Learn when it’s best to call your customers

IN AN attempt to cut down on nuisance calls, Ofcom has ruled that abandoned calls must not exceed three per cent in a 24-hour period.  And it says that in the event of an abandoned call, a very brief recorded information message must be played “no later than two seconds after the telephone has been picked up”.

We support this silent calls initiative and we are working with customers to ensure they are using their technology in a compliant manner.

And we are also stressing to customers the importance of campaign management capabilities to improve “right party connect” rates.

Our campaign management product learns from experience — for example: “We tried on customer X’s landline on Tuesday, eventually reaching them on their mobile on Thursday.”

It uses sophisticated algorithms to predict the best number to call and the best hour of day to reach a person at that number in the future without getting through to an answering machine or family member.

This data can then be used to create calling strategies (optimised according to campaign objectives and prioritised by user-defined criteria) with optimised account information fed into diallers for execution, dynamically adjusting record levels as agents log in.

When integrated with workforce management and contact centre analytics applications, such a capability can be even more powerful — enabling companies to schedule and manage the right agents, at the right times, with the highest productivity work, to yield the best return on investment in people and technology.

Responsible and effective outbound dialling can enhance agent productivity and improve the number of contacts dialled per hour by as much as 200-300 per cent.  In telesales, this can lead to improved sales; while in a debt collection it can significantly uplift right party connects and promises to pay.

Anita Marsh, manager – marketing, Europe and Africa, Aspect; marketing.uk@aspect.com