Lead Generation: SEO & Social Media

More BPO companies are relying on a combined effect of SEO and social media to conduct lead generation campaigns online. But, as we have reported in various posts in the past on this blog, the call centers are thriving to get it right. The question that they are asking is, why will they invest in social media campaigns for sales lead generation? Here are two reasons to check out if your business needs it:

• Install tracking software on your websites and blogs. If you have ‘Share’ buttons on them that lead to your corporate pages on Facebook or Twitter, you will be able to find out how many people are posting your links on these platforms. You can also find out how many people are sharing your link with their friends through email. The data will help you convince the programming team to install more social network buttons on the website.

• Get your call center managers to study click reports. Through online tools, you can track down every click that is made on your website or your corporate page on social media networks. This will help you check out how many people are being directed to your website from sites like Facebook and Twitter. With more people coming in from these channels, you will have better chances of making a case supporting social media activity for B2B lead generation.

Beyond the Customer Service Script

The script used by the agents at customer service is very often the reason why they cannot improve the quality of their service. The callers are live voices, and when they choose to speak to a call center agent, they want to interact with a live voice. They get bored and irritated when the BPO agent is not willing to move away from the set script and help them out. That is something that the supervisors in the inbound call center department have to think over. The supervisor can begin by offering the agents more authority to solve cases. When they are heavily dependent on approvals from seniors, they delay the process of solving problems.

As for the agents, customer service is all about interaction. Speak to the callers casually. Make them interested in conversation. Make comments that make them smile. Experienced inbound call center agents know that flattery goes a distance in telemarketing. Make the caller feel important and privileged. At the same time, BPO agents have to careful about what they say. They must not ignore the fact that they are representing a company or a client. When pushing for lead generation, agents are often rude and curt. They try to get directly to the point. But that is the wrong approach. Telemarketing services is dynamic. To succeed, you will have to play by the rules.

Perfect BPO Model Combo of Onshore & Offshore

The perfect BPO model is not a well-optimized offshore call centre set-up. It’s a combination of onshore and offshore call centres. That’s the writing on the wall for the telemarketing sector. Call centre service providers in countries like India and the Philippines feel an increasing need to acquire stakes in countries like USA and UK. The physical presence of an office in these countries is essential for them to bag customer service project. It counters the argument that offshore destinations are draining away all the jobs from the domestic markets. Clients also want their business process outsourcing partners to have some presence in the domain and market that they will be working on.

As obvious, the acquisition of call centres in these high-cost locations will squeeze the profit margins. But the telemarketing market grows wider when they do so. That, in turn, increases the revenue that they earn from telemarketing services. This is the simple logic that BPO units are banking on. Moreover, having call centres in different locations help source better talent. To be ahead of the game in customer service or lead generation means you will have to enrich your workforce at all times. Clients prefer about 60% of the work to be done onshore and outsource the rest to offshore call centre units.

Telemarketing Drives Profit in BPO

Statistics coming in from assorted studies have showed that telemarketing contributes to the major chunk of a BPO’s earnings. The telemarketing services were the most hired among the call center services. This was largely the idea of call center experts for years down the line. However, of late, web marketing and help desk services have made some significant cuts in the percentage of contribution made by the telemarketing business.

The easier conclusion is that the telemarketing company enjoys more revenues on a yearly basis than their non-voice counterparts. In fact, the findings not just validate the importance of the telemarketing calls, it also confirms something else.

Contrary to the belief that other forms of lead generation like websites and email marketing is still waiting to catch up with the good old telemarketing! But you cannot really write them off. Sales lead generation through other non-voice means have come up strongly from being relegated to the sidelines.

If you consider the fact that telemarketing calls were around for decades while the others are almost infant in terms of years of usage, you have to say that the telemarketing business has a challenge on their sleeves. It remains to be seen how long telemarketing services continues to hold fort as the highest-earning BPO service.

Incentives for Telemarketing Agents

Incentives are primary ingredients to motivate telemarketing agents. The incentives can be in the form of monetary reward, gifts or other privileges like a separate cabin or even better parking spots. It depends on the call center and how much they can afford to spend as incentives in the lead generation department. But as a BPO unit, you have to bring about the practice of rewarding your employees when they achieve something beyond the average benchmark. Helios Outsourcing has a graded system of incentives. We reward employees according to their performances measured on several different metrics.

There are incentives in the sales lead generation department when an agent does a cross or up sell, or in the customer service team when the agent persuades an irate customer not to leave the network. We actively encourage our a BPO agents through praises broadcasted on the intranet and also by word of mouth. We have a monthly ritual of rewarding the best three employees of our call center units. They are given gifts, sometimes of their choice! While incentives are the external form of appreciation towards our employees, our trust and their dedication is the key to our relationship. We believe in mutual respect and progress and that is what makes our telemarketing team among the best in the world.