It doesn’t take a lot to start an online sales call center, but getting to and staying at the top requires more than the bare minimum.
Sales isn’t what it used to be, especially if you’re running an online sales call center. Customers are smarter about their buying behavior, advanced technologies enhance call center efficiency and capabilities, and many people like to say that call centers are outdated, even though 73% of customers say they prefer over-the-phone interactions.
To improve the success of your online sales call center, it’s essential to adapt to the changing times and to leverage the available tools and technology to improve your numbers. Some of you may find yourselves a bit adverse to change, especially if you’ve been in this business for a long time, but think of it like this: If you don’t change, and your competitors do, who do you think will close more sales?
With that in mind, let’s look at some behaviors, practices, and tools that can boost your call center activity and help you become a leader in your industry.
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5 Ways to keep your online sales call center in the pole position
1. Promote human interaction
Even before the technologies and selling tips, there’s one thing that your online sales call center will need above and beyond everything else: Quality customer service. Research has shown that 96% of consumers consider customer service when thinking about brand loyalty or choice. That means that even if you’re not selling the best product on the market, you might still grow your customer base simply through your human interactions with them.
In this omnichannel world—which we’ll talk about more in a moment—consumers frequently have to work harder than ever before to speak to a human being. A sales call is the last place you want this to be the case. Using omnichannel and other technologies to reroute calls and gather information can be extremely useful, but not at the cost of human interaction. For the sales calls, in particular, don’t rely on automated messaging and robotic calls. Have a real, live person call them.
2. Still use technology, though
As much as human interaction is important, it’s also important to have the tools you’ll need for success. While an online sales call center is still telephone-based, there are many technologies out there to help you automate some parts of the call center process.
Perhaps one of the most important, we’ve already mentioned, and that’s omnichannel communications. This kind of technology is embedded in a lot of call center software to gather information for CRM storage, and for generally providing each agent at your call center with the information they need about a customer to help them most effectively. When appropriately used, omnichannel communications can create a seamless customer experience, whether you’re talking to them directly or sending them a follow-up email after a call.
Cloud-based software like Call Logic is helpful for improving and automating an online sales call center. This kind of technology can help reduce the time between calls, provide real-time whisper coaching for your sales teams, track call statistics, and more. If you’re not using cloud-based software, you’re probably going to end up lagging behind your competitors.
3. Measure call center metrics
Using some of the technology we mentioned above, your call center will likely find more success if you’re measuring key metrics and taking action on subsequent analysis. Track things like average call time, average abandonment rate, how many calls lead to a close, and other KPIs. This data provides invaluable information about your business’s interactions with current and prospective customers, which can then help you tailor your approach to fit the needs of your consumers and your team members.
Remember, measuring the metrics isn’t enough; you need to look for the story that the data tells. Run regular reports (weekly, monthly, quarterly) to make real-time corrections to your approach that can lead you to an increase in sales.
4. Keep employees happy
Another thing you can do with those metrics is to see who’s performing within your organization, and how well. You likely already know your top agents, but the data may show you surprising things about the performances of all of your employees—namely, that some of them may be doing better than you think.
And if an employee is doing well, they should be recognized or rewarded. Have a system in place when employees hit key milestones on those metrics, outlined clearly ahead of time, so everyone knows what they’re shooting for. This will help with employee satisfaction, which will also help reduce employee turnover—a critical component to running a successful and sustainable online sales call center.
5. Invest in your team
On a similar note, an efficient online sales call center is one that empowers employees with the tools and training they need to do their jobs. Don’t skimp on the training during onboarding, and ensure that training is an ongoing part of each employee’s development plan. When your agents are experts on both the product and their practices, they will almost always become more successful.
The same way you might encourage your employees to develop relationships with the customers, develop relationships with your teams so that you know each one of them, their strengths and weaknesses, and even a surface-level understanding of their personal circumstances, which may affect their output even if they happen to be one of your best agents.
Relationships are vital to all business interactions, including managing personnel and setting them up to do the best jobs that they can do at all times. If someone has a weak area, tackle it right away. If someone is going through something difficult in their personal life, talk with them about how you can support them so they can continue to succeed at work even while things may not be going great at home. In other words, treat your employees like multi-layered individuals who have complex needs and changing circumstances, and you’ll find that they trust you more, they’ll follow you further, and they’ll be thankful, which breeds loyalty.
In short: Reduce turnover, increase sales. It’s not exactly that simple, but it’s pretty close.
Learn more about employee performance, customer satisfaction, and more using the features of Call Logic. Contact us today for a free demo!