Outbound call center operations are extremely important for any business because they are mainly connected with sales growth. Companies invest in many technologies like auto-dialers to make maximum calls in a day to convert prospects into new customers. It is worth noting that companies do not always place outbound calls to close the deal because they try to reach their current customers regarding payment reminders, appointment confirmations, etc.
If you are running an outbound call center and want to boost its productivity to secure better sales results, the following practices will help you.
- Aim to educate
One of the major mistakes that companies make while doing the outbound calling is to try to sell their products as soon as their call gets connected. However, this never ends on a good note because prospects either put the phone down or thrash the caller immediately.
Therefore, you should ensure that your outbound call center agents educate the other party as soon as their call gets connected. There is a high possibility that the contacted prospect decides to buy your product/services. The major benefit of involving prospects in a call is that your agent can have a meaningful dialogue because monologues usually result in call hang-ups.
- Invest in employee training programs
Generally, companies contact outsourcing companies and get their outbound call center services because they don’t want to invest time and money in hiring, training, onboarding, etc. It’s a good move because they let experts handle their outbound call center operations to secure the desired results without much effort.
However, if you are willing to take the matter into your own hands, ensure you keep improving the quality of your employee training programs. It will help you ensure consistency during each call and help your agents learn the art of closing deals.
For example, you can play call recordings while training your agents, remove jargon from your call scripts, let your top-performing agents teach you how to make each call successful, etc.
- Provide incentives
Outbound calling is a monotonous task that sometimes discourages agents not to giving their best during the calls. Because of this, you see a significant drop in productivity. But, of course, warning letters, terminations, or any other strict action will not help you in this case.
But you can do one thing to bring the best out of your agents: to provide lucrative incentives on each successful call. It will drive healthy competition among your outbound call center agents, which will surely skyrocket your productivity.
- Be polite yet authoritative with gatekeepers
Another reason companies get call center services from third-party vendors is that their outbound calls fail to pass the gatekeepers, such as receptionists, personal assistants, etc. Due to this, they witness low productivity and end up scratching their head regarding how to reach decision-makers for successful sales.
In case you are also facing productivity issues because of the gatekeepers, tell your outbound call center agents not to lose heart whenever they confront gatekeepers. Instead, you should tell them to establish a bond of trust with gatekeepers so that the latter can tell the suitable time to reach the decision-makers. It will help to achieve the set targets and boost your team’s confidence.
In short, tell your team not to consider gatekeepers as their enemy because the latter is only doing their job. Your outbound call center agents need to be polite yet authoritative while speaking with gatekeepers during the calls.
- Never let failure affect your agents badly
The harsh reality of outbound calling is that you cannot make each call successful. Sometimes, your outbound call center agents fail to close the deals after making 10 or more calls. So naturally, they will be disappointed and angry, as they gave their best shot to make the prospect buy the promoted offering.
This is where you should come and encourage your outbound call center agents not to let the failure affect them and ruin their performance for the rest of the day. Positive words will help your agents calm down and motivate them to do their best during the next calls.
However, if you find any particular agent falling behind regularly, it means they require additional training to perform better while speaking with decision-makers.
Final Thoughts
Well, this is it! We hope all the practices mentioned above will help you boost the productivity of your outbound call center. Thanks for reading!
