How Your Business Can Benefit From Using An Outbound Call Center
0
0
In today’s overly competitive and burgeoning economy, businesses are discovering the newest methods to stand out amongst a crowd of options that consumers encounter in virtual spaces and traditional forms of advertising and marketing. Studies show that our attention spans have significantly decreased over the years due to the massive influx of information available online and our instant access to it with smart devices. The time we live in is unprecedented in terms of immediacy and authority of information, beckoning the need for more powerful tools and teams of experts to cater to the various online and on-site services that businesses offer. An outbound call center may be the key to increased growth and profitability for a business seeking to optimize its services. Whether this means using the outbound call center for marketing and advertisement or utilizing the outbound call center for business process outsourcing, having a certified team of professionals by your side is essential in handling the volume of services your growing business promises consumers.
Since outbound call centers function at remote locations with high-speed internet access, they can operate year-round. This reliability is one of its strongest assets, in addition to the volume of calls, it can place for your business to other companies in a day. These outbound call centers are different than inbound call centers because they can focus on proactive sales calls. This enhancement of customer experience coupled with technological engagement makes call centers such powerful tools for a business. Not only are these centers beneficial for your business, but they are also commonly regarded as equal-opportunity workplaces where employees receive benefits and can move up in the industry – so the stereotypes of sweatshop-type call centers are a fading stigma. Most of these types of generalizations are made in ignorance of the fact that most businesses use call center service providers. Whether that is for telemarketing and communications or business process outsourcing like payroll and accounting, call centers are instrumental for the growth of your business.
Below you will find some call center industry standards that will help you understand what to look for when employing an outbound call center, as well as some additional benefits of using a call center:
Better & Faster Results – according to recent surveys on HubSpot, 90% of consumers say that immediate responses are their highest concern. While this may seem obvious, the truth is that these are crucial moments in gaining new clients and growing your business – it may even be more important than traditional forms of advertisement. The same survey reported that consumers rate 10 minutes or less as being preferred response times. If your business is growing, there is no doubt that you will be focusing operations on key functions, and the only way to do this while growing is to outsource telecommunications to a call center. Not only does this yield better results for supplementary functions like client relations, but it also yields better results for core functions because you have more time to dedicate to these important operations. This expands your businesses’ reach and impact – having a team of experts representing you is an invaluable tool that does not require you to hire individual employees to wheelhouse these functions. With limited hours in the day, using an outbound call center enhances your returns on investments.
Response Time Standards – as mentioned above, response times are consumer’s highest priorities, and with a window of 10 minutes or less, there are a few more time standards to know across devices and platforms. For instance, consumer’s preferred email response times hover around 1 hour – to make this possible, call centers utilize tools to read incoming emails at astounding speeds and accuracy to supply appropriate responses and effective redirection. Call back speeds can be optimized by using predictive dialers and real-time data to manage large clients and prospective calls. Other technologies at these call centers could include tools that divvy out call sheets to employees at sustainable and efficient rates not to exacerbate the callers but also to ensure and maintain a steady call volume. Other response time standards include social media responses as fast as 15 minutes, and call centers can use social engagement tools to identify spam accounts to target relevant users effectively. Other engagement tools can range across platforms to include web-based live chat options and texting and email lists.
Now that we know some of the benefits of using call centers, there are some important criticisms to be aware of. With the power of technology and the variety of tools at our disposal, it starts to become a matter of how well a call center utilizes its tools? Some of the biggest criticisms of call centers can come from the company having too many touchpoints and being short-staffed. The amount of work it takes to make initial contact with clients is not necessarily the same amount of resources needed to maintain effective response times. Call centers’ criticism stems from oversights like having too many touchpoints while being short on staff to maintain those relationships. In the short run, some of the metrics may look good, but they may end up damaging touch point’s reputation in the long run. Clients will be placed on hold for longer times, and campaigns could start to become costly for your business to continue investing in a call center. While investment budgets are common issues for businesses, the idea of investing in an ineffective call center could work counterintuitively for your company. Being aware of the technologies and models that call centers to employ is one way to ensure smart investments. If utilized correctly, call centers can bloom your business with unexpected growth and profitability. However, it is important to continue to research what specific technologies may be best for your business. Different services require different technologies that certain call centers may not have. So regardless of what call centers are offering, it is a step up on the competition to be aware of the method they use to know exactly what types of services you are looking for and know that they will work effectively.
