Mark Fichera
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One of the most enjoyable aspects of running a call center services company is meeting talented, driven and innovative entrepreneurs about to embark on new business ventures.
We encounter business visionaries on a regular basis. In many cases, it’s surprising no one else is already doing what these entrepreneurs are about to pursue. But that’s often the way it is with the best new ideas. In retrospect they seem almost, well, obvious.
Nevertheless, coming up with a great new idea is only the initial aspect of getting a start-up off the ground. There are host of other challenges: finding talented managers willing to throw in their lot with the new company, raising seed money from venture capitalists, hiring staff, renting office space and keeping operating costs down as the company attempts to take flight.
This is why an outsourced call center services company makes sense for a start-up. It can deliver the entire call center infrastructure – customer service specialists, B2B lead generation and appointment setting agents, telephone and technology infrastructure – with minimal complications and at minimal cost.
Start-ups typically don’t know the scale of the call center services program they will need because their idea is new and market uptake is yet to be seen. The new company might get off to a fast start, or it might need time to find its footing.
Either way, the outsourced call center can quickly scale resources according to the start-up’s call volume. If it’s high, we can add agents to the customer service and order taking team. If it’s low, we can keep the team small. This flexibility eliminates the problem of hiring too many or too few new employees to man the phones, answer emails, engage in live chat or call potential customers.
Most of the entrepreneurs we partner with like to meet with us frequently as their start-ups evolve. This is smart. Good call center programs are dynamic, particularly for new companies. After the initial market launch, their key marketing messages, unique sales propositions and product offerings are likely to change frequently.
They bring that real-world feedback to us so we can adjust their call center services programs accordingly and update our agents assigned to their teams. And we have feedback for them, based on what we hear from their customers.
There’s nothing more exciting than seeing an entrepreneur’s vision confirmed by a strong start in the real world – and then continue to grow. We share in their high hopes and enjoy being an important cog in their blooming success.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, MA
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You see it in email blasts and web sites all the time:
Cold calling is dead.
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When you look at call center companies’ web sites and see the smiling, perfectly coiffed people, you might ask yourself, “Who are these people?”
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Everyone in the retail ecommerce industry eagerly awaited Cyber Monday 2012, which was expected to be the best ever. And it was.
Online spending on Nov. 26, the first work day after the Thanksgiving weekend and considered the year’s busiest online shopping day, reached a record $1.5 billion, according to market tracker ComScore.
That was a rise of 17 percent over Cyber Monday of last year.
Here on the front lines of customer service and order processing, OnBrand24 felt the impact of the boost in Cyber Monday consumer activity. Our company set a single-day record for inbound call volume.
These are calls from customers of our retail and ecommerce clients seeking to place orders, ask product questions, find out how long their orders will take to arrive and other customer service and order processing-related inquiries.
In short, we were a beehive of call center outsourcing service activity.
Cyber Monday was just one day in what has been a very active November. We have been busier than ever so far this holiday season, as reflected in increased online sales on Thanksgiving Day (a 32 percent increase) and Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, (up 18 percent).
All of this has resulted in a significant expansion of our staff and the expansion of our floor space at the Cummings Center in Beverly, MA, 20 miles north of Boston in eastern Massachusetts.
With November closing so strongly, we’re looking forward to a record setting December.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, Massachusetts
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Clients of call center services outsourcers have a right to know the details about the program their vendors are providing. In fact, clients and vendors need to work in close partnership to build, maintain and continually adjust successful call center services programs. And the basis for this is detailed, frequent reporting.
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Oct. 16, 2012 - At times I question the value of some social media, but there’s one site that I find consistently invaluable: LinkedIn. Among its best features are its groups, which let members exchange ideas with other professionals in your industry.
For anyone in the call center services industry, I strongly recommend the group called “Contact Center Operations & Management.” Here’s a recent discussion topic, which those of in customer service outsourcing will find interesting:
If you had to identify the top three most important customer service skills that are a must have for your service reps when interacting with the customer- what would be your top three?
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We heard the good news this morning that consumer confidence rose in September to levels well above economists’ expectations. Rebounding from an August decline, the index, which measures how Americans feel about the economy, rose to 70 percent.
This is good news for the U.S. economy because confident consumers are more willing to buy new cars, homes, consumers goods, and to extend their lines of credit. This creates a virtuous circle of higher growth, more production of goods, higher profits and more jobs.
A key contributor to the rise in confidence: Consumers are more optimistic about the employment picture.
Here at OnBrand24, we’re seeing both phenomena – rising consumer confidence and improved employment – up close and personal. Demand for our customer service and order processing call center services is growing because consumers are becoming more active; as a result we are hiring aggressively.
Since August 1, we’ve added 30 employees, bringing our total staff count to 170. We expect to hire another 25 agents by year’s end.
Our hiring reflects the strong growth OnBrand24 has enjoyed all year. So far in 2012, we have added 29 new clients for inbound call center services (customer service, order processing / order taking, help desk, sales) and 19 clients for outbound call center services (B2B lead generation, appointment setting, customer win-back, inside sales, customer list scrubbing and data hygiene).
While it’s true the overall economic picture, particularly the global economic outlooks, is mixed, we are glad to see Americans are more confident about the U.S. economy. Historically, our economy leads the way globally, so let’s hope rising American consumer confidence is a leading indicator of good things to come.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, MA
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A few months ago we blogged on famous quotations about customer relationship management that we picked up during our sessions with the local office of Sandler Training.
Now we thought we’d take a look at quotes about salesmanship and great sales techniques, and this quote from Morris Hite caught our eye:
“Advertising is salesmanship mass produced. No one would bother to use advertising if he could talk to all his prospects face-to-face. But he can't.”
Exactly right. No one person can talk to every prospect. But besides advertising there’s another way to quickly reach thousands of prospects: using an outsourced B2B lead generation and appointment setting call center services company.
That’s the beauty of an outbound call center: it goes where no single salesperson can go and delivers explosive market outreach. When you engage with a B2B lead generation call center, you hire a team of salespeople to cold call thousands, even tens of thousands, of prospects in a matter of days or weeks.
They can call a list of potential new customers with the characteristics appropriate for a given product or services. Or they can call a list of old customers who have grown inactive, and may need to have their buying motivation re-charged.
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The Internet Retailer Conference & Expo (IRCE) is coming up next month in Chicago, and OnBrand24 will be there. We are not regulars on the trade show circuit, but IRCE is a “must” on our annual calendar and this year is no exception.
We attend IRCE for two reasons: to meet retailers and e-commerce companies, to learn about their latest concerns and opportunities and to talk with them about their call center services needs – both for call center customer service and order processing, and also for B2B lead generation, appointment setting, customer surveys and other outbound call center services.
The other reason is to attend IRCE sessions, which are consistently excellent and educational.
The major theme at IRCE this year: understanding the “frequent web shopper.” What they demand from online stores, and how best to reach and service them so they remain loyal customers.
This year’s conference will have more than 100 sessions and 175 speakers, who will lay out the marketing, merchandising and operating strategies for meeting the demands of web-committed consumers who are dictating the new rules of retailing.
One of this year’s primary themes: Perfecting order management and fulfillment practices that keep online customers coming back. Here’s where retailers need excellent call center services. When customers have questions about an item on a web site, or if they have trouble ordering online and wish to process their order via human interface, or if they want to get an update on the status of their order, speaking with a friendly, helpful and informed customer service specialist at an inbound call center is critical to delivering a quality customer experience.
While it’s true that the emphasis at IRCE will be on new technology – mobile devices, social media, web site optimization and so on – IRCE proves each year that the role of call center services remains a critical piece within a successful retailing strategy. At last year’s show in San Diego, our booth was crowded with retailers who wanted to discuss outsourced call center services strategies.
It proved once again what we already knew about the enduring value of the telephone.
We hope to see you in Chicago next month!
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, Massachusetts
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