“Doing it yourself,” that is, insourcing contact center services versus outsourcing, offers a number of benefits. Your call team is 100% dedicated to your project. Call reps are down the hall, rather than across town or across the country, and are behind the “firewall,” making it easy to access business systems like order history and inventory programs. In-house telemarketing teams also make it easier to leverage your existing training programs and personnel.
However, before implementing a call center, you must also take into account all the marketing and sales responsibilities you already have. Effectively managing telemarketing in-house includes such factors as:
- Hiring experienced personnel – You can’t put just anyone on the phone to represent your company.
- Compliance – heavy fines are levied against companies who do not adequately adhere to DNC and TCPA regulations
- Training – Experienced call reps may have the requisite phone skills, but they still need to be trained about your company, its products, your industry, the lingo, etc.
- Motivation – Call reps take a lot of rejection. Are you prepared to constantly motivate them verbally and with other incentives?
- Supervision – In addition to the call reps themselves, you’ll also need to hire call team managers and supervisors who will not only supervise and coach the reps but also monitor daily and weekly call goals.
- Facilities and equipment – Telemarketers require more than a phone at a desk crammed in the corner of a company’s basement. Savvy companies equip call reps with up-to-date PCs and large monitors; software specially designed for call centers including call queuing, efficient data entry and links to online information; ergonomic chairs, quality headsets, and a clean, quiet and professional working environment.
- Technology – Today companies must integrate the phone, email and the Web in order to lower costs and improve lead quality.
- Continuity – All businesses experience peaks and valleys — those times when sales leads are coming in fast and furious versus other times when nothing is happening. As a result, you often wind up staffing for the mid-point, being overstaffed for the valleys and understaffed for the peaks.
