Jim Gilbert's Return on Intelligence: Your Call Center is Bleeding! - Connecting the Dots of Your Customer Touchpoints, Part 2
In part one of this series on customer touchpoints, I defined touchpoints as all the points of contact between your company and its prospects and customers. In part two, I look at one of the two main touchpoints: your call center.
Before I start any discussion on call center and web results, I always tell clients, "Look out — what you're about to hear may bruise your egos." I offer that same warning to you.
Here goes ...
No matter what company I visit, I always come away with the same thing: They're not as efficient at converting sales as they could be. I get that knowledge the old-fashioned way: I listen to calls in the call center, and I make a number of test calls externally. I also go to a client company's website and order a product (or attempt to, in some cases).
First Off, the Call Center
There are just too many missed opportunities in the call centers I evaluate. Missed buying signals, missed cues, reps not listening effectively, etc. I also see environments that are too tightly controlled and scripted, and others that are totally unscripted.
Of course when I tell clients this, often times I get a blank stare, like, "What do you mean my call center sucks? Do you know how much effort I put into technology, people and training there?"
And sometimes, right there, the messenger gets shot! But in truth, this does happen, and if you're willing to spend time listening, you'll hear it too. We reconvene here in two weeks. When we do, I'll offer some simple call-center training techniques I've used to increase sales conversion rates by as much as 20 percent.
In the mean time, please listen to your calls, make test calls to your call center and soak in as much as you can. You may be in for an eye-opening experience. This is especially true if you're in another department or are an executive in your company.
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- Contact Centers
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
