were 17 call centers or BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) firms in Cebu at the start of 2008. The city’s strong points are in key processes such as customer service, finance and accounting and HR services. It acquired top marks due to its high literacy rate (97%), strong infrastructure and excellent quality of living, which translates to better workers and lower staff turnover. All of factors creates for a prosperous location for call centers in Cebu.

To add to the Thorton study, the magazine of the Financial Times Group called Finance Direct Investment (FDI), placed Cebu City in its top 8 of its list of 10 Asian Cities of the future. Moreover, the same magazine also ranked Cebu City seventh in the best quality of life category, fourth in the list of 10 most cost-effective cities, and second in development and promotion, next only to Singapore.

Outsourcing Administration Services

When you look back at the history of the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry, administration services were one of the first things that BPO companies offered for outsourced services.  These include the areas of customer billing, virtual accounting, Virtual Secretary (VS) which was later changed to Virtual Assistant (VA) and other administration services.  So let’s take a look at each of these areas which should give you a good idea on how these outsourced services can benefit your company and your business.

Customer Billing

In the old days, in order to bill or invoice your customers it meant printing or hand writing an invoice then popping it into an envelope and mailing it to them so they can cut you a check to pay for the invoice.  Times have certainly changed since then.  These days, bills and invoices are typically sent electronically either by fax or by email as a PDF attachment.  But if your company doesn’t have the means to do this efficiently and effectively, then you might want to look at outsourcing your customer billing.  Of course if you still need to mail the invoices manually this doesn’t work very well in the outsourced method.  At e4 BPO, we encode your invoices into our computerized accounting system which then can automatically send out these invoices to your clients electronically via email or fax.  Doing billing by this method usually results in faster payment by your customer because they don’t have to wait for the mail to be received as they are getting it instantly.

Virtual Accounting & Virtual Bookkeeping

At e4 BPO we provide complete accounting and bookkeeping services for our clients.  Everything from ledgers to financial reports, profit and loss statements, bank reconciliation, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc.  Of course you would still need to retain the services of your CPA as we are not a CPA firm, our services for bookkeeping are far less than those charged by accounting and CPA firms for normal day-to-day or month-to-month bookkeeping services.  You simply submit items to us electronically and we encode them into our accounting software program which we can then generate almost any report for your company from an accounting standpoint.

Virtual Assistant (VA) / Virtual Secretary (VS)

I remember the first time I heard about having a Virtual Assistant.  I was reading the book “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss.  As an entrepreneur I was working 80 to 90 hour work weeks which was getting old fast, even though I loved what I was doing.  There just wasn’t enough time to take care of everything that I needed to do.  Since I was on the go a lot, I wasn’t really in the office that much.  I also felt paying $20,000 to $30,000 per year for an assistant was way more money than I wanted to spend.  My eyes were totally opened after reading Timothy’s book.  One of the first things he recommended was to hire a Virtual Assistant to help free up some of my time doing administrative functions that I was doing myself.  The Virtual Assistant position (formerly called Virtual Secretary) is a service provided by BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) companies, also called a call center.

This assistant position basically handles all the administrative responsibilities for a busy executive.  From answering your calls, taking messages, receiving and sending emails, creating appointments, keeping track of your schedule, etc.  A Virtual Assistant can be either full-time or part-time and can assist a busy executive to free up tons of time and allow a personal touch instead of people getting your voice mail or having to wait hours or days to receive a reply to an email.  So as you can see, not only does it help free up your time, it also creates a more personal touch for the people who contact you.

Contact us today at e4 BPO to learn more about outsourcing administrative services to us such as bookkeeping, accounting, customer billing or having your own Virtual Assistant.

Outsourcing Technical Support

Do you have products at your company that require technical assistance?  These could take the form of hardware items, electronics or software.  Do you find it difficult to meet the demands of your customers calling in for technical support?  If so, outsourcing technical support is a great solution for your company.

For many years now, companies have been outsourcing technical services to BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) companies for just that purpose.  Take a look at Dell, Cisco, Linksys, HP, and the other big boys in the hardware industry.  Almost all of them outsource technical support to a call center.  Take a look at software companies like Trend Micro and Sage Software for their awesome ACT! contact relationship management (CRM) program.  These are outsourced to a call center for technical support.  Take a look at electronic companies like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Time Warner Cable who also outsource technical support as well.  Although you might say these companies are the “big boys” and your company might be smaller, the results are still the same.

Imagine being able to provide the same type of support services at half the cost, or even more than half the cost.  Imagine how that will drastically improve your bottom line of profit for your business.  Imagine being able to support your customers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.  Imagine being able to take calls almost instantly and provide superior technical support services on your products to keep your customers happy and satisfied.  That is what e4 BPO can provide for your business.  Don’t think for a minute that just because your company isn’t the size of Dell or HP that you cannot outsource your technical support services.  We take on clients all the time who are very small.  It really doesn’t matter if you are a start-up company, a small company with 10 employees, a medium sized company with 100+ employees, or a large company with 1000+ employees.  e4 BPO has the staff and expertise to be able to assist your company with technical support services on your products.

When you contract with e4 BPO, we assign a dedicated team of individuals to your product, to learn it inside and out.  Of course your company is responsible in helping to initially train one of our team leaders, after that point, our team takes over to train additional technicians when required.  We consider our team to be one of the best in the BPO industry and we always look forward to the challenge of learning all about a new product no matter if it is hardware, software or electronics.  It is actually thrilling to our staff when a new product comes on board to learn and we thoroughly enjoy it.  We also guarantee all of our technical support services.

Contact us at e4 BPO today to learn how we can assist your company with all your outsourced technical support needs and then just sit back and relax knowing we are always there to support your customers and your company.

Outsourcing Customer Service

More and more companies these days are turning to BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) companies to handle customer service calls.  A BPO is basically a call center that has hundreds or thousands of employees that can easily handle these tasks at a much reduced cost and are typically located overseas.

If you have ever needed to call customer service for the major computer companies like Dell, HP, Linksys, Cisco, Trend Micro, etc. you more than likely were talking to a customer service representative at a call center (BPO) that was contracted by one of these major computer companies.  But with the poor economy and recession these days, even smaller companies have turned to outsourcing to keep their business profitable.

Customer service can take on many forms and as I discussed in my previous post, it is not the same as sales.  Customer service can be things such as customer retention, customer care, customer acquisition, customer relationship management, contact management and client relations.

Although you might have customers right now, it is very important that you retain those customers and not lose them to your competition.  Therefore customer retention is a very important aspect of customer service.  Our customer service team at e4 BPO specializes in all aspects of customer service.  We contact your customers to take surveys or to simply ask how things are going so that they feel the “warm fuzzy feeling” of hearing from your company on a regular basis.  This helps to show your customers that you care and it helps to provide feedback to your company so you will know what areas you are doing well in and what areas you need to improve upon.  This is how e4 BPO can help in customer relations and through customer relationship management.

Not only can e4 BPO provide outbound phone services to contact your customers, we can also provide a hot line for customers to call when they have a issue with your company, your products or your services.  This can allow for quick resolutions to issues which can then be passed onto your company for quick and concise resolutions to your customers concerns, issues or problems.

Another facet of our customer service department is dedicated to customer acquisition which simply means basically acquiring new customers that the sales department can then sell to.  Some of our clients do both sides of this working on customer service and customer acquisitions which are then passed over to the sales department for actual selling.

The reason these are separate departments at e4 BPO is because the personality of a customer service representative is very different from that of a sales representative.  Customer service requires much more patience and is more low key.  Whereas sales is more geared toward a personality that is more talkative and outgoing.

Contact us at e4 BPO to learn more about our outsourcing your customer service needs which will greatly benefit your company and help you to retain your customers and keep them happy for many years to come.

Outsourcing Sales For Your Business

In my previous blog post, I talked about outsourcing marketing services.  For this post I will talk more about outsourcing the sales side of things.  Of course it’s impossible to get sales if you don’t have customers or prospects.  And outsourcing some of your sales activities to an expert in that field can vastly improve your chances of increasing sales from your own internal personnel and fulfilling those orders once they come in.

Although outsourced sales services can mean the actual taking of orders, there are also other facets of sales to consider when outsourcing.  These include telemarketing, lead generation, appointment setting for your own internal sales personnel, up selling and cross selling, etc.

In my previous post I talked about how some people confuse marketing with sales.  There is also another area that people tend to confuse with sales and that is customer service.  Customer service is also not the same as sales.  Sales is sales.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a customer or a prospect.  Customer service is a different animal and I will discuss that in a future post.

Imagine having new prospective customers delivered right to you.  That is what the e4 BPO telesales department specializes in doing for you.  We operate a highly skilled and impressive team of representatives that will create sales leads for your company.  You can hire as many as you would like full-time, part-time or even just pay per lead generated.  This makes it very flexible for any business wishing to outsource some or all of their sales activities.  We also guarantee our leads to be quality leads or you don’t pay for them.  Plain and simple.  This department at e4 BPO also can handle direct selling and order taking for your existing customer base or prospects.  Not to mention up-selling and cross-selling to those same customers and prospects.  We can also provide appointment setting for your own personnel to make your personnel more proficient and efficient as well.

We specialize in lead generation for the areas of B2B (Business To Business) as well as B2C (Business To Consumer).  With e4 BPO, you have an end-to-end solution for all of your sales requirements.  We can provide your company with a special call-in number for customers to place orders which can then be submitted directly to your company, or we can specialize in outbound telemarketing to generate more sales.

Not all telemarketing companies are created equal.  You must consider results first and foremost.  But you must also consider the cost associated with that.  Telemarketing companies in the United States can very very expensive and they may not guarantee their results.  Here at e4 BPO, the cost for our outsourced sales services are very competitive in the market and are typically well below other companies.  And since we guarantee our leads and services, you have nothing to lose.

So contact us at e4 BPO today to learn more about outsourcing sales services to us and allow us to be a part of your company’s growth.

Outsourcing Marketing Services

Marketing services can be a very big undertaking for most companies.  It requires a lot of research and development not to mention time and resources that many companies simply don’t have with current personnel at their company.  It is for this reason that many companies choose to outsource some of maybe all of their marketing requirements.  These can be things such as article writing, press releases, blog writing, white papers, email campaigns, drip email campaigns, etc.

Some people tend to confuse marketing with sales which is why many companies have a “sales and marketing” department, thinking they are the same.  This really isn’t true.  Yes marketing will help to increase sales, but marketing itself is really not sales in that sense of the word.  Marketing is what helps to drive people to your company either by phone or email and helps to grow your company.  It also provides the vision and projects the company image.  As you can see by those descriptions, that itself is not sales.

Unless your company is so unique that you are the only company that provides that product or service and people want or need that product or service, you must do marketing if you plan on attracting customers.

e4 BPO can assist your company with almost any marketing need that you have.  We have graphic designers on staff to create layouts, logos, images, pictures, etc.  We have article writers on staff to help create articles, press releases, blogs and white papers which can be used for your company brochures, corporate website and other marketing avenues.  We also have certified drip email campaign specialists on staff to create branded emails that can be sent to hundreds or thousands of potential customers and prospects.  This can greatly assist your company in generating more sales and increasing your profitability.

Having just a single marketing person on staff at your company could equal around $4000 per month in cost, and typically a marketing person cannot handle every facet on their own such as graphic design.  Imagine having a team of dedicated individuals to carry out all of these tasks for less than half of that cost.  Talk about major savings and getting more results at the same time.

At e4 BPO, we work directly with your company to understand exactly what marketing objectives you are trying to accomplish.  We keep in touch with you every step of the way.  We ensure we are all on the same page and we guarantee our services.

With the current situation with the economy, outsourcing certain aspects of your business just makes good fiscal sense.  And with e4 BPO’s experience and massive staff, we can fulfill all those needs at a much reduced cost as compared to other marketing companies or even having personnel on your staff.  And because we guarantee our results, you have nothing to lose.

Contact us today at e4 BPO to see how we can assist your company with all your marketing objectives to help increase your top line (growth) and your bottom line (profit).

Outsourcing website design and development

These days, if your company doesn’t have a website, you basically don’t have a business.  At least from a reputation standpoint.  It’s basically a status symbol for your company.  And in many cases it can either make y0u or break you.  It’s the same if you receive an email from one of the free emails services like yahoo, hotmail or gmail, you wouldn’t look at that as credibly as if it had a company website name as part of the email address.

But having a website alone, doesn’t improve your sales or your company profile.  There are lots of things to consider to have a good website for your company.  It should be easy to navigate.  It should have good content that explains your products or services.  It should be easy to read and follow.  It should have pictures.  It should have the right keywords so the search engines will point customers in your direction.  It should have the proper landing pages setup based on those keywords.

Let’s say your company sells screw drivers.  You can’t just create a website with a picture of a screw driver that has a caption of “Call us today for your screw driver needs” and then list your phone number.  That does sound like a silly example, but you would be surprised how many companies have something similar to that, or not much better than that.

You must also remember that there are certain things regarding the “code” of the website that really matter.  A lot!  In most websites this “code” is called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and needs that be formatted in the correct manner.  People who visit your website actually never see the “code” per se.  Yet it is still an important piece of puzzle that must be considered in website design and development.  There are lots of other “codes” that can be used besides HTML such as java script, ajax, joomla, flash, etc., which can help to enhance the end-user experience when they visit your website.

Here at e4 BPO, we offer website design and development at a tremendous cost savings as compared to other companies.  We have a team of certified developers who can take your current website to the next level or create a new website for your company from scratch.  We have thousands of pre-built templates to choose from based on industry or we can use your existing website and help improve it.  In addition to just the look and feel of your website, we can also take on the responsibilities of SEO – Search Engine Optimization to help propel your company to the top of the listings in the various search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

So what are you waiting for?  Contact us at e4 BPO to assist your business with your website design and development.  No matter if you’re looking for a redesign of your website or just making improvements to the look and feel, e4 BPO can help.  We can even assist with e-commerce type websites that will allow your customers to place orders with your company right through your website.

Outsourcing SEO - Search Engine Optimization

These days, SEO companies are a dime a dozen.  So many people have gotten into the game of doing SEO – Search Engine Optimization.  But how many are really that good?  Not only that, are you getting what you pay for?  These are 2 critical questions when it comes to SEO.

Search Engine Optimization is all about getting your website to have a better ranking than your competitors in the “organic” listing of a search engine, like Google, Yahoo or Bing, which are the main 3 out there.  Organic simply means the “non-paid” listings which are usually called “sponsored links” which appear above or the right of the organic list.  In Google these are called “AdWords” for paid listings and can be cheap or expensive depending on the keywords.

Let’s face it, if someone is looking for your products or services and you are not listed in the top 10 (first page) for those keywords, you are simply losing business to your competitors.  Some companies think that SEO is all about making changes just to your website and somehow you will magically appear on the first page.  That is so far from the truth it isn’t even funny.  SEO has many facets to it, not just your website alone.

If you hire an SEO firm based in the United States, you will typically be looking at anywhere from $2000 to $5000 per month for so-called SEO services.  If you add article writing for content, you can expect to add another $500 to $1000 for those services.  This is why you should be looking to a company that specializes in outsourcing to cut your costs way down.  Sometimes as much as even half of what other SEO companies charge.  Cost shouldn’t be the only aspect you look at either.  Knowledge of search engine optimization is key otherwise your money isn’t being spent wisely.

Here at e4 BPO, we have a dedicated division of our company that specializes in SEO – Search Engine Optimization services, along with article writers who are fantastic at creating content for articles, press releases, blogs and white papers.  Not to mention a team who specializes in website design and development to assist in the SEO process.  The beauty of this for our clients is the reduction of costs associated with SEO which allows us to beat any price compared to companies solely based in the United States.

If your company also has a need for paid links, also called “sponsored links” such as AdWords, we also have a team of experts in the field of paid internet marketing links, especially regarding AdWords that can do wonders for your company and give you much better responses than you may currently be getting.

Contact us here at e4 BPO today to learn more about how we can assist your company with SEO – Search Engine Optimization as well as your AdWords campaigns.  We guarantee our results meaning if we cannot improve your ranking on organic SEO, you do not have to pay us.  Other SEO companies may not be willing to make that guarantee for your company.

Marketing Your Business Is Like Playing Chess

When I was a kid, there were no home computers and therefore we didn’t have computer chess games.  I remember my dad teaching me about chess in the family room of our basement.  When I was a teenager, he bought me a computerized chess board that you could play against which was a real chess board, not on a computer screen.  It was always amazing to me how much strategy is required to actually play chess.  It is the same with business and marketing regarding strategy to win.  You always need to think several steps ahead.

Let’s think about this for just a second.  If you only know what you are planning to do today, how can you ever except to reach your goals and be successful?  The answer is you cannot.  You must have a future plan, a “road map” if you will.  That is necessary so you have a good direction of where you are going.  So in relation to chess and business marketing, you will need to be able to adapt, improvise and overcome when your competition does something unexpected.  To be successful, you must think and plan ahead and always use those 3 words mentioned above… Adapt… Improvise… Overcome…

Of course there are many paths to potentially take and there are no hard and fast rules to follow many times.

You can tell that I personally love how chess strategy is related to business and marketing strategy.  You can see it in the design of our website and blog.  You can see it in the name of our company e4 BPO.  e4 (King’s Pawn Opening) is the usual first move in the game of chess and should be any businesses move when looking for a call center or outsourcing services.  It is white’s aggressive opening move and opens lines for the queen and king’s bishop and fights for control of the squares.  Openings with e4 tend to emphasize violent tactics over slow maneuvering.  Shouldn’t that be the same for your business strategy?  Hence the name of our company is e4 BPO.

Of course there are formal rules in the game of chess regarding what moves you can make.  But professional chess players don’t really consider those things when coming up with a strategy because the rules are already 2nd nature to them.  The rules are almost invisible to them, because in order for them to win, it’s only about the strategy, not about the rules of the game.  In business and marketing it should be same as well.

Business Marketing, just like chess, takes a lifetime to really master.

The actual skill levels between an entrepreneur and chess players is so diverse because of the time commitment required in both to truly grasp, not just the concepts and fundamentals, but real application in diverse situations.  In both business marketing and chess, if you ever stopped learning, you would quickly find yourself at a loss compared to competitors.

I also love to play tennis, which also requires strategy and thinking a move or two ahead.  I found that the only way I could get better was playing someone who was better than me.  It’s the same with chess.  If you play with someone you can always beat, you will never get better yourself.  The same goes for business marketing.  You need to play with people who are better or know more than you in order to learn more and get an advantage over your competition.

You will never elevate your skill set if you decide to consistently play those less skilled than you.  Likewise, in business marketing, you need to be surrounded with a creative, forward-thinking team that motivates each other to the next level.  Learning on your own is necessary, but working with people at the next level is how you seriously advance your skills and make your business more profitable.  That is where e4 BPO comes into play offering services such as SEO – Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Development, Marketing Services, article writing, press releases, blog writing, white papers, email campaigns, drip email campaigns, Sales Services, telemarketing, lead generation, appointment setting, up selling, upsell, up-sell, cross-sell, telesales, sales leads, Outbound Telemarketing, Customer Service, Customer Retention, Customer Care, Customer Acquisition, Customer Relationship Management, Contact Management, Inbound Calls, Technical Support, Software Support, Hardware Support, Administration, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Secretary, Virtual Bookkeeping, Virtual Accounting, and Customer Billing.

Having a proactive strategy is smart and what every business needs.

In chess, if you are simply reacting to your opponents, they will be the ones controlling the game, not you, and they will force you to go right where they want you to.  Not good for you or for your business.  For your marketing and business goals to be successful, you can’t always be playing catch up, being behind the curve, and in a reactive mode or you’ll never get anywhere.  You need to be proactive and be the one confident enough to make your moves first and have the bandwidth to experiment to see what produces big results.

One way you can do this is by playing into people’s emotions for success.

In the key to effective viral marketing, Maki writes, it is emotional engagement:

“Human beings are far more likely to communicate ideas and information with others when they are emotionally engaged.  Find the key issues that concern your audience and then inculcate them within your marketing plan to get an emotional response.”

There is something similar in chess.  Instead of inspiring others to communicate information and ideas, you want them to think with their emotions instead of logic.  Only then will they lose sight of your long-term strategy and act on impulse.  Bad for them, but good for you.  You can do this through any number of ways, like consciously making an irrational move that would confuse a good player who anticipates you are following a certain pattern.  See how that works to your advantage sometimes?

In this way, both are similar strategies in that they are designed to get emotions involved, but in different ways toward different ends.

The best players in chess, as well as business marketing, are equally technical as they are creative.

Although the business marketing industry is fairly technical in nature, creativity is crucial and matters more than the technical skills required to carry out the various activities.  Great chess players must be both technically and creatively skilled in the game.  They must mix both in their game to win depending on the opponent.  Sometimes a game played with an opponent who is prone to make mistakes only requires being very technical with the methods in order to win.  But if you are playing against an opponent who is very technically minded, then it will require a creative approach in order to win.  These things must also be considered regarding business marketing.

You must always use continuous adaptation to win.

You will notice that the best chess players and marketers understand the importance of seeing everything they do as a fluid, natural motion, adapting/refining as they move forward.  Using the adapt, improvise and overcome approach.  In both the game of chess and business, opportunities will present themselves you need to adapt to take advantage of them when they occur.  Experience is how you learn best regarding the art of adaptation in mid-stream.

The chess analogy has application to business in general, and it applies especially well to business marketing as well.

e4 BPO is here to help your business apply these types of strategies to help your business prosper and grow.  So contact us today to see how we can apply these principles for your business.

Business Strategy Related To Chess

For me personally, I am not a professional chess player, but I do love thinking about strategy, especially in business.  I love to relate how chess being the ultimate game of strategy can also be related to business and marketing.  With the advent of computers, it’s amazing to think of all the possible strategies since a computer can “think” over 20 moves ahead and how quickly a computer can process information.  In this article, I am expressing once again how practicing chess strategy can help your business grow and to become more profitable and proficient which will have a huge pay off.  These same types of strategies have worked for thousands of companies around the world, and e4 BPO helps companies use these strategies to grow and prosper.

Even if you’re not an avid chess player, you will still be able to latch onto these ideas.

Chess has been around for over a thousand years and therefore has a very long history.  It was used to teach Emperors, Kings and Queens about strategy since it started.

One thing that intrigues me about the game is how rich of symbolism it is.  You have castles, knights, bishops, pawns and of course the king and queen.  Each piece in chess makes you think back to mid-evil times.  Probably one of the best ways I can relate the game of chess to business and marketing is to create some of that symbolism to each of the pieces.  This should help you to think about solving problems for your business and assigning a strategy to still win.

Successful companies today apply these type of strategies.

How do we attack a problem in business piece by piece.

Let’s first look at the castle, also known as the rook.  It moves straight ahead, backwards or side to side.  It is a very strong piece.  You could consider it like military power.  Think of it as size and strength in business.  It is also a very good defensive piece on the board.  It can go on the offensive and sweep in quickly across the entire board.  In relation to business, this would be a slice of your market share for your company.

Next let’s look at the knight.  In the old days, if you owned horses it was a sign that you had money.  And having an entire stable full of horses meant you were very wealthy.  The knight or horse can be related to the financial power of your business.  The knight moves on the board in an “L” shaped pattern and can even jump over other pieces.  Where you find the knight the most effective in chess is when it is in the center of the board.  So if you can put cash into the middle of what you are trying to accomplish, you will be able to control your situation.  However, just like with the knight, you need to have a good exit strategy with your cash or you could lose it.

Now for the bishop.  Here we are talking about politics, influence and negotiation which fall under the bishop.  For your business, we would relate this to making connections and networking.  It would be managing certain situations at your company or quickly sweeping in to clean up a problem or bottleneck.  The bishop goes diagonally on the chess board and can come out of nowhere quickly.

Those are some things you can do to leverage things in your favor related to connections, capital, strength and size.  So now let’s look at some of the strategies.

Chess related to business strategies

One thing you must always do in chess is keep the pressure on. Every move you make you basically need to force your opponent to make a predictable defensive move.  In this manner, you will be able to stay in control and prevent them from taking an offensive move of their own.  You want them to be constantly reacting and “putting out fires.”  If you do so, they will be unable to execute their own strategy.  If you look at the world in general, the USA seems to be pretty good at that since every other country tends to react to the moves made by the USA.  It should be the same for your business to keep your competitors on their heels and propel your company to the top in your industry.

Every move you make counts big time.  If you make a bad move it’s basically a wasted turn.  You will be losing time and losing ground, not to mention momentum.  You will also risk losing control of the situation and find yourself being the one on the defensive and on the run.  Just like great chess players, a great business person should be very conservative during the “opening” regarding what they do.  But once you have gained some ground, it’s time to move in for the attack.

In the game of chess, every asset you have counts.  If you happen to lose a piece now and you fail to take one from your opponent on your next turn you could possibly lose the game.  It’s no different in business and marketing.  Business is just as competitive.  You will need every asset that you can gain in order to have an edge over your competition.  When you can get ahead of your competitor, the momentum usually picks up and then it’s like a snow ball rolling downhill.  You need to use every asset at your disposal.  If you’re not using it, then sell it so you can turn it into cash so you can use that as your power piece.

Once nice thing about chess is it teaches you to take heavy pressure and complex situations and learn how to deal with them.  It requires massive amounts of strategy.  Just like you can count on gravity to make an apple fall on someone’s head, you can count on chess to teach you strategy to help your business.

In business, just like in chess, when you find yourself competing against someone, you must try to estimate all the moves your competitor will make against you at any given time.  Of course you won’t be able to predict every move, but the point is to try your best.  Then you will need to define a realistic counter move that will assign value to each of those moves.  You will need to use foresight to stay ahead of your competitor in order to win the game.  Just like a computer chess game, you need to have a “code” which is your “strategy” so you can crunch numbers fast enough.  When your competitor makes a move, wait if you can, think and analyze, then make your move.  Sometimes, you can plan ahead if you know your competition very well so you can react to your competition almost instantly, and if so, you most likely will win the game.

In summary

For the average entrepreneur, creating a business marketing strategy is a huge undertaking.  You must be willing to bravely face all the inherent risks that come with opening a new business and be willing to face all the challenges head on.  The exception is the entrepreneur who is fearless, who is willing to accept risk and has the proverbial “get it done” attitude.

If we are talking about the average entrepreneur, they slip and slide around, trying to reach that elusive goal named success, instead of attacking the challenge in a bold manner. They take small incremental jumps, often in the wrong direction, instead of using strategy and planning each of their marketing moves .

In the world of small business marketing, strategy is a lot like the difference between checkers and chess. Although the goal is the same, the complexities of the approach to the game are way different.  Chess is a much more complex game than checkers because there are way many more variables; just like the business world.  Chess and business requires more planning, concentration, hard work and strategy.  To win in chess and business also takes the qualities of stamina and perseverance with many, many obstacles to navigate around.

In checkers, it is easier and demands very little concentration and forethought.  Since checkers is easier, it is often the manner in which most businesses operate their marketing strategy.  Very sad, but true.

Like in the game of chess, marketing your business is a very complicated undertaking.  Chess players anticipate future moves and will position their pieces in such a way that each one strengthens the others on the board.  The pieces are working together for the common goal in a common strategy and plan.  Your marketing efforts for your business should be approached the same exact same way.

Every marketing move you make needs to reinforce the previous move in order to defeat the competition.  Instead of using chess pieces you are using your mission statement, website, logo, brochures, sales letters, emails and hundreds or thousands of other marketing tactics.

Just like bishops, rooks, knights and pawns, all these tactics each have a different level of effectiveness and need to be played correctly.  Some are more powerful than others and should only be used when the time is right.  Others, like business cards, are not as valuable but have an important place in the game and your business.

As a business owner you don’t risk losing pieces to your competitor, you are risking losing business.  Just like a great chess player, you must develop your strategy to win on a very consistent basis.  It takes your focus, vision, and attention to stay in the game until the end and come out victorious.

Here are some things you can implement on your game board for your business marketing strategy:

Take time to focus on your clients and give them all of your attention.  Fill their needs with your unique product or service.

Take time to develop a clear and concise marketing message.  Be relevant and consistent with how you communicate your benefits and features.

Always constantly communicate with your target audience.  Develop more ways to continuously market to your clients and prospects.  Be familiar with your target market, but not too obtrusive to become annoying and going overboard.

Always develop your Unique Value Position (UVP).  Know where you stand in the marketplace and be aware of your competitor’s moves in order to stay ahead.  Be sure that you are responding to their actions not reacting in an irrational, defensive position.  Stay on the offensive whenever possible.

Always build a relationship with your market, customer, prospects and vendors.  Get to know your market and let them know you care.  Find out what they want and need through surveys and conversation.

Always market everyday.  It is very crucial that your marketing strategy has a long view ahead.  Think three or four steps ahead by establishing a marketing plan and working on it every working day.

These are only a few ways you can create your business marketing strategy but are very crucial.  Always remember that you have to think like a chess player and look into the future by anticipating what the market wants and what your competitors might do.  When you do you will enjoy great success and win the game.

e4 BPO can help in these areas such as SEO – Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Development, Marketing Services, article writing, press releases, blog writing, white papers, email campaigns, drip email campaigns, Sales Services, telemarketing, lead generation, appointment setting, up selling, upsell, up-sell, cross-sell, telesales, sales leads, Outbound Telemarketing, Customer Service, Customer Retention, Customer Care, Customer Acquisition, Customer Relationship Management, Contact Management, Inbound Calls, Technical Support, Software Support, Hardware Support, Administration, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Secretary, Virtual Bookkeeping, Virtual Accounting, and Customer Billing.  So contact us today to see how we can assist you become a better chess player with your business and your marketing strategy.

Business Is Like Chess

I’m sure you have probably noticed the chess theme for this blog and probably wondered what that has to do with business process outsourcing and the call center industry.  One of my passions in life is business and marketing and if you are going to do either one, you must do a lot of strategy.  Chess is probably the ultimate game of strategy and therefore is very fitting in relation.  Even the name of our company has to do with this.  e4 (King’s Pawn Opening) is the usual first move in the game of chess and should be any businesses move when looking for a call center or outsourcing services.  It is white’s aggressive opening move and opens lines for the queen and king’s bishop and fights for control of the squares.  Openings with e4 tend to emphasize violent tactics over slow maneuvering.  Shouldn’t that be the same for your business strategy?  Hence the name of our company is e4 BPO.

I have always tried to apply chess principles and concepts to various aspects of business and my own personal life.  Thinking ahead and developing creative strategies is something that is synonymous in both business and in chess.  I would highly recommend that you learn to play chess if you don’t already know how because once you start playing you will see very quickly how you can apply the principles and concepts in chess and apply them to your business, and even in your personal life.

Here are a few impressive and interesting things about chess:

For a long time, chess was only played by nobility and therefore was called the “game of kings.”

Did you know there are more possible chess moves in a game than there are atom in the universe?  Did you know there are more possible chess moves in a game than the number of seconds that have passed since the universe was created?  To give you an idea on this, there are 10 to the 79th power of atoms in the universe and 10 to the 120th power of chess moves that are possible in a given game.  Wow!

Each player makes one move each and there are 400 different positions after that first move.  After the 2nd move each, there are 72,084 different positions.  After the 3rd move each, there are over 9 million positions.  After the 4th move each, there are over 288 billion different possible positions.  Wow again!

Talk about a game of strategy.  If you stop and think about it, your business is no different.  For every move you make there are thousands or millions of different possible positions for your competitors to take and even your customers on making decisions about purchasing your products or services.

Gary Kasparov is well known as the world’s greatest chess player and here is a quote from him:

“Ultimately, what separates a winner from a loser at the grandmaster level is the willingness to do the unthinkable. A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough. Given the opportunity, I must have the guts to explode the game, to upend my opponent’s thinking and, in so doing, unnerve him. So it is in business: One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized.”  ~ Garry Kasparov, FastCompany.com, September 2004.

Again, it should be the same for your business, just like what Gary had to say.  If you want to increase your top line (growth) and your bottom line (profit), then you must use brilliant strategy to stay ahead of your competitors.

Choosing the right company to outsource critical business functions is essential and an important strategy for your business.  Things such as SEO – Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Development, Marketing Services, article writing, press releases, blog writing, white papers, email campaigns, drip email campaigns, Sales Services, telemarketing, lead generation, appointment setting, up selling, upsell, up-sell, cross-sell, telesales, sales leads, Outbound Telemarketing, Customer Service, Customer Retention, Customer Care, Customer Acquisition, Customer Relationship Management, Contact Management, Inbound Calls, Technical Support, Software Support, Hardware Support, Administration, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Secretary, Virtual Bookkeeping, Virtual Accounting, and Customer Billing.  These are some of the areas where e4 BPO can help your business grow beyond your wildest imagination.  So contact us today to start your strategy!

e4 BPO now on Facebook and Twitter

Be sure to keep up with all that’s new for e4 BPO, the leader in business process outsourcing and the call center industry.  Visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/E4-Business-Process-Outsourcing/160794597301387

Also be sure to follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/e4BPOInc for up to date information.

e4 BPO is a call center providing business process outsourcing for clients around the world. Our United States Headquarters is based in Orlando, Florida and our services are provided from Cebu, Philippines.

e4 is the typical first move in the game of chess and e4 BPO should be your first move when looking for outsourcing services for your business. It’s all about strategy in keeping your business competitive in the market. Just like chess is a game of strategy, so it outsourcing for your company to keep costs down.

e4 is here to help your business. We offer tons of outsourcing options for businesses around the globe. Contact us today to find out how e4 is the company you should look to for your business process outsourcing needs.

Thanks.

e4 BPO

Welcome to the e4 BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) blog.  Stay tuned as we plan to offer some exciting information regarding the call center industry also known as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).