Hi, I’m Robert Dayton, the owner of LoyalDog Software, LLC in New York. I am also a co-owner of Customer Service Solutions, LLC in Dumaguete, Philippines where I have just returned from after opening and staffing our office there. This business has grown very rapidly because we have an unconventional business model that is focused on the highest employee compensation, the best benefits and retaining the best talent available. We also have the most positive work environment anywhere. I don’t say that lightly. In order to delight our customers, we first delight our employees. It’s hard to articulate the kind of customer experience we are giving, but you know it when you see it. It’s just a cut above what’s out there.

The premise for this article came around accidently. We had a LoyalDog customer want to do some telemartketing for his business and wanted to know if we could get him good dedicated people that he could afford to do this. He also wanted to try having someone overseas do his data entry as his larger clients email him the documents for service. Naturally our people are quite familiar with our software and are able to also handle things that are trying to fall through the cracks from a management standpoint.

It didn’t take us long to find him good telemarketers. My partner, Maria Diasnes, used to run a school there and has a go-to list of the top talent that graduated from there. Another business called in and wanted a good customer service and support rep. We knew we had a good thing going and opened up the office and company to take it to the next level. Word travels fast when you’re on the right track.

The telemarketers are doing a real good job for that client. I’m beaming with pride as I write this because I spent some time working with them and am very impressed with their commitment and dedication. Hard to find people that work like that anymore. My great grandparents had it. I see it only rarely in this generation in our country.

In recent years, there has been a trend to do passive marketing. Some website SEO, maybe list in some directories. This type of marketing is nice if there are only a few agencies in an area. In areas that have a higher concentration of process servers though — it can become saturated and the excellent results experienced in the beginning can dwindle over time. It is akin to putting your bait in the water and waiting for a bite. Over time the bites diminish as the pond gets fished out.

Have you thought about proactive marketing? What if a person or two was calling the law firms in your area and trying to establish relationships with them? The hardest part is often finding out the right person to talk to and getting your foot in the door. What about working follow-ups and keeping the relationship going? This kind of marketing is more like reaching out and taking business proactively instead of waiting for it to come to you. This is a mature industry in the Philippines. These people know the sales process very well and have been doing this for big companies for years. VERY few process servers are doing this right now.

Do you think there might be some benefit to taking the initiative and doing something your competitors aren’t doing yet? That’s how I built my software company. Only our competitors try to dispute that we’re the best at what we do and the community knows it. We didn’t become the best by following our competitors, we became the best by working harder than them and coming up with new things that they didn’t have. We’re still doing that today.

There are other benefits to hiring people overseas to assist in the daily operations of your business, too. The tax breaks are huge. There is no 1099 filed because it is an overseas company, there are no payroll taxes and there is no worker’s comp. All expense is 100% deductable. There is also a substantial reduction in salary expense. I can personally vouch for the talent there, I know it would be very hard to find that kind of dedication and work ethic in this country for less than mid to high 5 figures. I tried. I bet you’re trying too.

Everyone’s listed on the internet directories now and those companies are even making other directories to compete with themselves as they struggle to even do websites for you to remain relevant in a saturated internet marketing paradigm. They’re even throwing in free substandard software and starting ridiculous discussions online to try to create any buzz at all for themselves. I’ve matured a bit over the past 13 years so I don’t have to name names and call people out, its been going on for years and everyone knows who they are anyway. I think now is an exciting time to supplement that kind of marketing with another.

Is hiring telemarketers the answer for you? That’s hard to say. If everyone did it at once then that too might get saturated over time. Right now though, its something new in this industry and it looks promising. Especially if you hire telemarketers that don’t just read from a script but are high achievers who can think on their feet when a prospective client shows interest.

If I was still running an agency today I would be looking at how to do the kind of marketing my competition isn’t and how to cut costs and tax obligations around my office.

Hit me up at the NAPPS convention for more info or shoot me an email/call me, I’ll be partying there with our customers instead of exhibiting. We have the best customers in the world and I want to hang out with them this year.

Robert Dayton
Customer Service Solutions, LLC and LoyalDog Software, LLC
347.410.9034
loyalpuppy@gmail.com
Skype: loyalpuppy
Cell/Text: 7185702523