Whether a business is calling out to potential customers or fielding inbound customer calls for orders or product information, awareness of what is involved in the process and how it fits a business plan is vital.
There are real operational differences between an inbound and an outbound call center operation.
Smart Business asked Mike Langenfeld, senior vice president at InfoCision Management Corp. in Akron to explain the differences, then asked him questions on effective inbound calling strategies.
A company getting started in teleservices needs to know the difference between inbound and outbound call centers. Can you talk a bit about each?
Inbound call centers focus on answering incoming calls. These are calls generated through direct mailings, media-driven calls to action, customer service, catalog ordering or return of a message left by that company.
Outbound call centers specialize in placing outgoing calls. These calls are generated from a list of select consumers or businesses geared toward a specific marketing appeal created to sell an item or service, gather data (such as a survey) or generate donations for an organization.
Traditionally, an inbound call center uses an ACD (automatic call distributor) or PBX (private branch exchange) system to route its incoming calls while an outbound call center would use a predictive dialer to dial outgoing calls.
However, with new advances in telemarketing technologies, there are single systems that allow a company to use agents for both inbound and outbound. This increases the efficiency by decreasing the amount of unproductive time spent waiting between calls. An agent can be assigned to an inbound program. But when call volume is low, the dialer places outbound calls for that same communicator so their time is better utilized.
What is a reasonable expectation for a company setting up an inbound call center program?
Many factors enter in to setting up an inbound program. The time frame varies based on whether it is a new program or an existing program, whether a new phone number needed or an existing number needs to be transferred.
As a rule of thumb, allow three to four weeks from the time all program requirements have been defined to the time the first call is taken. This allows the proper amount of time to set up all technology, transferring or acquiring a phone number, create scripting, train the agents, and thoroughly test all areas of the program to ensure it is ready to go live.
Where does a company start? What does it involve?
The main place to start is research. You want to research everything from equipment to which agents to hire. Call center equipment is quite expensive, so you’ll want to get it right the first time. If you plan on expanding beyond inbound to outbound, you may want to invest a little more in the beginning and get a system that can handle both.
You will also want to look at licensing and yearly maintenance agreements. The initial price may look great, but based on how that particular vendor prices their license and maintenance, you may end up paying more than expected.
Attend trade shows and telemarketing conferences to gain ‘best practices’ from other companies that have been in the industry a while.
What does a company like yours need before launching a program?
To launch a successful inbound program, we need as much information as possible. Some of it includes all phone numbers that will be used, hours of operation for the program, and expected call volumes to determine appropriate staffing. We need to know what will drive the calls (i.e. media, direct mail, etc.) and what the marketing plan is for these calls, as well as what call flow pattern should these calls take (IVR, live communicator, etc.) and knowing the expected outcome for these calls.
Call center programs are measured in many ways. What kind of service level agreement (SLA) is typical for an inbound program? How far can the SLA be expanded?
The standard agreement at IMC is 80 percent of calls being answered within 20 seconds. The SLA can be expanded to suit the client’s wishes, as well as to accommodate different types of media generations. We have clients who have asked for a ‘90 percent in 30 seconds model’ and others with a more liberal ‘70 percent in 60 seconds’ depending on the media they use and their particular goals.
MIKE LANGENFELD is senior vice president for call center operations at InfoCision Management Corp., Akron. A teleservices company, InfoCision offers marketing experts in most industry fields. It is a three-time winner of the NorthCoast 99 Award that recognizes the 99 best places to work in Northeast Ohio. Reach Langenfeld at (330) 670-5118 or [email protected].