Contact centres in Slovakia have recently gone through a period of innovation and changes. However, technology is a crucial part of contact centres, and its potential is not yet fully appreciated in Slovakia. The equipment of most contact centres is based on service platforms, which represented the biggest investment at the time they were launched.
With the development of telemarketing and changes in the business environment, new and innovative technologies have given new orientation to the market resulting in more opportunities to effectively use contact centres. In times of economic crisis, factors like effectiveness, return on investment or profitability are in focus, and new technologies, implemented via professional outbound campaigns, are a way to achieve them. Outbound campaigns have rarely been used in the Slovak market so far, in spite of their indisputable advantages and successes confirmed in all markets. Outbound is oriented towards measurable, real revenues and profit; it improves communication with clients, leading to retention and client satisfaction; it creates and use the existing client database, which represents a long-term asset of the company; and it results in use of agents more effectively.
The success of outbound campaigns depends on the effective use of existing human resources. Modern modules, like e.g. the ELSBETH Telemarketing Center, allow an increase up to 100 percent of outbound calls compared to their predecessors at a professional level. The preparation of campaigns is quick and simple, without any need to deploy specialised IT staff, and thus offers the chance to react flexibly to the market situation. Perfect real-time overview of the activities of all agents enables non-stop control and monitoring based on detailed statistics. Modern modules use also various “coaching” tools, by which it is possible to continually improve the skills and performance of agents. Another, very important, aspect of new technologies is their readiness for legislative changes affecting telemarketing in most European countries, e.g. bans of unwanted or refused calls, or the obligation to display the caller’s number. The processes of contact centres using modern communication modules have not been affected by these legislative changes - on the contrary, they resulted in competitive advantages.
The question remains why, with the above-mentioned advantages and benefits, outbound campaigns are not used in Slovakia to a greater degree. A frequent, but faulty prejudice is the supposed high investment and complexity of implementation. However, if outbound campaigns are correctly and professionally implemented in the total sales strategy, the RoI is as short as 6 to 10 months, same time the effectiveness of a contact centre will be increased same time by dozens of percentage points. Moreover Implementation of these new communication modules is very simple and applicable to all existing systems.
Author: High-Tech-Marketing SK, člen skupiny itCampus
