7 Tips For Better Efficiency In Outbound Contact Centers

Inbound contact centers are essential for a lot of companies. It is necessary for customer service and customer retention. However, for customer acquisition, it is imperative to have efficient outbound contact centers. In today’s world, most of the lead generation is effectively driven by digital marketing initiatives. Once a lead has shown interest in your product or service it becomes necessary to make the proper outreach, follow the cadence and make the best attempt to convert them into customers.

It's important to have a system in place that allows your employees to easily carry out their call tasks and reach the right customer at the right time. This starts with ensuring that your agents are well trained and knowledgeable about the products and services they're selling. They should be able to answer potential customers' questions before they ask them, using your content library to find answers if needed. You should also provide your agents with as much information about each customer as possible. Telemarketing is already considered dead and frowned upon. But statistics speak otherwise. Still, a fair fraction in the United States engages and responds to cold calls. They understand a product and even place the order, and the average cost per outbound call is $6.46. Hence, improving your outbound contact center operation is just as important today.

There is a different set of software solutions that are at the center of improving your outbound contact center process. It

starts with an autodialer which is backed by a dependable CRM system followed by different micro-solutions like call routing, call scheduling, lead management, and more. Let me break down the usual process and cadence. When a lead fills up the landing page sourced by Google Ads or other social media ads, the lead detail is sent to the autodialer or Omnichannel Solution. The lead is then assigned to the agent who can then call, email, or even text to set up a demo or discussion. Usually, a multi-modal approach is required to pursue the lead.   

Beyond solutions, there are other factors that also impact your outbound contact center. One of the mightiest problems of any cold call is an impersonal script. Using the same script on everyone is pointless. Approaching people based on gathered information and connecting with them will bear more results. This is why agent training is required so that everyone can practice how to go beyond the script. Let’s discuss these in more detail. 

 

Content:

Maintaining an outbound contact center has a lot of challenges. There is the issue of acquisition, turning leads into customers, and nurturing the customers you already have. Automated dialers are one way to address these challenges. 
A predictive dialer is a software component that dials phone numbers automatically and connects the call to an agent when a person answers. A preview dialer enables the agent to view the information of the prospect and then make an informed call. It lets the sales rep prepare before the call. Predictive dialers are used more often when a high volume of lead is uploaded and the quality of lead is not ascertained.
The progressive dialer is used where sequentially the leads are dialed as soon as the sales rep gets free from the previous call.   
Progressive dialers are commonly used as it increases contact center efficiency and lessens call abandonment. Call rechurn can be done for the leads that did not connect, at different time intervals. Agents can set a call to reschedule if the lead has expressed interest to be connected at a different time. 

 

In this day and age, it is very important for sales professionals to do something more than just read from a script. They need to be able to have a more natural dialogue with the prospect, which will help them engage better and support their sales pitch.

Salespeople need to know what their prospects want in order for them to sell effectively. This means understanding their needs, motives, and goals. The more information the salesperson knows about the person they are talking with, the easier it will be for them to position themselves and present the service offerings. All they need is a little empathy while presenting their product or service. What’s more? They also need to know how best to ask open and closed questions so that they can learn more about the customers and their needs. Training your agents in the art of conversation will help them reach their goals faster. Creating a script workflow will enable the agent to jump dynamically to the section based on the customer responses and objections.

 

A CRM system or customer relationship management system can be used to manage sales, marketing, and customer relationships. Lead management system (LMS) sometimes referred as Sales CRM is necessary for outbound contact centers.
LMS helps track the progress of each lead, scoring them and following up with them as the progress of the interaction. Sales CRMs can be of great help to salespeople in all these stages because the tools allow them to track leads, generate reports for the business owners about their sales performance and stay in touch and do necessary follow-ups.
A major benefit of such systems is that it helps small businesses to compete with bigger companies easily. It enables them to keep track of the lead’s journey with your brand and identify opportunities at every stage. A good CRM solution will become the backbone of your outbound contact center and improve your efficiency by a stretch. 
C-Zentrix omnichannel platform comes with a readymade lead module so that the leadership journey is not only traced but agents can do outbound calls via email and SMS.

 

Sometimes prospects might miss your call and give you a call back later. There is a fair chance that the agent might miss the customer’s call too. In such scenarios, a lead becomes dead and an opportunity gets missed. To eradicate such mishaps and make the most out of your leads, use the sticky agent feature. The leads assigned to the sales agent remain connected with the same agent for a fixed time frame. This ensures that in case the lead calls back, it will be connected to the same rep and the discussion continues.

 

While there is always a daily limit looming over agents, ensure that they are pacing themselves. Encourage your employees to take a breather after every conversation so they can prepare for the next call. Building the right mindset is very essential to creating efficient employees who can lead to a more productive operation.

 

Monitoring calls gives a far better insight into the calls' effectiveness, the objections raised by prospects, and the training required by agents. With call analytics powered by Machine Learning (NLP), 100% of calls are monitored in real-time. Post-call analysis can provide the right feedback to the sales reps to make their outbound calls more effective and increase the efficiency of the contact center.

 

A sales agent should always be ready for all kinds of questions. You can train them, and give them a script but nothing beats the sales enablement platform. A sales enablement platform will have sales-enabled content, product information, and brand ethos stored in it. It will track the lifecycle of each content and score them based on their success rate. These content materials are often created and looped across the marketing and sales team to engage their customers better. It also includes battle cards and product comparisons of your competitors so your agents can authenticate their pitch. Such a platform smoothens the operation of outbound contact centers and improves your operational efficiency.

 

Conclusion:

Campaigns in outbound contact centers are tedious as they are heavily dependent on results. The pressure to drive results is so high that the process gets clogged very often. It is important to not lose sight of what is important and focus on the deciding factors. As mentioned earlier, tools will only help halfway. Training your agents to be efficient is another ball game altogether. So hire the right managers and teach your agents wisely. Empower them and see how efficient your process can be!