ICCS BPO: Building Rapport with customers in outbound callin...

ICCS BPO: Building Rapport with customers in outbound callin...: Sustainability of business is very crucial these days. How do the firms sustain? It’s through the flow of its sales and the constant d...

Building Rapport with customers in outbound calling

Sustainability of business is very crucial these days. How do the firms sustain? It’s through the flow of its sales and the constant demand for its products and services among the existing as well as potential (new) customers. Why should a customer stay loyal to a particular brand of products or services? It is totally dependent on the rapport that the organizations build with their customers over the years.

One thing none of the business organization should forget is that the customers are the king when it comes to business. Outbound call centres are not exception to this rule. So, building rapport with the customers is a key element to sustainability in the case of outbound sales call centres or in the telemarketing industry.

Why Rapport with Customers Is Important?

Rapport is simply a state where you can make the customers feel comfortable or would be able to win the trust of the potential customers. A good rapport is the first stepping stone to build a long term relationship with your customers.

When you have a strong relationship with a customer, you tend to have more influence with that customer. And if you are successful at building a good rapport with your customer, then you might be able to bag some loyal customers for the business. A good rapport with customers can foster a positive image about the organization among the community and thus enhances sales and growth in the market.

So, it’s important for outbound call centre callers to know a few simple techniques to help them build rapport over the phone, while outbound sales call centre employees can also do their bit to make this process easier.

Following are the few factors that should be kept in mind to build rapport with customers:

·         Know your customer: The name and age of the customer is mostly available to the employees of the outbound call centres. So, that should give them a fair idea about the preferences of the customers. Like, if the customer falls into the age bracket of the 30s, then probably that person would be financially independent and thus the call centre employee can pitch to sell him/her the highest category product.

·         Carry A Positive Approach: While addressing the problems of the customers in case of an outbound calling, it is very important to keep a positive outlook. The outbound call centre employee should try to give solutions to the problems of the customers.

·         Be A Good listener: Be it outbound call centres or telemarketing services, it is very important for the call centre employees to be good listeners. They should have enough patience to listen to the problems or needs of the customers or potential customers. They should listen not for the sake of hearing the problems, but with the intent to listen to the customers so that they can fix the mess!

·         Do not keep the customer waiting: Yes, you read it correct! It is one of the most annoying things to do. If you mean business or want to address the problems of the customers, then the first thing you need to keep in mind is that, do not keep the customers on” hold-on” mode for long. That would really annoy them.

·         Be Empathetic: Show interest to the words of the customers and also try to assure him/her that the problem would be resolved. In case you are from telemarketing services, make sure you win the trust of the potential customers with your statements of conviction.

·         Be Friendly: While on call with your customers, you can’t show your gestures or facial expressions to the customers. Then how will you act friendly with them? It is simple! By the way you speak, your tone of the voice as well as the voice modulations will play a vital part to portray you as a friendly caller.

·         Do not Rush: Go as per the pace of the customers. Don’t be in a hurry to finish the call because that might act negatively and put off the mood of the customer or potential customer.

·         Ask Questions: The outbound sales caller should keep asking relevant questions to the customer just to make sure that he’s able to understand the needs and problems of the customer in a better way. Questions of the callers also show that they are active listeners.

·         Don’t Sound Mechanical: Outbound call centre employees as well as telemarketing sellers are required to sound cheerful, positive and as empathetic as possible. Because, if they sound, they have read a typical script and just reading through it, then the customers would not feel at ease to talk with them or even can get offended. In short sound as human as possible so that the customers do not portray you as a robot without any emotion.

·         Show Respect: Always greet customers with respect. Few people like to be addressed by their surname while some people even do not mind to be addressed by their nicknames. The call centre agents should clarify on that part before going ahead with the conversation.

In order to be effective, call centre agents must aim to build rapport on first contact and throughout the customer relationship. Because rapport building is a long term process and can’t be built overnight.

There are few things that should never skip the mind of the telemarketing people or outbound sales call centres callers.

Like, the tone of the voice, positive approach, active listening skills, patience and empathetic nature, a way of greeting the customers. In case they want to sustain in the existing business or if they are looking for the expansion of the customer base in the market.

Do you agree with the points discussed above or you have some more points in your mind?

If you want to add up to the list of how to build good rapport with the customers from the end of an outbound sales call centre, then please feel free to help us enhance and modify the stated list.

Importance of training new managers for success (moving from individual contributor to team manager role)

Why training is important?
Sustainability of any business depends upon its success rate. A company can’t exist without its resources. It is inevitably dependent on the employees for future sustainability and growth.
Therefore, Training of the employees is as important for the success of the organization as breathing is important for living of the living beings.
Training involves costs and time, but if the employees are trained properly then these costs would be worth it!
Following are the reasons why training is important for the success of the managers:
# Training provides the required skills to the managers to do the work in a better way
# Well trained managers can make other team members to work in a more productive way
# Well trained managers can solve the complex problems in simpler ways
# well trained employees feel more accountable for their duties if they are given training
# Well trained employees feel more motivated and all boosted up with energy to accomplish the upcoming challenges

BPO Industry in India
In India, BPO industry is growing at a faster rate than many other industries, the reasons are listed below:
# Cost advantage 
#Quality services
# Economy of Scale
# High skilled labour
Call Centre and Importance of Training in this Sector
With increasing core activities of the firms (Like marketing, selling, producing) these days, firms are willing to import more of its non-core activities or other services from the call centres. Reason being, the call centres provide a whole range of call centre solutions to the firms in exchange for an affordable fee.
With the growing demand for call centre services, there has been seen an increase in demand for the domestic call centres in India, because BPO industry is doing great in the current scenario.
Few of the call centre solutions provided by the call centres in India are as follows:
# Technical Support Services
# Customer Support Services
# Data Entry and Data Processing
# Form Processing services
# Online Research
# IT Helpdesk Services
Inbound and Outbound Call Centres
Inbound call centre deals with incoming calls. The objective of these call centres is to receive calls from various customers or potential customers who enquires about various products or services or comes up with a problem to seek a solution. In short inbound call centres are customer-oriented.
Outbound call centres are sales-oriented. The main objective of these call centres is to call the potential customers to sell them a particular product or service.
Onshore and Offshore Outsourcing
# Onshore Outsourcing: When a company delegates few of its works to a company which is located in the same country as the delegating company then it is known as onshore outsourcing.
# Offshore Outsourcing: When a company delegates some of its works to a company which is located in a foreign nation then it is known as offshore outsourcing.
Now that we learned about call centres, we do have a clear idea about the BPO industry. Basically the BPO industry needs a lot of skilled and trained employees so that it can provide quality services. The need for a good team manager is the need of the hour for the domestic call centres in India because people work in a team in the call centres and they need proper guidance when it comes to the execution of their responsibilities.
Customers should have a pleasant experience when they talk to the employees of the call centres, because the experience would remain in the mind of the customers. They should feel happy and satisfied after they interact with the call centre employees. One more thing is also very important for the employees of the call centre to keep in mind, and that is they should have a clear idea about the solutions they provide to their customers.
Managers of the call centres are trained to possess the following qualities so that they can manage their respective teams well and can be good team leads:

• They have the skills to solve the problems of the customers or at least are trained in the art of solving problems.
• They have high patience levels so that if they come across any upset or annoying customer or potential customer, they know how to handle them.
• Customer satisfaction is their main motto.
• Indian call centres specially give emphasis on the listening skills of the managers because listening to the problems is an art and not everyone excels at that.

If you are wondering why would anyone outsource their works to Indian call centres, then take a look at the following call centre solutions that Indian BPO Industry can provide:

• Cost advantage: India is still a developing nation and so the cost of skilled labour in Indian market is much lower compared to the European or American market. Thus, the foreign companies save a lot of cost by outsourcing some of its services to Indian call centres.
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• Flexibility: Not to forget that Indian call centres provide a 24*7 service at a cheaper rate.
• Technically Sound: Technology is an ever evolving space and to cope with that the different industries are dealing with its own mechanism of adapting to the given changes. The BPO industry is no exception to this rule But India is a hub of techies and so there is never a dearth of technically skilled labours in the domestic call centre space.

To sum up the whole discussion, we can say that in India both onshore and offshore call centres are growing in the BPO industry. It is expected to see the growth in this space in coming years as well. So, well trained managers are the need of this industry who can contribute to the growth of the company at an individual level as well as a team player for the profitability of the call centres they work in.
So, now that you have gone through all the pros and cons of BPO industry, what is your take on the same? Do you feel the managers of the call centres should be trained more? If so, then what are the areas would you like them with expertise in?

Building Synergy with your customers

Staying ahead of competition is more challenging than ever before. You market a product or service and your competitors respond quickly with a better offer, price or solution. Similar to other companies, you must also invest your time and effort to search for a competitive edge or a solution to trump your competition.

The answer lies in creating synergy with customers. After all, the ultimate aim of any business is to attain customer satisfaction. That is probably the only leading indicator to identify happy customers and measure customer loyalty. Half your problem is solved if you can simply keep your customers hooked onto your brand and business.

However, with so many activities happening simultaneously, such as sales, marketing and other core business operations, it can be difficult to maintain regular communication with your customers. So, what can you do? Make use of call center outsourcing services and let the experts take good care of your customers.

Professionals at call centers are specifically trained to be persuasive and engaging. They know just exactly what your customers want to hear and can create a build a great camaraderie on your behalf!

With a call center handling your customer relationship part, they will be interacting and building a strong network with them in the following manner:

·         Minimum on-hold times: Do you like being put on hold during an ongoing call? Don’t think so! Similarly, your customers also feel frustrated if they are put on hold. If you are handling customer management in-house, there is a high chance that you lack the required human resource to individually attend calls of all of your customers. Rush hours will be extremely difficult to handle. In that case, a call center is your go-to solution. They have the resources needed to handle your customers on your behalf. If your customer demands to speak to the support team right away, their demand will be fulfilled. Let call centers handle customer calls because a shorter wait time means a happy customer and more business for you!

·         Experienced and polite calling agents: Imagine if you are asked to handle ten tasks at the same time. Wouldn’t you feel infuriated? Your frustration will automatically become evident when you are talking to a customer. On the other hand, dedicated calling agents are happy with their job and that is what they want to do. Since they are happy, they are also able to share the same vibes with the customers. And yet again, if your customer’s query is answer properly and in an amiable manner, you can be rest assured of getting more business from that particular customer in the future. This is because outstanding customer and after-sales service is the second-most criteria of customers for choosing a brand after quality, of course. 

·         Effective management of call flow: If you receive a lot of calls from your customers, you obviously need someone competent to handle all those calls. This is where calling agents come in. They are particularly trained for this task and are able to seamlessly handle calls. Call centers also have access to latest software that helps them to easily forward calls to the right department, make calls and so on. Their effortless management of call flow makes the task appear exceptionally easy when in reality it is not. 

·         CEM integrated systems: How can you judge whether your customer is happy with your answer or the way you resolved their issue? You can only wait and watch. If the customer recommends your name or buys again, it means that you have impressed your customers and otherwise, you have failed. However, things don’t always have to be so challenging or tricky. In call centers in India, they have CEM or customer experience management tools integrated. This helps them to continuously analyze how the interaction went. This tool also helps in finding out the exact needs of the customers, the problems that they are frequently facing and the ideal way to deal with it. Once you are able to solve this puzzle, there is no looking back. Customers will flock to you!

·         Listening: Listening is always more important than talking. Do you have the time to listen to your customers? Probably not because you are busy making elaborate marketing campaigns or expansion plans. Avail call center services in India and make your customers feel that there are people willing to listen to them.

Giving due attention to the needs and demands of your customers is their ultimate responsibility. If you want to build or improve your brand’s interaction with your target audience, building the right association with your customer is vital. By outsourcing customer handling and management to call centers, you will be able to ensure maximum profit, along with skyrocketing sales figures.

Now, all said and done, you must be wondering why you should outsource your customer handling part to India. There are basically 4 main reasons for it:

·         Abundance of skilled labor who can speak fluent English.

·         Geographical advantage because the location of India is beneficial to both the US and Europe, as well as, rest of the world.

·         Call centers in India work around-the-clock to cater to the needs of clients in different time zones.

·         Cost effectiveness of India because the wages are low. Also, you will be able to save more than 40 to 60% of your total business operational cost.

So, are you ready to build a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with your customers? Let the call centers in India handle that part for you! You worry about creating innovative products and services while calling agents take care of your customers for you.

Remember your business is nothing without customers. Happy customers directly reflect on the sales figures. For better ROI and profit, start building synergy with your customers. Make them feel important so that they keep coming back to you for more.

Do you think synergy with customers is the ultimate way to success? Please share your comments and thoughts below.