Archive for July, 2009

PostHeaderIcon Call Center 101 – How to be Effective Telemarketers



The success of your outbound company will not only depend in your customers, but a great portion of it will depend on how effective your telemarketers in selling and promoting your business.

The company is weak if your agents are incompetent in handling their customers. At the end of the day, there’s no potential sales reach by your agents this may lead to the termination of your account. There’s lot of outbound companies survived from strong competition despite the ups and downs of the business.

Outbound call center companies should provide proper training to their hired applicants. Products knowledge is very important in helping your trainees evaluate their skills. Since telemarketers are entirely depending on the script, you need to make a script which is very reliable including active rebuttals which allow your agents to reply with their customers immediately.

If you’d been working in call center both inbound and outbound, you then have the potentials because you have substantial idea about the ins and outs of the industry. You have the edge from the other applicants because you can speak fluently with good intonation, accent, and sentence construction.

As a telemarketer, you need to be polite with your customers. Try to deliver your sweetest “hi” and “hello” as part of your delightful opening pitch. Get their attention with your strong communication skills combined with respectful intonation. In talking to your customers, be sure to introduce yourself first and address them in their first name or last name and not calling them “sir” or “ma’am.”

Proper timing is necessary in building rapport with your customers. It is unpleasant to hear that your agents are hunger to get sales during their shift. Their performance depend mostly on how effective are they in promoting the products of your company. If they failed to get sales within a week, contact centers usually end their terms of service.

However, we need to acknowledge that the goal of the outbound which is synonymous to telemarketing is not only selling the value of their product. Contact center companies offering outbound should see to it that they have great line qualities, equipment, and good leads all the time. No matter they’ve got the best agents but the operation will be affected due to the poor communication barrier.

The agents should know how to explain to their customers on the benefits of the products their customers are going to avail. Avoid giving them false information because it will lead to serious dilemma and affects the welfare of your company. No more customers will listen to your agents if this horrible negative information will not be resolved right away.

Explain to your customers that they’re going to enjoy the products they’ll purchase from your company. If your company is offering vacation package, tell your customers nicely that exploring the paradise in Caribbean regions, Paris, Las Vegas, Mexico and other destinations are the best in the world. People born to be a marketer enjoy the privilege that they receive from working in a call center.

Meanwhile, not all customers will like the package you offer. Sometimes despite you give your best foot forward in convincing your customers, they’re bit apprehensive, as they need to consult their wife or husband for the approval. If the scenario goes like this, you may approach your customers if when would be the best time for you to call back. As an agent, you need to listen very carefully while your customers are talking to you.

Active listening is very important in a telephoning technology. The common problem of the agents is their failure to listen to the welfare of their customers. Be sensitive enough in dealing with your customers all the time. If they declined your call, you can still wait for the next row of your customers. Don’t throw invective words and berate your customers if they refused to receive your service. Always maintain your politeness by saying “Thank you for taking my call”, and also, you can include “have nice day!”

Further, don’t forget to smile and exercise your energetic voice because a lot of customers out there are waiting for you. You need to be positive all the time in achieving your goal. Avoid slacking off, instead try to handle your customers as if you’re just talking with them in a face to face basis.

PostHeaderIcon Gambling Problems And How To Deal With Them



 

People begin having gambling problems when they start gambling more than they should, getting debts and having problems in the relationships with those they love.

The addictivity of gambling is a known fact. The fact that you can win, and the risks that you need to take influences people, making them irrational and unreasonable.

Recognizing that you have a problem is the first thing you should do if you want to get rid of your gambling problem. The questions below have been made by Gamblers Anonymous and will tell you if you have a problem with gambling.

1. Did you skip going to school or work so you could gamble?

2. Did you have any problems at home because of your gambling?

3. Did your reputation ever took a hit because your gambling?

4. Did you feel remorse at any time because you were gambling?

5. Have you ever tried gambling when you needed money to solve financial problems?

6. Was your efficiency or ambition affected by gambling?

7. Have you ever felt like you should go back to gambling to recover money you lost previously?

8. When you won, did you want to go back to win even more money?

9. How many times did you gamble until you lost all your money?

10. Have you gambled using borrowed money?

11. Did you sell anything so you could use the money to gamble?

12. Do you have a problem using money set aside for gambling to pay normal expenses?

13. Has your family welfare sufferred because you are gambling?

14. Do you go gambling for longer periods of time than previously planned?

15. Do you gamble when you have troubles or worries?

16. Did you ever think or did something illegal to get money to gamble?

17. DO you have problems sleeping because you gamble?

18. When you\’re frustrated, disappointed or have fights, do you feel the need to gamble?

19. Did you celebrate good news by going to gamble for a few hours?

20. Did you consider suicide or self destruction because of gambling?

You are a gambler with problems if you answered Yes to seven or more questions.

Below you can find some tips for those that are problem gamblers:

* When you go gambling, don\’t carry ATM cards or credit cards with you, just the money you want to spend.

* Gamble for small periods of time.

* Don\’t forget that there is a higher chance of losing than winning.

* When you get some victories and have money, make a pledge not to use them.

* Don\’t get into debt when you don\’t have money to gamble.

* Don\’t hesitate to ask for help from friends.

PostHeaderIcon When is Your Credit Card Interest a Tax Deduction?



Getting your taxes done can be a huge hassle. But while you are doing your taxes, you try to think of every kind of thing you could get a deduction on. Of course, there are several things that are tax deductible.

But you have always wondered if your credit card interest is. Can you really get something back from you taxes by paying all that interest on your taxes?

Sorry, but no. Unfortunately, unlike the interest you pay on your mortgage, your credit card interest is not tax deductible.

But there is a way you can make it tax deductible. Still, there are some risks involved.

Whether or not the risk is worth it is completely up to you. For you are the one who knows your circumstances. If you really want your credit card interest to be tax deductible, here is what you do.

Refinance Your Home

Sound absurd? If you are doing it just to get a tax deduction on your credit card interest, it probably is.

Getting a tax deduction on such a thing would be a small reward with high risk. If it is that important to you though, refinancing your home can make your credit card interest tax deductible, in a way. It is possible for you to refinance your home and transfer the balance on your credit card to your home loan.

That way, you have basically paid off your credit card and do not have to pay interest on it anymore. Now, instead, you have more interest to pay on your home loan, or your mortgage. That kind of interest is in fact tax deductible.

By transferring your credit card balance to your home equity line of credit, you turn the money you owe on your credit card into money that you owe on your home. You will then pay interest only on your mortgage, and that, in fact, is tax deductible.

Warning:

You could lose your home. That sounds a little dramatic, but the chances that you could lose your home increase if you transfer your credit card balance to your home equity line of credit.

Not necessarily just because you refinanced it to get your credit card balance transferred, but because it may take longer for you to pay off your home loan. Because it would take you longer and make your balance bigger, it may be difficult to make monthly payments in full and on time.

In my opinion, refinancing your home to get a tax deduction is definitely not the wisest thing to do. Better chances of keeping your home is way more important than getting money back from the interest you paid on your credit card. To me, the risk is just too big to take.

Having a home loan is enough of a hassle and takes long enough to pay off as it is. If you extend that by refinancing, it increases the risk that you will get your house repossessed. The whole question is, “Is a tax deduction worth that kind of risk?”