PCMS Contact Centre

Continuing the theme of knowledge in the contact centre from my last blog, today’s blog is about how product knowledge benefits agents on the phone. Agents need enough knowledge to be able to answer most queries on the phone.  The more agents know about the products they are selling or representing, the more able they are to present the benefits to customers and to also adapt them to individual customers.

A few years ago when I first started at PCMS we ran a campaign for our leading EPoS product, VISION Beanstore.  During the campaign our task was to arrange meetings for our team with retailers to discuss PCMS products and solutions and how they could be of benefit.  As part of my training I was able to experience BeanStore from development to actually using the system as you would in-store. I found that after this experience when I considered the objections I may come up against, I would be ready for everything, because I was positive we provided an amazing product. This passion for our product resulted in the campaign being extremely successful.

I find that the more myself and my agents know about the product they are selling, the more confidently we approach each phone call. This is because we are sure that whatever objection or question that comes up during the call we will be able to answer with relevant information and not just repeating from a script. This means that you sound more professional on the phone and that the person you are calling is more likely to take you and the product seriously. We provide product knowledge in a number of ways, where selling a number of products that could be sold together we ask the staff to role play cross selling different products, if it is one service the agents make themselves familiar with the services and the benefits it provides its users.

Knowledge is a fantastic tool in the contact centre and there are many ways to impart knowledge on to the agents. Find fun and motivating ways for agents to learn and gain knowledge if its fun to learn they are more likely to remember it.

Carly Smith

New Business Specialist

You might have heard Christmas is coming soon, but what does that mean for a customer contact centre offering telemarketing / telesales?

Well, the results can be mixed, if your customer contact centre is offering telesales then there is every chance that sales will go through the roof if you are selling consumer products.  Telemarketing is a different beast, when appointment booking I’ve had some real gems booked in ready for the New Year, remember not everyone will be on holiday.  Where possible every Customer Contact Centre needs to think about the best use of their agents’ time.  This might mean letting more agents have holiday during this period if appropriate, I like to use the period between Christmas and New Year to prepare to hit the ground running when normal services resume.  Here are my 5 tips for making the most of the quiet period;

1.        Holidays – as I have said before, and mentioned in previous blogs, when telemarketing agents are making call after call and only hearing ‘she / he is on holiday until 4^th January,’ their motivation drops and they stop expecting any success.  If you can, let a few more agents than usual have time off so they are ready for when targets are back from annual leave.

2.       Look for the diamonds – every year without fail the majority of agents working during that period will find a diamond in the mix.  Months of searching and repeated calling will result in a Director’s PA being on holiday and the call going straight through or a much sought after prospect having a free diary during that time for a key sales appointment.  This happens every year, don’t forget this time can be a goldmine!

3.       Training – while the agents have time to think and thoughts turn to success for 2012 use the time to train telemarketing agents.  Telemarketing agents can practice new techniques, update call flows and go back through product knowledge to keep themselves fresh for 2012.

4.       Make a date with data – the success of any telemarketing contract is driven by the quality of the data.  While things are quiet use this time to revisit your data making sure contacts are up to date, best telephone numbers are held and email addresses are correct.  Time invested in telemarketing foundations will be reaped in the New Year.

Jo Bell, Commercial Director at Mortascreen, provided some eye opening statistics in the October issue of Promotional Marketing Magazine; “It is a staggering fact that data decays at an alarming rate if you consider 7,000 people moving home and 1,500 people passing away every day.  Data is often overlooked as a company asset….”

5.       Plan for success – as a manager use the time to your best advantage by planning for 2012 if you haven’t already done so.  Look for the best time for promotions, consider when extra holiday requests will come in, think about the impact of the Olympics and other sporting events on resources, look for new opportunities and think about how you can develop you team to continue the success you have built up so far.

Heidi Coles

Business Development Executive

Unqualified appointments are a pain; some agents hear ‘No’ a few times and then get excited at the slightest hint of interest and book you appointments that are totally unrelated to what you wish to promote. This results in your sales team turning up to appointments that are a waste of time, costing you money and it is frustrating and demotivating for your sales team. Here is a list of what we find are the top 5 appointments you don’t want and need to weed out during the calling process:

1. The ‘Yes’ person, they mean well and they don’t want to disappoint the appointment maker but when the salesperson turns up there is no project in the pipeline, no budget and worse still they aren’t even the decision maker.
2. No budget, this person has grand ideas of where they want their company or department to be but when it comes to signing on the dotted line they don’t have the cash to spend.
3. No real need, they are looking around for ideas of how to move the company forward but they have no direction.
4. Not the decision maker, if there is real interest in your service or product the decision maker will make an effort to meet with you.
5. The Manipulator, they are with your competitor and they have no interest in your product/service but they are using you to drive down the price of their current supplier.

When appointment making, you have to be able to confidently and politely ask the direct questions needed to qualify your leads, it’s the only way to find out the truth and ensure that your sales teams aren’t sent on a wild goose chase. Asking these questions saves people time and money; it also results in more confident and motivated salespeople attending new prospect meetings.

Carly Smith

New Business Specialist