In this webinar, our experts Kayleigh Tait and Ben O’Reilly share valuable strategies and tips to boost your sales and collections campaign performance. Kayleigh covers best practice whilst Ben shows you the ‘how-to’, with plenty of MaxHax for maximum results.
Key Takeaways
Data Management and Segmentation
- Import data with granular control for better campaign performance
- Use mosaic segmentation and user experience data to bolster prospect outreach
- Set different recall frequencies for data sets based on priority
- Utilise skills-based routing for high-value prospects or time-sensitive leads
Dialler Modes and Pacing
- Choose between preview, progressive, and predictive dialling based on team size and campaign needs
- Set up automated switching between dialler modes based on staffing levels
- Consider compliance regulations when setting up dialler modes (e.g., Ofcom’s 0 drop call aim)
Script Optimisation
- Craft engaging opening statements with input from sales and marketing teams
- Develop flexible scripts with branching logic for personalisation
- Include objection handling and FAQs in scripts
- Use tick boxes to ensure agents follow the correct sales process and comply with regulations
Inbound Call Management
- Implement intelligent call routing using skills-based matching
- Optimise IVR systems with clear menus, limited levels, and self-serve options
- Use data-driven design for IVR menus and update regularly based on common call reasons
- Implement queue management techniques like dynamic queue allocation and virtual queuing
Performance Monitoring and Optimisation
- Focus on key metrics like average handle time, quality assurance, and customer satisfaction
- Utilise real-time monitoring dashboards and historical reporting
- Implement a robust call scoring system for quality assurance
- Use speech analytics (if available) to identify areas for monitoring, coaching, and training
Efficiency Tips
- Use high-priority tick box for immediate dialling of newly imported leads
- Set up SFTP uploads for automated data imports
- Enable import expiry for automatic data management
- Utilise the undo import feature to correct mistakes quickly
- Implement emergency routing for unexpected situations
- Use blackout days in IVRs for holidays and special occasions
Compliance and Data Protection
- Be mindful of regulations like FCA and Ofcom guidelines
- Utilise features like call recording deletion for managing sensitive data
- Set up result codes in IVRs to track where calls are being abandoned
Testing and Optimisation
- Use A/B testing for scripts and campaign elements
- Analyse supplier data costs using the Supplier Summary Report
- Regularly review and update IVR menus and call flows based on performance data
Webinar Transcript
Kayleigh Tait: [00:00:08] Hello! Good afternoon. Welcome to our webinar today, which is nicely named MaxHax. It took a while for us to come up with that alliteration in the marketing team. But today we’re talking about how you can maximise your sales and debt collection rates with the help of MaxContact.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:00:28] So just before we go on to intros for Ben and myself, I’ll just cover a couple of the housekeeping items. The session is being recorded. The full recording and transcript, and the supporting slides will be shared in a follow-up email shortly. So if you have to jump off for whatever reason, don’t worry. We’ll follow up with you as you’ve registered.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:00:55] The Q&A will be open throughout. So we’re actively encouraging you to use the chat or the Q&A function, whatever you prefer. We run these sessions live so that we can have that interaction with you. You can ask questions on the fly around what we’re talking about, and there’s time at the end to make sure that we’ve got enough coverage to go over those questions.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:01:19] And then, yeah, if you found this session useful, please share it with anyone that you want to. So we’ll be sharing the link, and I’m sure people will hopefully find it valuable.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:01:28] So before we move on and get started, the format of today’s session is, I’m going to talk a little bit about the contact strategies, both for outbound and inbound, and Ben is going to then show you within the MaxContact platform how you can use some of those strategies and implement them in your day-to-day work.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:01:49] So Ben O’Reilly, if you haven’t met Ben, Ben is our training specialist at MaxContact. He’s been with the organisation and in the contact space for over 7 years now, and was trained as a professional educator going into education and moved into the B2B space a little while ago.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:02:10] I’m Kayleigh Tait. I’m head of marketing at MaxContact, been here almost 4 years. So a little bit less than Ben, but have spent the majority of my career in B2B and B2C roles helping sales and marketing teams drive commercial performance and campaign performance. So a lot of the things today that we’re talking about have a good crossover with my day-to-day work as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:02:37] So we’ll jump into the next slide, which is around how you can build effective outbound campaigns. Essentially, as a marketing veteran, I can’t stress enough that all great campaigns do start with a solid data strategy.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:02:53] So we’re going to talk first about list management and segmentation, and how, as an organisation, you might be able to use it more effectively. There might be a few things that you might not know, so we’re here to share some of those things today.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:03:07] So list management in MaxContact does allow for really granular control and efficient data handling. It enables users to segment and prioritise data for optimal campaign performance. So you’ve got things like the ability to import data for granularity for better control.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:03:26] Things like ensuring that when we’re importing data, you’re able to import different attributes. So you can have as many data points as you want to append to the data that you’re using in the platform.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:03:40] So say, for example, you want to ensure that you are proactively targeting a certain set of clients. It might be a persona that you’re going after, or someone that’s about to come out of contract.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:03:54] If you ensure that you’re using that data within that import, it then allows you to utilise that data for campaigns in different ways as well. So you can separate data into different lists for varied treatment.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:04:03] I used to work at a broadband company a few years ago now, and we proactively targeted millennials who wanted great data packages. We knew that our proposition really resonated with them for their broadband needs. Therefore, we would use mosaic segmentation user experience data to really bolster the data that we had for our prospect outreach.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:04:24] And that really helps. It might be a smaller list that you’re going after, but it’s more effective. Your proposition resonates with them, and really, it helps with that campaign success and conversion.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:04:48] You’ve also got the option to set different recall frequencies for the data sets as well. So you might find that you want to target a cost per sale or a cost per debt collected, and that really helps set and define your recall rates. And you can help with this by using campaign history, looking at reports to really define how many attempts you do want to give a certain data set.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:05:11] So if you’ve got high-priority data you want to go after, you can define all that within the platform as well. That’s something that Ben will take you through shortly.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:05:25] You’ve then got the opportunity to change the priorities as well for different data sets based on performance. So if you’ve got some data sets that are high-value prospects or time-sensitive, you can even use skills-based routing to ensure that you’ve got the best agent on the job to reach out to those leads as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:05:48] And that’s something that you can think about, plan out and set up so that that is automatically happening in the background for your campaigns, and you can be sure that things are being treated in the way that you want them to be treated.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:06:01] Data Manager is available. It’s a great feature for easy data manipulation. And then a few top tips really from us on data: it’s the importance of clean and up-to-date contact lists. I think it goes without saying, but it can be something that falls off the list sometimes with data hygiene.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:06:20] Just making sure that you’ve got Do Not Call lists, you’re cleansing lists regularly, and updating data points as you go. So you don’t have to start appending loads and loads of different fields to your data from the very start. But as you progress using the platform and as your campaigns mature, there are things that you can add in over time.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:06:43] And then the final recommendation is to ensure that you are segmenting data enough so that you are able to see what is working and what isn’t. So don’t go too granular and create so many lists that it’s hard to see the wood for the trees.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:06:59] But make sure that you are segmenting data in a way that you can then get a valid conclusion of the test that you’re running. You can see, okay, well, that list targeting this certain demographic in this geography, that is performing a certain way, and you’ve segmented your list in that way.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:07:18] So you can use that really for any sort of analysis. It might be you want to focus on credit score, contract renewal date, propensity to pay – all those types of things can be used to make sure that you segment, and that data is able to be used for analysis.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:07:38] So next up is the dialler modes and pacing of how your campaign is structured. So for the most efficient use of campaign data, and also for the people that are working through your campaigns as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:07:52] So dialler modes and pacing – choosing the right dialler mode can really make or break a campaign. MaxContact, as you might know, offers various different modes to suit different needs. And those needs really depend on whether you’ve got staff available, how many are in your team, how much you want to optimise performance, and then also compliance as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:08:16] So just touching on the different dialling modes, we’ve got preview dialling. And that’s when agents want to research before calling. You can actually set out a preview timeout. So you can control the time that they get to actually research if you wanted to do that and set those parameters.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:08:36] Then you have got progressive dialling, which is also known as power dialling in the industry. We call it progressive at MaxContact, and that’s used when preview isn’t necessary. It’s a faster pace.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:08:49] And what we found as well, after talking to clients, is that progressive is great if you don’t want your agents to start to research or form a bias around some of the contacts or the leads that they’re outreaching to.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:09:04] You don’t want them really thinking, “Oh, I won’t reach out to Ben, because Ben doesn’t look like he will suit our proposition,” and they’ll move on. We found that using this dialler mode is great for taking that out of the equation, and that helps with contact rates and conversion rates of campaigns as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:09:22] And then for predictive dialling, that is better for larger teams. Typically, we recommend over 10 agents at any one point in time, and you can also use an automated approach of upgrading and downgrading between those different dialling modes.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:09:43] So if you want predictive when you’re midweek, you’re fully staffed, you’ve got 20 agents all going at a campaign, and you want to downgrade at the weekend when perhaps you’ve got limited resources, you can absolutely set up that automation within the platform as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:10:00] And the system can pace itself based on the defined settings that you set. So we’ll talk about drop rate and setting those shortly as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:10:12] Some top tips around dialler modes and setting them up from the start: Really, from an outcomes perspective, when you’re setting up campaigns, just make sure that you’re setting up enough outcomes where it can provide insight, but not too many to cause confusion. That is something that sometimes we see.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:10:34] And compliance is obviously a key one when we’re thinking about dialler mode. So we know that there’s things going on in the industry. There’s lots of regulation. FCA, Ofcom – Ofcom state now that zero drop calls is what they’re aiming for.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:10:53] So you might feel like it’ll be slower dialling, but actually, in the long run, it will ensure that you’re not tagged from a spam perspective, and you’re not ruining your contact rates as well. So yeah, we don’t want to cause any compliance headaches for you by giving you the wrong advice there.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:11:14] And then next up we’ve got script optimisation. So crafting great scripts really comes down to a bit of art and science. So there’s some key points. Really, just make sure that you are working with the people who know your value proposition in your organisation.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:11:35] Whoever it is, it might be the contact centre team, it could be the marketing team, the sales like the BDM team. However you work as an organisation, make sure that you are spending that time to refine those opening statements, and that they’re landing and engaging with prospects quickly.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:11:50] And you can develop flexible scripts that really allow for that personalisation as well. So we’ve got branching logic that you’re able to use in scripts. You can personalise them. Make sure that you’re including information around how to easily overcome some of the objections agents might face on the call.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:12:08] And also adding things like FAQs. You can build flows as well to ensure that the agents themselves are going through the sales process as you want them to, and that your calls are flowing as you expect. So things like terms and conditions, you can make sure that they are read out, and that the agent has done that with tick boxes and that flow is there.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:12:33] And we’ll talk about testing and optimisation in a minute. Before we get onto that, the final thing before that is really around agent training and performance.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:12:43] So how do we ensure that we’re onboarding teams quickly? They’re able to use the campaigns effectively. So some of our recommendations are around making sure that we train agents on lower priority data at the start. You want to avoid really burning through any good leads or high-priority data that you’ve got.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:13:05] And implementing real-time monitoring, coaching throughout that journey as well of onboarding and day-to-day life in the contact centre. So you have got things like silent monitoring, whispering, full call barging capabilities as well. So they’re all there for you to use.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:13:24] When it comes to testing and optimisation, obviously, we’ve got a really comprehensive reporting suite – over 40 out-of-the-box reports, and we are able to develop custom reports as well.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:13:37] What we set really, the guidance here is when you’re testing things like scripts, call times, list segmentation, make sure that you’re using a systematic approach to testing those test strategies. So that you’re able to continuously analyse campaign data and identify those improvement areas within the business and the campaigns that you’re running.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:14:01] So things that you can do is having clear test documentation. What is it that you want to test as part of this new script? Is it the conversion rate? Is it average handling time? What metric is it that you’re trying to prove? So making sure that you’ve got that documented, you understand what you’re testing is a really crucial part to then rolling out that test.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:14:26] Establish that clear criteria for test success and then plan on rolling that out. So you can either do A/B testing where you test it on a small segment of data before then rolling out the winning test, and then keep iterating from there.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:14:42] And knowing that, I suppose, no matter what’s happening in the industry or day-to-day work, that there might be something that’s happening outside of your control that impacts campaign performance. That’s something we definitely see from a marketing perspective over my career.
Kayleigh Tait: [00:14:59] So just having a look at what some of the drivers are behind some of the results that you get in is a crucial step as well. So I’ll hand over to Ben now, who is going to take us through some of those key things in the platform itself.
Ben O’Reilly: [00:15:16] Thanks, Kayleigh. Hello, everybody. Okay, so yeah, we’re gonna go through a few areas first within outbound. So I’ve got some tabs open which hopefully I can get to, and Zoom doesn’t hide from me.
Ben O’Reilly: [00:15:32] So we’ll start off with CTU and talking about progressive and predictive and changing your campaign, and changing the amount of agents that we can update the status from predictive to progressive, vice versa. So obviously in the CTU with your campaign, you’ve got the ability to change the type.
Ben O’Reilly: [00:15:52] So in here, if we set this to be a progressive campaign, we have the option here to increase to predictive. So if we tick this box, we can set a user threshold. So what the system will do is it will identify when you hit that specific number. So in this case, 20 users logged into that campaign, and then it will automatically move the campaign to be predictive mode, so dialling faster and getting through that data.
Ben O’Reilly: [00:16:17] Likewise, if you’ve got a predictive campaign, you can tell the system to degrade it to Progressive again based on that figure in there. And I know Kayleigh mentioned sort of compliance and drop rate. This is really useful for your predictive campaigns for around sort of lunch times, break times, end of the day, as your agents all start logging off around the same time. You can see that spike in drop calls.
Kayleigh Tait [00:16:48]: So just before we go on to intros to Ben and myself, I’ll just cover a couple of the housekeeping items.
Kayleigh Tait [00:16:50]: So the session is being recorded. The full recording and transcript, and the supporting slides will be shared in a follow-up email shortly. So if you have to jump off for whatever reason, don’t worry. We’ll follow up with you as you’ve registered.
Kayleigh Tait [00:16:55]: And the Q&A will be open throughout. So we’re actively encouraging you to use the chat or the Q&A function, whatever you prefer. We run these sessions live so that we can have that interaction with you. You can ask questions on the fly around what we’re talking about, and this time at the end, to make sure that we’ve got enough coverage to go over those questions.
Kayleigh Tait [00:17:19]: And then, yeah, if you found this session useful, please share it with anyone that you want to. So we’ll be sharing the link. I’m sure people will hopefully find it valuable.
Kayleigh Tait [00:17:28]: So before we move on and get started, the format of today’s session is, I’m going to talk a little bit about the contact strategies, both for outbound and inbound, and Ben is going to then show you within the MaxContact platform how you can use some of those strategies and implement them in your day-to-day work.
Kayleigh Tait 00:17:49]: So Ben O’Reilly, if you haven’t met Ben, Ben is our training specialist at MaxContact. He’s been with the organisation and in the contact space for over 7 years now and was trained professionally as a professional educator going into education and moved into the B2B space a little while ago.
Kayleigh Tait [00:18:10]: I’m Kayleigh Tait. I’m head of marketing at MaxContact, been here almost 4 years. So a little bit less than Ben, but have spent the majority of my career in B2B and B2C roles helping sales and marketing teams drive commercial performance and campaign performance. So a lot of the things today that we’re talking about has a good crossover with my day-to-day work as well.
Kayleigh Tait [00:18:37]: So we’ll jump into the next slide, which is around how you can build effective outbound campaigns. Essentially, as a marketing veteran, I can’t stress enough that all great campaigns do start with a solid data strategy.
Kayleigh Tait [00:18:53]: So we’re going to talk first about list management and segmentation, and how, as an organisation, you might be able to use it more effectively. There might be a few things that you might not know, so we’re here to share some of those things today.
Kayleigh Tait [00:19:07]: So list management in MaxContact does allow for really granular control and efficient data handling. It enables users to segment and prioritise data for optimal campaign performance.
Kayleigh Tait [00:19:20]: So you’ve got things like the ability to import data for granularity for better control. So things like ensuring that when we’re importing data, you’re able to import different attributes. So you can have as many data points that you want to append to the data that you’re using in the platform.
Kayleigh Tait [00:19:40]: So say, for example, you want to ensure that you are proactively targeting a certain set of clients. It might be a persona that you’re going after, or someone that’s about to come out of contract.
Kayleigh Tait [00:19:54]: If you ensure that you’re using that data within that import, it then allows you to utilise that data for campaigns in different ways as well.
Kayleigh Tait [00:20:03]: So that separate data into different lists for varied treatment. So I used to work at a broadband company a few years ago now, and we proactively targeted millennials who wanted great data packages. We knew that our proposition really resonated with them for their broadband needs.
Kayleigh Tait [00:20:24]: Therefore, we would use mosaic segmentation user experience data to really bolster the data that we had for our prospect outreach. And that really helps. It might be a smaller list that you’re going after, but it’s more effective. Your proposition resonates with them. And really, it helps with that campaign success and conversion.
Kayleigh Tait [00:20:48]: You’ve also got the option to set different recall frequencies for the data sets as well. So you might find that you want to target a cost per sale or a cost per debt collected, and that really helps set and define your recall rates. And you can help with this by using campaign history, looking at reports to really define how many attempts that you do want to give a certain data set.
Kayleigh Tait [00:21:11]: So if you’ve got high-priority data you want to go after, you can define all that within the platform as well. That’s something that Ben will take you through shortly.
Kayleigh Tait [00:21:25]: You’ve then got the opportunity to change the priorities as well for different data sets based on performance. So if you’ve got some data sets that are high-value prospects or time-sensitive, you can even use skills-based routing to ensure that you’ve got the best agent on the job to reach out to those leads as well.
Kayleigh Tait [00:21:50]: And that’s something that you can think about, plan out and set up so that that is automatically happening in the background for your campaigns, and you can be sure that things are being treated in the way that you want them to be treated.
Kayleigh Tait [00:22:01]: Data manager is available. It’s a great feature for easy data manipulation.
Kayleigh Tait [00:22:06]: And then a few top tips really from us on data. It’s the importance of clean and up-to-date contact lists. I think it goes without saying, but it can be something that falls off the list sometimes with data hygiene.
Kayleigh Tait [00:22:20]: Just making sure that you’ve got ‘do not call’ lists, you’re cleansing lists regularly, and updating data points as you go. So you don’t have to start appending loads and loads of different fields to your data from the very start. But as you progress, using the platform and as your campaigns mature, there are things that you can add in over time.
Kayleigh Tait [00:22:43]: And then the final recommendation is to ensure that you are segmenting data enough so that you are able to see what is working, and what isn’t. So don’t go too granular and create so many lists that it’s hard to see the wood for the trees.
Kayleigh Tait [00:22:59]: But make sure that you are segmenting data in a way that you can then get a valid conclusion of the test that you’re running. You can see, okay, well, that list targeting this certain demographic in this geography, that is performing a certain way, and you’ve segmented your list in that way.
Kayleigh Tait [00:23:29]: So you can use that really for any sort of analysis. It might be you want to focus on credit score, contract renewal date, propensity to pay, all those types of things can be used to make sure that you segment in, and that data is able to be used for analysis.
Kayleigh Tait [00:23:38]: So next up is the dialler modes and pacing of how your campaign is structured. So for the most efficient use of campaign data, and also for the people that are working through your campaigns as well.
Kayleigh Tait [00:23:52]: So dialler modes and pacing, so choosing the right dialler mode, can really make or break a campaign. MaxContact, as you might know, offers various different modes to suit different needs. And those needs really depend on whether you’ve got staff available, how many are in your team, how much you want to optimise performance, and then also compliance as well.
Ben O’Reilly [00:23:52]: Thanks, Kayleigh. Hello, everybody. Okay. So yeah, we’re going to go through a few areas first within outbound. I’ve got some tabs open which hopefully I can get to, and Zoom doesn’t hide from me.
Ben O’Reilly [00:24:24]: So we’ll start off with CTU and talking about progressive and predictive and changing your campaign and changing the amount of agents that we can update the status from predictive to progressive vice versa. So obviously in the CTU with your campaign, you’ve got the ability to change the type.
Ben O’Reilly [00:24:52]: So in here, if we set this to be a progressive campaign, we have the option here to increase to predictive. So if we tick this box, we can set a user threshold. So what the system will do is it will identify when you hit that specific number. So in this case, 20 users logged into that campaign, and then it will automatically move the campaign to be in predictive mode so dialling faster and getting through that data.
Ben O’Reilly [00:25:17]: Likewise, if you’ve got a predictive campaign, you can tell the system to degrade it to Progressive again based on that figure in there. And I know Kayleigh mentioned sort of compliance and drop rate. This is really useful for your predictive campaigns for around sort of lunch times, break times, end of the day.
Ben O’Reilly [00:25:37]: As your agents all start logging off around the same time, you can see that spike in drop calls. So this will prevent that from happening. You know, when the system sees that people have logged out and you’ve hit 20 users, it’s going to turn it down to the progressive or power, as some people know it. So that you don’t get that big spike in drop calls and you can stay compliant there.
Ben O’Reilly [00:26:00]: The next bit we’ll have a look at in terms of this is setting campaigns to preview and giving your agents a bit of time to see information about your customers. Make sure they’re happy to make those calls. Again, Kayleigh mentioned a couple of examples of that. So obviously setting the campaign to preview, we jump into the campaign in the contact hub.
Ben O’Reilly [00:26:27]: My message of the day. So when a user goes ready, the system will place calls, and, as you can see there, it will give me a preview on the left-hand side of this particular contact. And I’ve got a set period of time. We’ve got this set to 60 seconds, but it can be different depending on what you want to do. So with that, the agent can look at the information they’ve got there. They can look at the script. They can see the information about the customer. If they think it’s worth making that call they can hit call. If they’re not too sure and think, “Now I don’t think we’ll bother calling this person,” they can skip.
Ben O’Reilly [00:27:00]: Move on to the next one, and then they’re presented with the next customer. And then again, I can look at the information and make a decision based on that. It’s worth noting that you can remove the skip option, so the agents cannot skip the calls. They still have to make them, but they’ve been given that specific amount of time. So when the time runs out, the system will automatically dial unless the agent presses that beforehand.
Ben O’Reilly [00:27:23]: Just gonna jump out of that campaign and we move on to the next one.
Ben O’Reilly [00:27:28]: Okay, so big feature, a new feature that we added in over the previous years, outbound skill-based routing. So this allows you to determine which of your users get which data within the system.
Ben O’Reilly [00:27:41]: So what you can do is you can label effectively your data with specific skill groups. Now, this could be a skill group that contains one individual skill, or it could contain multiple. So we’ve got a few examples on the screen now of skill groups. So these are the skill groups that we’ve got set up on here and then within the skills themselves, we’ve got individual skills that we can assign to those particular groups.
Ben O’Reilly [00:28:08]: So what that allows us to do is say, you know, these agents have got these particular skills, this data’s got these particular skills. Therefore, those agents are going to get those specific calls. So what you can do with your data is when you go through and you do an import. So you select your file.
Ben O’Reilly [00:28:27]: You can – well, you’ve got two choices. Actually, first one is when you go through the import process, you can assign a skill group. Now, this will give all the data that you’re importing the same skill group which contains the skills within there and then, obviously, your agents will get the relevant calls.
Ben O’Reilly [00:28:44]: What you can also do is ignore this option. And when you come through to the mapping, you can actually create yourself in your data, a header for skills and create your skills within your data and assign it to those relevant leads. And then what that will allow you to do is when you do your mapping, you can map skill column to your skill group on the system, and that will automatically allocate the relevant skills to the relevant data within that one data file. So you don’t have to do it as an all-in-one process. You can do it so that each bit of data can have a different skill if you want.
Ben O’Reilly [00:29:21]: Other areas that you can update here – I won’t show you the screens, but briefly, just explain that you can update your skills via result codes as well. And you can also change your skills via the list data manager as well. So if you’ve got a pot of data with one sort of set of skill groups and you want to change that entire pot, you can do that as well.
Ben O’Reilly [00:29:42]: Moving on to lists, pots of data.
Ben O’Reilly [00:29:49]: And my screen’s just gone blank for a second there, bear with me! There we go. Don’t know what happened there. Apologies. Panic slightly that setting. So the list page obviously, we mentioned before about things like setting schedules, calling lists on at specific times that in result code plans for your users. So they get the right outcomes on the screen so they don’t have to sift through a huge long list. They can just find the specific relevant ones which can also be included in your scripts, by the way.
Ben O’Reilly [00:30:17]: So the plans tab of your list allows you to customise that. So a good example here is your result codes, you know, for each one of your lists you can have set result code plans that you can assign to that list, so your agents will get the most relevant result codes at the end of the calls. Same with your schedules. If you want to call specific lists at certain times.
Ben O’Reilly [00:30:38]: Choose a specific schedule, allocate that, and then they’ll be able to do that. So just to show you where they live within the plans page as an example, you’ve got schedules in here, so we can set schedules. You can have as many as you want on the system. Where you can set specific times. So this is an 8 am till 6 pm schedule Monday to Friday. But obviously we can add in on the weekend, if you work the weekend, you can add in multiple blocks.
Kayleigh Tait [00:31:45]: Ben.
Kayleigh Tait [00:31:46]: I wasn’t sure if it was my challenge. We couldn’t hear you then. Might need to connect your headset again or remove your headset. Still can’t hear you.
Kayleigh Tait [00:31:56]: Okay.
Kayleigh Tait [00:31:59]: I wasn’t quite sure whether that was me.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:04]: And thank you for people in the Q&A for confirming.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:08]: I’m sure you were saying some really great things as well.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:14]: Still can’t hear.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:19]: Well, Ben, Ben, connect oh, he’s back.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:23]: And move on, then.
Ben O’Reilly [00:32:24]: There we go!
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:24]: We’re up to schedules. We got you when you were setting the schedule for the weekend.
Ben O’Reilly [00:32:30]: Okay, cool. Okay? So you didn’t miss too much. Yeah, it was just around. You can set those schedules on a list level.
Ben O’Reilly [00:32:36]: And you can also use them for campaigns as well if you need to. So yeah, lists, we can determine I want to call X list that from 9 till 12, and then we’ll call them again a little bit later, so you can have multiple blocks of time within those schedules as well on your lists.
Ben O’Reilly [00:32:54]: And then I was gonna hand back over to you, Kayleigh, to talk about inbound.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:57]: Okay, good.
Kayleigh Tait [00:32:58]: Fab. Okay, I’ll touch on a few different things in regards to effective inbound call management.
Kayleigh Tait [00:33:07]: So we’re going to talk a little bit about inbound strategies. And how actually, how crucial inbound is alongside the outbound campaigns as well. So there’s a few different things here to chat about. The first one being intelligent call routing.
Kayleigh Tait [00:33:27]: So this typically involves directing incoming calls to the most appropriate agent or department based on various different factors.
Kayleigh Tait [00:33:35]: So something we have in the platform very similar to outbound skills-based routing, we have skills-based routing which does what it says on the tin really, routes calls to those agents with either specific skills or expertise.
Kayleigh Tait [00:33:51]: And you can use MaxContact skills matrix to match that caller need with the agent capability. So it really helps with solving challenges head on first time. And it might even be from a sales perspective. You want that sales enquiry to go to someone who knows that product inside out, or is a specialist in selling to a certain persona, whatever it might be, you’re able to set that up in the platform.
Kayleigh Tait [00:34:19]: So that from a sales and debt collection perspective, you’re making the most out of every interaction you’re getting inbound.
Kayleigh Tait [00:34:28]: On the IVR optimisation side of things.
Kayleigh Tait [00:34:32]: An effective IVR system significantly improves that call routing efficiency. So, having clear and concise menus, ensuring that you have a design that is intuitive for IVR menus with clear options.
Kayleigh Tait [00:34:50]: Having limited number of menu levels to prevent caller frustration and having self-serve options as well. So being able to implement automated solutions for common queries, whether that’s taking a payment over the phone and you want that to be agentless, or whether it’s appointment reminders, whatever it might be. There are self-serve options that you can start to build and use as well within the platform.
Kayleigh Tait [00:35:18]: And then, ensuring that, I suppose the IVR menu itself is built from data, from a place of data-driven design, ensuring that you’re analysing those common call reasons. And you’re prioritising those on the IVR menu and you regularly updating those as your customers’ needs change, and as you get more information as an organisation and learn more, that is something that should be regularly reviewed, and ultimately something that can be tested as well, relatively easily. So that’s absolutely something that we recommend before just launching into that IVR design and putting things live.
Kayleigh Tait [00:36:02]: Queue management, so efficient queue management is crucial, for if you are lucky to have those high call volumes from a sales and debt collection perspective. You have people who want to pay or might have queries.
Kayleigh Tait [00:36:15]: So you have got a few different options here, and we call these dynamic queue allocation. So you’re able to adjust queue assignments based on the current call volumes and agent availability. And you can utilise MaxContact’s real-time monitoring as well to make those data-driven queue decisions. So you can see how many people are in the queue at any one point in time. And be able to respond to the data that’s in front of you.
Kayleigh Tait [00:36:42]: You’ve also got queue callbacks so often callers have the option to receive a call back instead of waiting on hold. That usually is a better customer experience for people. And something from a CX perspective that we’d recommend. And you can also implement virtual queueing as well, so that someone can maintain their position without them needing to stay on the call. So just great options that help reduce any sort of customer frustration, but you’re still able to contact any prospect or client that you need to in good time.
Kayleigh Tait [00:37:20]: You’ve also got the helpful things that help with CX as well. So things like estimated wait announcements providing those accurate wait times, and also those alternative contact options for long wait times as well. They’re all things that can be built into your platform and into your IVR system and things we’d really recommend.
Kayleigh Tait [00:37:43]: Next, on call handling efficiency. This is really all about how to get the most out of your team.
Kayleigh Tait [00:37:52]: Who are handling inbound calls. So you do have the option to have a multi-use team and train your agents on both being able to take those inbound calls and do outbound calls as well. It might be that you’re not getting quite the volume you need for a dedicated head just looking after those inbound calls.
Kayleigh Tait [00:38:14]: So that’s something that we can absolutely do within the platform, using the blended dialling features.
Kayleigh Tait [00:38:21]: And that helps switch agents between the tasks and helping manage call volumes, but also in between those tasks, delivering those outbound calls as well. So that you’re really making the most of your team’s time on the phone as well.
Kayleigh Tait [00:38:37]: You’ve got things like unified desktop, where, as an organisation, we have just recently launched the new version of our user experience and user interface, which is contact hub.
Kayleigh Tait [00:38:49]: That is a completely free upgrade. It really helps provide all the necessary tools and information in one interface. And if you have got an integration with CRM, that’s really great for minimising the agents’ desktop, ensuring that everything they need is within the platform that they’re looking at day in, day out and making it as easy as possible. And then you’ve got things like scripting which we touched on earlier that really helps you to be able to deliver a first call resolution.
Kayleigh Tait [00:39:22]: And then finally, on this point is really around warm transfers. So again, just really helping make things easy for your team. So when transfers are necessary within the team that you’re able to ensure that the receiving agent gets all the information they need.
Kayleigh Tait [00:39:40]: And you’ve also got the call whisper feature as well. If you need to brief the next agent before connecting the call. So some good tips around how you can make the teams’ life easier who are working the campaigns.
Kayleigh Tait [00:39:57]: And then, finally, I won’t touch on all of the things in performance monitoring and optimisation. We did that a little bit earlier.
Kayleigh Tait [00:40:06]: But you’ve got the real-time monitoring dashboards, the historical reporting, like I said. But you’ve also got the quality assurance part of the platform.
Kayleigh Tait [00:40:16]: So you’re able to implement a robust call scoring system. You’re able to send coaching messages to the team as well. And then, if you have got Spoken AI, which is MaxContact’s speech analytics platform, you’ll have all the call transcripts as well. Which really helps identify those areas for monitoring, coaching, and training.
Kayleigh Tait [00:40:41]: And I’ll hand back over to Ben, providing we don’t have any more audio.
Ben O’Reilly [00:40:46]: Can you hear this?
Kayleigh Tait [00:40:47]: I can. Yes, thanks.
Ben O’Reilly [00:40:49]: Brilliant.
Ben O’Reilly [00:40:50]: Thanks,
Ben O’Reilly [00:40:50]: Another quick one is – oh, actually sorry! Let me just jump back to that. One other thing just to mention as well with these call recordings. A really, really new feature is the ability to delete your call recordings as long as you’ve got the permission to do so on this page, and you can access this page. From an admin point of view, you can self-serve now, and you can delete call recordings rather than having to create a ticket with the support team for us to go in and remove that for you. You’ve now got the ability to do that yourself simply by clicking that button there. Once you do that, the recording cannot be recovered.
Ben O’Reilly [00:41:38]: And then just a really quick one. When you’re importing data, if you’re buying that data in, you can select obviously the supplier where you’ve got that from. You can create multiple suppliers. There’s a few on that list there. You can add as many as you want in, and you can enter your cost per lead in here. So this particular import set all the leads have cost me 50 pence per lead. There is a report. There is a report that you can run which is called the Supplier Summary Report, which I didn’t have prepared earlier, and that one will basically tell you whether it’s value for money, so it will give you over on the right-hand side your cost per success, total leads costs as well as some other information around, you know, attempts, penetration rate, calls and successes as well. So yeah, in terms of reporting. That’s that one. Kayleigh, do you want me to hand back to you regarding efficiencies?
Kayleigh Tait [00:42:37]: You can feel free to go. We are running short on time. So do you want to jump into the next stage or…
Ben O’Reilly [00:42:44]: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We’ll jump in. We’ll fly through a few of these right? So we’ll carry on. So just a few other tips around sort of other areas that you might want to do. So, first of all, you’ve got data imports if you want them to be dialled the moment they hit MaxContact. What you can do is you can have, so you know it might be from web leads, for example. So what we can do is we can do API imports. And with your API import mapping, what you are able to do is simply, and this is a really quick one, tick that high priority tick box there, and what that will mean is, as soon as they’re imported, they will be called. They will go in ahead of everything else. They’re a high priority lead. They will go in. They will be called pretty much straight away. Another one is to stop manually importing data and use an SFTP upload so as long as you’ve got the SFTP upload set up, a folder with the same name as your API import mapping page. And this is something that obviously our support team can help you with and help you implement. As long as it’s got the right name, you can put your data into those folders. And the system will automatically map that data and import that data into the system for you. So you don’t have to do your manual imports. It will just go in straight away.
Ben O’Reilly [00:44:07]: Another couple of ones around importing data really quickly is if we grab… and very, very quickly. Hence the random clicking. If we go in here down the bottom, you can enable import expiry. So if you have data that you want to expire on a certain date or after a certain number of days, you can set that in here. So obviously with this import, I want it to expire on a specific date or after X number of days, and I can enter those figures in there as well, and then that will allow you to – that data will expire automatically after that time. So you don’t have to go in and clear that data out, etcetera.
Ben O’Reilly [00:44:50]: On the subject of data imports, on your import lead history page, you can undo an import that’s happened by mistake, has gone in and has potentially gone on the wrong list rather than sort of dial through it. And you know, and panic, and just leave it as it is, you can actually just roll that import back nice and quickly. So in your import history – and this import has been rolled back, you can see there that there’s one that’s been rolled back. If we just move that in there. If I select this one here and click the info button, I actually have the option to roll back here so I can roll back that import. It would remove every single lead from that particular list that I’ve imported it onto. Remove them from the system, and then I can redo my import onto the correct list. Just a word of warning. There is an option to roll back dialled numbers. But when you do that, the system will – when you re-import that number, it won’t recognise that you’ve already called that number, because it will have gone in as a separate new lead. So it will call that data again. So it’s just to be aware it will show you. The system will show you. If you’ve already dialled leads off that import. If you do roll those ones back, you are going to dial them again so obviously again, around Ofcom sort of adherence, etc. It’s just something to be aware of there.
Ben O’Reilly [00:46:00]: And we’ve hit 1:46. So we’re a minute over. So I think we will – I will stop there. Pass you back to Kayleigh.
Kayleigh Tait [00:46:10]: Thank you. Yeah. All good stuff, Ben. A couple of questions that we’ve got. So with outbound data, we call the data 3 times before we remove the dials. We leave it 24 hours between calls. Currently, is there a way for each day we call it – each day we call for it to call at different times of the day? So one morning, one early afternoon, one late afternoon. Sorry, I got tongue-tied with that question.
Ben O’Reilly [00:46:39]: Yeah.
Kayleigh Tait [00:46:40]: Do you understand that one, Ben?
Ben O’Reilly [00:46:41]: Kind of, yes. Yeah, no. So obviously, you’ve got your list schedules that you can put on your individual lists, so you could put your data in. You can actually roll over your data from the system recalls page. Let me just really quickly share my screen. And I will show you as quick as I can click within Zoom. Yeah. So on the plans page system recalls, you can actually set recall values. And then there’s this Rollover on Max attempt. So you know, let’s say you’ve got 3 lists. Your first list you call from 9 till 12, when you’ve called them once from that list we put a rollover onto the second list. The second list is set up to call people between 12 and 2 PM. Call them from that again. Roll over on Max attempts onto List 3, which calls from 3 PM to 6 PM, for example. And so you can do that as well, and also as part of your import process, you can set a can-call date and time on your leads as well. So when you go through and you map your data, as you will have seen when I was mapping the skills originally on that mapping page. If I can really quickly whiz to the next page to show you – next page. Oops, pop that in that next. Yep, on here on your default lead table. You can add in a can-call date, which is up there. Actually sorry. Yeah, that one there. So you can map your can-call date and time into that. So you call people at specific times. I hope that answered the question.
Kayleigh Tait [00:48:17]: Think it did. Let us know if it didn’t. Another question is around deletion. So we receive confidential personal files to confirm identity. How is it stored in the platform? It’s on email. Can it be deleted?
Ben O’Reilly [00:48:36]: Yeah, absolutely. So any attachments, as you saw with the call recordings, obviously, you can delete those, and they’re permanently deleted, removed from the system. Any attachments that are sent in, or your agents have uploaded and sent us via an email, via SMS, web chat even, they can be deleted as well from the history. Again, you can go into ticket history and you can remove those. There’s a delete button now, which again, is a new feature that came in at the same time as the recordings. So you can self-serve that as well. Go in. Any sensitive data can be deleted from those tickets.
Kayleigh Tait [00:49:09]: Cheers. Thanks, Ben. Amazing. So I think a lot of those we’re trying to really show you how you can drive efficiencies, how you can be more productive with the tools that are available to you. Sorry, in MaxContact. We know that right now, across a lot of conversations we’re having with customers, driving efficiency is absolutely key. You need more pressure than ever to achieve more with the same resource or less resource, so hopefully that gave you a few tips and tricks and things that you can start to implement. If you do want any more advice, please reach out to us. We’re more than happy to help. So a few highlights of what we covered. So we covered some best practice for high volume campaigns, talked about progressive, predictive and outbound skills-based routing, shared some strategies for efficient call routing and for inbound situations like emergency routing, result codes in IVRs, and we looked at some of the performance indicators. And we will send out the benchmark report after we have finished this call. And then, finally, just how you can be a bit more efficient. We know it’s really important. So we’ll send out a follow-up email, including the recording, the transcript and the slides. But thank you very much for attending the webinar. Hope you found it useful. If there’s anything that you would find useful in future webinars, please let us know as well. We’re more than happy to create content. There is one question. Oh, no, it was a confirmation. You answered the question, Ben. Well done, thank you, and that’s us.
Ben O’Reilly [00:50:52]: Thank you. Thanks.
Kayleigh Tait [00:50:53]: Thank you. Thanks, Ben, thanks everyone.
Ben O’Reilly [00:50:55]: Thanks guys.
Your Questions Answered
Q: Can you use the blackout days functionality for times of the day instead? For example, if your hours change on a Bank Holiday, could you use that functionality at that point?
A: Ben: Yes, absolutely. You can point it to a separate time element which has those specific opening hours for that particular day, and then route that through to your queue or your out-of-hours message.
Q: With outbound data, we call the data 3 times before we remove the dials. We leave it 24 hours between calls. Currently, is there a way for each day we call for it to call at different times of the day? So one morning, one early afternoon, one late afternoon.
A: Ben explained that this can be achieved through a combination of features:
- Use list schedules to set specific calling times for different lists.
- Utilise the system recalls feature on the plans page to set recall values and use the “Rollover on Max attempt” option.
- Set up multiple lists with different calling schedules (e.g., 9 AM to 12 PM, 12 PM to 2 PM, 3 PM to 6 PM).
- During the import process, you can set a “can call date and time” for leads, allowing you to specify when each lead should be called.
Q: We receive confidential personal files to confirm identity. How is it stored in the platform? If it’s on email, can it be deleted?
A: Ben: Yes, absolutely. Any attachments, whether they’re sent in via email, SMS, or web chat, can be deleted. You can go into ticket history and remove these attachments. There’s a delete button available now, which is a new feature. This allows you to self-serve and delete any sensitive data from tickets.
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