An effective customer experience will depend on how your agents perform customer service and support.
Your customer service agents must be efficient when it comes to handling both your inbound & outbound calling.
Inbound calling strategies
Inbound calls refers to incoming calls from your customers, leads, or partners. In inbound calling, people reach out to your company for customer service and support. These calls are handled and managed by inbound call agents or customer service helpdesk.
According to a survey conducted by Google, 61% of customers said that it is very important that they directly contact brands through phones. This is most especially during their purchasing decision stage.
Now to help your agents improve their overall performance, follow these inbound calling strategies:
Make it easier for your customers to reach you
This is a very easy one yet often overlooked by a lot of business owners. Always make sure that you indicate your correct contact information, specifically your contact number in all your marketing materials.
Remember to also include your customer service contact information digital ads, social media profiles, marketing emails and website pages.
Utilize call analytics for a more personalized caller experience
Call analytics enables you to record and store specific data regarding your customers call history. This includes the ad or keyword that initiated the call, the date, time, the caller’s location and more.
With all data collected, it will be easier for your agents to route the call to the appropriate people to respond to the customers.
Analyze call interactions to measure your ROI and customer satisfaction
Conversion analytics helps you determine which ads or campaigns result in more sales calls. It also helps you identify which type of messaging best fits your type of customers.
By giving you a clear understanding about your incoming calls, it will help you figure out why a certain call did not end up in a sales opportunity.
Outbound calling strategies
Outbound calls refers to outgoing calls initiated by your agents. Typically, outbound calling is performed for telemarketing, sales, survey, or market research purposes. Outbound calls are usually used for cold calling. The goal in cold calling is to either close a sale or achieve a certain business goal.
Consider these outbound calling strategies to help you maximize your outbound calls:
Lay out your KPIs
Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) helps you have a clear understanding of what your outbound call team wants to achieve. It will help you measure your outbound call agents performance and effectiveness. Your outbound call KPIs should include your agents average handle time, conversion rate, first call resolution, and more.
Ensure to engage your leads
Most customers prefer unscripted calls as it promotes natural conversation. It also makes them feel comfortable and valued rather than just a sales prospect. Keeping your target lead engaged grabs their attention from the start of your call, making it a higher chance for your agents to close a sale.
Empower your prospects
A successful outbound call happens when your customers feel like they are appreciated. It is also when your prospects agree that your offered products or services are the right solutions to their needs and pain points.
Inbound & outbound calling strategies – Summary
Both your inbound & outbound calling if done correctly will help you yield a more profitable stream of revenue.
Leverage the power of the latest tools and technology, digital marketing and social media to have a more effective and productive call center. More so, focus on improving your customer experience and satisfaction.
