Call Center Services: Do You Need Inbound, Outbound or Both?

Posted on October 30, 2011 by colson

When evaluating a call center for your business, consider what services you want that call center to perform. Do you require an outbound campaign, such as having callers reach out to your target prospects and then deliver qualified leads to your sales team? Or are you looking for your call center team to take inbound calls from your customers?

Not all call centers provide both types of services. Some call centers specialize in inbound call services, while others provide outbound services as their specialty. Here are some examples of both types of call center services:

Outbound Call Center Services:

  • Qualified lead generation
  • Direct telesales
  • Setting appointments with clients, business prospects, physicians or patients, then confirming the appointments
  • Calling prospective attendees for meetings, seminars or webinars
  • Conducting surveys

Inbound Call Center Services:

  • Taking orders
  • Providing customers with information
  • Helping customers through live chat

Link It offers our clients both inbound and outbound services. That’s because our 100 percent South Dakota-based callers are experienced—many have been with us for years. Other call centers are plagued with what’s called “churn,” or high turnover. Link It’s turnover rate is less than 1 percent a year, practically unheard of in the call center industry, where the average annual turnover is 40 percent and the typical call center representative lasts six months. This means our experienced, loyal callers can easily be up and running on practically any inbound or outbound service our clients request.

In addition, our low turnover and cheerful, experienced callers provide not just a myriad of services but excellent customer service as well. They know that they are representing your company and your brand and how a pleasant, considerate phone manner gives your customers and business prospects a positive impression of your product and/or service.

Aside from our cheerful employees, you’ll also have our web-based reporting system at your service, showing you the results of your inbound or outbound campaign any time, anywhere you have access to the Internet.

 

Posted in Appointment Setting, b2b Lead Generation, b2b Telemarketing, Call Center, Call Center Services, Lead Generation, Outbound Call Center, Telemarketing Companies, Telemarketing Services | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Outsourcing to a Call Center Will Enable You to Handle Your Inbound Calls for the Holidays—and Beyond

Posted on October 18, 2011 by colson

Fourth quarter can make or break your sales goals for the year. Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are approaching, is your call center ready to handle the influx of calls, or do you need to outsource to a call center that can professionally and efficiently handle your holiday overflow calls?

Don’t overlook the importance of keeping your customers happy during this crucial period. They will no doubt be contacting you to verify if their order was received, where it is in the pipeline, or if it will be delivered on time for the big day. If they’re not satisfied in any way, they’ll be calling to let you know. How that call is handled can be the deciding factor between a satisfied customer who will return for additional purchases or one who will turn to one of your competitors. And as this article in the New York Times shows, they want to speak with a human being, not an automated voice routine.

How can outsourcing your inbound calls to Link It Call Center tip the scales in your favor?

  • Our call center staff all work out of our South Dakota offices. They speak in a Midwestern neutral accent that’s easy to understand for customers nationwide and even abroad. And we never outsource or sub our call center work. Ever.
  • All of our South Dakota-based employees are experienced, capable, professional and cheerful—no matter how impatient and irate your customers making those inbound calls may be. When your customers get off the phone, they’ll be left with a positive impression of your company and brand, which is crucial to building a loyal customer base.

In addition, you’ll be able to follow our work for you through our cloud-based online reporting system where you can see real-time, to-the-second feedback.

Our prices are extremely competitive. In addition to qualified lead generation, we can also take your incoming calls and handle orders/order fulfillment, including closing your sales, as we have done for a number of our customers.

We can have our Midwest-based callers prepared and be up and running for you very quickly to meet the holiday rush. But with the holidays on the horizon, now is the time to move forward and take the first step to outsourcing your inbound calls.

Posted in Call Center, Call Center Operations, Call Center Outsourcing, Call Center Services, Low Cost Call Centers | Tagged | Leave a comment

Your Call Center should know how to target Real Opportunities

Posted on August 17, 2011 by colson

When outsourcing to a call center for leads – you should be receiving qualified leads from people that are real opportunities. What is a real opportunity? They are people who are in an industry that can use your product, that have the budget to afford your product/service and are the decision maker who can make the final decision to buy.

At Link It Call Center, our 100% Midwest-based callers use a proven qualified lead generation program that will produce real closable leads for your company. Our process has two fundamentals at its core:

• Our definition of a qualified lead. Our definition of a qualified lead is someone who is in the market right now to purchase your products or services. We do not define a qualified lead as someone who simply wants information or asks to be called back next quarter or next year. A qualified lead is a “right now” buyer. Period.

• We have to make you money. We get it. You have to make money on every lead generation campaign we do for you, from the first project onwards.

Every campaign should produce real opportunities for your sales force. No one can afford to waste money in today’s economy, and we understand this. At Link It, you will get more than just experienced callers generating leads for you – you will also get a management team that works with you and provides information and feedback to make sure you get the qualified leads that are the real opportunities you need to drive your business forward.

Posted in b2b Lead Generation, b2b Sales Leads, b2b Trade Leads, Call Center, Lead Generation, Lead Generation Call Centers, Lead Generation Services, Qualified Lead Generation, Sales Lead Generation, Sales Lead Services, Telemarketing Lead Services, Telemarketing Leads | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

B2B Telemarketing Solutions for Inbound and Outbound Marketing

Posted on August 10, 2011 by donna

Inbound Marketing begins as soon as the call is answered. Whether it is a current or prospective client calling – it is important that they have a positive experience. Hiring an experienced call center can make a great deal of difference in the quality and consistency of your prospects’ or client’s experience. Excellent references are the best predictors of quality and consistency in a call center.
Outsourcing your outbound marketing to set appointments or generate leads is a great temporary solution. By outsourcing your B2B lead generation or appointment setting, you can set the pace, by increasing or decreasing your call volume. You will never have a need to furlough or lay- off workers or the expense of increasing staff. Call center services are available to provide many levels of sales from appointment setting to a complete sales process.
For a campaign to succeed, it will require a high quality, experienced call center and a good relationship between you and them. An effective call center will have tools in place to be sure that contact, data and follow up happen regularly. Centers that pay their callers hourly will produce a more solid result than commission paid callers who are under more pressure to produce at any cost. As the outsourcer, you need to decide if your call center will be domestic or foreign. If you choose a domestic call center, be sure that you know where your callers will be calling from. Some firms subcontract accounts to another call center. Be sure everyone agrees with the mission and the quality standards to be met. Then, check references.
Outsourced B2B telemarketing, both inbound and outbound can be an effective way to retain and gain clients and business dollars. Telemarketing services are a good temporary solution to a weak pipeline or an increased demand for customer service.

Posted in Appointment Setting, b2b Lead Generation, b2b Telemarketing, Call Center, Call Center Services, Telemarketing Services | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Businesses’ Image May Be Influenced By the Quality of Their Call Center

Posted on August 2, 2011 by donna

Businesses expend a great deal of energy managing their image and social media profiles. Some hire professional PR firms to manage it for them. We all know that one wrong move can do serious damage. So, when outsourcing for any customer contact or telemarketing services, businesses will want to be sure the firm that they hire has a stellar reputation for being polite and respectful when representing clients.
A business can do a great deal of good and never get attention for it, while one mistake or careless remark can get a whole lot of negative publicity. Before a business outsources client services or customer contact, they need to do some homework:
- Check with references. If there are not multiple glowing references ready to rave about their experience, move to another vendor.
- Check their ratings with BBB and others for any complaints.
- Be certain that they are not further outsourcing their services to another firm not under their direct supervision, such as an English speaking country, (i.e., India, Philippines, Central America). When hiring a U.S. firm, confirm who will be actually talking with prospects and clients and from which location(s).
Any call center will want to perform well to keep clients happy. But, if there is a misunderstanding about how and where the services will be performed, the client may be very disappointed. This can also put a businesses’ reputation in jeopardy. A little extra work up front can lead to a pleasant and worthwhile experience with a quality call center!

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Outsource for a Quality Sales and Service Experience for your Customers

Posted on July 27, 2011 by donna

Businesses that need inbound or outbound call support for their customers can benefit from outsourcing to a professional, experienced call center. Link It Call Center in South Dakota, U.S., is experienced in inbound sales and customer service work for clients. We will never – ever outsource a clients’ work to another call center. We provide a customer service program that can reduce costs and provide a quality sales and service experience for your customers. We have many references that will attest to our quality and their satisfaction.
Working for you, we become a transparent extension of your company. Customers need to believe they are dealing directly with you and we will satisfy that need. Our callers are experts at delivering accurate information and taking orders while presenting themselves as representatives of your company. Our IT staff is capable of integrating with your systems to use and provide the CRM data you need.
All of our callers are based in South Dakota and work in our offices. We even welcome clients to come and see us at work. We have an extremely low turnover rate. This means less time is spent checking backgrounds and training personnel. The result is a consistent staff that is experienced and can quickly learn your sales and service system.
We understand the importance of your budget and bottom line. We get it! You need to make money on your inbound sales calls and retain customers through customer service. We can make this happen for you, from the first project onwards.
If this is a service that your firm can benefit from, please give us a call and/or visit our website at www.linkitcallcenter.com. We look forward to answering your questions and concerns.

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Outsourcing Lead Development to Help Grow Your Business

Posted on July 19, 2011 by donna

Businesses that outsource for B2B lead generation and other services are putting their eggs in a variety of baskets. If a firm has only a couple of lead sources and one of them suddenly dries up, they will need to scramble to find more without much time for testing. By outsourcing for lead development, a business is keeping their lead options open.
Outsourcing to a B2B Call Center for lead generation, lead development, appointment setting or direct telesales can help keep the sales pipeline full at all levels. Outsourcing allows businesses to increase lead levels seasonally and as needed to keep the pipeline at optimum levels.
Marketing will lay out a strategy and back it up with a plan. If that plan includes lead generation or appointment setting, an outside call center can help to keep the numbers of leads at a consistent level. B2B call centers have lead generation specialists and appointment setters that work hard to find and qualify the best prospects.
Sales professionals doing much of their own lead generation can benefit from outside lead generation or appointment setting services bringing in additional prospects. How to grow your business? Try outsourcing to a professional B2B Call Center!

Posted in Appointment Setting, b2b Lead Generation, Call Center, Call Center Outsourcing, Lead Generation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Leads Your Company Can Use

Posted on July 13, 2011 by kimd

The word “lead” can mean different things depending on the business you’re in.  A list company’s leads are their lists.  For a call center, a lead is what is developed for the client from a cold list.   The most important difference is what a telemarketing lead service can do for your company verses what a cold list does.  Lead generation call centers are experts at taking that raw material, the cold list, and spinning it into gold – actual leads.  Outsourcing your call center services to an experienced, professional telemarketing  company can turn mere lists into potential clients for your company.

Businesses can also glean leads from many different sources.  They are almost spinning in circles to determine the best course of action.  One thing is certain, talking  person to person with a potential customer dramatically increases the chance of a sale.  When sales lead generation comes from telemarketing leads, people talking to people, sales and profits increase.  Outbound call centers have well-trained, professional callers that are experts at grabbing the customer’s attention and getting that customer the information they need whether it be transferring the call directly to your sales force, setting appointments or directing them to your web site.

Posted in Call Center Services, Lead Generation Call Centers, Outbound Call Center, Telemarketing, Telemarketing Companies, Telemarketing Lead Services | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

High Quality Response for Your Best Clients and Contacts

Posted on July 5, 2011 by donna

While some businesses outsource customer service to an overseas call center, many are finding that a higher quality domestic call center is appropriate for certain top level clients and contacts. To be sure that the best clients and contacts know they are special to a business, they receive VIP treatment via a U.S. based call center.
For cost purposes, it may make sense to use an overseas call center for telemarketing and customer service for most of your clients and prospects. Businesses often have a list of VIP clients or Hot prospects that get special care. So, bring in a high quality domestic call center to provide VIP special services and let them know they are special to you! A domestic call center offers agents that speak the same language with no barriers and conversation about local and regional issues such as weather or sports that put people at ease.
Whether the calls are incoming or outbound, the odds of a solid outcome are better when a domestic call center is used to provide the service to your VIP clients or special contacts. There are many high quality domestic call centers available to provide services. Be sure to check references.

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Getting A Foot In The Door With Preset Appointments

Posted on June 29, 2011 by donna

Some salespeople are so good they close 50% of their presentations. Before bringing in a full time caller to qualify leads and set appointments, it might be wise to outsource temporarily to find the ins and outs of your approach. Professional B2B telemarketers experienced in talking with top level executives can talk to potential clients, qualify them, and set appointments for a professional presentation.
Link It Call Center uses an approach that we’ve developed over time. We learned by experimenting on our own products, and with our own sales team. First we make sure we speak with the proper contact. We then qualify the company or department, so as not to waste your time. The contact will be expecting you at the designated and confirmed time and location.
Today, more than ever, presentations are made via phone or video conference. Pre-scheduled appointments are just as important for these contacts as for in-person presentations. A B2B call center will represent your firm in a way that will make you proud. Your caller will be calling for your company, be able to answer many questions, and talk to your prospects in a professional, respectful manner. By outsourcing for these services, you can save on hiring, managing, and infrastructure expenses. Outsourcing may be the best temporary solution to a need for appointment setting.

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