Abstract:
Here, the majority of calls that are made are outgoing calls. The brokers make the call to a list of prospective or existing customers. The perfect illustration of this, is of course, telemarketing.
Most Call centers nowadays provide inbound & outbound services but if one of these functions exceed the other, that's the type of call centre you operate. For instance, Your brokers make calls 80% more than they take in calls. This usually means that you're running an outbound call centre, and vice versa.
Whether You are operating an inbound or an outbound call center, you're going to want the a tool to leverage your current systems. Doing so increases your agents' productivity levels and helps your heart become cost-efficient.
Outbound call center
An outbound call centre is one in that call center agents make outbound calls to clients on behalf of a business or client. Calls made from the center can include telemarketing, sales or fund-raising calls, in addition to calls for contact list upgrading, surveys or verification services.
Handle either outbound or inbound calls exclusively or may deal with a combination of both. An outbound call center uses different metrics to measure agent achievement, such as price per telephone , revenue earned, total calls made and tasks done. An inbound call centre uses different metrics, such as first call resolution (FCR).
Legislation in 2003, the National Do Not Call Registry established a do-not-call list in the United States. Clients can add their telephone numbers to the list to prevent unwanted solicitation, although some organizations, like charities, may be exempt.
Here another definition:
What's an Outbound all Centre?
An outbound call center is a business activity where a Collection of call centre agents make outgoing calls to potential or existing customers. This activity is generally technology enabled -- typically using a predictive dialler -- so that large numbers of calls can be produced per hour.
The most common uses of outbound call centers are:
- Proactive customer support (e.g. informing of delays, problems, delivery arrangements, etc.)
- Revenue calls to new (potential ) customers
- Renewals (sales calls to existing clients )
- Cross-selling or up-selling sales calls to existing clients
- Debt collection
- Customer satisfaction surveys
- Market study
- Appointment booking
What Do Outbound Call Center Services Cover?
Outbound call centers mainly comprise of agents making calls to existing and prospective customers. The calls are meant to increase your sales, follow up your mailings, test unknown markets, develop decent customer relationships and make your business a success. Many companies make use of outbound contact centers to produce their potential and existing customers conscious of their services and products. When a sale of the product or service is accomplished by creating an outbound call it is called an outbound sale.
Which are the Outbound Call Center Services Offering For Your Business?
When you outsource outbound contact centre Services, Outbound Call Center team can help you boost your sales, follow-up your emails, test unknown markets, develop good customer relationships and create your company a success by cold calling. Some of the key services we provide include:
- Lead Generation Services
- Appointment Setting Services
- Product/Service Promotion
- Market Intelligence Services
- Mortgage Lead Generation
- CATI
- Tele Surveys
- Information Gathering
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys
- Welcome Call
- Telesales & Client Acquisition
- Service Satisfaction Follow-ups
- Sales Verification
- Disaster Recovery Services
- Cold Calling Campaigns
- Direct Sales
- Market Research & Surveys
- Sales Lead Follow-up
- E-mail Follow Up
- Customer Loyalty Programs
- Debt Collection
- Database Development & Management Services
The main difference between inbound and outbound contact centers is pretty simple and can be listed here.
Outbound Call Center is an online contact center, the agents will usually call the customer and provide them with the required information about the products or services or any other kind of support.
It is important that companies realize and decide what kind of call center they wish to be to be able to execute and plan systems for your call centre. Understanding what's BPO inbound and outbound contact center is of utmost importance before embarking on the journey of setting up a call center. Outbound Call Center can help you establish a successful contact center for all your sales requirements.
What is Call Center agent?
A call centre agent is someone who handles incoming or outgoing client calls for a business. A call center agent might handle account questions, customer complaints or support issues. A call center agent who oversees both incoming and outgoing customer calls is also referred to as a blended agent.
Role and responsibilities of a call centre agent
The job of a call centre agent involves many different responsibilities that ultimately help lead to better customer satisfaction. Some responsibilities include:
- managing inbound and/or outbound calls;
- following various communication scripts when speaking to a caller;
- customer participation ;
- identifying customer needs, answering questions and providing solutions/alternatives to problems;
- up-selling services and products when possible;
- building sustainable customer relationships;
- keeping records of all discussions organized;
- building product knowledge; and
- improving performance and reach goals.
Call center agent abilities and qualities
To offer the best customer experience in a call center or contact center, an agent has to be equipped with specialized skills. Here are some qualities all call center agents should possess:
- Knowledgeable: Agents need knowledge of their internal workings of the company and products that they represent.
- Detail-oriented: Agents should listen carefully to customers and have the ability to pick up on little details to present accurate responses to clients.
- Organized: Agents need to have the ability to take quick notes, accessibility CRM systems and track recorded conversations while speaking to customers.
- Flexible: Agents have to have the ability to adapt to unique customer queries and situations.
Top qualities of a call center agent
- Friendly/empathetic: Customer service representatives need to have the ability to understand a situation from a client's perspective and have a positive attitude toward people, even when dealing with difficult problems.
- Calm under pressure: Agents may need to manage hundreds of customer calls each day. They should be able to keep composure in stressful situations.
- Efficient: Agents need to have the ability to respond to customers in a timely manner and be proactive in anticipating customer needs.
- Creative: Call center agents have to be able to apply professional, yet unorthodox solutions to client problems to quickly and efficiently resolve issues and enhance customer satisfaction.
How to create an outbound call center getting started
In this section we're going to analyze the basic dynamics of an outbound call center operation. Once you understand how these dynamics differ from an inbound call center operation, you're well on your way to success. So we make no apologies for spending some time on the basics.
So what are the fundamental dynamics of an outbound call
Essentially they can be summarised as:
- Who is called (and why they're called)
- When they're called
- Which agent makes the telephone
- What happens when the customer/prospect is not accessible
- Who are you going to call?
At its most basic, any outbound call center is entirely dependent on having the target's contact details -- and in this regard cell phone numbers can have at least as much significance as landlines.
By way of instance, if you are selling a product or service valued at #250 and your contact conversion ratio is 2 percent, then that makes a telephone number worth #5 of revenue.
Today, the leading outbound diallers can ease multimedia client communications channels, providing you with multiple options to create a dialogue with your customer.
Why are you calling?
An extremely successful outbound call centre is able to run multiple campaigns
Employing multiple agent groups. And we do not have to tell you that making
successful contact with your customers or prospects is important to ensuring the
profitability of your organization. Just to get you in the mood We've put
together a list of some potential outbound campaigns:
- Use the dialler to contact new prospects, follow up direct marketing campaigns to qualify prospects, or even make appointments on behalf of your sales staff
- New client'welcome' calls to ensure that initial purchases are satisfactory and encourage both repeat and up-sell business
- Maximise staff utilisation by ensuring customers are accessible for visits by service engineers and mail order deliveries
- Verify repeat orders to reduce errors and create up-sell chances; for example food and beverage distributors contacting retail outlets
- Contract renewal in environments with a predictable product or service life like car and household insurance, end of loan period and car replacement
- Credit control -- calling clients for debt collection purposes
- Increase online conversion by calling visitors to your web site
And this list really is only the tip of the iceberg. We are confident that you will find many more opportunities to make profitable customer
Interactions, depending on the dynamics of your business and business sector.
Outbound dialling technology
You may typically need some form of outbound dialling technology.
The problem is that this is highly inefficient.
There are a number of automated dialling solutions:
- Preview dialler
- Progressive dialler
- Power dialler
- Predictive dialler
More information on Kinds of diallers as well as a List of outbound diallers can be found bellow read more.
Kinds of outbound diallers
When you implement an automatic dialler you need to Consider The different dialling modes offered and which one will work best for your own campaigns. The definition of every dialling type varies depending on who you talk to but can be generally categorised as:
Preview Dialler
Once an agent has indicated that they are ready for a call, information about the call is presented to them. The amount is then automatically dialled after a pre-determined interval; the broker is given time to preview the customer details until the call has been launched.
Customer case is complex -- for example collection of overdue debt where the agent needs to know about a complicated case history before making the call.
Progressive Dialler
Progressive dialling offers similar productivity to predictive Dialling whilst taking away the chance of abandoned/silent calls
Information about the call is presented to them, and the number is then dialled immediately. Call progress is tracked by the dialler technology.
Calls that do not lead to'ringing' are mechanically and Immediately disconnected, whilst'no answers' are disconnected after a pre-defined number of moments. Software call control minimises agent involvement in the dialling process and enhances call-handling efficiency.
Progressive dialling is most often used in campaigns addressed To present customers where the objective is to renew or up-sell a service or product.
Predictive Dialler automation
A predictive dialler launches calls at a rate such that the machine links to'dwell' callers as soon as an agent completes the prior transaction.
The dialling rate for every campaign is controlled by a pacing Algorithm, which monitors action, and calculates when another contact(s) should be dialled. The dialling speed is automatically adjusted to maintain a contact rate that is synchronised with operator availability.
However, it should be recognized that predictive dialling Inevitably causes a small percentage of'abandoned calls' -- clients may receive calls when no agents are in fact offered. This region is highly regulated; you need to be knowledgeable about the current rules and be sure that your preferred dialler supports conformance.
Predictive dialling is most successful in campaigns that are Fairly straightforward such as commodity product sales.
Power Dialler Depending on who you talk to, power dialler can be utilised as an innocent catch-all term to cover all types of automated dialling; but it may also apply to particular technology initially introduced in the late 1980s that simply makes large numbers of calls with little or no control.
A study by the Professional Planning Forum (according to a Smaller sample size) has shown that he number of companies with no outbound technology has fallen from just over a third in 2007 to just under a third in 2009 (drop of 10% in total).
Software diallers have overtaken hardware diallers since 2007 poll -- a swing of 13% in total.
It's fairly obvious that while inbound campaigns are all about Having agents in place to respond to incoming calls, the achievement of outbound campaigns hinges upon reaching your customers -- or prospects -- when they are available to take your phone!
Sounds easy, but in practice this simple fact presents the Single most important challenge for successful outbound campaigns. Typically around 50 percent of all attempts to contact folks will fail.
So the way you deal with those failures is critical, not just Because of effort staff and productivity resourcing issues, but also to make certain you comply with the regulations governing outbound contact. We will discuss this in more detail later.
In this section we are going to look at the issue of timing. In Our experience timing is the issue that's most commonly misunderstood, so we are going to deal with it up front. If you take this information on board you'll be ahead of the video game.
Outbound campaigns are basically sales campaigns; you're Aiming to secure a result from your client, even if that's an indirect result such as checking that your clients are happy or asking them to settle a debt.
At a time they will likely pick up the telephone, but also at the time they are most likely to be in'buying' mode.
Take every opportunity to capture contact details and gain Make sure that all response mechanisms request at least a telephone number and ideally request a mobile number and email address.
Consider incentives on your inbound call center to obtain contact details.
What happens when contact fails?
As we said right back at the beginning, typically half of Attempts to contact customers on the phone will fail to connect to a live person -- there might be no one available to answer the call, the amount could be occupied or you might reach an answer machine.
Set some rules for what should happen in the case of a non-contact.
Where You're using an automatic dialler these principles should be programmed into the system. Determining the rules is another area where common sense provides a good starting point.
No response
If you do not get an answer there's no one free to take your call.
The'common sense' believing in this case is to make the following Attempt at a subsequent'session', that is, if the first call attempt is made in the morning make the next in the afternoon, and so on.
Busy
Whilst it is frustrating to get a busy tone it is actually a reasonably good sign. Someone is there, but they're on the phone. The logic here is to test again rather quickly, typically within 15 minutes. But in case you repeatedly get'active' then it makes sense to gradually lengthen the time between call attempts.
Response machines
You call your client and reach an answer machine. What does it mean?
A few years ago the answer was easy, the customer's phone has Rung and no one is available to take the call. You should probably wait a while before calling again. However, things have changed. With today's'in community' messaging programs, such as BT 1571, reaching an answer machine may also indicate that the customer is available but busy on the phone.
You need to set your campaign strategies so that the first redial Of an answer machine outcome should match your'Busy' plan and that subsequent redials match the'No answer' strategy.
You've tried, tried and tried again...
Sometimes you can not make direct contact With a number of your audience in the time available to you.
Call center transition from inbound to inbound-outbound
What are some fundamental requirements/issues for turning a small Inbound call centre of four to six representatives into a double inbound-outbound call center?
People, process, and technology are a Great way to look at these Kinds of transitional questions. Depending on what the call center's outbound role is, you'll need to determine whether the staff you have already got in place can easily transition into making outbound calls also. You will probably need call center agent training and incentives. On the process side, you will need to define all the outbound processes, but also define when people will manage inbound and when they will make outbound calls. What are the driving metrics? You're going to need to answer those sorts of questions and clearly define and communicate the procedures. Finally, you ought to appear at your call center's business requirements and your technology and determine if you need additional capabilities. Will call centre agents be manually dialing, or do you need some amount of dialing automation, like an automated call distributor? How will you track the outbound calls and campaigns?
Outbound Proactive Communications
Outbound proactive communications can Improve the customer Experience by enabling your company to automatically engage with clients through the station of their choice with notifications and reminders--through voice, SMS messages, Internet chat, social websites or email. Outbound call center systems deliver effective, low-cost procedures to distinguish among the contest and help generate revenue through specific campaigns, reaching clients how that they wish to communicate with your brand. Genesys Outbound Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Solution can provide a personalized customer experience through speech recognition and voice biometrics.
Benefits of outbound call centre solutions are:
- increased sales transactions
- Integrated connection to customer support
Improve Customer experience and engagement with outbound call center services. Learn more about the advantages by continue reading the article.
If you are like most call centre supervisors, your daily routine is pretty consistent. Most likely you haven't recently taken the time to evaluate what's working and what needs to be changed.
Typical call center associations and the workers within those organizations have ways of doing things that are tightly woven in the fabric. It's hard to tell why things are done a certain way--they're! After all, when something is working, why change it? Or why even question it for that matter? Call center operations success calls for a delicate balance of many components and it is often better to leave things alone. But with careful evaluation it is possible to tweak your call center practices and set your team up for even more success.
What should be evaluated? A fast audit in 10 basic areas is advised.
1) Core Components in the Call Center
Thinking about these core elements might appear too simplistic; nonetheless a careful evaluation often reveals opportunities for improvement.
- Is your call centre's offer compelling?
- Is your scripting/call manual effective?
- Who is the call center's target market?
- What's the dialing strategy in the call centre?
Don't be afraid to make adjustments to the call center's core components. It can be a slow death once a core part gets stale.
2) Call Tracking in the Call Center
Quality Assurance is widely utilized to track the calls and provide quality responses to the call center representatives. Many companies overlook the chance for the Quality Assurance function to listen for international elements like: Is the call center's scripting working? Is the call center's offer working? Are we reaching the call center's intended target audience?
The people performing the Quality Assurance function ought to be encouraged to look at the bigger picture in addition to analyzing each call center representative individually. Normal QA monitoring programs use checklists and graded evaluations. This tends to cause global elements to be overlooked.
3) Data Analysis from the Call Center
In the last year, have the telephone centre's contact rates shifted? On affiliate programs, do you know when you have reached a diminishing rate of return on phoning a list? Do you know the effects of the phone number you display on Caller ID?
Data to look at analyzing for affiliate programs:
How many call center contacts are made on the first attempt? Second attempt? Third effort? What is the most lucrative attempt management plan? What is the most profitable maximum attempt rule?
What is the impact of having another variation on Caller ID? (800 number, Company name, product name?)
What is the best time of day for the call centre to make call contacts? What is the best time of day for the call centre to make sales conversions?
Is your call centre maximizing contact while minimizing abandoned calls? Are you maximizing dialer performance by employing the perfect line to call center representative ratio? Do you have the right number of agents assigned to the effort? If possible it is better to have one person be in charge of the dialer settings. Often, too many hands on the controls may lead to duplication of efforts and undoing what someone else has just modified. It is ideal to track the date, time and specific changes that were made so you know what outcomes are tied to the tech settings that were utilized. This allows for better monitoring and reporting to find what's going to work best with a specific program. In the call center, we love reports. But, do a careful review in the call centre to ensure that reports are being utilized. If reports are not being used in the call center, get rid of them and free up the precious time to work on something of more importance (or to create a different, more useful report).
6) Telephone Recording
If your business employs call recording, you have already invested a substantial amount of resources in establishing the telephone recording system. Require your call centre management team to listen to the recorded calls on a regular basis. However, don't listen for the typical things like telephone quality or the way the call center representative handled the customer. Instead, listen for ways to cut down on the average call time (to talk with more people more effectively with the identical agent hour), listen for possible training opportunities or listen to potential misinterpretations in your core message. The list is endless.
7) Call Center Training Beyond New Employee Orientation
Listen to 20 calls and assess where the call center representatives are experiencing difficulty in their calls. Are they losing chances early in the call or late in the call? What responses are the call center representatives not ready to handle?
Holding focus groups occasionally with employees is a great way to gain insight from front-line call centre employees. This also keeps the lines of communication open between call centre representatives and call center management, and gives your team another chance to communicate successes and challenges.
8) Call Center Incentives and Goals
Just as what gets measured gets done, what gets rewarded gets done well. Be sure your compensation plan and incentives are current and meaningful for all call center employees.
Setting goals in the call centre gives call center representatives a focus, something to strive for. Aims and incentives tie together. In the call centre environment it's easy to conduct a variety of competitions and games within the call center to create the focus for your team. Call center operations have a tendency to run best when creative contests and incentives are implemented. Another idea to consider is creating teams within the call centre or even between other locations if possible. This gives the employees a real drive to ensure"their team" is number one. Use the valuable resources within your staff. For instance if someone is an artist have them create a poster to go along with the video game or theme for this program.
Call center leadership necessitates focusing on the appropriate things and providing a stimulating environment with innovative problem solving. It is difficult to work in a call center, so the job of leader is that much harder. Do a quick self-check on your leadership. Are you focused on the right things? Are you nurturing a stimulating work environment? Do you enable your employees? Can you provide direction to your call centre team? Successful leadership means developing your call center team and permitting them to spread their wings. . .they will feel a sense of achievement and continue to attain higher goals.
Are you communicating key information in a consistent and clear way? Communicate until you believe people are sick of hearing your message and communicate it again and again and again. Just when you're sick of saying it, they will begin getting it. That's a fundamental tenet of Marketing 101, and it is also true when communicating with your staff.
Using this checklist can help ensure you think in a big-picture way about the best ways to improve call center performance in your call center operation. When you invest in"taking a step back" from the day-to-day operation, you might realize that no changes are necessary. However, most likely, you might find that a tweak will benefit your company and ensure its long-term success.
Power up your Outbound customer interactions with a flexible IP-based all-in-one call center program that assists you to innovate and deliver awesome omni-channel client experiences.
Predictive dialer is a Kind of dialing solution that uses Predictive statistical analysis to decide whether a call should be placed from a contact list. Ameyo's predictive dialer detects active signals, voicemail, answering machines, and no answers. This implies, 3 times as many minutes of excellent talk time than manual dialing.
Progressive Dialer
A progressive dialer is an automated In Progressive Mode, the dialer runs through your calling lists across multiple campaigns at the speed of your operations. The dialer reduces average handling time and enhance agent productivity by 300%.
Preview Dialer
This dialer is used to deal with high engagement business requirements. All Calls are initiated after careful review of customer information and requirement. This dialer is particularly helpful for call centers that deal in large sales touch-points. Agent can save a lot of time and lower call drop rates.
PACE or Pro-active Connect Enhancer is a an innovative outbound Solution that works in conjunction with predictive dialer. The solution assists in defining contact strategy by profiling customers and monitoring past interactions to achieve positive links and reduce aggravation of unanswered calls.
With the assistance of click-to-dial API, agents can dial out Customers whose details are already listed in the CRM. Agents don't need to manually punch the number in the dialer, thus eliminating any cases of error. It also enhances efficiency as brokers can dial out more numbers at any given time.
Outbound Call Center delivers proactive automated outbound dialer options that Enable brokers to connect to more calls. Dialing calculations and pacing ratios can be implemented to reduce agent idle time and call drop rate.
The dialer has capabilities to screen calls which is answered by Discovering the frequency of the voice, the dialer only transfers those calls to the live agents that is answered by an actual person. This reduces the number of unproductive calls and improves call centre connect rate.
Call Back Schedule
This feature allows agents to schedule a call back that is Verbally agreed upon by the caller along with the client during a previous interaction. Call-backs can be implemented in both inbound and outbound campaigns. The feature can be customized and in this case, the dialer connects the broker first before connecting with the customer.
The feature facilitates the dialer to bypass those amounts that Are assigned to"do not call" disposition. Exclusion management is a very crucial feature that limits redundancy, promotes compliance and improve the overall efficiency of the call centre.
Parallel Predictive Dialing (PPD)
PPD is designed to simplify the customer-specific dialing processes. It works well where each segment needs pre-defined call Management parameters to provide a personalized dialing campaign. PPD Simplifies the outbound contact centre's job and consolidates varied dialing Campaigns based on process requirement when doing parallel prediction.
With outbound call center software, managing multiple agents don't have to manually select campaigns and can be Automatically directed towards the workbench delegated to them, improving productivity and reducing the range of error.
Team View
And helps in keeping track of different components of a campaign- mission, direction, follow-up etc..
Intuitive Interface
Simple and easy interface.
All information associated with dialing, connect rates, call Volumes, effort outline etc. can be generated in real time.Thanks to real time analytics, manager have a better control of the call center processes. All decisions related to resource allocation and campaign management are driven by live data rather than assumptions. dashboard. From this, the manager can check agent status and agent call status and other key performance metrics.Real-time access to such information encourages agent productivity and motivates them to work better.
Call Disposition
Call mood (CD) refers to the results of a call. This Is important from a reporting perspective. CD delivers insightful information like- disconnection rate, call audibility, agent call volume, call back scheduling, sales mood, hung up speed etc.. All this information helps in analyzing the relevancy and quality of the calling data.
Historical Reporting
Along with access to real-time information, supervisors also have Access to historical data for any given week, month, quarter or even annually. An overview of the historical data allows contact center supervisors to determine key performance indicators, agent training needs etc..
Types Of Call Center Services For Various Business Needs
Most people who've never been in A call centre or has never worked in a call center wouldn't know there are many types of call centre services. Some folks probably know outbound and inbound. However, not just those two exists. There continue to be many types and categories under both.
For starters, inbound call centre is where agents answer calls from customers and prospective customers. Now, there are many reasons why customers would call a company. One reason is that they would like to know how to install a product they bought. Other reasons can be because they want to inquire about a particular product or service they need to avail.
Customer service
Customer Service or customer support is a kind of inbound call where agents answer client's queries and give them what they need and want.
Technical Troubleshooting
Help desk
Is The sort of inbound call where broker help customer with their questions about the brand or company they're interested in.The brokers provide quality information that the clients need.
Inbound Sales
Is the procedure where customer representatives answer call from clients who want to order a product or avail a service from the organization or business they're working at.
Other Kinds of Call centers are:
- Telephone answering
- cell phone answering
- medical answering
- overflow/after-hours
- appointment managments
- building maintenance
- direct responce
- disaster response
- dispatch
- emergency
- hotlines
- virtual receptionist
- order processing
These types of calls in a Call center can be used by different companies. For instance, order processing is terrific for clothes brands or online stores like Amazon and Lazada.
Emergency and suicide hotlines in the United States that use live answering or phone and cell phone answering services. It's identical with disaster responses and emergency call centre services. They mostly have to be open 24/7 so outsourcing a call center are their ideal option.
Hospitals, hotels, and Restaurants may also outsource inbound call center services. The medical answering service, for instance, is made for health care services and appointment control and virtual receptionist are great for the service business, especially if the company is a major one.
On the other hand, outbound call centre is where agents make the call to Customers and possible customers.
Types
Appointment setting
This Type of outbound telephone is when and representative represents the company he or she is working for.
Theat Are calling to make appointment for company meeting.It is part of B2B Marketing.Most of these calls are cold calls.
Collection reminders
This type of outbound call is much more on the accounting side.This is where agents call their clients' slients to remind them of their debt they have.It is one of the most fundamental and most sought after outbound services.
Is another most sought after outbound call.This is another type of outbound call that is B2B related.There are a number of reasons for lead generation but largely it is sales related.It may also be for list-building or e-newsletter acquisition.
Market research
This Outbound call is where call center agents do survey trough phone calls.Sometimes,they just verify information and upodate them to get their clients' database.
Another famouse kind of outbound call.Just like exactly what the name implies,this is where outbound call centre agents call to prospective customers and offer them their services and products.
Other
- Insurance Sales
- Payment Protection
- Event Registration
- Telemarketing
- Customer Retention
- Loyalty Programs
- Warranty Programs
- Billing Reminders
- Upselling and Cross-Selling
Just like with inbound call Centers, outbound call centers are used and outsourced by different companies. One example is that collection reminder services are mostly outsourced by finance companies or banks. The service is available to cater to that particular business. However, it may also be outsourced from the government for student loans.
Another example is telesales and telemarketing. These two are often interchanged but they're different. Telesales is the act of calling to provide sales to customers. The brokers will make calls to offer a customer and customer a service or product. Meanwhile, telemarketing only creates interests and gives information about the certain company or manufacturer. These types for outbound calls are mostly outsourced by e-commerce companies. They are also outsourced by the majority of brands which sell anything. The majority of the time, these businesses are internet providers who market internet and data plans.
Just like with telesales, There is another category of outbound call that deals with selling, the insurance sales.
In relation to earnings, there is also This is where agents would attempt to sell more goods and services that are related to those that the customer already purchase in the call. These kinds of services can be availed by any company that is selling services and products. It may also be outsourced at precisely the exact same time with telesales.
Call Centers In This Digital World
Though digital is the trend, as The majority of people have computers and smartphones, a great ol' fashion phone call remains effective. According to Sales Hacker, there was a 113-percent increase in average phone call period from January 2016 (119 seconds) to 2017 (254 seconds). Call centers are aware that artificial intelligence is also rising as more companies prefer it to be that way. But a personalized service can't be beaten by emotionless computers.
It is true that live chat and email Is emerging and receiving its own market in regards to customer service and outsourcing BPO solutions. But, there are still tons of people who prefer to make a personal phone call and hear a voice from a real person rather than simply talk and email their personal buying experience.
That 75 percent of consumers still think phone call is still the fastest way to receive a response from a business. Plus, those people who go on mobile search still make phone calls. In accordance with Luma Partners, more than 50 percent of those folks still call. In addition to this, Invoca said conversion rates are higher if it is made through phone call as opposed to simply clicking on emails.
This is why outsourcing call center services, May it be inbound or outbound remains the ideal means to provide support to your clients.
Benefits of Outbound
When we think of outbound dialling we often think of debt Recovery, where the client's feelings fall next to recovering outstanding money, or even double-glazing sales where it is all about reaching as many people as possible.
Existing customers will need to be stroked sometimes to encourage them to be loyal and fewer new customers find us, we have to go in search of them.
Are also looking to increase their customer service levels, as retaining existing customers is far less cost intensive than trying to acquire new ones. Because of this, companies are making contact with their customer base on a more regular basis in order to boost customer service. In addition to increasing the amount of touch points with the client, proactive outbound dialling can also be used to raise the revenue derived from your customer base by up-selling or cross-selling new products to your continuing customers.
Outbound should be a core part of any organisation's Go-to-market strategy, it is a method of creating valuable client relationships, and done right it is a method of getting the suitable proposal to an accurately targeted market.
Customer Acquisition
Acquiring new customers is most definitely a'hunting' exercise And not a case of get your proposal right and they will find you. Off-the-page advertising, TV advertising, direct mail or eShots all increase awareness of you, but with so much choice available to customers, very seldom do businesses get more than a fraction of a percentage responding to a call to action.
The Wise organisations are identifying the'sweet spot' in Terms of their proposal, specialised auto insurance, over 50s holidays, etc.. Segmenting your target audience with a highly targeted and differentiated proposition enables you to turn the entire UK population to a manageable set of potential prospects.
By following up direct or email marketing with a phone call You can increase interest ten fold, especially if the follow-up is done in a timely way. These metrics change the game and suddenly make outbound telemarketing a cheap portion of the marketing mix.
Converting Browsers to Buyers
It is easy to imagine the situation, We're browsing a website, We've got a real interest but we can't find the information we need or have questions that the site simply does not answer. What do we do, we leave that site and proceed to another one, after all, there's plenty of choice.
We've seen a number of companies in the past couple of years Connect their website to their contact centre. Some simply place a'Call Me' button on the website, the customer clicks the button, enters their details and then receives an outbound call from the supplier. Others are being even smarter, they are collecting the customer's name and contact telephone number very early in the browsing/quote cycle. If the customer abandons the procedure, they are then passing this through to the contact centre for an outbound call.
There are some examples where organisations have converted over 20 percent of abandoned browsers into earnings, simply by injecting the human touch into the process.
Increasing Profitability Per Client
It's the goal of each organisation to increase the amount or Value of goods and services that a customer purchases from them. Take, for instance, the insurance provider, they would love to sell home insurance to every motor policy customer. However, hardly any organisations do anything other than the occasional mail shot to turn their desires into reality.
Many years ago there was a great example of this working in action. A leading financial services organisation was providing unsecured loans. Once the customer was approved for the loan, as opposed to just sending out a letter, a small team would call the customer in the evening to give them the good news, while on the telephone this team would communicate the benefits of income protection insurance on the loan. Take-up of income protection went up by over 300 percent.
If you do it in a considered manner, not too often and Using professional staff, a'how do you do?' Call to your clients can be very productive and worth every cent of their investment in the outbound activity.
Customer Retention
With all of the systems we have in place regarding client But when was the last time you got a call from your favorite airline enquiring why you had been flying lately, or from your supermarket asking why you're no longer using your Nectar card, etc..
Many businesses have a customer retention team in place, yet Most of these are responsive to if the customer has opted to move away. With the cost of winning new clients so high, surely there's a way for us to be proactive.
Trying to put some of these outbound activities set up with Manual dialling makes them cost prohibited. Punching in amounts from a list and listening to a ringing tone is equally erroneous and time consuming. By automating the dialling procedure, even by autodialling from a screen, you can reduce non-productive time by 100 percent, by using predictive dialling productivity can be increased by up to 300 percent.
If we take this into consideration, we suddenly find our outbound Agents have more time or that we are able to do some of the above activity with little investment in staff. A return on investment which surely can't be ignored.
Could Diallers Perform a Longer Term Role in Rebuilding our Economy?
The dialler market and use of diallers is diminishing within an Increasingly regulated market where Ofcom becomes more aggressive in its supply of fines. Is it any wonder that people are being put off with diallers?
Set against a backdrop of mounting distrust in the fiscal Business -- after all if you can't trust banks that can you trust -- are people really going to be persuaded to buy your product just because you happened to contact them and get through to them.
The other angle of course is do people actually have money.
The good news is that among all this there is still a place for diallers. But this relies on the premise that diallers should be utilised in a more focussed manner, rather than taking the bull in a china shop approach. As an example latest technology developments have seen the coming of click-to-talk applications that are incorporated into CRM systems such as'Salesforce' and which incorporate dialler technology. This enable agents or sales personnel when reviewing customer data to'click' on the contact phone number; this in turn dials the number, then simultaneously connects the broker and documents the call.
The real intelligence in the program lies in the fact that The call data and the recording will be stored as a link against that contact within the CRM system. All calling activity whether successful or failed will be logged within the CRM activity history.
This type of technology provides users the capability to leverage CRM Systems to profile target audiences better than previously, although you don't get the mindless efficiency you'd get from a predictive dialler you will benefit from higher success rates from more concentrated and focussed progressive dialling.
Since the financial industry corrects itself and starts its returns To how it had been many years back and with the possibility of future re-liberalisation of this industry again this brings further opportunities on the horizon for diallers. At some point these companies are going to once again need to aggressively acquire customers and one of the most cheapest, cost effective approaches to accomplish this is through use of dialler technology.
So the question is if you invest or not invest in dialler Perhaps one of the best methods to de-risk this decision is to consider a hosted solution. Not only do you get instant access to a compliant, secure system comprising all the latest gadgets and tools, you don't need to worry about upfront capital investment. Hosted dialler solutions typically employ a pay-as-you-go model ensuring you can scale up or down as requirements dictate and enabling you to turn on and off the technology as and when you need to have access to it.
Customer and regulatory bodies' opinions of diallers Aren't Heading to soften, but used in the right, compliant manner, there is a place for them in the longer term in assisting correct and reconstruct the economy.
Which are the best outbound calling times?
There are very few hard-and-fast rules for the best times to Telephone in a contact centre.
The best time to call is when the person called is likely to be Most receptive to the telephone.
It sounds obvious, but the best time to call someone is at a Time you've agreed with them in advance. If you give somebody a sales quote, agree a time when you can call them back to talk about it.
Call during regular hours
There are some basic rules about when you should avoid Calling on weekends and evenings. Watch the Outbound calling on weekends and bank holidays article.
Business to consumer calling
Finding the best time to call is key to the success of a sales campaign. Using technology such as a predictive dialler significantly improves efficiency, but diallers cannot perform magic; if the target audience is not available to take your call at the time you make it then the simple contact objective won't be achieved. The'best time to call' varies dependent on your target audience but for nearly all campaigns the success in reaching people -- the connect speed -- follows the pattern shown below.
It's not a surprise to see that the best time to call otherwise Unstructured data is the late afternoon/early evening. Equally, it doesn't take a genius to forecast the dip in connect rate in the mid afternoon when many customers are out shopping and collecting children from school.
Similar peaks and troughs occur when contacting individuals in businesses. In this case the connect-rate troughs have been attributed to the targets being
busy doing core business activities...
Targeting your attempts
If you choose the previous section on board, you are halfway there. Only halfway? Bear in mind, the vital balance is to target your information to call your
audience at the best possible moment. In the last chart we showed that there are usually peaks and troughs in the connect rate.
But it is also worthwhile looking at the'quality' of this connections. As shown in the graph below there may be periods when, despite a top connect rate, reaching the perfect person (Decision Maker Contact -- DMC) is low. In the earlier example the connect speed is high in the early morning, but the DMC rate is relatively low.
Avoid key events
There are some dialling times when you're less likely to get a good response.
-- Throughout major sporting events -- FA Cup, Olympics etc..
After people come home from work
The time shortly after people come home from work, but before The significant TV shows start, is often among the best calling times. This is a window from around 6.00pm to 7.30pm.
Tip
Pretend that your audience is a personal friend -- consider When you would pick up the phone and expect to reach them.
Now you know where to focus your efforts.
Customer Segmentation
I heard of one call center that uses Acorn client They did so mainly through a process of trial and error and built up a series of assumptions.
For example, a retired couple are likely to be contactable During the working day, while a dual-income couple may not be contactable until
Business to Business Calling
Mornings Tend to Be better than afternoons
In the morning people tend to be fresher to take phone calls and are more open minded. In the afternoon they're often rushed to receive their day's work done before they go home.
Between 08.45 and 9.00 and between 5.30pm and 7.00pm can frequently Be very good times to capture people -- specifically senior executives who invest a lot of time in meetings during the business day.
Businesses now, there are many issues associated with it. Some of the major glitches in this industry include, the need for low-cost customer and sales support, slow Internet connections, unprofessional service providing agencies, etc.. Opting for Outbound call center services in Philippines may be the perfect solution to eliminate these hassles, without compromising on your organization.
Philippines call center services are backed By talented work force with access to superior call centre technology. Furthermore, with a huge percentage of indigenous English-speaking population, Philippines can be considered the"powerhouse" of call center outsourcing. Offering higher ROI and improved customer service in addition to huge cost savings, call centre solutions in Philippines make a excellent option for businesses across the globe.
Call Center Solutions Offered from Philippines
Once you outsource call center services to Philippines, our team of skilled, trained, and enthusiastic professionals will efficiently assist you with all of your call center needs. Right from providing consistent customer support to generating quality leads and making sales calls, our contact centre services in Philippines can help you with everything.
Some of the major services offered by our Call center in Philippines include -
1.Focused on optimizing business and profits, We provide inbound contact centre services that meet the demands of global customers. Our agents have enough domain expertise and fantastic call handling capabilities. We help our customers in attaining increased client satisfaction by reducing the call abandonment rate. Some of the Significant inbound contact center services we provide are -
- 800 Answering Services
- Claims Processing Services
- IVR Services
- Virtual Receptionist Services
- Up-selling and Cross-selling Services
2. Outbound Call Center Services
With experience in offering outbound contact Center solutions, at Flatworld Solutions, we offer top-quality services. Our representatives not only concentrate on making sales calls, but they're also skilled to send consistent follow-up mails and examine unfamiliar market to make your business a success. Some of the key services we offer are -
- CATI
- Lead Generation Services
- Market Intelligence Services
- Telesales & Customer Acquisition
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys
- Appointment Setting Services
- Direct Mail Follow-up Services
3.Telemarketing is among the most common ways used for contacting potential customers. Our solutions will also help you increase the number of your existing customers by tapping the ideal lead. We will assist you in increasing your revenue by efficiently following-up and final sales. Following are the services we provide -
- Up-sell/Cross-sell Campaigns
- Product Promotion
- Telemarketing Lead Management
4.Providing technical support services can be Catchy as it often requires agents with sound technical knowledge along with fantastic communication skills. Our agents at call center in Philippines are skillful with all the technical knowledge to offer fast and efficient technical support services. Our technical support services include -
- Toll Free Customer Support
- Post-sales Support
- Pre-sales Support
5. Multi-channel Contact Center Services
Multi-channel contact centres are gaining Tremendous popularity, as it enables businesses to serve their customers through a medium of their choice. In Flatworld, we know that companies strive to provide best possible customer support. Our highly effective multi-channel contact centre services include -
- Phone Support
- Live Chat Support
- Video Chat Support
- Support through Social Media
- Email Support
The dynamic nature of call center requires Excellent communication skills along with thorough process knowledge. For this reason, we've employed smart, highly trained agents with great communication skills who can cater to all your call center requirements. Our Filipino contact centre agents are –
- People friendly and considerate
- Adept with the required technical knowledge
- Highly organized
- Focus on detail
- Flexible and remain calm even under pressure
- Effective communicators
- Problem solvers, providing accurate and quick solutions to all callers
- Multi-lingual with culturally sensitive
Why Choose for Call Center Services?
At Flatworld Solutions, we understand that Insufficient customer support can put your business at stake. For this reason, we provide 24x7 phone answering services for small, medium, and large organizations to increase sales and ensure satisfied customers. Following are some of the reasons for you to choose us -
1. Flexible Pricing
As different clients have different call Center requirements, we provide quality services at cost-effective rates. We maintain a flexible pricing structure and get personalized services which just cater to your requirements.
2.We follow a process-driven strategy to Ensure complete project security. Our powerful call center security measures ensure that outsourcing arrangements aren't just efficient, but they are also secure. Industry-best Infrastructure
We've Got world-class call center Infrastructure in all our call centers around Philippines. Our infrastructure adheres to all the international standards with 100% assurance in telephone recording, real-time reporting, and technical call monitoring systems.
3. Easy Transition of Your Call Center
Outsourcing call center services to Philippines will help in radically reducing the direction and training costs associated with contact centres. Our transition model is intended to minimize service-level inefficiencies during transition.
4. Quality Assurance
Our agents will help you provide the best possible customer services. We have quality monitoring systems in place to track the quality at each stage. In addition, we act on feedbacks provided by clients to enhance the quality of our services.
5. Operational Transparency
To provide all our clients with the Necessary data protection, prevention of data loss, and complete value for money, we guarantee complete operational transparency to all our clients. This simply means you will know what stage the project is in and will also have complete control over it.
Hire Filipino Agents for Your Call Center
Outbound Call Center as outsourcing firm offer top-quality call center services to international clients. We have global delivery facilities spread across different parts of the world including key cities of Philippines like Manila, Davao, Cebu City, etc.. Having worked with clients from different backgrounds and cultures, we provide services that precisely cater to your call center requirements. Our skilled resources will ensure that all the concerns of your customers are addressed.
If You're Looking out for reliable, efficient, Cost-effective call centre services then you are in the right place. Contact with us to discuss your requirements.
Outbound Calling Weekends and Holidays
Outbound calls are not normally made on a Sunday.
Contrary to what you may think, there don't seem to be any written regulations regulating the time of day which you can make outbound calls.
However, there are times when people are more receptive to Receiving an outbound call.
Traditional outbound calling times
Traditionally many call centers used the following times for outbound calling:
Monday -- Friday 10.00am to 8.00pm
Saturday 10.00am to 2.00pm
Sunday No outbound dialling
Bank Holidays No outbound dialling
In some call centres dialling didn't begin until 12.00 noon most days and on Saturdays outbound calling was turned off by 12.30.
Today's calling patterns
Monday -- Friday 10.00am to 8.00pm
Saturday 10.00am to 8.00pm
Sunday Some call centers (mostly debt collection) are calling between 11.00am and 6.00pm
Bank Holidays No outbound dialling
Practical considerations
The telephone ringing after 8.00pm, (and definitely after 9.00pm) can wake up sleeping children and may lead to anxiety.
Sunday calling may not be very well received for religious or social reasons. It's also harder to find staff into an outbound call centre on a Sunday.
DMA Guidelines
The Direct Marketing Code of Practice is usually taken as a 'best practice' set of tips.
The Code of Practice (3rd Edition) says:
Reasonable Hours 21.41'Members must not make sales, marketing Or service calls during hours which are unreasonable to the person being called recognising what is regarded as unreasonable can vary in various locations and different kinds of households and businesses. Generally members should not make calls between the hours of 9pm and 8am Monday to Friday, and 9pm and 9am at weekends unless an express invitation to do so is received. Members must also be aware that many consumers might consider it unreasonable to be called on Sunday or on national/religious vacations'.
References
DMA Direct Marketing Code of Practice
DMA Direct Marketing Code of Practice section 21.41.
6 Best
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