How are you delivering customer service?

A Big Lie
The biggest lie today (put about by marketing departments) is that ‘the customer is in charge’
Another Bigger Lie…
… is that ‘customer service is better’…..and if you believe that you will believe anything. It simply isn’t true. Anybody can tell you that most customer service is bad, very bad, actually worse than bad, it’s dreadful.

So why do businesses try to put the customer in charge?
The one and only reason to put the customer in charge is simply costs. Financial costs for the business go down and…..perceived service goes up because customers are doing the work themselves. In a world of imperfect customer service, most customers prefer to help themselves (think IKEA!)

Stop and Think!
It’s amazing that as customer we feel betrayed yet an entire business philosophy is so obviously without substance. The majority of businesses are failing to deliver. The customer is not king and is still waiting to be heard.

Reality sets in
It really is dismal….how often in the past month have you been told by the call centre ‘We are experiencing higher than usual call volumes’ or ‘you are in a queue’? But guess what? These statements are always followed by the most irritating comment, ‘We value your call’.

If they truly value my call why do I always have to wait? If they are experiencing higher than usual call volumes then why can’t the customer expect higher than average staffing levels?

Smell the coffee

Some companies are actually starting to wake up to the fact that customers’ opinions are valuable and that customer ratings need to be looked at and acted upon. They are becoming aware that most customers do not feel ‘in charge’ and they realise that if they stand out from the rest and really do put their customers in charge they can be ahead of the pack.

Real relationships blow away the sizzle of institutional hype

There are now huge opportunities for the independently-minded businesses to stand out from the crowd and step away from mediocrity and instead of forgetting about the customer focus on how to understand them more.

The best-kept secret about customer service?
• Customer service tends to be bad because it really is very hard to do.
• The real (best-kept) secret is to treat the customer like you would like to be treated yourself.
• The really hard part of providing excellent customer service is not the service! The really hard part is everything but the service! The hard part is to do with how the company thinks about what they are doing and how they behave as a consequence.

Most airlines offer bad service (and bad food) because they don’t actually think of themselves as service organisations – they see themselves as machines for generating revenue per seat per mile. Banks don’t see themselves as service organisations – they see themselves as an organisation to generate profits for their investors. Insurance companies don’t see themselves as a service organisation – they see themselves as providing a way for people to protect their families, homes, cars.

So how can it change?
While many people will accept and even tolerate the mediocrity that surrounds us. An opportunity exists to beat your competition and get closer to your customers so you can give them a truly first rate service, fill niches and put them back ‘in charge’.

According to research telemarketing remains an important part of the marketing mix. A new survey conducted by B2B Marketing revealed that 70% of respondents regarding telemarketing as either ‘critical’ or ‘very important’. Just under half of respondents 45% said their use of telemarketing has increased during the last 12 months, compared with less than 10% who said their use of it has decreased.

These statistics are no surprise because it is the only medium that enables true two-way dialogue with target audiences. It is the fastest, most flexible and most information rich approach to generating demand, gathering information and building relationships with prospects, customers and partners.

Telemarketing creates huge and diverse opportunities for businesses to reach out and connect with their customers and prospects – but have also produced challenges. Getting it right is the key and treading the fine line between improving customer experience and using it primarily to benefit a business’s bottom line. While customers are now more demanding than ever…the first step in exceeding their expectations is to know those expectations.

7 Tips for Telemarketing Success

Outbound telemarketing is a key aspect in most B2B marketing plans. Done well it is a cost-effective, measurable and scalable activity; done badly it is one of the surest ways of alienating your prospects and ruining your brand.

Sadly, too many companies do it badly. They employ untrained staff, equip them with a telephone and directories, some mumbled advice and no planned training schemes, and then wonder why they have no sales leads and disgruntled telemarketing agents.

Running telemarketing campaigns takes time and effort and the first step is getting the basics right, such as saying the right thing to the right person in the right way – sounds simple but it’s amazing how many businesses get it wrong. So here’s some easy ways to make sure you get it right (and you can always call us if you need some help along the way)

1. The Right Message
It’s essential that you brief your telemarketers on the product or service you want them to sell. Just giving them a script is rarely enough. Most professionals agree that reading from a script will not return the results you will be looking for and reduces the effectiveness of any campaign.

2. The Audience
It’s possible to spend a lot of time trying to sell your product to the wrong person so before you even pick up the phone make sure you have targeted the right person or department. People frequently change job titles so bear in mind that a list that’s older than 12 months will contain a lot of redundant data. It’s also important to cross check all the data to ensure that no one is included who has asked to be removed from call lists.

3. The Medium
B2B telemarketers have very different skill sets from those who work on consumer marketing. Your team needs to be responsive to what your prospects are saying. Forcing people into appointments wastes time and ultimately damages your brand.

4. The Delivery
Everyone has an individual style, but there are some fundamental rules. Successful telemarketers work hard to get gatekeepers (receptionists and PA’s) on their side. They are prepared, confident and always polite.

5. Timing
The best time for making calls varies and can depend on what campaign you are running. Many argue that Friday afternoons are a bad time to call people, but others point out that it can be a good time to catch prospects in a receptive mood, relaxing down into the weekend. Persistence is the key to getting through to your prospect.

6. Motivating Staff
Outbound telemarketing is a tough job that requires a thick skin and an ability to persevere in the face of initially poor results, so it’s important to be able to motivate staff and this will take more than a trip to the local under the guise of ‘team building’. Motivation requires clear, realistic targets and rewards for reaching them and not forgetting support and training which is essential especially if targets are not reached.

7. Getting Help
This advice all sounds great, but the reality is often very different and so it is unsurprising that many companies prefer to bring in external specialists and if you are considering doing this we can help you get the results you need.

We specialise in B2B telemarketing with a large team of highly trained resource specifically recruited for their B2B aptitude, compliant training programmes and agents with years of B2B experience. We can provide smart account management so you get advanced marketing insight backed up by recommendations for enhancement and improvements.

We’ve a proven track record and delivery top quality results consistently with multi channel approaches built to maximise your appointment volumes and sales results over the long-term with popular ‘keep-warm strategies’ to keep your customers focused and engaged with you.

With a strong pedigree and impeccable reputation you’re in safe hands right from the word go with a start-up process that includes pilots projects to make sure your telemarketing experience will be a journey to higher profits and cost savings.

If you need help give us a call, we make telemarketing better, it’s what we do.