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.
Rude Telemarketers – Bad for business
October 15, 2009
We have all had calls either at home or at work from telemarketing agencies. I came across an article the other day that started with something like this. “I encountered one of the most rude high pressure salesmen in my life yesterday. I felt like a loan shark had a hold of me and I hadn’t even borrowed a penny”
Telemarketing can be a hard job at times. The industry does not need badly trained people giving telemarketing a bad name to all of us.
Why e-mail anywhere else?
October 1, 2009
Upon handling in excess of a million quotations per month, GoCompare.com have implemented a new e-mail management system to provide a higher quality customer service.
The new system uses powerful natural language semantic search technology, which analyses the text of inbound e-mail enquiries and provides customer service agents with the best answer from a vast knowledgebase of responses to previous customer questions.
The new system also provides and audit trail of all customers queries giving agents a bigger picture of how to handle questions and problems that arise and enables them to deal with customers in a fast and efficient manner, making GoCompare’s customer service the one to beat in the comparison battle.