It requires a leap of faith to hire an outsourced call center services provider for a B2B lead generation, appointment setting, customer win-back or customer survey program. For the risk-averse – and who isn’t? – the doubts mount: How do I know if the outbound call center will be effective? How can I be sure I’ll like the way its representatives talk with potential customers? How do I decide if the risk is worthwhile? Why would I make a long-term commitment to an untested call center?The best way to address these issues is to start with a scaled-down pilot project that minimizes your financial risk while testing your outsourced call center’s capabilities. And it’s a great way to hold your call center accountable for strong results.A good pilot project is a balancing act. It should be small enough to minimize your financial risk yet large enough to be an accurate test of the call center’s skills. It should give the call center’s representatives enough cold calling “at bats” with your sales pitch that they become proficient, confident and conversational when delivering it.In terms of scale, we recommend approximately 150 hours. This would enable two or three outbound call center services representatives to each devote 50 to 75 hours to your program, less than two weeks of work apiece, and build up the knowledge of your sales messaging, your product or service, your customers and your market to enable you to decide whether to continue the program.The well-run pilot project has two critical and interrelated elements: Mid-course corrections and detailed reporting. Once results start to come in, it’s important that you and your call center services program manager examine them and make program adjustments in real time that refine and improve your messaging, your target audience and other program elements.Doing this requires detailed and quick reporting. Be sure your call center can provide daily reports that capture the outcome of every call. This let you assess the call center’s productivity (how many calls they made) as well as the number of calls that resulted in new leads, appointments, completed surveys, rejections or no contact made. Ongoing program assessment also includes gathering feedback from your front-line agents. Meet with your team of representatives and ask for their impressions of the calls, what seems to be working and what doesn’t. Listen to recordings of calls and identify effective calling tactics. Accentuate what’s working and eliminate what doesn’t.A good pilot project should give you a strong idea of a scaled-up program’s likelihood of success. Demand plenty of data and agent access, and you’ll improve your ability to make a smart decision on whether you should increase your call center investment.Mark Fichera, CEOOnBrand24Call Center ServicesBeverly, Massachusetts
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In a typical year, the outsourced call center services business moderates during the second quarter. The reason is simple: it’s not a strong sales period for most retailers.
But here at OnBrand24, we’re enjoying strong second quarter growth. Since May 1, we have won more than 10 new clients, and many of our existing clients are growing their programs with us. The activity level in our call center facility – and accompanying noise and buzz – sounds more like the fourth quarter holiday period than the typical pre-summer slowdown.
Why the growth? We think the answer lies in our call center services business model:
• 100% domestic outsourcing
• 100% premise-based agents (no virtual agents working from home)
• Strong senior management involvement and commitment to each client’s success
• Hands-on custom program development, management and oversight
The temptation to cut corners is strong in the call center services business. We see others do it all the time. But we believe you must stick to core principles, and core principles all get back to quality.
And we call tell you our new clients are not interested in a corner cutting call center services outsourcer.
It’s interesting to look at the variety of industries and markets our new clients come from. Furniture retail, law enforcement technology, business services, voice and data technology, financial services – it covers the gamut.
And the programs involve both outbound B2B lead generation and appointment setting along with inbound call center customer service, order taking service, help desk and email / chat support.
To all of our new clients, we say welcome aboard! We look forward to a successful ride together.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, MA
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This year’s Internet Retailer Conference & Expo (IRCE) in Chicago demonstrated once again that IRCE is a great trade show both for exhibitors and attendees seeking new retailing and e-commerce strategies.
The OnBrand24 booth, located within a quadrant of the show floor for exhibitors focused on operations, fulfillment and customer service, enjoyed a steady stream of visitors inquiring about the full array of our call center services: customer service outsourcing, order processing / order taking service and other inbound call center services; and on the outbound side: B2B lead generation, appointment setting, database scrubbing, customer surveys, customer win-back and other outbound call center services.
The other three quadrants of the show floor at the McCormick Center were devoted to marketing/loyalty, merchandising and design, and e-commerce platforms. They all generated tremendous buzz as tech vendors showed off new capabilities.
In fact, we talked with several attendees who are in the throes of selecting and implementing a new e-commerce back-end. And because we work with a wide variety of companies, we were able to provide guidance on e-commerce technology based on our experience with different platforms. This is part of our value proposition: our exposure, through our varied clientele, to new retailing and e-commerce technology.
But even as the tech sections of the IRCE floor created a lot of excitement the customer service section was busy too. That’s because good companies recognize the eternal value of providing their customers not only with excellent tech-based support but also high-level human interaction.
There’s no substitute for a friendly, knowledgeable and helpful customer service call center services specialist at the other end of the phone line answering customers’ product questions and providing order updates.
Lesson learned again: Tech-based solutions only take you so far. The human factor, in the form of personalized service, takes you the extra mile.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, Massachusetts
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OnBrand24 will make its annual pilgrimage to the Internet Retailer Conference and Expo (IRCE) in Chicago next week, and this year, our booth will offer something extra.
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OnBrand24 will be at next week’s Annual Call Center Expo in Seattle, ICMI’s 10th annual edition and a global gathering for the call center services and contact center industry.
It’s a four-day forum for education, networking and a source for up-to-date information about the call center services industry. It includes workshops, site tours, case studies, panels, and discussions on a wide-ranging selection of industry-specific topics including the latest technologies and services.
We are first-time exhibitors at ACCE, which draws a national audience from the retail and e-commerce industries, from business services (continuity, loyalty, membership), technology, healthcare and hospitals and manufacturing.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, MA
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Account managers at ad agencies play multiple roles for their clients, and one of them is helping them find marketing services vendors. This can include call center services providers, and it happens when clients launch a new product, have a promotional campaign or need to replace a poorly performing call center.
But how do you find one?
Certainly, account managers can ask colleagues and friends for a recommendation. But if that doesn’t work...?
The best approach is to establish a series of qualifications that the call center must meet.
These can include:
- Experience – Look for a call center with at least 10 years of experience. Call centers can be like restaurants. They come and go. The good ones stay.
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When customers call after 6 p.m. to make a purchase they often get customer service from machinery -- an answering machine, telling them to call back during normal business hours.
No one likes treating customers this way. Not sales managers, not operations managers, not customer service managers. But none of them likes paying call center staff for after-hours idle time when call volume is light.
However, there’s a price to be paid for this practice. Bottom line: retailers and e-tailers may be losing significant revenue.
To measure lost after-hours sales, first calculate your after-hours call volume. Here’s a rule of thumb: for every eight inbound calls during an average day you get one after 6 p.m.
Then figure out how many inbound customer calls results in a sale during a typical day. Take that ratio and apply it to your average number of after-hours calls per week.
Lastly, multiply your after hours sales calls by your average sales order.
Let's assume you get 75 after-hours calls per week and your average order is $100. If one call in five calls results in a sale, then each week you get 15 after-hours sales calls that go to an answering machine. Multiplied by $100, that's $78,000 in annual lost revenue.
But that's not the entire cost. You also lose repeat customer sales, opportunities to build goodwill and referral business, to encourage customer loyalty and to demonstrate your commitment to excellent customer service.
What's the cost of live after-hours customer support?
For OnBrand24 outsourced call center services, we charge by the minute (no charge for idle time) and a typical inbound call costs about $3. Three dollars to capture $100 in revenue is ahealthy ROI.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Premier Call Center Services
Beverly, MA
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Forrester Research reports that the U.S. and European ecommerce sectors are extremely healthy despite lingering recessionary conditions in both regions.
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OnBrand24 went north of the border last week to participate in the Dx3 Conference in Toronto, attended by several hundred exhibitors and companies.
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