One of the tasks that businesses and call centers have to perform daily is calling out to their clients and prospects. That task eats away at a good chunk of an agent’s time but often the customer either doesn’t answer or quickly hangs up.
In today’s automated world, why shouldn’t the act of calling clients and leads advance as well? Automated outbound calls are becoming increasingly popular as a potential business solution towards the goal of making one of the most vital aspects of client management more efficient.
Here are four topics you need to consider when automating outbound calls.
1) Speed is key
One of the first and most obvious benefits of automated outbound calling is the enhancements to each agent’s efficiency. Simply put, dialing, calling, and waiting for someone to pick up can become highly time-consuming for agents.
Automating this process removes one of the most tedious roles of an agent’s job, and increases real ” talk time” with actual clients and prospects.
Many automated outbound calling services enhance the quality of the outbound call by not only integrating the businesses’ call list from their call center CRM but add dedicated messages to priority customers and individual campaigns. The level of customization and personalization automating outbound calls can achieve seriously rivals the capabilities of the average agent.
By integrating automated outbound calls with a business’s CRM, the call Automator can distinguish things such as:
- Individual campaigns
- Call priority
- Call request
- Do not call
- Call history
- And target audience
2) Agent and client connection
One of the more important, yet less talked about benefits of automating outbound calls is the positive effect on agents’ morale. Since many agents are paid on a commission, adding the automated dialing process helps speed up client contact and allows each agent the opportunity to earn more commission.
(It also removes the most mundane aspect of the outbound call process!) While it can be challenging to move a team into an automated environment, most companies and businesses alleviate that issue by taking small but steady steps towards automation, rather than one giant leap into a new way of working.
When it comes down to basics, most businesses care about two things: client retention, and ROI.
While increased automation used to be the preserve of the tech industry, modern user interface advancements can even help the local Mom and Pop Shop. That makes simple techniques for boosting retention and customer satisfaction metrics are within reach for any business.
Even things as simple as an after-purchase “thank you”, special announcements, or just saying “hello” helps keep the business in the client’s mind long after their first purchase or interaction.
As for ROI, any business using a VoIP phone system can make an enormous number of outbound calls worldwide at a very low cost.
3) New customers
Since client information and leads are uploaded through an automated process, that information can come in extremely fast. (Faster than some people can dial out!)
When a client puts their information in to receive a call, two things can be true. One is that person is already a consumer of your product and either has a problem or wants to buy more.
The other is that the person is a new client who might have gone through a third-party database, and you are not the only person with their information. Either way, calling that person as soon as possible helps improve your chances of success, especially if you’re a new customer looking to buy something right now.
Along with contacting new clients, automated outbound calling helps keep consistency between individual agents and their supervisors. Consistency can help maintain a positive brand for the business, helping prevent negative reviews and word-of-mouth.
Auto calls smooth out those issues and help with discipline on the call team by giving them a steady stream of interactions to handle.
4) Communication compliance
One of the biggest parts of the ROI on automated outbound calls is helping prevent potential fines and other negative consequences from the relevant authorities for a territory. Practically every state and country has regulations concerning business interactions with the general public.
While most of these seem like common sense, there are certain procedures and restrictions that companies or agents may not be aware of. Automating the outbound call process will help integrate those local rules and regulations without having to worry if the agents are aware.
While automation might seem like a scary subject at first, automating the outbound call process is simply adding a new tool to your outbound call center. Just like any other tool, automated outbound calling can be an extremely useful addition, if you are trained and know how to use them. From efficiency and compliance to agent morale and customer retention, automated outbound calling has become an intricate part of most businesses ‘ processes.