Monitoring & Tracking

If you have experience working in a call center, whether large or small, you understand the importance of consistently monitoring and improving all aspects of a call campaign. Keeping production and quality high is always an ongoing effort. There is no maintenance free solution that will keep a calling campaign running at a high level for a long period of time. This article recognizes monitoring, scripting, and telemarketer training as integral parts of a campaign. These factors must be consistently looked after to ensure a strong number of quality leads. Specific industry standards will be given as a reference on which to compare in-house results.

Monitoring, or having the ability to listen to a telemarketer, is essential in identifying areas needing improvement. (Be sure to comply with any federal, local and state telemarketing statues regarding monitoring of telephone solicitation calls.) Without the ability to monitor, you are literally in the dark. If, after listening to several calls you find weakness in the script, it is always a good idea to discuss the issue with several of your callers before making any drastic changes. Do not forget, callers are on the front line, and usually have valuable input. It is common to disregard this fact, making changes which ultimately only solve a small portion of problems. Modifying scripts is an ongoing process, which proves useful in maintaining the freshness of the call as well as keeping pace with the economic environment and any new products that arise.

Monitoring callers may also reveal a training issue. Proper training of personnel is always of primary concern. Initially, proper training is costly, however, in calling campaigns it is one of the cheapest things in which you can invest, and will yield dividends far beyond the initial outlay. Once it becomes apparent that telemarketers either do not understand the script and rebuttals, or simply have a dearth in product knowledge, training needs to take a center stage.

Training cannot be over emphasized. Lead quality and production are directly correlated to the level at which your callers are trained. Any training program should include a minimum of eight classroom hours, which should include instruction on product knowledge role-playing, rebuttals, rate of speech, and tips on selling. Once telemarketers graduate from class they should then be moved to the floor-ready to begin calling. The next couple of days will determine whether callers will succeed or leave your company. Be sure to give them the tools necessary to succeed, by closely monitoring and coaching. It is a good idea to have further classroom discussions after the first one to three days. Take this time to get feedback and further answer pertinent questions. Remember that nothing costs more than a poorly trained telemarketer!

The results of your efforts need to be tracked and gauged. Without proper tracking, results quickly become confused and call center campaigns become costly. Comparing present performance with the past is one barometer, although comparing poor performance with poorer performance can only lead to a false sense of success. The following are some industry standards (in a manual dialing environment) on which you can measure in-house performance. The numbers cited are based on a per hour basis, i.e. one telemarketer dialing for one hour. Over time, dials should be no lower than 30 and no higher than 50. An average industry number would be 40 dials per hour. You will find that the top producers tend to dial more than those who are below average. The number of contacts (homeowners who answer the phone, excluding answering machines) will fall between eight and 15, depending on whether you are calling during daytime or evening hours. The number of leads per hour is a difficult number to give as it depends on several variables including your list, the market area, and how strictly you are screening the leads. Assuming you have a good list, are calling and screening the leads strictly, results should come in between .4 to .8 leads per hour.

Outsourcing your lead generation needs to a telemarketing service agency is another viable option. It is important to note that telemarketing is not an exact science and outsourcing is subject to peaks and valleys just as your internal campaigns are. If a problem arises, most telemarketing agencies will work with you in determining whether the problem lies in the list, the script or in the call itself. One important point to realize is that telemarketing is a numbers game, and any of the statistics cited above or elsewhere come to fruition over time. It is not fair to judge telemarketing, or the company that provides the service, on 60 or 100 hours. Telemarketing is a very powerful tool, one that can generate an immense amount of new business providing you take the time to learn and understand how it works. It has been my experience that running a telemarketing operation is not easy, to say the least. Therefore, if your plan is to assemble an efficient in-house operation make sure you have someone with experience running the show.