It is said, “When you hand good people possibility, they do great things”. Tele-calling teams do well when provided with incentives, training and motivation but to make them more productive, it is critical to implement the following simple yet effective changes in your contact centre-
Adopt a phone-call blueprint
A fundamental approach to improve the outcome of outbound telecalls is to adopt a blueprint strategy. A phone-call blueprint is different from a script. A script contains a set of questions and phrases for the telecallers to use during a call which may not always be relevant to the customer’s needs.
A call blueprint, on the other hand, lays out a call structure along with check points. It includes pre-call planning, clear understanding of call objectives and the product they’re dealing in, and the knowledge of why the customer would need their product.
Some check points included in a call blueprint are-
- Clear introduction of the agent
- Effective questioning to understand the challenges faced by a customer and her needs thereon.
- Summarising to clarify that the agent has understood customer’s requirements correctly.
- Presenting your product as the solution to customer’s problem, highlighting its specifications tailored according to customer’s needs.
- Handling objections of the customers by clearly articulating how the agent’s product will work around those issues.
- Closing the call by asking for the order if the customer seems interested and ensuring that the next steps to be followed are communicated in a lucid manner.
Empower the response team to make their own decision
For telecalling team to be productive, it is important that they have enough leeway to make decisions that represent what the customer wants. This is difficult to do when telecallers follow a script rigidly, which may include irrelevant trivia that prolongs the interaction.
Empowerment comes from involvement, and learning from mistakes, through self-learning or 1-2-1 coaching. It is essential to trust your team and to give them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes to help them find better solutions.
Allow tele-calling team to share their experiences and advices
More often than not, telecalling teams are not involved in the exercise of mapping out new procedures, laying out strategies to improve productivity, and realigning processes.
It is important to involve the telecallers in such performance-improvement exercises as they know where the problems are, what the areas of improvement are and where the processes cease to perform.
Pair best with the best
The practice of putting the best team leaders with the worst performers in the hope that they would improve has now become redundant.
Pair best team leaders with best performers. Playing to the strengths of each team leader and positioning people according to their skills goes a long way in boosting performance.
Improve internal communication
Effective internal communication system is pivotal in creating productive telecalling environment. Ensure that the teams and individuals have periodic updates on targets and deadlines, and latest information about deals and products, so that everyone focuses on the same results and continues to learn and improve at the same pace.
