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Regulatory Frenzy
Today, the forecast for the collection industry is gloomy with the constant roll of regulations overhead day in and day out.
Most of the regulatory clouds are weighing on technology-driven interactions at a time when this sector is already seeing a lot of rain.
When you hear the word collections, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is on the tip of everyone's tongue.
FDCPA lawsuits continue to increase over the years and financial institutions are hit with more worries.
For them, reputational risk far exceeds the risk of fines.
All collectors are impacted by regulations written with the worst offenders in mind.
All are at risk of stepping over the line, and the cost can be high.
How can collection executives ready their operations to comply with the complicated rules, adapt with a minimum of expense, disruption and IT intervention? Click here to download an informative whitepaper on the regulatory storm brewing and how to prepare yourself.
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Quality Education Provider
Increased Lead Conversion and Agent Productivity Using OnQ™
A major U.S. provider of ongoing education services is supporting brands from culinary to technology schools and offering a number of different degrees and course types. This education provider recruits and enrolls many of its students via web advertisement referrals that arrive at their contact center in real-time throughout the day. The major education provider is not the exclusive recipient of these “student leads” and therefore, “Speed to Lead” is a critical objective. Reaching these prospective students in a timely fashion with the correct course information is critical to executing on an effective enrollment process. ALI Solutions worked with this education provider to design and deploy an intelligent interpretation of the real-time inquiry, determine the appropriate response, and execute an outbound response back to the student in near-real-time.
This collaboration has increased a number of interactions with the prospective students, which has resulted in increased conversion rates and sales of their educational programs. Additionally, agent productivity per agent hour has also increased within this operation. |
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Improving Customer Service
Customer Happiness is Key.
 To stay ahead of your competition, excellent customer service is crucial. Given the era of more sophisticated communications, consumers now expect a higher level of customer service and proactive management than ever before. Companies need to meet the high expectations of the consumer regardless of the size of their customer base. The outbound contact centers become the focus for proactive customer relationship management. This newsletter is focused on helping you achieve those customer service results that will keep your customers coming back. From quick turn-around of service, expanding your proactive customer engagement and managing your contact rules, this newsletter provides valuable direction on improving your customer service.
Don't miss the best practices and tips for improving customer service in the sidebar links.
Sincerely,
Alan Vondrell
Director of Strategic Alliances, ALI Solutions
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Improving Customer Service with Outbound
By Chris Yeo, Product Manager for Cisco Outbound Option
Since outbound contact center operations have historically elicited a negative response from customers, many companies often overlook the potential for improving customer service with a well executed outbound campaign.
As many companies have now realized, when outbound is solely used for telemarketing activities, often times where the negative sentiments come from, they may miss out on other areas where outbound can deliver a better experience for both the customer and the agent – proactive customer engagement,
customer convenience, and information.
The ability to provide proactive customer engagement through an outbound campaign can be a powerful tool for companies to gain positive sentiment and increased loyalty among their customers.
For example, a company may reach out to high-value customers who have not placed an order in a while with new product news or a special offer for repeat customers.
Another possible scenario is to have agents follow up on customers who have recently opened a support ticket to be sure they received the service they required and to solicit feedback.
Or simply a "We just called to say, hi," campaign.
Whatever the reason, reaching out to customers proactively with the right message and approach, can help companies improve relationships with their customers.
Most outbound solutions offer the capability to allow customers to schedule "callbacks".
This is when a customer tells the agent they are speaking with that a later time is more convenient for them to speak.
The agent then stores this information in the system which will schedule the call at the desired time.
In fact, the system can also allow for a "personal" callback, which ensures that the original agent handles the callback.
Both regular and personal callbacks not only offer customer convenience, but they can also improve the overall call experience for the agent as the customer is less likely to be distracted.
Finally, another area where outbound improves customer experience is the ability to deliver relevant and up-to-date information to the customer on an on-demand or scheduled basis.
Either can be achieved whether an agent or an automated solution, such as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system places the call.
Potential use cases include appointment reminders, flight changes, transaction confirmations, follow-up courtesy surveys, and emergency notifications.
Companies can also blend an automated system with live agents, by having the IVR place the call and offer the option to speak to a live agent.
For example, a customer receives an automated message regarding an appointment reminder and when the message is complete, the system directs the customer to press a designated key to be transferred to a live agent if they wish to update or cancel the appointment.
Please introduce your customers to the different uses for outbound campaigns, beyond traditional telemarketing, outlined in this piece.
This discussion can take place with customers who have an inbound-only contact center or no contact center at all.
For the former, adding an outbound solution is often a logical expansion as companies look for new methods to increase contact center efficiency, improve service and reduce costs.
For companies looking to setup a new contact center, outbound can serve as an ideal first step in building a solid platform to improve customer service.
Whether adding outbound to an existing contact center or incorporating it into a new contact center, it is important to look beyond what many customers consider traditional telemarketing to applications of outbound which can help improve customer care and improve the bottom line. |
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