The Important of FCR in Customer Service

FCR, or First Call Resolutions, is that part of customer service that records the number of calls that were resolved on the very first instance. Sometimes callers have to ring up the inbound call centre desk more than once for a single problem. A call centre that pays attention to the FCR percentage doesn’t allow a problem to lie. They make the best possible attempt to get it sorted out on the first attempt made by the caller. This has several advantages to it. Firstly, it reduces the operational cost at the answering service desk. Callers, when they find a solution to their problem, don’t call again with the same issue. So the BPO unit doesn’t have to pay for repeat calls.

Customer Service, Probably the best advantage of a high FCR is the customer satisfaction. Customers like your customer service when you manage to pin down your problem immediately. This attains two benefits for the telemarketing department. One is that the call centre agent can build up on the customer’s good mood to cross sell and up sell. Another benefit is that because the callers are happy with your call centre services, they will not think about moving over to some other brand. This keeps your clients happy and is fruitful for your business in the long run.

Additional Call Centre Services : Direct Mail Follow-Up

Helios Outsourcing is adding some new call centre services to its existing menu. These BPO divisions are derivates of what we already have. One of those new additions is the Direct Mail Follow-up Services. This is the process by which we nurture leads and bring them to sales. We follow up on every possible lead through emails to remind the contact about the product/service that we are trying to sell to them. The purpose of the email is to ensure that the contact remembers about your brand in spite of the busy life that they have to lead. A busy professional is more likely to forget a telemarketing call.

We must take into account that just like your brand wants a contact on the subscriber list, there are other Call Centres trying for the same goal. It will not be a surprise if your rival BPO company is contacting them as well! To stay ahead of this race, you have to be on the mind of the decision-maker. Our outbound Call Centre department shoots off regular emails as reminders about the conversation that led to the lead. We also rely on telemarketing calls to verify and quantify leads. It is our company policy to make sure we pass a list of verified leads to our clients.

Database Cleansing for Lead Generation

Lead generation can be a fruitful exercise only if you have a proper database. Database services are an important part of our call centre services menu. Helios Outsourcing employs quality database programmers. They help you cleanse your database from spam traps, bots, bogus email ids and also telephone numbers that are listed on the national Do Not Call lists. This helps the sales lead generation process to a great degree. It takes off all those email ids and phone numbers that are unproductive and only clutter up the database. Without these elements, your database becomes optimized and your lead to sale conversion ration improves drastically.

Helios Outsourcing can update and maintain a database with a high volume of data. Our BPO database programmers make it possible for our clients to access the database online and across all branches of their office. Our call centre agents monitor the database round the clock. We realize that the database is the key to successful lead generation campaigns. We are concerned about the safety of the database from external and internal threats. We have a proven track record to show how much we have been able to satisfy our clients in database services. We also offer technical support to different kinds of servers and data banks.

Short Guide for Telemarketing Agents

We are always writing about the BPO business. Today, let’s talk about the people who make that possible: the call center agents and employees! How can they improve their work? Here’s a short guide:

• Attempt the tougher part of the job first. Make those lead generation calls to the customers you think are difficult to tackle. Once you get those out of the way, you will feel less burdened to call the others!Telemarketing services is about concentration. When you are not working, listen to music or read books. Let your brain wander. That way, when you are back at the work station, you can deliver to the best of your ability.
• Exercise keeps the energy levels high. After working for long stretches at the call center, your body needs some release. Make sure you do some brisk walking for about 30 minutes in the morning. Indulge in some free-hand exercises, too.
• Your work desk is a reflection of your personality and state of mind. A cluttered desk confuses the mind and you end up mixing up your call center services. Keep the desk in order so that you know the sequence of your daily work.
• Keep meetings and other appointments in your schedule. Avoid last minute additions and modifications. Customer service or lead generation both happen to be jobs that have a time factor.

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.