What is Teammate?
What is a Teammate?A teammate, or agent, in the call center industry, is a customer service representative who interacts with the customers on behalf of the organization. They answer queries, resolve customer issues, handle complaints, walk customers through basic troubleshooting, and provide information about products and services.
A CSR teammate works under the management and supervision of a team leader, who is in charge of handling their team members, resolving interpersonal conflicts, providing additional necessary training and coachings, and reporting their team’s progress.
Call center teammatesIn the Philippines, a call center agent/teammate can earn somewhere between $500 to $600 per month. In a typical call center environment, they are expected to work at least eight hours a day, for five days a week.
Every day, teammates must interact with a huge number of clients – some of whom may be aggressive or confrontational with challenging concerns.
Being a teammate is a role that needs strong people skills, problem-solving abilities, and attention to detail. It’s a quality that most employers would agree is essential in many corporate environments and job roles.
Further, how you deal with consumers can show the outcome of your business, and these teammates are on the front lines, providing a crucial component of the overall customer experience.
Team player qualities and characteristicsIndividuals with various common soft skills are excellent teammates. Soft skills are more difficult to master than technical abilities, but they may be improved with time and effort.
Here are some characteristics you can work on to improve:
Understand your role in the companyAs a teammate, you are aware of your responsibilities and aim to fulfill them to the best of your abilities. Even if you provide assistance or solutions to other team members, you should not the limits of your role and respect others.
Accept group collaborationWorking in a group assumes you'll encounter various viewpoints and ideas. Even if you consider your concept is the greatest, you should listen to all other suggestions before implementing your own.
If your work is rejected, you can seek out alternatives and stay courteous, this makes you an amazing teammate.
Hold yourself responsible for your actionsTake full responsibility for your mistakes as a colleague and seek solutions. As a teammate, you should recognize the influence of your actions that can affect the group.
You shall learn from your mistakes and get greater respect from your team if you’ll be responsible for your actions.
Be flexible and learn moreYou should willingly accept any responsibilities that your manager assigns to you. Your role's flexibility gives an opportunity to learn more as an individual and as part of the team.
Have a positive attitudeMaintaining a positive attitude at challenging times allows the rest of your team to work through the situation without becoming discouraged. Your good attitude as a teammate will improve the mood of the group.
Commit to the teamAs a teammate, you should be totally committed to the company. If you can demonstrate to others that you believe in the group, the process, and the goals of the company, you will be an exceptional teammate. This kind of optimism may boost morale and productivity dramatically.
What is an Operations Manager?
What is an operations manager?An operations manager (OM) is responsible for the production floor of a company and oversee the production of goods and services. In the BPO industry, most operations manager would have started out as an agent and have worked their way up to being a team leader and then eventually becoming an operations manager.
As part of their oversight over operations, operations managers are expected to stay abreast on developments on local rules and regulations regarding safety, environmental compliance, and labor issues. More fundamentally, however, operations managers are expeted to have great people skills. Not only do they have to maintain awareness over the company's staffing needs, they may also be called to help out with human resources, from hiring, training, to performance appraisals.
Operations manager offshoreA typical operations manager in a BPO company handles team leaders (who in turn handles about 10-15 agents) and would earn around $1,200 per month.
Outsource Accelerator is the most trusted source for independent information & advisory for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). We have over 3,000 articles, 200+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 700+ BPOs… all designed to make it easier for clients to learn about, and engage with outsourcing.
What is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?
What is Business Process Outsourcing BPO?Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the engagement of services from a third-party provider. BPO uses various technology-enabled services to hasten the delivery of services. The business activities could be back-office such as, but not limited to, payroll, accounting, human resources, or front office jobs like customer service, sales, and marketing, etc. In the case of content providers, these business activities could mean hiring writers, remote editors, or virtual assistants.
BPO speeds up processes and enhances efficiency. Companies that outsource some of their business activities use their time on core services and competencies. With this shift in focus, companies improve their current processes that may result in improved customer satisfaction. BPO helps companies divert their resources to more critical business strategies. Often, companies find it impractical to hire a full-time position in-house because of the cost associated with doing so.
How does Business Process Outsourcing work?When a business engages an external specialist to manage and operate some of its internal processes, it's referred to as business process outsourcing. Such ‘processes’ include customer service, accounting and finance, or sales. It is different from hiring an agency to do specific tasks, as the outsourcing provider (BPO) is more concerned with the ongoing production of labour-intensive tasks, instead of the higher-level strategy and guidance.
Now, business process outsourcing has broadened and is more akin to staff augmentation, or staff leasing.
What are the benefits of business process outsourcing?There are many benefits to outsourcing, as well as some downsides and risks. The common benefits include:
Cost savings: significant savings of up to 70%, leveraging the lower global salaries Global market: access to a bigger employment pool of talent Global presence: having operational across the globe increases trade opportunities Flexible workforce: reduces internal local labour and employment compliance obligations Leverage skill: leveraging the skills of other specialist companies Focus: enables the client company to focus on their core functions
Business process outsourcing examplesThe business process outsourcing sector is a vast industry, generating over $200bn annually, and employing many millions of people worldwide. Some examples include:
Big enterpriseFacebook and Uber outsource many of their operational functions, including content moderation for Facebook, and customer service for Uber
Medium-size businessesA medium business with 50-500 staff might outsource the labour-intensive accounting and finance functions to a team in the Philippines.
Small business and entrepreneurIt is common for small business owners to have a Virtual Assistant (VA) working for hem full time, remotely from the Philippines.
What are the different types of BPO?The type of business process outsourcing can be characterised by their specialisation, location, and size.
Generalist or specialist BPOsBusiness process outsourcing is in the human resources and professional services sector. However, their services extend across all industries. The majority of BPOs are generalist, in that they offer a full range of professional services, although some specialise in certain verticals (ie accounting, or animation).
LocationBusiness process outsourcing typically operates form developing nations such as the Philippines, India, and Colombia. They typically have cheaper cost-of-living and bigger populations. Different locations offer different advantages.
Size of BPOThe bigger BPOs employ more than 250,000 people. They are huge, global operations. Medium-sized BPOs range from 500-5,000 staff and offer a full range of services. The smaller BPOs might have 1-500 people.
Functions of business process outsourcingCollectively, business process outsourcing provides any kind of staffing solution. Common functions of BPO include:
Finance and accounting: operational, technical and specialist functions Healthcare: various functions of the backend of the healthcare and health-insurance industries Creative and content: everything from post-production of Hollywood movies to newspaper and website content Tech, IT and development: network management, web and app development and maintenance Sales & customer support: ongoing sales and customer operational support and delivery Marketing: ongoing marketing, communication and branding activities Talent and HR: externalising the management of company HR, recruitment and compliance Administration: general business administration and operational activities Top BPO companies in the world's top outsourcing hubsA wide range of BPO companies in different parts of the world provide utmost services to their Western and local clients. Many of them have even earned awards and recognitions by award-giving bodies due to their performance on both the roles they take and on their way of taking care of the employees.
Check out the top BPO companies in several outsourcing destinations below:
Top BPO companies in the Philippines Top Indian BPO companies Top South African BPO companies Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) servicesOutsource Accelerator is the most trusted source for independent information & advisory for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). We have over 4,000 articles, 200+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 700+ BPOs… all designed to make it easier for clients to learn about, and engage with, business process outsourcing.
What is Telephony?
What is a Telephony?Telephony is defined as the field of technology that involves the development and application of telecommunication services between distant parties through the use of appropriate equipment, whether voice, fax, or data. It is also linked to the invention of the telephone.
Telephony, as a term, is also used to refer to any computer network systems, hardware, or software, that carry out the roles usually performed by telephones.
Types of telephonyTelephony allows people to carry out long-distance communication, and it is most commonly used to refer to telephone systems. However, there are other types of telephony:
Traditional telephony Voice Over IP (VoIP) and internet telephony
Mobile telephony
Faxing telephony
Independent
