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Speed matters – but getting the pace right is crucial
Outbound campaigns are an integral part of any company’s marketing and sales strategy. They can also be used for other reasons, such as after sales service, market research, collecting payments, confirming appointments and a host of other ways outbound features can transform customer experience.
In essence, an outbound campaign involves a business actively contacting potential or actual customers, rather than the other way round.
Everybody wants to do outbound better, and that includes your clients. The more efficient and targeted their outbound campaigns are, the more successful their businesses are likely to be.
Good outbound campaigns result in a steady stream of sales queries or more satisfied customers – or hopefully both. They can mean fewer customers missing payments or more benefitting from an extended warranty offer.
So how do your clients get better results from outbound campaigns? The secret is matching good agents with good technology. Good agents have productive conversations. Good technology allows them to have more of those conversations, by putting them in touch with the right people, at the right time, with the right information.
MaxContact’s powerful Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platform empowers businesses to run successful outbound campaigns across various channels. It lets your clients plan and refine outbound campaigns in ways that non-specialised communications services simply can’t match.
Speed matters – but getting the pace right is crucial
In an outbound campaign, speed matters. The more calls agents make, the more success they’re likely to have.
In the context of a fast moving outbound campaign, manual dialling just doesn’t cut it. Instead, an intelligent autodialler does the heavy lifting, dialling numbers from the call list and connecting agents only when the call is genuinely answered.
MaxContact’s auto dialler can detect when an answering service picks up the call, and either disconnect immediately or leave an automated message. Agents are left free for the next call. The use of MaxContact’s dialler can increase productivity by 500% compared to a traditional phone system.
But while speed is important, it isn’t the only thing to consider. MaxContact offers three different auto dialler modes to suit different kinds of outbound campaigns:
- Predictive dialling
Predictive dialling uses a sophisticated algorithm to match answered calls with available agents. It dials multiple numbers but can automatically adjust the rate to match your contact centre situation, speeding up or slowing down calls in real time to take into account the ebb and flow of demand. Predictive dialling is the gold standard for straightforward, high volume sales campaigns.
- Progressive dialling
Progressive diallers are auto diallers that slow the pace by only dialling a number when an agent is available to take the call. Dialling is instant and automatic, so the system still allows for a relatively high number of calls, but also eliminates the risk of customers abandoning calls. Progressive dialling is often used in more targeted sales campaigns, or those involving higher value goods or services.
- Preview dialling
A preview dialler takes the pace down another notch. When an agent indicates availability, information about the next call is sent to the agent for preview. After a set amount of time – say, five minutes – the number is automatically dialled. The purpose of this delay is to let the agent prepare for the call, using information typically taken from the company CRM system (with MaxContact, CCaaS and CRM systems can be fully integrated). Preview diallers are particularly helpful when the reason for the call is complex or sensitive. That could be a debt resolution call, or a call responding to a customer complaint.
Other outbound features
An intelligent autodialler is crucial to a successful outbound campaign, and MaxContact offers a range of other features to optimise your clients’ sales, market research or debt collection efforts.
Lead scoring, for example, uses data analysis to prioritise calls in terms of likely positive outcomes. In short, the hotter the lead, the higher its placing on the call list.
Drag and drop scripting makes it easy to create and refine successful sales scripts. A PCI-DSS compliant payments system means that sales and debt collection teams can take payments during the call, increasing the chances of a successful outcome.
“With the previous system, decision-maker contact rates were running at around seven or eight an hour. (With MaxContact) that’s now hitting 11 or 12, representing a productivity improvement of over 30%“
How data analytics helps
But if successful outcomes are in short supply, call centre managers can refine outbound campaigns instantly or over time using powerful data analytics.
With MaxContact, your clients can visualise results with dashboards, reports and wallboards. Easy-to-read charts keep team leaders on top of agent and campaign performance rates. They can help identify the agents, scripts, call rates and follow-ups that really work, allowing contact centres to continually improve.
Campaign analytics let clients measure success against targets and make changes in real time, which can produce an instant uptick in results. A click of the mouse tells them what’s working and what’s not.
Finally, modern outbound campaigns are about more than voice calls alone. Send payment reminders, aftersales care tips or product information by text, WhatsApp or email and contact customers in the way that best suits them.
“The speed of MaxContact is phenomenal! Especially when loading complex and multiple scripts to our agents and reporting on key statistics across the business.”
Intelligent outbound
If you have clients who run outbound campaigns, a powerful CCaaS platform is a much-needed addition to your product portfolio.
Unified communication systems are great for internal communications, but don’t offer the functionality that can optimise external communications at scale. Auto dialling, campaign analysis and intelligent lead scoring, among a host of other features, will supercharge your clients’ sales, payment or after sales campaigns, giving you a new and fruitful revenue stream.
For more information on our partner programme or if you are interested in joining, you can visit our partner page for more information.
