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I Had a Wonderful Conversation with a CEO of a Major BPO Mill Last Week....
During my hour long conversation with the Owner/CEO of a Major BPO Mill last week, I learned some very important information and perspectives that I want to share with you.
As you may be aware BPO Auto-Accept software has been available and used heavily in the BPO & REO industry in last few years by thousands of BPO & REO professionals all over the United States. The areas hit hardest by people deciding to use the software are within the states of: California, Florida and Nevada, to name but a few. You can probably venture a guess that these areas offer the most volume of work, and the amount of people that are doing BPO & REO related work is staggering, thus competition for BPO work is fierce.
As a front-runner and pioneer in this software, I can say first-hand that there is lots of controversy, speculation, myths and rumors surrounding BPO Auto-Accept software. Many assume that every company will 'blacklist' you if you use it or that they will plain fire you. This is partially true for some companies, but the crazy reality is that like almost everything in life, there are always loop-holes These same companies that supposedly 'blacklist' and 'fire' EVERY agents and brokers who uses BPO Auto-Accept software in realtiry also choose to look the other way for many of their vendors that use the software too.
How is that possible you ask? Well, my perspective on this comes from first-hand experience of seeing this happen to some of our clients that use our Order Central and legacy AutoAccepter2 software. You can see proof in our 'Statistics' tab that is located within the software. Plus, I feel strongly that these companies have a certain criteria or guidelines surrounding how they apply their policies against people using the software, but keep in mind that exceptions to the rules always exist. I know of many agents and brokers in the business who work for these same controversial companies and they are being successful with our Order Central Auto-Accept software.
I suspect that if a BPO agent or broker is working for a company that has a history or policies of enforcing punishment for people that use BPO Auto-Accept software, that they will look the other way when a vendor has: a high vendor rating, a long track record of performance and high quality work, a history of not missing deadlines or asking that orders be reassigned and as such these companies look the other way. I've heard personal stories from clients of how company reps would call one of their agents or brokers that they suspect is using BPO Auto-Accept software and tell them, "I am supposed to fire you, but....."
When it comes down to it at the end of the day, I feel that BPO Auto-Accept software wouldn't be so controversial if companies were set up correctly in how they assign orders and instead of broadcast orders to the masses, like throwing out meat to a hungry pack of wolves, they instead take care of their vendors by assigning orders directly to them based on 'rank and rating.'
A few select, top BPO mills do just this beautifully and with much success because they have automated systems to help them with this task, but it's the smaller companies that typically aren't prepared or armed with the right systems like the top BPO mills have.
All of this leads me to mention the real reason why some BPO mills don't like BPO Auto-Accept software. From my experience and from the wonderful conversation I shared with the Owner of a Top BPO mill, he mentioned that they don't have a problem with BPO Auto-Accept software per se, but their clients definitely do. The BPO Mill doesn't want to rock the boat or lose business by making their client angry, thus they enforce policies against people using the software. Keep in mind that not only are BPO & REO agents and brokers feeling the wrath of increasingly more QC requirements and strict policies and receiving lower and lower fees to do BPO work, but BPO Mills are also seen as a 'dime a dozen.' They feel the pressure just as much as we do, but it starts at the top and always trickles downhill. This is one of the real reasons why many companies have an issue with the software.
So, as clients give BPO Mills orders the clients have A LOT of 'say-so' on how things transpire on many levels. One of the issues many clients have with BPO Mills is that each company has their own set of criteria in how they rate their agents and brokers, how they assign work to them and as such clients don't feel comfortable with the use of the software. The good news is that many of the top BPO Mills directly assign work. So as this software is being used it is just making the life of BPO agents and brokers easier so that they don't have to babysit their computer and instead can be doing more productive things like being out in the field, pulling comps, working on their orders, etc.
Another important item to note as taken from my conversation with the BPO mill executive was how BPO Auto-Accept software slows down their servers and if they didn't have the setup that they had then it would be a real issue. He mentioned that many smaller companies aren't setup to be able to handle all of the pings that hit their site when BPO Auto-Accept software is used, thus it creates issues for the company and for the people trying to use their site to do BPO work as well as for the times when clients log into some BPO companies website to look at completed work that they requested. It creates a 'bottle-neck.'
In case you aren't familiar with this, BPO mills complain about how their servers are being 'pinged' too often by the software. Thus, many companies monitor IP addresses and have people within their company assigned to 'look-out' for people that are suspect for using BPO Auto-Accept software. Once they find someone that is, then they choose which direction to go with them.
So at the end of the day, the key points here are:
* Many top BPO mills don't have an issue with people using BPO Auto-Accept software
* The main complainer and advocate against the software are the various clients of the BPO Mills.
* Smaller companies that provide BPO work don't have the necessary systems in place to be able to handle the extra workload that the software creates internally and on their servers.
* People that use the software for controversial companies are still gaining work and not everyone is getting fire or blacklisted.
* Most importantly, people using the software need to be informed and stay educated, and at the end of the day the choice to use the software or not use it is up to them personally.
Please keep in mind that I am not offering legal advice or counsel here, but am offering my personal opinion here based on my own experience with this topic. I always tell people to get educated as much as possible about the software and at the end of the day the risk is theirs to take when deciding to use it or not use it. The results of our Order Central software speak for themselves, Click here to learn more!
I hope this gives some great insight,
Nicole Ocean
Founder | BPO Automation Group
(360) 223-2482 ext 2 | nicole@bpo-automation.com
About BPO Automation: With thousands of clients nationwide, we're the #1 provider for BPO form-completion and automated order-acceptance software in the United States. Our focus is on quality solutions that save time, boost revenue, and let you focus on growing your business. Learn More »
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