Cloud communication technology has transformed the landscape of how organisations can drive sales. In an ever-connected world, organisations can communicate with their customers at scale and faster than ever before.
Applications like cloud contact centre technology help sales-focused organisations proactively engage with their customer base. This supports your organisation in building solid relationships, improving brand loyalty and increasing their propensity to purchase from your brand.
Can your organisation maximise using a contact centre solution to generate revenue?
A cloud contact centre solution comprises many features enabling your organisation to increase sales. These features include:
- An outbound dialler
- A CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) adaptor for your CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
- List Weighting
- A Dynamic CLI (Caller Line Identification)
- Lead management
- Answering machine detection technology
- Branded Caller ID
These features serve their own purpose and deliver numerous benefits, but one key advantage all features share is the ability to drive sales.
In this blog, we will explain how your organisation can leverage each feature to proactively engage with your customers, which can support increasing revenue.
Outbound Dialler
In a previous blog, we discussed what an outbound dialler is and provided comprehensive strategies for optimising this feature.
However, to provide a brief overview, an outbound dialler enables your business to make outgoing calls and has pre-built dialler modes that accommodate various business cases and assists in achieving specific objectives.
We will now outline each dialler mode and the benefits your organisation can gain from utilising each type of dialler.
- Predictive dialler: Using this dialler optimises agent efficiency as algorithms forecast the ratio of when an agent will next become available to talk to another customer. This dialler will commence dialling according to the algorithm, so agents spend more time speaking to customers rather than inputting digits themselves and listening to the ringtone, waiting to be connected. This dialler can support maximising contact rates, as agents will only be connected to a customer once they answer the phone.
- Preview dialler: This dialler will only begin calling the customer once the agent decides to make the call – unlike the progressive and predictive diallers, where the agent does not have this control. Through CRM integration, the agent can prepare for the call by reviewing the customer details, like previous call interactions, which will assist the agent in determining whether they wish to dial the customer or skip the record to continue to the next customer. This dialler is suitable for organisations with a longer, complex sales process.
- Progressive dialler: This dialler type will only call a customer once the agent is available and can provide time for an agent to review the customer’s details before making the call. This assists in driving sales as preparation time is allocated for the agent to tailor their pitch, as they are equipped with all of the information required to make a sale.
ipSCAPE’s AI-powered outbound dialler offers all three dialler modes to enable your agents to reach your customer base proactively.
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Adaptor for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The CTI adaptor enables agents to make and take calls within a CRM platform, which assists in maximising efficiencies, such as improving agent productivity.
Agents can view the customer’s record, which displays previous interaction history, personal details and other vital information, while on a phone call to the customer. This integration can provide a single view of the customer, which can help guide the agent’s conversation.
From a customer service perspective, the CTI adaptor can streamline support processes as customer data can be easily and quickly retrieved, which can be used to respond promptly and resolve customer inquiries. Many customer support managers aim to improve first-call resolution as this assists in elevating customer satisfaction and simultaneously can reduce the chance of handling repeat calls.
CTI adaptors for CRMs enable organisations to create a more personalised customer experience that can increase sales and boost customer retention.
ipSCAPE’s platform has pre-built CTI adaptors to integrate with leading CRM’s including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zendesk and ServiceNow.
List Weighting
List weighting can be a valuable feature for managers to activate as this tool can facilitate their agents to increase the propensity of conversions.
Managers can upload multiple lists per campaign for their contact centre agents to call to assist in segmenting the total audience.
List weighting enables the manager to blend multiple calling lists by assigning a ‘weighting’ (percentage) to each list. In doing so, the manager can prioritise leads for their sales agents to call by setting a higher weighting than the other lists. This helps drive sales as specific lists may contain customers with a higher purchasing frequency.
However, managers can also choose to assign an equal weighting to each list, i.e., applying a 50% weighting to two lists within the same campaign results in agents calling both lists at the same rate, which can maximise the completion rate of each list.
This strategy is beneficial as agents must know the weighting associated with each list. This empowers agents to consistently apply their best performance to make a sale without knowing the true list quality. However, not using list weighting results in agents knowing the list they are calling from could have a higher or lower propensity to purchase, directly impacting the effort they put into making each call.
List weighting is a tool that can maximise list completion and motivate agents to apply their best effort, supporting continually generating revenue.
Dynamic Caller Line Identification (CLI)
A Dynamic CLI is a phone number displayed to a customer when an agent makes an outbound call, either a State-based or a mobile CLI. By applying a Dynamic CLI, organisations can utilise this feature to improve contact rates, contributing to generating revenue.
A State based CLI will change based on which State the agent is calling to, i.e., if the agent is calling from Queensland, yet calling to a customer in Victoria, the phone number that appears to the customer will display at the beginning, ‘03’. A mobile CLI shows the agent’s mobile number they are calling from to be changed dynamically each time a customer is called.
Utilising a State based CLI can improve contact rates as customers are more likely to answer a call that appears to be coming from a local number. Furthermore, when a mobile CLI is applied, this feature can also support contact rates to increase as the customer may be more willing to answer a phone call that appears differently each time they are being called.
When making outbound calls, applying a Dynamic CLI can help organisations to increase contact rates, which assists agents in driving sales.
Lead Management
A practical lead management feature can help streamline the process of uploading, mapping, and validating lead lists. This method improves the accuracy of data the agents will be calling.
The lead management tool can ensure your agents call the right person at the right time by allocating time zone controls, creating personalised customer experiences by inserting custom data fields into the script, and only dialling phone numbers that have been added correctly. This is achieved by completing a validation process before uploading the list into a campaign.
Ensure that when your organisation determines how to drive sales using contact centre technology, the lead management tool is designed to qualify and easily manage lead data to provide your agents with the most optimum opportunities to generate revenue.
Answering Machine Detection Technology
Answering machine detection technology can help increase contact rates which maximises the opportunity for agents to increase sales.
Utilising answering machine detection technology ensures the dialler will only connect the agent to a customer once they have answered the phone. This removes the result of an answering machine being presented to the agent.
This tool is critical for agents to utilise if they are making consistent outbound phone calls as this feature allows agents to have more conversations with customers, as well as improves agent productivity as they will not spend time listening to the phone ring, only for the call to lead to a voicemail.
Branded Caller ID
Due to robocalling in today’s society occurring more frequently than ever, the need for organisations to protect and safeguard their business phone numbers from being blocked or marked as ‘spam’ is essential.
When phone numbers are marked as spam, organizations must refresh them, which can be costly yet necessary to continue business operations.
Utilising a solution such as branded caller ID, your organisation’s phone numbers are protected from being classified as spam on the Android network – but how does this work? Organisations can change the phone number’s appearance to display your company name with the associated company logo and the reason for the call.
This is a cost-effective solution as it reduces the likelihood of phone numbers being marked as spam as the customer is aware of who is calling them and the reason for the call, which can also assist in improving contact rates.
Implementing a solution such as branded caller ID can enable organisations to safeguard their phone numbers, save costs, optimise their calling strategy, and build stronger brand awareness, which all drive sales.
If you’d like to discover how ipSCAPE can help optimise your contact centre with our advanced outbound dialler, CTI adaptor for CRM integration, Dynamic CLI and branded caller ID, get in touch today.
ipSCAPE is a feature-rich, scalable cloud communication technology with advanced integration capabilities. We help businesses connect with their customers through multi-channel communications, including Voice, Web Chat, Email, SMS, IVR and other emerging channels.