Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Why Australian Businesses Need to Rethink Outsourcing and Bring Customer Experience Back Home
As big corporations report record-breaking profits, many are outsourcing operations offshore, cutting costs but also cutting ties with local expertise and customer understanding. This growing divide highlights a critical challenge for Australian businesses: how to stay competitive while still delivering the customer experience their clients expect.
“Australian consumers and businesses want to deal with people who get them — who know the local market, cultural nuances and what really matters,” said Richard Forrest, CEO of Forrest Contact, an Australian-based contact centre specialising in lead generation and sales support.
While offshore outsourcing might offer short-term cost savings, it often comes at the expense of trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Overseas agents, unfamiliar with Australian regulations, geography and communication styles, can frustrate customers instead of helping them, ultimately hurting the brand.
The Onshore Advantage
Forrest Contact is one of the few fully Australia-based contact centres helping businesses compete without compromising customer relationships. Their team of local conversation specialists supports companies across sectors, finance, healthcare, logistics and more, by delivering real conversations that build lasting connections.
“We’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is when clients know their customers are being looked after by a team that understands their world,” said Forrest. “Outsourcing shouldn’t mean disconnecting; it should mean finding the right partner who can represent your brand like you would.”
Forrest Contact’s approach goes beyond scripts and metrics. With deep local knowledge, high-quality training, and accountability baked into their operations, they ensure every customer interaction is a brand-building moment. Their clients enjoy the benefits of outsourced scalability without the risks of offshore detachment.
Putting Australian Jobs First
Beyond the customer experience, there’s a broader economic story. With many global corporations moving operations abroad, Australian job opportunities in customer service, sales support, and contact centres are shrinking. Forrest Contact believes supporting local talent is not just good business, it’s the right thing to do.
Why It Matters Now
In a climate of economic uncertainty and rising consumer expectations, Australian businesses must make intentional decisions about who represents them. Customers are savvier than ever — and when they hear a distant accent or get a script-based answer, they notice.
“People buy from people,” said Richard Forrest. “That doesn’t change just because a company is trying to scale. If anything, it makes the human element even more important.”
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Time To Take A Cold Hard Look At Yourself
Whilst many companies look at the festive season as a time to wind down and enjoy the fruits of the year, there still are a few of us that take this time to have a cold hard look at ourselves and make some very tough decisions.
If you notice, there are alot of big corporates doing the latter with large lay-offs over Xmas and a review of expenditure.
Today, I took the liberty of catching up with a good friend, someone I admire immensely who has been incredibly successful in business and in life. I talked about my vision for my business for the next 12 months, 2 years and 5 years and how I thought I would achieve it.
What is really good about friends who know you well, is that they tell you the truth. They don't sugar coat answers and they don't tell you what they think you want to hear. They're your friends and you have come to them to ask their opinion.
Whilst its great to hire external consultants, sometimes they have their own agendas or need to appease you so that you continue to hire their services.
My vision for 2010;
To help 50 new companies market their business in an affordable way with no hidden costs.
How I am going to achieve this;
By giving 50 companies an all inclusive package that has marketing, graphic design, branding, public relations and web development and campaigns as part of the services they receive for just $17.95 per day.
Why;
Because every business deserves every chance of survival.
How;
To do marketing for cost and allow customers to pay off their marketing services over a period of 2 years. No interest. No hidden costs.
When;
We will sign companies up in December and will take companies only over the January to June period.
What is a typical Marketing Eye in a company;
Someone who develops your strategy, website and brand and communicates it to your target audience leading to sales, brand building and ultimately profits.
How do you find out about it;
Ring 1300 300 080 and speak with Jacob Scott.
The downside;
There is no downside for businesses as it is the same successful service Marketing Eye has provided for the past 5 years, but it allows for a payment plan that is affordable to all small businesses.
For Marketing Eye the upside is;
We get to work with companies that are passionate about growing.
It's a typical WIN WIN...
Now, my good friend said to me,"Mel, so there are no surprises when they receive their invoices."
"No".
"Marketing Eye includes all the normal additional costs that agencies charge like design, web development and maintenance, public relations etc."
"Yes"
"No extra costs and they get to pay it over 2 years."
"Yes"
"Why don't you charge more?"
"Because we want to give businesses every opportunity to succeed. They succeed, we succeed."
"Great!"
And that was it. An endorsement that Marketing Eye in 2010 will be doing something that the market wants and needs that is a win, win for everyone.
www.marketingeye.com.au
Australia's number one small business marketing team that helps businesses grow and succeed.
If you notice, there are alot of big corporates doing the latter with large lay-offs over Xmas and a review of expenditure.
Today, I took the liberty of catching up with a good friend, someone I admire immensely who has been incredibly successful in business and in life. I talked about my vision for my business for the next 12 months, 2 years and 5 years and how I thought I would achieve it.
What is really good about friends who know you well, is that they tell you the truth. They don't sugar coat answers and they don't tell you what they think you want to hear. They're your friends and you have come to them to ask their opinion.
Whilst its great to hire external consultants, sometimes they have their own agendas or need to appease you so that you continue to hire their services.
My vision for 2010;
To help 50 new companies market their business in an affordable way with no hidden costs.
How I am going to achieve this;
By giving 50 companies an all inclusive package that has marketing, graphic design, branding, public relations and web development and campaigns as part of the services they receive for just $17.95 per day.
Why;
Because every business deserves every chance of survival.
How;
To do marketing for cost and allow customers to pay off their marketing services over a period of 2 years. No interest. No hidden costs.
When;
We will sign companies up in December and will take companies only over the January to June period.
What is a typical Marketing Eye in a company;
Someone who develops your strategy, website and brand and communicates it to your target audience leading to sales, brand building and ultimately profits.
How do you find out about it;
Ring 1300 300 080 and speak with Jacob Scott.
The downside;
There is no downside for businesses as it is the same successful service Marketing Eye has provided for the past 5 years, but it allows for a payment plan that is affordable to all small businesses.
For Marketing Eye the upside is;
We get to work with companies that are passionate about growing.
It's a typical WIN WIN...
Now, my good friend said to me,"Mel, so there are no surprises when they receive their invoices."
"No".
"Marketing Eye includes all the normal additional costs that agencies charge like design, web development and maintenance, public relations etc."
"Yes"
"No extra costs and they get to pay it over 2 years."
"Yes"
"Why don't you charge more?"
"Because we want to give businesses every opportunity to succeed. They succeed, we succeed."
"Great!"
And that was it. An endorsement that Marketing Eye in 2010 will be doing something that the market wants and needs that is a win, win for everyone.
www.marketingeye.com.au
Australia's number one small business marketing team that helps businesses grow and succeed.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
CXO Magazine Interviews Mellissah Smith, CEO, Marketing Eye
http://www.cxo.com.au/people/531725/qa-mellissah-smith-ceo-marketing-eye/
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
SMALL BUSINESSES DEVELOP STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANS FOR JUST $299
Strategic Marketing, once touted as just for large corporations, is now being applied to businesses across all levels and of all sizes. Becoming increasingly more affordable and less standardiSed, strategic marketing has been heralded as the most important element of the marketing mix for many businesses that are looking for sales acquisition and growth. Without it, marketing activities remain unmeasured and lack appropriate ROI.
What has emerged is a need for businesses of any size to develop strategic marketing plans based on their overall business strategy with key performance indicators ranked according to desired ROI calculators.
There are many reasons to engage in strategic marketing rather than adhoc marketing initiatives that have no set deliverables or KPI’s and are not aligned to the overall business strategy.
It’s like closing your eye’s and hoping that your marketing dollar lands where you want it to at that particular time and produces the results to keep going. The ‘blind-folded’ approach is well known in small business as many companies feel that hiring a marketing consultancy is too expensive and that they are not quite ready to hire a marketing manager in terms of commitment to a fulltime resource and affordability of $100k+ salaries.
The basis of strategic marketing is being able to:
(1) Articulate specific business goals,
(2) Succinctly define target audience or key customers,
(3) Develop campaigns to support core business goals, and
(4) Maximize ROI.
The issue arises for small business owners when ascertaining how they can operate with much more limited resources than their larger counterparts if in fact a marketing strategy actually works. The answer is that small businesses can if their marketing strategy addresses the specific growth and retention needs that are unique to the business.
Global corporations use strategic marketing to communicate initiatives and messaging across the entire company. A small business can use strategic marketing to help shape growth, develop advertising campaigns, public relations, client retention, customer acquisition and manage resources. Implementing strategic marketing into business practices can help business owners target key customers, effectively allocate resources, and improve business processes with more quality results at a lower implementation cost of both monetary and personnel resources.
With the growing trend of freelance consultants and small, highly specialised marketing consulting firms, small businesses are now able to contract a marketing professional to develop a strategic marketing plan and help implement the necessary business structure.
Affordability is key for small businesses when looking at outsourcing their marketing strategy development, but let’s face it, who can afford not to have this in place?
Marketing Eye is helping 10 businesses develop their own marketing strategies with the guidance of a marketing manager who has worked with over 200 companies on developing marketing programs.
All businesses have to do is register to be part of this day of strategic marketing on http://www.marketingeye.com.au/menew/eventform.html and for a small fee that is affordable to every business from a startup, you will walk away with a strategic marketing plan.
Mellissah Smith is the founder of 4 businesses and works as the Chief Executive Officer of Marketing Eye Pty Ltd. Marketing Eye has helped over 200 companies develop marketing programs aimed at growth, expansion and customer retention. A strategic marketing plan is integral to achieving these goals and 10 lucky companies will have the opportunity to explore their businesses in details and develop a strategic marketing plan with the guidance of Marketing Eye.
What has emerged is a need for businesses of any size to develop strategic marketing plans based on their overall business strategy with key performance indicators ranked according to desired ROI calculators.
There are many reasons to engage in strategic marketing rather than adhoc marketing initiatives that have no set deliverables or KPI’s and are not aligned to the overall business strategy.
It’s like closing your eye’s and hoping that your marketing dollar lands where you want it to at that particular time and produces the results to keep going. The ‘blind-folded’ approach is well known in small business as many companies feel that hiring a marketing consultancy is too expensive and that they are not quite ready to hire a marketing manager in terms of commitment to a fulltime resource and affordability of $100k+ salaries.
The basis of strategic marketing is being able to:
(1) Articulate specific business goals,
(2) Succinctly define target audience or key customers,
(3) Develop campaigns to support core business goals, and
(4) Maximize ROI.
The issue arises for small business owners when ascertaining how they can operate with much more limited resources than their larger counterparts if in fact a marketing strategy actually works. The answer is that small businesses can if their marketing strategy addresses the specific growth and retention needs that are unique to the business.
Global corporations use strategic marketing to communicate initiatives and messaging across the entire company. A small business can use strategic marketing to help shape growth, develop advertising campaigns, public relations, client retention, customer acquisition and manage resources. Implementing strategic marketing into business practices can help business owners target key customers, effectively allocate resources, and improve business processes with more quality results at a lower implementation cost of both monetary and personnel resources.
With the growing trend of freelance consultants and small, highly specialised marketing consulting firms, small businesses are now able to contract a marketing professional to develop a strategic marketing plan and help implement the necessary business structure.
Affordability is key for small businesses when looking at outsourcing their marketing strategy development, but let’s face it, who can afford not to have this in place?
Marketing Eye is helping 10 businesses develop their own marketing strategies with the guidance of a marketing manager who has worked with over 200 companies on developing marketing programs.
All businesses have to do is register to be part of this day of strategic marketing on http://www.marketingeye.com.au/menew/eventform.html and for a small fee that is affordable to every business from a startup, you will walk away with a strategic marketing plan.
Mellissah Smith is the founder of 4 businesses and works as the Chief Executive Officer of Marketing Eye Pty Ltd. Marketing Eye has helped over 200 companies develop marketing programs aimed at growth, expansion and customer retention. A strategic marketing plan is integral to achieving these goals and 10 lucky companies will have the opportunity to explore their businesses in details and develop a strategic marketing plan with the guidance of Marketing Eye.
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Power of Customer Demands
Having just received information pertaining to a client of Marketing Eye's that had a section on their website whereby visitors could lobby to have their local shop store a particular beer, I was surprised by the number of people who are loyal to a brand. To actually go into your local bottleshop and demand they stock a particular beer brand so you can buy it - is one hell of a loyal customer.
The search around Australia for an effen great bloke has been interesting to say the least. We all know an effen great bloke and fortunately the competition takes exactly 32 seconds to complete (I timed it!).
The good news is that the bottleshop in question, listened to their customers after repeated requests from a number of customers and will now stock the beer.
Great job!
It's Australia's last opportunity to find an effen great bloke, so if you know one, enter him in the competition.
Women are welcome!
www.effengreatbloke.com.au
The search around Australia for an effen great bloke has been interesting to say the least. We all know an effen great bloke and fortunately the competition takes exactly 32 seconds to complete (I timed it!).
The good news is that the bottleshop in question, listened to their customers after repeated requests from a number of customers and will now stock the beer.
Great job!
It's Australia's last opportunity to find an effen great bloke, so if you know one, enter him in the competition.
Women are welcome!
www.effengreatbloke.com.au
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Don't Discard Twitter for B2B Marketing
Marketing Eye is always the last to market ourselves, but having put together some 'hairy audacious goals' for 2010, we are looking at every possible avenue to market our business to small to medium sized businesses.
There are so many ways to market a small business in the b2b environment and so the choice is limitless however, when you have limited budget and not alot of time, it's integral that the marketing platforms that you use are in fact the best 'bang for your buck' and the least amount of effort.
To me, unless you are doing consumer based marketing, Twitter can be very time consuming.
With writing ongoing tweets, finding people to follow and to follow you, replying to direct messages and in general keeping up to date with what's going on - it's pretty time consuming.
What really is twitter? Wikipedia does an apt definition that is easy to understand
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)and most people don't need to look too much further than this to understand exactly what twitter is.
Last Friday, I did an experiment. Time limit on twitter was 2 hours from start to finish and I had to achieve something - anything - that was relevant to my lead generation requirements.
So I found a few people who had twitter accounts that had a similar demographic to Marketing Eye and followed people following them. A tongue twister - I know! 200 in total were followed for the sake of this experiment.
I then wrote a few tweets about marketing including some interesting marketing stories that I found online.
Additionally, I added a few personal tweets - to ensure that the tweet followers got to know me as well. "Hugh Grant is coming to Australia on 22 December to promote his new movie". I am a huge fan of Hugh Grant and desperately want to play a round of golf with him. I am hopeless and he is really good. Almost at a level of being a professional! Needless to say, it would be one long round all in my favour!
THE RESPONSE
Within a couple of hours, I received direct tweets;
- From a journalist wanting to write a story on me
- A small business wanting to know more about Marketing Eye's marketing services
- An individual wanting a website that is cost effective
- Reconnection with an old client
- 100 extra people who are relevant following my tweets!To me, this is an amazing response! 2 hours work and no added costs other than time -and this was my result.
To all those people who slam twitter as a waste of time, think again!
IF YOUR TARGET MARKET IS B2B, HERE'S SOME TIPS:
1. Set up a twitter account immediately
2. Tweet about relevant topics, opinions and offers your business has
3. Follow people who are relevant to your business
4. Find people who have the same demographic as your client base and go through their list and follow their followers
5. Make sure you respond to all direct messages
6. Make sure you thank people who are following you. It's the first touch point of many to come
7. If someone following you is relevant to your business, follow them back
8. Don't waste time on Twitter. Use this time as a direct marketing effort to engage your audience, communicate your unique selling proposition and position you as an industry leader
9. Add the odd personal tweet so people get to know you
10. Make sure your Twitter account is giving your business a ROI.
Marketing Eye is a leading national marketing consulting firm for small to medium sized businesses in Australia. All Marketing Eye consultants are trained on web 2.0 to ensure that if your business can benefit from social networks, then you are leveraging this medium.
Find out more on Marketing Eye's new website www.marketingeye.com.au
There are so many ways to market a small business in the b2b environment and so the choice is limitless however, when you have limited budget and not alot of time, it's integral that the marketing platforms that you use are in fact the best 'bang for your buck' and the least amount of effort.
To me, unless you are doing consumer based marketing, Twitter can be very time consuming.
With writing ongoing tweets, finding people to follow and to follow you, replying to direct messages and in general keeping up to date with what's going on - it's pretty time consuming.
What really is twitter? Wikipedia does an apt definition that is easy to understand
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)and most people don't need to look too much further than this to understand exactly what twitter is.
Last Friday, I did an experiment. Time limit on twitter was 2 hours from start to finish and I had to achieve something - anything - that was relevant to my lead generation requirements.
So I found a few people who had twitter accounts that had a similar demographic to Marketing Eye and followed people following them. A tongue twister - I know! 200 in total were followed for the sake of this experiment.
I then wrote a few tweets about marketing including some interesting marketing stories that I found online.
Additionally, I added a few personal tweets - to ensure that the tweet followers got to know me as well. "Hugh Grant is coming to Australia on 22 December to promote his new movie". I am a huge fan of Hugh Grant and desperately want to play a round of golf with him. I am hopeless and he is really good. Almost at a level of being a professional! Needless to say, it would be one long round all in my favour!
THE RESPONSE
Within a couple of hours, I received direct tweets;
- From a journalist wanting to write a story on me
- A small business wanting to know more about Marketing Eye's marketing services
- An individual wanting a website that is cost effective
- Reconnection with an old client
- 100 extra people who are relevant following my tweets!To me, this is an amazing response! 2 hours work and no added costs other than time -and this was my result.
To all those people who slam twitter as a waste of time, think again!
IF YOUR TARGET MARKET IS B2B, HERE'S SOME TIPS:
1. Set up a twitter account immediately
2. Tweet about relevant topics, opinions and offers your business has
3. Follow people who are relevant to your business
4. Find people who have the same demographic as your client base and go through their list and follow their followers
5. Make sure you respond to all direct messages
6. Make sure you thank people who are following you. It's the first touch point of many to come
7. If someone following you is relevant to your business, follow them back
8. Don't waste time on Twitter. Use this time as a direct marketing effort to engage your audience, communicate your unique selling proposition and position you as an industry leader
9. Add the odd personal tweet so people get to know you
10. Make sure your Twitter account is giving your business a ROI.
Marketing Eye is a leading national marketing consulting firm for small to medium sized businesses in Australia. All Marketing Eye consultants are trained on web 2.0 to ensure that if your business can benefit from social networks, then you are leveraging this medium.
Find out more on Marketing Eye's new website www.marketingeye.com.au
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