How to Make it Online Rendering Bulk SMS Service Delivery

Text message is a big revenue earner in the mobile industry today in Nigeria and in the diapora. People love to text and so is money being made by those who are involved in text messaging business. According to fastwebSMS.com, over 15 billion text messages are sent yearly in Nigeria. The number is still growing as the country’s tele-density moves into the 60 and 70 million text messaging subscribers. And since the people love text messaging, both to send and receive, it’s growing into one of the most powerful market plat forms in the world after the internet.

Now, not only do ordinary subscribers love text messaging, big and powerful organizations have come into the foray, using text messaging as a marketing tool to reach millions of telephone subscribers quicker, cheaper and directly with their advertising promotions. Now with bulk messaging tools online hundreds of GSM subscribers are reached with the same message with the stroke of a button saving time energy and company resources that are usually wasted in the old and conventional ways of advertising. On this discovery, hundreds of millions of naira would be spent by small, medium and large companies in SMS adve5rtising, marketing and promotion. Apart from the popularity of SMS as a quicker, cheaper, personal means of publicity it has more uses in every business. In fact any business that wants to keep customers patronizing them needs to use bulk text messaging service. Regularly advertising, like the newspaper take time to get to the consumers, and at times the people you are targeting may not even see your advert. But SMS gets directly to their phones and immediately they will read them while some might even call you back for more enquires.

And with the internet bulk SMS is made even more useful as companies can brand their text messages with their names to make consumers read them immediately they are received. The internet also makes it easier for you to sell wholesale bulk SMS to your customers anywhere in the country. The service works like one opening an email account on yahoo. You will open such accounts for your customer with has all the facilities for sending bulk SMS. Once they signs up with you they are your customers as long as that relationship remains.

The question now is what’s in it for me? How do I benefit? How do I make money from all these? What is the market outlook like for a sustainable investment? What are the returns on investment? And as these questions juggle your mind, take a look at a business with all possibilities for mega profit and that is wholesale Bulk SMS service. I call it the business for the ‘simple” man. If you have been looking for an online business that will make you regular income, I recommend wholesale bulk SMS business for you. Trust me, it’s a bomb in money making on the internet.

Market Potential

The market potential is huge it’s determined by the number of subscriber base in the country, we are now heading for 70 million subscribers out of the population of 140 million, according to 2006 census. Imagine we have grown in the last couple of years gone by already. So, the figures keep growing and that is how the market potential keeps increasing for you to make more profit.

Your Profit Potential

Bulk SMS business is a volume driven business with greater advantage for growing customer base. As a wholesale bulk SMS reseller you have a platform that helps you retain your customers once they sign up with you they are bound to stay with you buying SMS regularly from you. And with the ongoing tread, If you have just 1,000 customers signed up with you, and each of them are able to buy up just 5,000 SMS monthly that’s N5, million income but your profit could be around N500,000 to N 1 Million monthly. Good business isn’t it?

Competition & Marketing Challenges

Don’t think others are going to fold their hands and watch only you take up the wholesale bulk SMS reseller business. No, of course! You are going to face competition like in any other business. At least, you should know you are not the only one reading this step by step guide right now. But, the secret to dealing with competition is to market yourself in such a way it would seem like you are the only one offering that services. Yes! That is what you have to do. And one way to do that is to identify who your target market is and device strategies to keep bombarding them with your offer until all those who would require your service have signed up with you. Here is my step by step guide on How to sell wholesale Bulk SMS Online! Follow it religiously and you will never make mistake.

Customized text message from research is one of the laziest ways of making money in Nigeria with no capital requirement and there are a lot of opportunities in this business.

Here is your opportunity Lock into it now!

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Why Outsource Web Design Service?

Web design service: Web designing is the most popular tool in the world of computers. Today is a world of technologies and everybody wants to use this technology for their betterment. Web designing is used to design and develop websites. These websites can be used in businesses for their publicity or by an individual for their portfolios etc. Web design services are in demand as every one wants a good look for their websites as this is the first impression and first impression should always be good. An impressive look always attracts towards it. It includes designing and developing part simultaneously. It should be done by experienced web designers.

Web designing tools: Web designing services tools include flash, Photoshop, corel draw, illustrator, firework, dream weaver, HTML, and dhtml. The developing tools include php, asp.net, vb.net etc. These tools are used by experienced person for designing and developing a website. Now days either in business or individual every body wants to create a website for their publicity.

Why need of outsourcing web design service?: As time changes, new techniques are developed for everything. Like in old days, the advertisement had been done through news papers, pamphlets etc. But now as new technology becomes vast new ways are come out like websites on internet. Today every active person knows about this. But the question arises what about those people who know what web designing is but don’t know how it works? What are the techniques used? The answer is Outsource web design service. This is a good concept for those who has less or no knowledge about designing that how it works but has a desire to develop a website for their product promotion internationally. Outsourcing is beneficial for those who know how to beat the time. In outsource web designing; there are professional designers who worked out for either an individual or a company according to their requirement. Just explain what your requirements are? and a skilled people will do exactly the same for you. Outsource web design services provide full range of web services like eCommerce website design, flash animation web site design etc. Web development services include shopping carts, online software etc.

Why India? There are many companies which provide outsource web designing services all over the world. These companies provide their services across the world. Some companies provide only designing services, some developing services and some both. These Companies appoints experienced and skilled staff for providing the services. Outsourcing these services to India is always beneficial. India has many experienced and professional web designing companies who have skilled people who are best in their work. It is also cost effective area than other countries. India has many web designing service providers who work at very low cost than others. Also Indians can do their work according to given time span. Indian designers are hard worker and complete their work in time. Indians are very efficient that they can work for 24 hours. So it is always being beneficial to outsource to India for getting cheap and best output.

How to Start a Service Business in an Area You Have Little Or No Experience

Going by the increasing toll of unemployment in Nigeria and in most countries of the world, one option that readily comes to mind is churning out business ideas and making a living from such ventures.

However, good as entrepreneurship may seem, certain challenges are likely to be faced by the aspiring/budding entrepreneur who, due to lack of experience in his chosen career path, finds it difficult to get notice in the marketplace.

Amongst other qualities, experience, is obviously the most vital requirement needed for a successful service business. But this is not to say that some service business can’t be ventured into with little or no experience.

If you are thinking of starting an interior decorations business, for example, you are most likely to do well if you have worked in an organization or with someone having similar interest. Consider someone who starts a business and offers human relations management services, but never worked in an HR firm or as an HR administrator for a company!

Experience readily brings the judgment you would need to manage your business. This is the single most important skill needed in the service industry (and perhaps, in all types of businesses).

All hope is not lost if you are just a fresher. You can start a particular service business, and do well even if you have not worked professionally in a similar field. “How?” you ask. I will tell you now.

Let me identify two types of experience. These are: 1. Hands-on Experience; and 2. Self-Acquiring Experience.

Hands-on experience is the type of training you get as a result of your involvement in a particular activity. Here, you learn the skill first-hand; you make mistakes/errors and get corrected. Over the years, hands-on experience has proven to be the most accepted method of staff training, and many companies are aware of this fact. An accountant just starting off cannot, in any way, be compared with one with many years of hands-on experience. Likewise, a veteran sales person will, in most cases, outsell a beginner.

It is, however, worthy of note that acquiring corporate experience is not limited to the hands-on level. In the self-acquiring experience level, you engage in a conscious, self-acquiring exercise in order to be ahead of the game in your chosen career path.

The following are methods you can quickly use to become an experienced business person:

1. Read books authored by people who have several years of hands-on experience in the field that interest you. For instance, one of the professional books that have shaped my career is The Corporate Communications Bible by Robert Dilenschneider. In just one book, I was able to acquire public relations “wisdom” which had took the author several decades to learn!

2. Attend professional training/short courses. Attending programmes of this nature gives you unique opportunity to listen to experts as they teach. In most cases, you get opportunity to ask questions and practice what you have learnt.

3. Subscribe to and read newsletters regularly (whether paper or electronic-based). Newsletters offer unique information that may not be found elsewhere. Your self-acquiring effort may just pay of by reading one more newsletter.

4. Associate with ‘senior’ friends. You have no business spending your time with people who don’t know as much as you do. Pitch your tent with people who have gone ahead of you (and are successful) in similar business. Have them mentor you. By doing this, their experience rubs on you.

5. Apply what you have acquired. It is important to note that acquiring does not equal applying. You need to apply the wisdom acquired. Start small. Offer a kind of service that you can proffer immediate solutions to. The more you use what you know, the more you get skilled in the art, and the more you become experienced in that area! In the words of Dr. David Oyedepo, “Every fact you locate and apply puts you in control of life’s circumstances.”

How to Sell Your Product or Service When It’s NOT the Cheapest

It just makes sense that you’ll get more business when your product or service is the cheapest, right? But what happens when you’re significantly higher than your competitors. Are you going to get shut out of the market?

Often these days there is someone who is selling a product or service just like yours, but at a ridiculously low price. Maybe you’re offering a service people at Fiverr are offering for $5 (that’s $4 after Fiverr takes their $1 fee!) Right now I’m charging $99 to write your press release, which is the lowest price I’ve offered since 1999. But there are others who are writing press releases for $10, $7, even $5.

Chances are YOUR business is experiencing the same problem. Even though your product is priced as low as you can without going broke, any customer can Google the product and find somebody selling the same product below invoice. That could be because the business is giving away the product to bring more customers in or they’re a BIG firm who buys the product by the millions and gets a huge discount from the manufacturer.

Whatever the case — there IS a way to convince customers YOU have the best VALUE, even if your price isn’t the lowest.

One example of how it’s done is a friend who designs web sites for $70 per hour. A client was about to hire him when they heard of a teenager working part-time charging $10 per hour. My friend explained that when the $10-hour designer made a mess out of their website, the client would have to pay all over again to have a pro fix and design their site the right way.

The client realized paying $70 per hour would be their best VALUE:

* Fewer headaches. Their site would be done right.

* Faster results. The experienced designer would have the site up sooner and ready to do business.

* Better site would mean bigger sales, probably paying for the designer’s fee right away

The client thought why should I mess around taking a chance on saving a little money in the design. What I really need is a good site, done right and quickly, and get on with running my business and increasing sales.

This story is a good example of how you can convince customers your higher price is the best deal:

* Customers can TRUST you to do the job right

* Your better SERVICE will make the price worth it

* You are EASIER to work with

* The customer will get RESULTS

Come to think of it. I think I’ll have one of those guys who writes a sales letter for $7 do their best. Then I’ll post MY sales letter next to theirs. Next to that I’ll feature testimonials from customers who rave about how they trust me, love my service, and find it easy to get results.

Affects of Service Oriented Architectures and Web2.0 Phenomenon: Evolution or Disruptive Innovation

Wikipedia / O’Reiley defines Web 2.0 as the “second generation of Internet-based services” and while it is technically correct, it does little to communicate the significance of said advances. As used by its proponents, the phrase “Web 2.0” refers to one or more of the following:

  • The transition of web-sites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end-users
  • A social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and “the market as a conversation”
  • A more organized and categorized content
  • A shift in economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing that of the dot com boom of the late 1990s
  • A marketing-term used to differentiate new web-based firms from those of the dot-com boom, which (due to the bust) subsequently appeared discredited
  • The resurgence of excitement around the implications of innovative web-applications and services that gained a lot of momentum around mid-2005

In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle summarized key principles they believed characterized Web 2.0 applications

  • the Web as a platform
  • data as the driving force
  • network effects created by an architecture of participation
  • innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of “open source” development)
  • lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication
  • the end of the software adoption cycle (“the perpetual beta”)
  • software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of The Long Tail.

Let’s take a quick look at one of the representatives of Web2.0 applications, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a professional (social) networking platform that allows professionals to connect with each other in search of common connections, joint projects, business opportunities, etc. LinkedIn is a web-based application. The value of the service is extremely dependent on participation and the service is powered by the data that its members provide about themselves and their services. The business model is subscriptions, advertising and marketplace driven and the company provides only one product. Other applications representative of Web 2.0 include:

  • Google AdSense – Monetization of content
  • MySpace, LinkedIn – social and professional networking
  • BitTorrent – peer-to-peear content distribution
  • WIKI – user driven content management
  • del.icio.us – bookmark sharing
  • Blogger, Typepad, WordPress – content generation
  • Digg – content syndication
  • SalesForce.com – move of enterprise applications to the web
  • Writely and Online Spreadsheets – web-based office applications

Innovations Service Oriented Architecture Service Oriented Architecture is one of the principal components of Web2.0 world and is the thinking behind some of the most innovative Web2.0 applications. In computing, the term service-oriented architecture (SOA) expresses a perspective of software architecture that defines the use of loosely coupled software services to support the requirements of the business processes and software users. In an SOA environment, resources on a network are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.( Barry, Douglas K., 2003. Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures)

The convergence of SOA and Web 2.0, two highly interrelated trends that are very focused on:

  1. connecting people and systems together easily,
  2. making software and data available for reuse via services, and
  3. building new value upon the foundation of existing information resources and IT assets.

At the core of Service Oriented Architecture is the ability of one application to be built on the top of another application (service) and possesses the following characteristics:

  • – interface abstraction
  • – leverage of the existing systems in building new ones
  • – ease of extending the functionality through “mashups”
  • – an elegant implementation of data, logic and interface independence

Situational Software

Situational Software is a term for Rapid Software Development by non-programmers solving a particular business problem. Situational software allows for building such components/application as registration interface, task list, workflow and other functions without knowing any computer language syntax. This is a powerful new development as it exponentially extends the number of users who can develop their own application logic thus lowering the need for IT resources every and providing business functions with a much quicker way to accomplish their goals.

Mashups

One of the most consistent trends on the Internet is the rise of open APIs and the applications built on top of them, known as mashups. Programmable Web currently lists over 300 APIs that can be used for everything from building Web sites on top of Google Maps to using Amazon’s powerful infrastructure APIs for storage and cluster computing. The underlying trend: The desire to easily remix the vast pool of high value data and services on the Web today into useful new solutions, at home and in the enterprise.

Mashups provide a way to combine several existing services with a new User Interface and possibly new logic to create a new application. Examples of mashups are services build on Google Maps, RSS news feeds, Stock information, etc.

RSS

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) exposes the data behind a particular news or data source in order to be syndicated by other applications or services. RSS has become incredibly popular in the last few years with nearly every news or information source exposing their content as RSS. This type of content packaging allows the content provider to easily get their wares outside of the immediate readership group and provides an inexpensive marketing mechanism.

Social Networks

Social Networking represents a modern trend in maintaining and developing personal and business relationships. Internet services like MySpace, Classmates.com, LinkedIn, Ecademy are redefining how people go about staying connected and looking for new connections. Proliferation of the social networking sites with increasing specialization tells a story about the acceptance of the concept.

Collaboration

Practically all the applications in the Web2.0 category are taking advantage of collaborative properties offered by the centralized data storage. Some of the most notable implications of this trend is the ability to “associate on the fly” instead of having rigid, pre-determined groups, ability to share and version control documents accessible to groups of people, and finally, ability to assign tasks to the group members related to projects or documents.

Asynchronous Communication (AJAX)

One thing that characterizes Web2.0 class of applications is the fact that they are easier to use then previous generation of applications and start behaving in ways similar to desktop software. One of the difficulties that web-based applications had to face was the “stateful” nature of internet applications. In other words, the page had to be reloaded every time there was a new query to the database. This experience fit well with transactional applications that didn’t require a lot of user interaction, but prevented introduction of more complex applications where user interaction was key.

This is now changes with a new paradigm in web-based development, known as AJAX. AJAX is a methodology and technology to enable asynchronous data exchange with the server without requiring page reloads. This approach results in significant speed and usability improvements found in a lot of Web 2.0 applications.

Office 2.0

Office 2.0 applications represent the well known class of applications for word processing, spreadsheets, calendaring, email and collaboration shifted to the instead or in addition to being installed on the personal computers.

Office 2.0 represents freedom from the tyranny of installing software and updates, remembering where you keep your data and your programs (it’s all in the cloud with Office 2.0), and dealing with pesky things like admin rights, software versions, virus scanning, and more. Though browser-based software still has its limitations (like what happens when the server is down or you don’t have a connection), it’s increasingly clear that the network is going to become the pre-eminent location for most meaningful business software, if it hasn’t happened already. (Dion Hinchcliffe, Blog)

Web 2.0 in the Enterprise Enterprise computing is far more complex than personal computing. It includes legacy environments, innumerable vendors, mismatched data sources, stringent regulations and far flung users. While Web 2.0 can deliver genuine advantages for both business users and consumers, the real “Enterprise 2.0” will encompass a far broader and more complex vision. (M.R. Rangaswami, The Birth of Enterprise 2.0)

One company that’s leveraging the SOA in the enterprise to the fullest is San Francisco based Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com has recently announced it’s Apex platform basically providing IT departments with ready to use platform for building logic and tying to legacy systems with seamless integration with it’s Customer Relationship Management functionality as well as any other partner driven applications.

Impact of Web 2.0 and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

The impact of Web2.0 and SOA is going to be very significant on a variety of industries.

With the advent of Service Oriented Architecture, Situational Software and Mashups, creation of applications is becoming faster, cheaper and available to a much wider audience. This phenomenon has a potential to reduce the specialized IT workforce required to churn out often redundant, lower-level code and bring the emphasis on creating business logic by those who possess immediate domain expertise.

Acceptance of Service Oriented Architecture inside the enterprise is allowing said enterprise to deploy software solutions much quicker, thus providing a competitive and productivity advantage. With this come shorter IT development cycles and more creativity in developing and utilizing applications. It’s likely that the days of huge, monolithic ERP software applications are counted as each department is striving to deploy what’s best for its needs without being stuck with a global roll-out which can take years to accomplish.

New web-based office applications such as Google Calendar, Writely, on-line spreadsheets and on-line Wiki’s are making it possible for the user to enjoy much the same benefits brought to them by current Microsoft Office applications, for free or at a much lesser price, while providing an extra layer of functionality through collaboration. This trend will allow more and more underprivileged societies to participate in digital economies and will provide an extension to the office application for those wishing to collaborate.

Blogs (RSS) are providing a way for everyday people, specialists and companies to distribute information without needing to be associated with a news source. Whether done for marketing, public relations or fun, blogs are becoming a great mechanism for knowledge management and dissemination changing the way people go about getting information to improve their lives, careers, businesses, etc…

Because of the shift of access control and storage to the network, the services provided by the client operating system are going to become less relevant. With the advent of SOA applications, the client operating system is being reduced to supporting the browser and networking functions. The browser on the other hand is going to undergo continuous enhancement process improving its support for browser-based programming, asynchronous communications and Javascript processing.

This brings us back to the main question of this paper, namely “is Software Oriented Architecture a natural continuation of the existing technologies with minimal effect on the underlying industries or does it represent a disruptive innovation”.

Disruptive Innovation

Clayton Christensen defines disruptive innovation or disruptive technology as a technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or product in the market. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers who were ignored by established companies. Sometimes, a disruptive technology comes to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill, or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents”

If we were to look at the innovations that Web2.0 and Service Oriented Architectures are introducing and apply the definition above to gauge the disruptiveness factor, we would find that most of the innovations listed here indeed qualify as disruptive:

New Technology/Product

Old Technology/Product

Disruptive?

On what basis?

Wikipedia

Traditional or Software Encyclopedias

Yes

Cost, Easier to use, universally accessible

Online Word Processors & Spreadsheets

Microsoft Office

Yes

Cost, adds new area of functionality (collaboration)

Wikis

Microsoft SharePoint; Web sites

Yes

Cost, adds new area of functionality (content management)

Online CRMs

Oracle, SAP

Yes

Cost, available to users who weren’t served before

Blogs

Newspapers

Yes

Cost, fill role old technology couldn’t fill

Social and Business Networking Applications

New market

Yes

New, fills the role old technology couldn’t fill

Situational Software

IT departments, small consultants

Yes

Cost, fills the role old technology couldn’t fill

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Traditional Software Applications

Yes

Fills the role old technology couldn’t fill

Peer-to-peer Lending

Banks and Credit Cards

Yes

Cheaper, more convenient

Examples:

With Wikipedia is rapidly gaining popularity, and while the opponents argue about the accuracy of information on this open source information resource, it’s definitely eating fast into traditional and software encyclopedia market.

(Traffic statistics in reach per million internet users, Alexa)

Online calendars, word processors and spreadsheets eliminate the cost of having to purchase Microsoft Office applications, while providing collaboration capability not found in lower-end office applications.

(Online Calendar Application from Google)

Salesforce.com, a web-based CRM/ERP solution offering quick deployment options to corporations in addition to a much palatable pricing when compared to the traditional stalwarts like Oracle and SAP, has signed up over 100,000 corporate customers in less then 5 years on the market.

Conclusion Web2.0 and Service Oriented Architectures are having a tremendous effect on the world around us, specifically how we collaborate, how we communicate and how we innovate.

Web2.0 is changing the way software is designed and developed. Gone are the carefully planned software cycles. After the first version of the software is opened to public, the functionality grows continually in short incremental updates and the value grows proportionately to the usage.

What’s even more important, however, is that they are becoming a threat to a lot of established firms and technologies. The largest end-user operating system vendor Microsoft is under a threat as a lot of its Windows system services become unnecessary due to the tasks being transferred to the network layer. Media reporting has to reinvent itself to compete with a cheaper albeit less dependable source of news, the bloggers. Software development organizations are facing a threat from new breed of service based applications. Large software powerhouses, like Oracle and SAP, are under siege from the new entrants into the ERP space with the most well-known of them, Salesforce.com, reinventing the business models and proving to be extremely effective at winning the market share away from the traditional ERP vendors.

SOA applications in general have a tremendous capacity to change the landscape of many industries through changes in the product development lifecycles, harnessing innovation and introduction of the new business models.

The large incumbent software companies and media conglomerates are understanding the threats and opportunities provided by the SAO/Web2.0 generation of products and services as evidenced by a few high-profile acquisitions (Siebel by Oracle, MySpace by Newscorp, JotSpot by Google) and in-house development of competing SAO applications (Microsoft Office Live, SAP hosted services) The question remains whether the incumbents are flexible enough in their business models to be able to embrace the SAO movement or will the new entrants be able to capture large markets with the new SAO/Web2.0 technologies. Bibliography:

Leveraging the convergence of IT and the next generation of the Web, Dion Hinchcliffe

The Birth of Enterprise 2.0, M.R. Rangaswami

Paul Graham (November 2005). Web 2.0. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.

Tim O’Reilly (2006-07-17). Levels of the Game: The Hierarchy of Web 2.0 Applications. O’Reilly radar. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.

Jürgen Schiller García (2006-09-21). Web 2.0 Buzz Time bar. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.

Jeffrey Zeldman (2006-01-16). Web 3.0. A List Apart. Retrieved on 2006-05-27.

Tim O’Reilly (2005-09-30). What Is Web 2.0. O’Reilly Network. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.

Dion Hinchcliffe (2006-04-02). The State of Web 2.0. Web Services Journal. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.

Tim O’Reilly (2002-06-18). Amazon Web Services API. O’Reilly Network. Retrieved on 2006-05-27.

O’Reilly and CMP Exercise Trademark on ‘Web 2.0’. Slashdot (2006-05-26). Retrieved on 2006-05-27.

Nathan Torkington (2006-05-26). O’Reilly’s coverage of Web 2.0 as a service mark. O’Reilly Radar. Retrieved on 2006-06-01.

Tim O”Reilly. 9-30-2005. Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.

Barry, Douglas K. (2003). Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures: The Savvy Manager’s Guide

7 Tips to Opt for the Best International Courier Service

If you want your parcel to reach the destination safely, make sure you choose a good courier service. You need to search for the right provider by following a few important tips. Given below are some of them.

Create a List of Providers

Since there are a lot of service providers, you can’t test all of them. So, it’s better to create a short list of top companies. Then you can test their services one by one by sending small parcels. This will help you get a pretty good idea if the service provider is reliable. Testimonials and referrals can also help. Aside from this, online ratings, reviews, and recommendations can also help.

Experience

Experience is another factor that you should consider when hiring a courier service. Ideally, you should go with a provider that has at least 5 years of experience. Actually, experienced companies offer a better reach, ability, and network. So, your parcels will reach the given address in the same condition.

Location

Some courier service providers don’t offer their services in some areas and countries. Most of them outsource their orders to an agency that provides services in those countries, which may cause unnecessary delays.

So, it’s important that you opt for a provider that can send your parcel directly to your given address.

Customer Service and Support

If you need to use the services of a company on a daily basis, make sure their customer support is good. After all, no one likes to work with rude people.

The customer service reps should be able to answer your calls in case of a query. So, it’s better that you do your homework to hire a company that employs helpful, civilized employees.

Terms and Conditions

If you want to check the terms and conditions of a company, you can go to their website and read the FAQ page. If you are happy with their terms and conditions, you can go ahead and work with them.

Market Reputation

The business of a courier service depends largely upon its trustworthiness and credibility. Third-party sources can help you find out if the courier service is reputable or not.

This is a digital era, but word of mouth is still the best way to check the reputation of any company. So, you may want to ask your friends, colleagues and relatives for recommendations.

Conduct Research

The easiest way to conduct research is to tap into the power of the Internet. You can get help from Google to find reputable companies. Review sites, such as Google Places, Insider Pages, Yahoo Listings and Yelp can also help.

Aside from these, you can check out the social media sites of the popular service providers to find out what people say about their services.

Long story short, if you are finding it hard to choose the right international courier service, make sure you follow the tips given in this article to create a short list of some good providers and make the right choice. Hope this will make your decision a lot easier.

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