Re-examine Your Call-Center Practices, Part 4
Over the course of this series, I’ve discussed several techniques to help you maximize revenue in your call centers. Today, I offer another way to make sure you aren’t leaving sales dollars on the table.
(For part 1, click here. For part 2, click here. And for part 3, click here.)
To review, I’ve defined the four types of calls into your call center as follows:
1. calls answered where an order occurs;
2. calls answered where an order doesn’t occur — contact data captured by the customer service representative (CSR);
3. calls answered where an order doesn’t occur — contact data not captured by the CSR; and
4. calls not answered where no order occurs (call abandoned).
This week’s column focuses on No. 2 above.
If your CSRs have done their job properly, they’ve done everything possible to close a sale. If after all their sales tactics have been exhausted and there’s still no sale, then it’s necessary for them to capture the prospect’s contact info. If they’ve gotten the prospect’s phone number, they have a whole new opportunity to generate a customer.
Develop a call-back program where your CSRs — or an outside company if you have the volume — call prospects back and make them offers they can’t refuse.
Consider the following factors before starting your own outbound telemarketing program.
* Test slowly. You never know how prospects will react to being solicited over the phone. Of course, you’re going to meet resistance. Most people, in fact, won’t be happy you called. Set yourself an initial goal of converting 5 percent to 10 percent of the people you call.
* Test different offers until you find the one that’s best received by your prospects (i.e., the offer with the highest conversion rate).
* Monitor your calls to determine if you’re doing the right thing by calling.
- Categories:
- 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.
