4. Telemarketing - How to Find a Telemarketing Firm
Telemarketing services allow you to reach more customers more quickly. It’s important to keep in mind that the telephone representative your customer or client talks with might be their “first impression” of your business- make sure you choose a company that represents your business appropriately and professionally. Here are a few things to consider when choosing a telemarketing company:
Employees
Choosing a telemarketing firm with high levels of employee satisfaction- and low levels of turnover- is a good idea. Companies with satisfied employees usually have better sales results, and representatives have a positive impact on customers. Ask about a company’s hiring process, pay scale, and turnover rate. If telephone representatives aren’t happy with their position, this comes across to your customers over the phone.
Companies with good reputations understand how important it is for callers to be professional and polite when communicating with business leads or customers. It’s a good idea to perform a few “mock” calls, or to train key representatives (those making sales or answering calls of a technical nature) yourself. You can also set guidelines, such as when a message should be left, and when to make return calls.
Cost
Make sure you compare costs of at least 3-5 telemarketing companies. Try to narrow your search down to companies that are similar in resources and services offered. Ask about “monthly minimum” charges- many companies require that you cover the cost of certain services even if your hourly or per-minute rate is very low. Most companies bill per call, per minute, or per hour, for representative time, with costs varying depending on the type of call. Since billing structures are can differ by company, comparing written quotes can be confusing- make sure you know what the total cost for a project will be.
Tracking and Monitoring
Ask how the company tracks and reports results. Desired results will be different for every business. For example, your efforts might only include outbound sales, in which case you’ll want to track revenue per phone list and per rep. You should also track the total number of calls made in order to get an accurate picture of the revenue produced from the campaign.
Security
Telephone service representatives, or TSRs, may have access to sensitive financial and account information- at the very least they’ll have access to your customer’s phone information. Make sure security measures are in place. Companies should not be able to sell your information or databases to competitors- you can even ask a telemarketing company to sign a non-disclosure agreement before sharing any customer information.
