Marketing research is a valuable business tool that can be used to discover emerging trends, assess sales performance, evaluate marketing campaigns, measure customer service and define company goals. When properly analyzed and applied, marketing research will eventually lead to greater sales volume and provide an acceptable return on investment. (See our November 17, 2011 post on outsourcing marketing research to increase ROI.) Marketing research is generally considered to be an investment in future sales with an indirect impact on a company’s bottom line.  That attitude has become so entrenched in the business community mindset that the potential to immediately harness marketing research data to directly impact real-time sales is often overlooked.

The goal of marketing research is to collect data for analysis. In a company’s marketing department, it is data analysis rather than the data itself that is considered valuable. However, forward-thinking companies are putting that raw data to immediate use in their sales departments and doubling their marketing research ROI. The key is outsourcing tedious data sifting to a highly-qualified call center

When processed by experienced call center professionals, raw marketing data can generate qualified sales leads, monetize trade show and conference leads, and increase repeat business. An expert call center agent can plow through long lists of potential leads obtained from marketing surveys, internet contacts, trade shows and conferences and cull out those leads with the greatest sales potential, allowing your sales staff to concentrate on closing sales. An expert outsourced  call center agent can also be used to contact existing customers, generating direct sales and noting future needs to help your sales force best direct its energies.

The key to success is finding the right outsourced call center partner. Telesales Services is uniquely positioned to match your company’s needs to a call center that has the experience and expertise you need to effectively process raw marketing data and turn it into sales.  

As 2011 winds down, the pressure is on business owners and corporate executives to evaluate performance, identify new market trends, and allocate 2012 resources to increase profitability. The decisions made as U.S. companies conduct year-end reviews and set performance and financial goals for the coming year will have a critical impact on company profitability and success. Choosing to rely solely on the recommendations of your sales team without conducting effective independent marketing research can lead you down the wrong path, waste time and money, and force your company to play catch-up with your competitors.

Effective business decisions cannot be based on intuition. Even in a climate of increasing sales, there can be problematic gaps between sales and consumer analyses and expectations. Cold, hard facts are needed to measure marketing factors before decisions can be made about new year goals and resource allocation. Outsourcing year-end marketing research to an experienced market research call center can quickly provide the accurate data you need without straining your firm’s personnel or financial resources.

Outsourcing marketing research to a professional outbound call center offers business leaders numerous benefits. Outsourcing marketing research initiatives frees your team to analyze internal data that will be crucial to the year-end decision-making process and allows them to focus their energies on creating crucial year-end reports. Assigning the task of data collection to a professional outbound telephone call center with proven expertise in conducting marketing research campaigns ensures that you will receive clear, accurate data in a timely manner. Outsourcing the mundane, though critical, task of data collection also gives your team the breathing room they need to continue putting maximum effort into closing sales.

When outsourcing marketing research, call center selection will have the greatest impact on the quality of the data you receive. With extensive experience in outbound marketing research, Telesales Services can match your needs to a professional outbound call center with proven expertise in conducting marketing research.

If you are in the medical insurance industry, this is crunch time! Open enrollment for Medicare Part D ends on December 7, 2011, barely 3 weeks away. Coinciding with the open enrollment period for many corporate insurance plans, the early Medicare decision deadline puts extraordinary pressure on insurance agents and insurance providers to renew current policy holders and sell their services to new customers.

Nationwide, 27.6 million Part D beneficiaries have more than 1,576 plans to choose from. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, from 41 to 55 plans will be competing for consumer attention regionally. If you sell Part D coverage, you know that two things will most impact your sales figures:

1. The number of potential beneficiaries you reach, and
2. How quickly you reach them.

The shear volume of phone calls and time required to contact current and prospective clients is a herculean task that can quickly overwhelm your office staff or in-house health care call center. The same is true if you handle the open enrollment process for corporate clients. If, like many insurance agents or providers, you handle both; it’s double the pain.

As the December 7 Medicare Part D open enrollment deadline draws closer, overworked employees and in-house call center staff are going to be feeling the pressure. The resulting stress can lead to increased errors and decreased civility; both business killers. Outsourcing health insurance calls to an expert health care call center can solve your problem, ease the stress on employees and result in higher sales and greater customer satisfaction. It’s a win-win solution for your firm, your employees and your customers. 

And it’s not too late to get the help you need to succeed. A highly-regarded health care call center referral service, Telesales Services specializes in matching clients to experienced, high-quality healthcare call centers that are ready to go when you are — even at the eleventh hour!

As we move into the holiday season, many companies focus their call center activities on outbound calls to increase sales. But research has shown that high-quality inbound call center services can be just as important in boosting holiday sales and even more important in retaining customers after the holidays. 

Holiday sales generate from a quarter to half of annual retail sales. Unlike last year when recession-delayed purchases pushed sales up 5.2%, the National Retail Federation is predicting 2011 holiday sales to be a more normal 2.6%. Not only will consumers be spending less this year, they will be looking for extra value when making purchases — and not solely in price. Customer service provided by inbound call centers is expected to play a significant role in consumer purchasing decisions.

Holiday retail expectations echo the findings of the Customer Experience Report. In a 2010 survey of more than 2,200 consumers, 55% cited a retailer’s reputation for superior customer service as a primary factor in their purchasing decisions, and 40% said they switched their business from a competing retailer to one with an excellent customer service reputation. In fact, 85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay from 5% to 25% more for an item to obtain superior customer service.

The quality of your inbound call center is the single-most important factor in earning and maintaining a reputation for providing superior customer service, and high quality customer service generates sales. According to the Consumer Experience Report, 55% of consumers base their purchasing decisions on customer service compared to 49% on product quality and 42% on price.

Choosing the right inbound call center to handle your customer service may be one of the most crucial decisions you make this holiday. Outsourcing your inbound call center services through Telesales Services ensures that your firm will provide the superlative customer service that attracts customers during the holidays — and beyond.

A superior, professionally run inbound call center can be a considerable business asset. A positive call center experience attracts customers, builds brand loyalty, and enhances a company’s bottom line. On the other hand, a poorly-managed call center can be a significant detriment, driving customers away, negatively impacting brand image, and losing sales. A single negative call center experience is all it takes for a loyal customer to abandon your brand. Call center service quality is so important to marketing efforts that the Consumer Experience Report found that a reputations for superior customer service attracted 55% of customers and 85% said they would be willing to pay more for a superior call center experience.

Consumers love the fast, immediate, personal attention they receive from experienced, well-trained call center agents when they place a telephone order or receive a timely resolution that effective inbound call centers are able to provide when problems arise. Unfortunately, too often the consumer  experiences tend to be negative not positive. After repeated experiences with poorly managed, poorly staffed call centers, consumers have developed a laundry list of complaints.

While 77% of American consumers prefer speaking to live agents when seeking customer support; according to the RightNow 2010 Customer Experience Report conducted by Harris Interactive, 82% of consumers have taken their business elsewhere after a negative experience with a call center employee. Seventy-three percent fled after being treated rudely, unknowledgeable agent operatives sent 51% packing, and 55% took their business to a competitor when call center personnel were unable to resolve issues in a timely manner. Other consumer complaints include waiting on hold for minutes on end before being connected to a call center agent and language issues that complicate communication with the contact center representative.

Telesales Services specializes in furnishing the high-quality outsourcing solutions that  have proven to provide the positive call center experience that attracts and retains customers.  Contact us today to see how we can help you to find the “right” match for your inbound call center needs.

Last weekend a freak October snowstorm inundated the Northeast, killing at least 15 people and leaving more than 2.2 million homes without power. The combination of heavy snowfall and gusting winds closed businesses and schools, felled trees, brought down power lines, closed roads, suspended mass transit service and snarled traffic from West Virginia to Maine. Heavy snow, as much as 32 inches in 24 hours in western Massachusetts, “was like wet cement that just adhered to trees, branches, leaves and power lines,” David Graves of National Grid told U.S. News online. Disaster recovery teams say as many as 900,000 people are still without power. According to CNN online,  customers calling into their local disaster recovery call center are becoming increasingly frustrated with recorded messages that keep pushing back power restoration estimates. Utility companies are now estimating that power will not be restored to most customers until Sunday.

If there is a take-away from this unusually early storm, it is that state and local governments, business owners, school officials, service providers and transit authorities need to review and update their disaster recovery plans immediately. With weather forecasters predicting another harsh winter with lower-than-average temperatures and higher-than-average snowfall, the recent storm is expected to be the first of many. Planning now for disaster recovery during critical events and power outages can keep vital communication flowing during disaster recovery efforts, direct disaster recovery services where they are needed most, and speed the disaster recovery process.

Ensuring that your disaster recovery call center is fully staffed and ready to respond at a moment’s notice ensures the continuity of local government, business, school and transportation services and is the key to fast and effective disaster recovery. With our nationwide service network, Telesales Services can help you create an effective disaster recovery call center plan that can be quickly implemented even when your in-house call center has been shut down by the disaster.

As Election Day nears, political candidates and state and local issue campaign committees are ramping up political campaign calling in an effort to reach as many constituents as possible before voters go to the polls next Tuesday. Political calls are one of the most effective methods of improving campaign awareness, increasing voter response and winning elections. Selection of the right call center partner can contribute significantly to the success of your political campaign. But choosing the wrong call center can muddle your message, damage your image, annoy call recipients and create a negative backlash that can hurt you at the polls.

Using sophisticated, high-quality call centers to handle political campaign calling has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective method of delivering political messages to a maximum number of people in a minimum amount of time. However, the effectiveness and popularity of political calls has also attracted inexperienced candidates with large budgets but no knowledge of the federal and state laws that govern political calls or call service operations. High demand has also attracted call center service providers with no experience managing political campaign calling, little knowledge of call center legal restraints and no respect for consumer privacy. Either of these problems can cause serious problems for a political campaign that can damage a candidate’s performance at the polls and even put him afoul of the law.

Political candidates can avoid call center pitfalls by utilizing respected, experienced call centers to manage their political campaign calling. Telesales Services has the industry experience and carefully screened service partners to match your political campaign with a high-caliber call center that will provide sophisticated political campaign calling services by a well-trained, dedicated staff that is highly experienced in successfully delivering political messages — and we will do this at no charge to your campaign. Visit our website to learn more.

For health care stakeholders, an unprecedented opportunity to increase market share looms on the horizon. When new healthcare reforms take effect in 2014, an anticipated 40 million new customers will be added to health insurance rolls, shifting industry emphasis from corporations to individuals. Not only will thousands of previously ineligible or uninsured consumers gain access to health insurance under the new legislation; employees will gain the power to choose their own health care coverage. Healthcare stakeholders who position themselves to accommodate the coming paradigm shift will reap the greatest rewards. To win the business of individuals, health insurance and healthcare product providers will need to place greater emphasis on providing responsive communication and personalized customer service.

According to a recent survey of 1,000 insured individuals conducted by Accenture, a global management consulting firm, nearly 80% of health care consumers value  easy and convenient customer service and nearly 50% are willing to pay extra to get it.  (Results of the Accenture survey were reported in The 7 Things Your Health Insurance Customers Are Not Telling You. Click the link to read the full report.)Survey analysis found that 42% of health insurance customers reported a high degree of satisfaction with their health insurance, but only 7% said they would consider purchasing additional products from their insurer. Dissatisfaction with their health insurance provider’s customer service appears to be at the root of the disconnect.

In the 5 areas health care survey consumers rated as most important — knowledgeable representatives, convenient service hours, wait time, single contact, length of issue resolution — the Accenture survey found an average 50% gap between customer expectations and insurer performance. Outsourcing your health insurance call center or healthcare telemarketing services can help you close that gap. Telesales Services can help you boost customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty by matching you to a quality health care call center that can provide the personalized customer service your customers desire.

Call center productivity and profitability hinge on three things:

1. Response time. Customer satisfaction is affected by how quickly the call center staff is available to respond to the caller. The shorter a customer’s wait time when he or she contacts a call center, the higher their level of satisfaction with their call center experience.
2. Workload. Call center productivity is directly impacted by workload efficiency which is a result of matching the workload requirements with the staff. A highly motivated call center staff with proper training will process a greater number of calls in a shorter period of time. When agent productivity is maximized, staffing levels can be decreased, minimizing staffing costs and maximizing profit.
3. Scheduling. Call center productivity and profitability hinge on the staff’s ability to handle each call efficiently and effectively by matching proper staffing levels to the call volume. Also keeping first call resolution in mind. When agents fail to complete calls in the scheduled number of minutes (called out of adherence), due to training, utilizing obsolete technology or skill gaps, then staffing levels must be increased. Any increase in staffing levels incurs additional costs not just for staff compensation, but also for staff recruitment, training and retention.

Call center scheduling problems present the greatest challenge to businesses that are attempting to manage their own call center programs. Using an outsourced call center can prevent headaches and be more cost-effective than trying to provide call center services in-house. Out-of-adherence problems can destroy the productivity and profitability of call center operations. Telesales Services specializes in call center outsourcing. We have a proven track record of successfully matching businesses with effective call centers that know how to minimize cost by maximizing scheduling adherence and call center productivity.

Mundane customer service and a predictable checklist mentality have decreased consumer satisfaction with customer service call centers. When interacting with representatives at customer service call centers, consumers are beginning to express the same frustration and irritation previously reserved for automated telephone response systems. In a 2010 study conducted by The Customer Contact Council, 84% of customers expressed dissatisfaction with their most recent customer service call center experience. By sticking with the same tired script format used by most customer service call centers, businesses may actually be eroding customer loyalty and provoking customer dissatisfaction.

In placing the emphasis on delivering a pre-scripted, identical message, customer service call centers have stripped the critically important “human” element from the customer service experience. Instead of actually having a conversation with customers and making a personal effort to find a solution to the individual’s problem, call center representatives stick to the company script. Rather than obtain a solution to their problem during their initial customer service contact, customers are repeatedly transferred, each time forced to re-explain their problem.

By the time the consumer receives a solution to his problem, he is so irritated by the laborious and time-consumer process involved that what should have been a positive experience (problem solution) has turned into a powerfully negative experience. The Customer Contact Council study found that 23% of customers shared a positive customer service experience with at least 10 people; but twice as many customers (48%) shared a negative customer service encounter.

Consumer disappointment with customer service call centers has led some companies to adopt new call center protocols. Rather than focusing on consumer satisfaction, call centers are earning positive consumer reviews and building customer loyalty by decreasing the amount of effort a consumer must expend to resolve a problem. Customer service representatives are being provided with greater access to consumer records and company resources and given greater latitude to resolve consumer issue on the first contact.

If you are concerned about your firms own handling of customer service calls or are simply thinking of outsourcing your customer service call center, please consider contacting us at Telesales Services. We pro-actively match businesses to quality call centers based on their capabilities and your unique needs. We can help to make sure that you are not one of the statistics mentioned in this blog post, but are instead offering exceptional customer service and phone support that will help to grow your business.