Types Of Telemarketing Services

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS (B2B)

Data Cleansing

This is a process used to ensure a company’s customer information database is consistent and accurate.  By removing inconsistencies from database records (as well as clearing inactive users), telemarketing service representatives (TSRs) are more likely to have the information needed to more completely and efficiently service customers.  This type of telemarketing activity may verify information such as an address, phone number, current account holder, account type, and desired level of service.

Customer Appreciation

It is important to understand that customers appreciate being contacted proactively if it serves their interests.  The key is their interests.  Your company needs to ensure that there is alignment between their interests and your reason for contacting them.

This type of telemarketing activity is performed to thank a customer for loyalty to your business and are not sales calls in the  traditional sense.  However as part of this process, the TSR can identify whether:

Charity Fundraising

Non-profit agencies use both outbound and inbound telemarketing calls for market awareness and to raise charity donations.  Agencies periodically conduct pledge drives through various marketing channels that result in an influx of donor calls, hence inbound telemarketing.  Outbound telemarketing is used for recruitment, cultivation and retention of the agency’s donor list.

Political Registration/Voter Participation

Political telemarketing services vary from voter registration, polling, Get Out The Vote (GOTV), voice broadcasting and campaign fundraising.   GOTV drives are the final stages of voter engagement campaigns where political groups are looking to drive as many supporters or registered voters to the polls.  Since there is limited time, political organizations need to rely on various tools to simplify and scale up to a high volume.

Market Research

Outbound telemarketing for market research is often used for product/service reviews and customer feedback. This is a highly cost-effective means for conducting large-scale market research and can cover vast geographical locations from a single base. TSRs conducting interviews can range from small executive level surveying to nationwide customer feedback questioning.

Sales Lead Generation

Whether B2B or B2C,  telemarketing sales lead generation is used to qualify a company’s prospects by adhering to strict qualifying criteria.  This model (often outsourced to a third-party call-center provider) represents the separation of cold calling and prospect qualification from sales appointment setting and the actual selling by the company’s internal or field sales force.

This division of the sales process allows a company to more effectively use their more expensive sales personnel to do what they do best: use their extensive knowledge, communication, presentation, negotiating and closing skills to convert prospects into new customers and deals.

New Customer Acquisition

Businesses need new customers for their growth and survival.  Using outbound telemarketing services to find, qualify and sign-up new customers is an effective direct marketing system.  Whether it is a TSR calling prospects from a dialing list or via a pre-recorded message using a computerized dialing system, there is no prior existing relationship.  It is often referred to as cold-calling or dialing for dollars.

Telesales

Once a company has identified and qualified a customer prospect (by whatever means), telesales is the process that sells your products or services directly to the customer by telephone.  Telesales converts those opportunities into business for your company.  Depending upon the market (business or consumer) and complexity of the product/service, the telesales process may entail one or a  series of telephone calls until sales success.

Collections

One of the types of telemarketing services that companies often require is the collecting of outstanding invoices payments from their customers.  This is important to maintain cash flow and working capital for a company’s development.

If the company list of debtors is small, this process of contacting customers via the telephone is handled internally by the accounting group.  If the list of debtors is large, however, this process is often handled by a dedicated tele-collections team or outsourced to a third-party provider.

Customer Reactivation

Using telemarketing services to reactive your customer base is one of the highest ROI opportunities a company can invest in.  At some point in the past, these inactive customers purchased from you or engaged with your company in some way. You’ve already spent the time, effort, and money to get them as a customer, so it is much more cost-effective to bring them back than it is to find new customers.

There are many reasons why a customer no longer uses a company’s products or services. Customer Reactivation telemarketing is simply designed to understand why they stopped being active and entice them to become active customers again.