Sony’s Pan-Europe Contact Centre
October 9, 2010
Sony Europe’s Consumer Electronics division is now using a pan-Europe contact centre implemented jointly by Sword Ciboodle and Dimension Data. These call centres provide support for telemarketing pre-sales, post-sales, and repairs. The software engine used for the call centre is Sword Ciboodle’s CRM software.
All Sony operations in Europe are now using the system, which manages customer interactions whether by phone, fax, email, web, or regular mail, and which has multi-channel support for contact history, reporting, and case management. It also supports multiple languages. All the call centre workers get a “360-degree view” of customer information and accurate up-to-date information about Sony products.
The telemarketing concept has a strong central platform that is still flexible enough to adapt to the localised specific needs of different European countries. Sony says it is quite satisfied with the results, saying it has added many strategic benefits to their consumer electronics presence in Europe.
Sony says it now has the optimum business process interaction management system that will help them strengthen customer relationships and ultimately improve business growth.
Managing A Call Centre’s Headset Inventory
October 2, 2010
Call centres use a lot of headsets. Did you know that managing your telemarketing centre’s headset inventory can save you thousands of dollars a year on needlessly replaced equipment?
All your headsets have warranties and service schedules, but does anyone in your organisation have any usable records of this information? Some may think it isn’t worth it, or that it’s easier and no more expensive to simply buy a new headset when one goes missing or becomes wonky.
However, intelligent headset management can save you some serious money over the course of a year. It’s not uncommon for telemarketing centres to spend 30% or more of their headset inventory value on unneeded replacements or repairs. But most telemarketing centres don’t have user histories for each headset, and if the telemarketing centre is spread over numerous geographical sites, management may not think it is worth the effort.
Knowing the location, status, warranty history, and age of headsets and keeping the information in a database can allow the telemarketing centre to manage headset inventory across numerous locations in real time. This can cut way down on unnecessary replacement or repairs, reducing the typical 30% loss to less than 10% over the course of only one year.
Unwanted Calls – The worst offenders
November 26, 2009
It has been said that the average consumer receives on average 21 unwanted calls a month. The worst offenders for this tend to be organisations such as debt collection agencies, mobile phone companies and charities. Other offenders include companies that use automatic dialers and agents who do not let the phone ring for long enough before hanging up.
There are steps you can take to try and make sure you don’t fall into these categories. Nobody is saying don’t call if you are a charity or don’t use auto dialers but do make sure you employ enough agents to manage the workload. Make sure you telemarketers or other staff are properly trained and not hanging up the phone after 3 rings just to increase their call rate.
It’s tough in the industry at the moment and let’s make sure we do the job properly!
Smile while you dial!
November 19, 2009
Dialing and smiling is a common term for the practice of cold calling. It generally has a bad rep especially if you are just sitting down for dinner after a hard day at work.
Now we may not think so but our emotions do come through when we are having telephone conversations. The person on the other end can generally get an idea if you are fed up or distracted in anyway. Smiling whilst you dial not only instills trust with the person you are talking to it also brightens up the conversation.
So the next time you reach for the phone remember smile before you dial – it works!
Are your leads escaping faster than Steve McQueen in the Great Escape?
November 10, 2009
Almost all telemarketing agencies these days work off some form of database or spreadsheet when conducting campaigns. So the scenario is you have for example 1000 accounts containing contact details for your prospects. You would usually call these in some form of order. First of all you would probably call the ones that contain the most information about your prospects and so on. You would then set a time and date for your “hot leads”
The problem then for telemarketers is getting sidetracked and mismanagement of these leads. Data should always be time-scaled in order of priority with the most likely prospects first and then filter down to the less attractive ones. The quick sell is not always the best as some of these can just as easy turn into dead ends. Some of the best leads are ones you have cultivated you could find yourself talking to the prospect 2 or 3 times before closing the deal.
Keep you eyes on the ball and don’t try juggling to many at once, this way you won’t let your leads slip through you fingers.