Being a personal and interactive medium, telesales enjoys several advantages over other marketing channels such as social media and advertising, positioning itself as an effective lead generation tool for more than six decades. It is particularly useful in marketing products and services that require technical explanations, or as a substitute to in-person sales calls. Skilled telecallers are adept at building a quick rapport with their listeners, making them powerful channels to disseminate your brand message.
While effective telemarketing has the potential to lead to a drastic increase in sales and conversions, a weak campaign not only acts as a drain on resources, but also causes great harm to your brand reputation. Here are five warning signs of an incompetent telemarketing agency that indicate it’s time to change your vendor.
1. Lax Hiring Standards
Given the high volumes of recruitment witnessed in call centres, they frequently tend to lower their selection standards, resulting in poor-quality hires. Clients should keep a watchful eye on the quality of hires while working with a telemarketing agency. Are the employees qualified for the job? Are they being subjected to a proper background screening? Do they have the right temperament? Bad hires tend to hurt a campaign through poor performance, but also lower the morale of their colleagues, making hiring practices central to the success of the campaign.
2. Lack of Proper Training
The quality of training is a key factor influencing the outcome of a telesales campaign. Call centre agents are trained in a variety of matters including product knowledge, industry and domain knowledge, etiquette excellence, handling rejection, schedule adherence etc. equipping them with the ability to handle a variety of possible scenarios, while also enabling them to become worthy representatives of your brand. If you notice a decline in the training standards of the agency, you should start reconsidering your association with them.
3. Inaccurate Calling List
The accuracy or otherwise of the calling list has a direct fallout on productivity rates with the potential to impact your ROI. As imprecise or inaccurate calling lists result in much time wastage, the best telemarketing agencies take great pains to procure high-quality lists that are both relevant and reliable.
The relevance of a caller list is as important as accuracy because it is crucial to targeting the right demographic segment. For example, telemarketing for kitchen appliances should ideally target homemakers as they are the key decisionmakers in this case.
Inaccurate or irrelevant telemarketing lists are a strong indication that your outbound sales campaign is likely to display suboptimal results. It should also serve as a warning to the client regarding the incompetence of the telemarketing agency.
4. Old Tools and Technologies
The best telemarketing agencies invest in the latest tools and technologies including high-quality computers and headsets, and advanced telemarketing software systems.
A good telemarketing software system performs the following key functions:
- Manages call lists
- Helps in call scheduling
- Automates workflow
- Keeps call logs and data
- Assists in data organisation
Agencies relying on old or antiquated software could slow down the work and prevent their agents from reaching peak productivity. The use of outdated software may also compromise data security leading to revenue loss and damage to brand reputation.
5. Regulatory Non-Compliance
Every nation has its own laws governing telemarketing, and clients should verify that these are being strictly adhered to. For instance, there are stringent laws related to privacy protection and misuse of personal data in the UAE that also apply to telemarketing agencies. Non-compliance with the rules and regulations prescribed by the state could result in severe consequences and is a fit case for terminating your contract.
Early Warning System
The ability to identify tell-tale signs of trouble could help in highlighting deeper issues with the campaign saving you thousands of dirhams as a result. The continued existence of these flaws and the lack of course-correction may point to issues of organisational culture or highlight serious structural shortcomings. If you observe any of these signs in your agency, don’t go on ignoring them. Start looking out for an alternative agency that can do a better job.
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