How Is Your Response?

We all know the scenario, the marketing plan has been implemented and with all the excitement, you start to get the first results showing how much response you have generated. Initially, all looks good, the campaign seems to be a success but then you start to look at the figures and see that you are missing calls and the phones are engaged. All of a sudden the hard work done by the marketing to generate response is being lost! In this article we provide some easy to implement hints and tips on how to ensure you are on top of your response handling.

This article focuses on dealing with telephone, internet and snail mail enquiries. It will not be looking at dealing with text response which we will discuss in a later article.

Telephone response handling

If you are a business that advertises to generate response, it is important to have set up appropriate processes to ensure that customer are getting the service they expect. Our experience shows the bulk of response is generated via the phone and it is vital calls are answered quickly and efficiently. Using Mediahawk’s management information, users can discover how their calls are being answered to indicate:-

• The total level of calls a campaign generates
• When people are likely to answer a call
• How many calls are missed because the phone has either rung out or been engaged

A key challenge within your business, is dealing with calls that are missed because the line has been engaged or rung out. There are a number of different ways of dealing with this:-

• Put all calls to and answer phone when engaged or after a certain amount of rings
• Use an IVR platform to move the calls round different departments (ie press one for sales, two for accounts etc)
• Create sophisticated call routing plans and hunt groups
• Out source all call handling to a third party
• Basic
• Full service

• Or a mixture of all of the above

Technically all of these options can be achieved by diverting the inbound calls at a network level (i.e. before they a received by company’s telecoms switch).

We will now deal with each of these in more depth

Put all calls to and answer phone when engaged or after a certain amount of rings.

This is one of the traditional routes companies use, especially small businesses with limited capacity. One of the problems with answerphones is that people do not necessarily want to leave their details because they are seen as being impersonal. Each person who declines to leave a message will mean a waste of a potential sales enquiry. Another key problem with answerphones is that they need emptying on a regular basis. The question to ask is 'who is doing this within your organisation and ensuring it is done promptly and effectively?'

IVR Platforms

Whilst call diversions can solve a great deal of a companies call handling needs, some companies find it important to split the calls using an automated system (IVR). By listening to various options and pressing the keypad on a phone customer calls can be diverted to different departments with minimul fuss. The benefits of an IVR platform is that they can minimise the human interface and automatically put large volumes of calls to different areas of a company. The disadvantage of an IVR platform is that some customers find them impersonal.

Whether an IVR platform is suitable to use in a company’s marketing campaign will depend on their individual circumstances, and the benefits it will bring in improved call handling.

Call routing plans

• Create hunt groups within a sales team with all the calls weighted so that they do not just go to one extension
• If the phone is engaged instantly divert to another number
• Create timed hunt groups so that the calls move to other areas of a company at different times – this is particularly useful if a company has different closing hours on different sites.
• Recognise the std code of the callers and put them to the branch nearest to them – this is useful for companies that have multiple branches across the country.

Creating call diversions at a network level is relatively straightforward and is ultimately dependent of an individual companies needs.

Outsourcing call handling

Basically if a call is engaged or unanswered for a certain amount of rings, the phone automatically diverts to a 'virtual answer phone service' which answers in the company name. They can then either act as a switchboard and put calls back to your company, or they can take a message which is instantly emailed and texted back to the company. The advantages with this services is that it can be operated 24 hrs a day, a human being answers the phone and companies only pay for its useage. This makes it a relatively inexpensive service to put in place.

The disadvantage is that there is no control over the service and one has to rely on it being of an acceptable quality.

If using a virtual answerphone service is suitable, it could be worthwhile looking to go even further and outsource more of the enquiry service, especially for telephone calls that do not require a complicated answer – ie brochure requests. But the more the service is outsourced to a third party, the greater the challenge of ensuring that the call handling measures upto the service levels required.

A mixture of all of the above

Ultimately how a company handles its inbound call response from its advertising will depend on its individual circumstances. The important part is to understand that if a particular call handling route is not working effectively, there are other solutions that can be relatively easy to implement.

Internet response handling

With the rise in importance of web sites, companies increasingly have online enquiry forms for users to fill in and submit to the company. The challenge any company has with these forms is whether and how they are being picked up. With the increasing use of automated services on the internet (as exemplified by Amazon) this has become the standard level of service that people expect when they contact a company. People do not expect companies to take 24-48 hours to respond to their queries, they want almost instantaneous answers. Can you provide this from your response forms? If you are using response forms, it is worth asking the following questions:

• Who currently receives the response forms?
• What is the average time it takes to answer an internet response?
• Do the response forms go to multiple people? If so, how do are they monitored to ensure lots of people do not answer the same query?
• If only one person gets the response forms, how do you deal with enquiries when they are in meetings or on holiday?

If you do not know the answer to one or all of the above, it is worth running some tests on your own response capabilities to see whether this measures up to your desired service standards.

If you have an automated response mechanism that goes out as soon as the form is submitted, it is important to review its contents to ensure that he message clearly reflects your company’s service values. If possible try to minimise the 'corporate legalese' and if you are going to promise a response within a certain time frame, make sure this happens!

Other response handling

Customers are increasingly used to contacting companies in a multi channel format. Whilst the dominant format will be the telephone, depending on the market / product requested, old fashioned snail mail still has its place in the response mechanisms (albeit declining). If people are prepared to take the time to write in then, it is courteous to respond with an old fashioned letter and take the time to give the answer expected.

Conclusion

Dealing with customers efficiently and effectively is becoming increasingly difficult, as they expect ever increasing levels of service across a variety of channels. The secret to exceeding customers’ expectations is to ensure all the response points are being dealt with efficiently and all enquiries are being followed up in a prompt and human fashion. People now expect Amazon service with a human face. Does your organisation provide this?