DM p30-33 telemarketing Dec08.qxp 02/12/2008 12:48 Page 33
Telemarketing
campaign and you find that success can be depend- staff is crucial. Employee satisfaction is as important
ent upon current affairs, and your being aware of as customer satisfaction, indeed the one leads to the
them. After the horrendous tsunami, for example, other. Responsible contact centres put as much effort
there was a marked shift from typical older givers to into developing and motivating their staff as they do
younger adults with kids – for obvious reasons.” in keeping consumers happy.
But as Woodger highlights, it’s the personal, direct, Le Roth adds: “For many organisations, contact
real-time nature of telemarketing that is its strongest centres offering customer services functions like
and most attractive characteristic. enquiries and complaints represent a cost centre,
“Done well, telemarketing is highly personal and rather than a revenue source. However, complemen-
can result in instant direct action. During our cam- tary marketing functions like lead generation, captur-
paigns for the RNIB, some 15-20% actually pledge to ing marketing information and telesales, can be
Contact centres
support, although sadly not all end up doing so – but added to drive growth and new business.”
are moving
it shows the power of direct personal interaction.” And of course, in today’s multi-channel world, towards
Put simply, other channels just don’t offer the high levels of customer insight are required to assess
measuring how
chance to do so much, to go into so much detail and how and when to interact with consumers.
effective they
to explore so many avenues in such a short time peri- “To this multi-channel approach a new dimension
are, in addition to
od. Conversely, of course, telemarketing done badly has emerged in recent years: consumer power,” says
allows for a lot of mistakes to be crammed into a sim- Le Roth. “Increasingly, web-savvy consumers are driv-
how efficient,
ilarly short time period and bad execution can cause ing the agenda. Contact centres have had to respond looking at the
lasting damage to the brand, as the LibDem’s recent by becoming adept at choosing the appropriate chan-
quality of the
high profile botched telemarketing campaign amply nel to enable individual consumers to interact with a
interaction rather
demonstrated. brand. A consumer may be happy to order a brochure
than just the
So what does getting it right involve? Well, it’s not on-line, but is likely to prefer to speak to a person on
rocket science says Woodger: “If you get the time of the telephone if they have a complaint.”
quantity.
day right, the proposition right and the audience Agents operating across multiple channels have
James Le Roth, contact
centre director, Eclipse
right it can be hugely successful.” access to a wide range of information about con-
Marketing.
And as the credit crunch continues to bite, another sumers, including a history of how individual con-
major plus point for the channel is the fact that out- sumers have interacted with the brand in the past.
bound calling can offer bespoke communications for So, when a consumer calls a contact centre, the advis-
a relatively inexpensive outlay of around £2 a call. er may be able to see what page they have been look-
ing at on the website, or even intervene with online
Measuring performance help if they see a consumer ‘lost’ on a site.
Whether telemarketing is handled in-house or out- Another challenge is ensuring consistency and
sourced, and regardless of the purpose of the cam- integrity of the brand across all the channels
paigns, measuring performance is a critical facet of employed, says Le Roth. This, in turn, is having an
the feedback loop. impact on the skillsets needed by contact centre staff.
Historically the performance of contact centre Advisors recruited for their telephone skills are hav-
functions, internal or third party, was measured by ing to becoming competent in other areas.
response rates and handling times. But these give Much of this change is being driven by technology
only part of the picture. convergence. One of the biggest challenges facing
Eclipse’s James Le Roth explains: “Increasingly, contact centres is to make the most of the many new
contact centres are moving towards measuring how opportunities presented by the ability to combine
effective they are, in addition to how efficient. To do previously separate data and telephony technologies.
this, they look at the quality of the interaction with
consumers, rather than just the quantity. Doing it badly is easy
“Contact centres are seeking to achieve meaningful The Telemarketing Company’s Neil Habba sums the
engagement with consumers and good resolution channel up nicely when he says: “Telemarketing is
rates, particularly when dealing with inquiries and really, really easy to do badly and the damage you
complaints. One-call resolution and high levels of can do is potentially enormous, just like any other
customer satisfaction are the Holy Grails of today’s type of marketing.
contact centres.” “Insight is critical and a good campaign should
Plainly, to resolve inquiries first time requires con- deliver more than just sales leads or appointments –
tact centre staff to be equipped with the knowledge, it should feed back strategic information and insight
training and processes to affect quick resolutions. that the client can use in future.
This brings us to the thorny issue of retention rates. “And today, what we need most of all is a brutal
In an industry sector well-known for its high churn focus on ROI. It’s always been important but now
rates, retaining and developing good contact centre more than ever.”
n
www.dmarket.co.uk Database Marketing December 2008 33
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