Boost Your Sales with Telemarketing Software
In today’s digitally connected world a whopping 92% of customer communications still happen through business phones. The quality of your customer service relies on how effective your telemarketing efforts are. Investing in feature-rich Telemarketing Software is a smart move for businesses aiming at delivering exceptional customer service experience.
Telemarketing software helps businesses push their potential for accelerating revenue generation. Throughout this blog, we’ll discuss the fundamentals of telemarketing as well as some key factors that make telemarketing software an asset to your company.
What is telemarketing software?
Telemarketing software is a technological aid for businesses to streamline their call center operations for achieving business goals such as acquiring or retaining more customers, spreading brand awareness, nurturing customer relationships, etc.
Types of telemarketing
Telemarketing can be broadly categorized into inbound, outbound, and automated calling.
Inbound telemarketing
When a business receives calls from customers, it is known as Inbound Telemarketing. It helps in retaining existing customers through post-sales service as well as acquiring new customers by resolving queries.
Outbound telemarketing
When a business proactively contacts prospects through voice calls, it is known as Outbound Telemarketing. The focus of this type of marketing is to boost conversion rate and enhance marketing outreach. However, it can also be used for surveys and feedback collection.
Automated telemarketing
As part of the telemarketing category, this involves the collection of data through computerized or prerecorded messages. It’s mostly used for surveys and feedback collection. It can also be used as a marketing tool for telemarketing promotions and for raising awareness.
5 must-have features in telemarketing software
Most service providers offer a wide array of features to choose from. Businesses must choose a set of features that cater to their communication needs. Here are some mandatory telemarketing software features that every business must leverage to drive efficiency in telemarketing.
An autodialer is the most useful feature in outbound telemarketing software for automating manual dialing of contact numbers as per prepared lists. It saves time, reduces errors, and improves connect rates. Progressive/Power dialers serve as a catalyst for outbound calling as it speeds up dialing by weeding out busy tones and wrong numbers. It helps agents to maximize their potential in the least amount of time.
Call routing
82% of customers expect their issues to be resolved by talking to one agent. When calls are routed without any specific strategy, it leads to multiple transfers hampering the customer experience. Call routing feature refers to routing the calls as per the preset algorithm to ensure connecting the caller to the agent who can resolve the issue. Skill-based routing is one of the smartest call strategies that routes call to agents equipped with the required skill set for addressing specific customer issues. It is an effective inbound telemarketing software to boost your FCR rates.
Automatic call distribution
When calls are not distributed properly, it may result in long call queues, leading to customer frustration. The Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system is the feature that automates the distribution of incoming calls to available agents for preventing such crises. It not only helps cut down call queues but also decreases call drop-offs due to lengthy waiting times.
IVR system
The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is a self-service choice that customers either love or hate. Some customers do not like to talk to an IVR while some customers enjoy quicker resolution through IVR. A simple IVR is used to keep the customer engaged when on hold, whereas a multi-level IVR helps in identifying customer concerns to direct the call to the right department.
Contact management
Managing all center contacts manually is a time-consuming process. Moreover, there’s a higher chance of human error leading to quality issues like duplicate contacts, merging of wrong contacts, missing details, etc. Telemarketing software automates the process of contact management, improving accuracy and efficiency.
5 capabilities your telemarketing software must have
Telemarketing is no more restricted to just voice calls, customers are interested to interact through multiple channels. Therefore, modern telemarketing software is equipped with some new-age features and functionalities that help businesses meet emerging customer expectations and demands.
CRM integration
CRM software stores all the customer information such as demographics, preferences, conversation history, etc. If CRM software is integrated into call center software, agents get access to customer information before interacting with them. It enables agents to understand customers’ profiles and lead the conversation accordingly. For instance, if the customer had contacted the business earlier, the agent can view the conversation history to pick up the discussion from where it ended earlier. It prevents the customers from the hassle of repeating themselves thereby elevating the experience.
Omnichannel communication
Businesses are opening up new communication channels for the convenience of customers. It includes email, social media messaging, live chat, etc. Handling multiple channels becomes easier when there’s a unified platform. Omnichannel telemarketing software can make this possible. It integrates all the communication channels to provide complete visibility of customer interactions thereby resolving issues through all channels more effectively and consistently.
Data analytics & reporting
Call centers receive tons of calls every day providing a huge scope for businesses to collect data through telemarketing software. Over 90% of enterprises plan to increase investment in data analytics for improving the customer service experience. By leveraging call center analytics, businesses can gain deeper insights into customer behavior, shopping trends, customer preferences, etc. It also enhances operational efficiency by assessing agent performance through the right KPIs and identifying the training needs of agents.
Remote accessibility
Remote work became a necessity during the pandemic and has transformed the business landscape completely. Today, remote agents are serving businesses and customers efficiently with the help of modern call center software. It has replaced the traditional phone system with just software helping agents gain the flexibility and mobility to work from anywhere.
Security
Cyber threats is a great concern for every business. Therefore, reliable telemarketing software must assure security compliance to protect business and customer data. It should also have security features like fraud prevention and end-to-end encryption for keeping your information safe from any data breach.
5 metrics for evaluating the success of your telemarketing efforts
Assessing the effectiveness of telemarketing is essential to gain actionable insights on areas of improvement. While telemarketing software takes care of the analytics, businesses must know which metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) they should focus on. Here are some important metrics that enable businesses to evaluate call center performance:
First call resolution (FCR) rate:
This inbound calling metric refers to the percentage of calls resolved in the very first contact with the agent. Higher FCR indicates efficient handling of calls.
Average talk time:
When an agent talks to the customer for a longer time, there’s a greater chance of conversion. This metric determines the efficiency of outbound calling.
List closure rate:
This outbound calling metric refers to the percentage of prospects in the list who have closed the deal. Higher list closure indicates a high success rate for telemarketing.
Average waiting time:
This parameter helps in determining if the existing call routing strategy is effective or not. When call queue management is in place, the average waiting time automatically decreases.
Abandonment call rate:
When call drop-offs indicate a high number, it’s a warning sign that your call operations are not optimized. A decrease in call abandonment rate indicates good call center performance.
Accelerate telemarketing ROI with telemarketing software
Your brand image, customer retention rate, and most importantly, revenue generation are all impacted by your customer service. You can effortlessly boost your customer service experience by leveraging the advanced features of telemarketing software. A telemarketing software program can allow your marketing department or a call center to avoid time-consuming manual cold calling and replace it with automated calling and tailored communication, which will help your agents get more calls and achieve greater productivity. Check HoduCC if you’re looking for a call center solution that covers all of your business’s communication needs. It’s a top-of-the-line telemarketing software that helps businesses of all sizes deliver stellar customer service. Learn more about its features here.
