Telesales: what are the new relational approaches?
Over the course of the last few years, the customer relations sector has been shaped by a combination of new expectations, new behaviours, digital transformation and the search for unique, positive experiences.
A whole range of relational approaches coupled with ever more innovative technologies are revolutionising the sector, enabling it to meet its countless challenges.
How do you keep things in perspective in highly regulated prospecting and loyalty-building actions, so as to concentrate on methods that enable you to achieve your business goals while ensuring customer satisfaction?
Decryption with Etienne Cantenot, Director of Partnerships, and Leslie Herluison, Director of Projects at Armatis.
What’s your take on the development of the profession and relational approaches over the course of the last few years?
The “Telemarketing years” are over. The growing number of operators on the market and industrialisation of operations have really shaken the market up. Due to abuse and poorly supervised methods in certain sectors, distance selling has suffered from a bad press.
Practices such as unlawful calls, spams, ping calls and fraudulent calls were certainly harmful to customers’ interests but couldn’t discredit the entire profession.
Consumers’ associations and action on the part of elected representatives have led to the activity’s regulation. The SP2C (Union of Contact Centre Professionals) is cooperating with them, working on positioning the sector with a view to issuing a Code of Conduct in order to highlight operators that comply with ethical standards and promote virtuous cold calling.
Outgoing calls are still a major channel in brands’ acquisition and retention strategies. The activity has become increasingly professional over the past few years, both as regards technological aspects and training of advisors, while also integrating customers’ expectations and business goals.
Business departments have implemented various procedures for controlling sales pressure and avoiding over-solicitation. Systematic use and promotion of cold-call opt-out list services and 2-stage sale processes that ensure full understanding and total acceptance of conditions of sale.
Finally, post-interaction satisfaction indicators enable measurement of customers’ lived experience and correction of causes for dissatisfaction if necessary.
Such current relational approaches don’t completely meet consumers’ needs, however, and their increasing rejection can be measured via decreasing contact rates.
The model needs to be reinvented.
What new models and relational approaches are making their appearance?
The new relational models that we’re currently testing out and using are all based on the determination to get as close as possible to customers’ and prospects’ expectations and needs.
They’re virtuous models that comply with regulatory requirements as well as with the principles of transparency, performance and customer-centricity.
By way of illustration, here are a few concrete examples of new relational approaches supported by technology and artificial intelligence:
- Anticipation of expectations and needs: by using analytics to predict customers’ and prospects’ problems and needs, we can take preventive measures and anticipate needs for assistance, expectations of development and changes in customers’ requirements. There’s a dual benefit: fewer contacts to Customer Services and promotion of an empathetic brand mindful of its customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.
- Inversion of relational models in prospecting activities: In this case, it’s a matter of arousing customers’ / prospects’ interest, generating leads via targeted promotion campaigns and highlighting new services on social networks and the web. With this approach, it’s the customer/prospect who solicits the brand because a quality teaser has been generated.
- Artificial intelligence for better market targeting: customers look for an experience that comes to them where they happen to be and when it suits them. AI helps develop such positive experiences and decrease commercial pressure and numbers of contacts:
- analysis of profiles and confirmation of their attraction to the offer
- analysis of availability so as to call at the “best” time: AI detection of the most favourable context in which to exchange and make a sales proposal
- Transparency: systematic presentation of the brand’s name and logo and of the sales pitch during the call. This approach promotes brands that cultivate a strong virtuous image, as it directly impacts the sales rate.
- Efficiency: use of effective call tools (CRM) managed by artificial intelligence, for better management of call prediction and answerphone recognition. This 100% effective technology ensures productivity gains as only successful calls are put through to advisors.
What difference does all this make for advisors?
Such tools and relational approaches provide a call context conducive to useful discussion. Customers and prospects contacted are assumed to be “palatable” and not over-solicited.
Advisors consequently have a favourable environment in which to initiate their conversational exchanges, based on listening, empathy and product promotion.
CRM tools also enable advisors to refocus on their core activity, ignoring problems to do with waiting, composition, and filing of unsuccessful calls.
For customers?
These new qualitative models supported by innovative technologies serve to demonstrate the attention paid to customer knowledge and the lived experience, as such relational approaches take full account of customers’ profiles and interests.
Here are a few figures illustrating customer perception:
- Satisfaction rate on calls > to 90/95%
- Recommendation rate for the brand and channel, generating further traffic: word-of-mouth on networks and redirection to our sales reception units
- Lower churn rate
- Cross-selling facilitated, as the brand’s value enables proposals of other products
Can you give us some idea of the results obtained by these new relational approaches?
We’re obtaining excellent results with these technological relational approaches:
Preventive calls in anticipation of needs
Studies show a 20 to 30% decrease in churn for targets for whom outgoing technical anticipation calls have led to correction of malfunctions.
Generation of “hot” leads
We’ve observed transformation of up to 50% on full sales pitch calls and 30% on leads handled on a “Residential” target. We’ve also obtained a 10% transformation rate on a Professional target for a highly specialised and competitive product.
Overall, we’re on a controlled business model with stable acquisition costs and volumes that can be adapted to needs.
Customers and prospects expect ever greater personalisation in their relationships with brands. How do you solve the ethics / regulation / personalisation equation, in particular with the scheduled end of third-party cookies?
The end of third-party cookies will benefit contact personalisation and reduce commercial pressure through ongoing visibility of brands in web journeys, which is perceived as aggressive.
In my opinion, the main thing is to refocus on your customer bases, they’re companies’ real “wealth”. We need to continue the search for customer knowledge by soliciting them through networks, loyalty programmes, welcome calls and all forms of interaction measured by satisfaction and listening surveys. Listening and customer knowledge form the basis of strong, dynamic and lasting relationships with customers.
In conclusion, the outgoing call mustn’t be an end in itself but a customer relations tool like any other. That’s why outgoing calls must be combined with other channels, other media, so as to leave customers the choice and freedom to interact with brands as they see fit and at the time that suits them best.
The ideal would be to provide a contact hub encompassing all interactions, which would increase brand attachment as it would strengthen the sense of belonging to a community.
