By Kathy Sisk
In my forty years as a call center consultant and trainer, I’ve witnessed many mistakes that could have been avoided or quickly corrected. I’ve observed many telemarketing programs that suffer from the same types of problems, repeated from one campaign to the next. The failures fall into three groups: before the calling begins, during the calling, and after the call.
The goal of a telemarketing program is ensuring a more positive outcome for everyone: clients, call centers, and customers. Equipping the right people with the right tools is essential and must be enforced. We’ll start with before the calling period begins.
Preplan the Campaign:
Calling shouldn’t start without a written plan, agreed to by all parties. I have identified twenty points to cover in a plan. It will change as the program moves along, but it’s imperative to follow a logical path. Without a written plan, blame for problems is usually misdirected. When this happens it’s difficult to rectify the failure.
To avoid this, my company maintains a project management guide (PMG) for every campaign. All parties are required to study the PMG and discuss any issues and rework them prior to starting the campaign. Whether inbound or outbound, we work to see what is effective and which areas that might require improvement. This is the testing, or ramping up, phase of the campaign.
Program Objective:
All concerned parties must have the same understanding of the campaign objectives. This includes the client, service provider, agents, and assigned project manager (APM). The client communicates to the APM what they want accomplished, along with their campaign expectations and specifications. A comprehensive questionnaire form, the “account overview,” accomplishes this.
Once the client completes the form, the information is transferred to the PMG, and the assigned center’s staff is properly orientated and trained. A program can have several levels of objectives (such as setting appointments, sending literature, generating leads, taking orders, troubleshooting, conducting surveys, and so forth.) All objectives and levels are predefined and identified in the client PMG, which is the roadmap to success for the client’s outsourcing campaign.
In the next issue I’ll share the expectations and other vital aspects for setting up, managing, and achieving a successful campaign.
Kathy Sisk Enterprises Inc. has forty years of experience providing call center setup, reengineering, assessments, training, script development, and project management services to centers globally.