Offshore This!

Written by Rick David


So I call my telephone company and someone picks up 15,000 miles away. I askedrepparttar rep where she's from. She said, “I am from Mary-Land sir. How may I give you excellent service today?” The accent was… American... in a high society 19th century ultra-polite sort of way.

“Mary Land?” My brain's editing booth could not screenrepparttar 135710 snickers in time.

“Yes sir… this is correct sir.” She pushed torepparttar 135711 next level. “Yes, Mary Land, sir, on thee eastern seaboard. How may I give you excellent service?”

“The eastern seaboard?” Now laughing out loud.

“Yes sir, on thee eastern seaboard of thee United States. May I give you excellent service today?”

The ‘broken record’ assertiveness technique broke my resolve and she proceeded to give me excellent service, in a deceptive kind of way, thoughrepparttar 135712 experience left me queasy thinking aboutrepparttar 135713 whole new class of jobs being shipped overseas.

When manufacturing leftrepparttar 135714 United States,repparttar 135715 tech sector was supposed to berepparttar 135716 new frontier. Americans rushed out to be retrained. Students set their sites on computer engineering. Our tech sector was so good, it createdrepparttar 135717 very systems that made it possible to replace itself. Corporations discovered that an Indian college graduate will work at a call center for 10,000 rupees a month, or just under $60.00 a week. I have no malice for our Indian friends, they only want to work. But our kids are going to have to become proficient at more than playing video games and watching movies to compete with this highly educated and driven mass of hungry labor! Math anyone?

I remember hearing thatrepparttar 135718 receptionist wasrepparttar 135719 "face and voice" ofrepparttar 135720 company andrepparttar 135721 public would get their first and most lasting impression based on her attitude. (With that much on her shoulders, they should have raised her pay.) Nowrepparttar 135722 whole customer interface has been tossed to foreign nationals. Perhaps there will be a backlash in advertising. "Our tech support is Made inrepparttar 135723 USA! Ifrepparttar 135724 anecdotal evidence on Internet posting boards is any measure, many customers would rather be pierced with punji sticks rather than be taught one foreign language, (the computer) by someone with another foreign language! Written scripts are repeated ad nauseum with no ability to converse off-road and actually makerepparttar 135725 customer feel understood. Below is a sample, your results may vary.

Reactions to Foreign Customer Service

“I called HP Cares. They didn't. I spoke with three or four representatives. They all had limited English and spoke with an accent. They all asked merepparttar 135726 same set of questions. Many askedrepparttar 135727 same questions over and over and over again. They all refused to believe thatrepparttar 135728 sticker was not there. They all treated me like I was simply too stupid to find it or maybe I was just blind. And, they all put me on hold…”

“We could not understand each other. Evenrepparttar 135729 simplest English terms were incomprehensible to her. I said goodbye and went throughrepparttar 135730 tedious re-calling process, waiting another 20 minutes or so on hold. The second technician could also not understand English, andrepparttar 135731 connection broke after a few minutes, so I called a third time, going throughrepparttar 135732 whole waiting drill…”

“I will never purchase another Dell product, ever again. And everyone I know will not purchase their products either…”

It appears that companies may also be outsourcingrepparttar 135733 trust they've built in their brand, along with customer loyalty and retention. I think I'm on to something here. Let's go American business! Advertise your "Onshore" Calling Center!!!

The call centers are not only in India, they are coming online anywhere a building can put up some computers, chairs and get broadband. A Costa Rican tech support rep working for Toshiba complained in a posting that his job was outsourced to Turkey. Kencall of Kenya, provides its own generators and satellite uplink. I bet they don't have an employee snack room though.

The Relationship Between Colour & Sales

Written by Amanda Vlahakis - Truly Ace


Make no mistake that emotions arerepparttar driving force behind sales, and customers making buying decisions can be influenced through visual elements towards a particular behaviour or emotion that will encourage more sales.

Not convinced? Have you noticed that a lot of restaurants are decorated in/heavily feature reds and/or oranges? Still not convinced?

Pizza Hut Frankie & Bennys Burger King Little Chef TGI Friday Bella Pasta (one ofrepparttar 135674 few to focus on Orange rather than red)

These major players understandrepparttar 135675 psychology behind colour and its relationship to marketing which dictates that red and orange specifically encourage restaurant patrons to eat faster; thus yes you guessed it – increasing sales withinrepparttar 135676 same period of time.

Red is known as an emotionally intense colour, stimulating a faster heartbeat and breathing. Orange is also an emotional stimulant.

It’s entirely possible you are suddenly frantically realising that you haven’t considered this at all when choosing your brand design and associated marketing materials and are now wondering whether you are maximising your sales throughrepparttar 135677 use of colour psychology.

Luckily there’s no need to panic and start planning a complete (and potentially expensive) re-branding exercise.

Even if you didn’t initially consider this, it’s not too late to do something about it, there’s no reason why you can’t work with your existing brand colours and perhaps work new colours into your scheme that will work harder to encourage those sales – infiltratingrepparttar 135678 correct colours through your brochures, web site, stationery and so on.

This way you use colour psychology to strengthen your message yet whilst keepingrepparttar 135679 same brand that customers may have already become accustomed to seeing and have already ‘bought into’.

Now that you are aware that you can do something about your glaring error ;-)) – here are some tips:

1.Culture: If you trade globally, remember that colours can have a different interpretation in different cultures – for example in Chinese culture, white isrepparttar 135680 colour of death. 2.Shopper Habits – Apparently impulse buyers lean towards red-orange, black and royal blue, and those who plan ahead prefer pink, teal, light blue and navy. 3.Status - Colour preference is influenced by our standard of living; brighter bolder colours appear to attract those on a lower income, whilst those targeting higher income brackets should use more subtle colours. 4.Geography – The geographical location of your target market should be considered when making colour choices; those in Latin America for example will prefer stronger colours, whilst those in colder regions are attracted to neutrals.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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