Interact's Nimblevox and the Power of the IVR System in the Outbound Calling Campaign
August 02, 2012
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
The outbound calling campaign is critical for those companies seeking to connect with current and potential customers to drive revenue, secure subscriptions or even gather information for a customer survey. Regardless of the purpose, an interactive voice response (IVR) system can play a critical role in the process.
According to this EzineMark report, companies seeking to establish their own outbound or telemarketing campaign can easily do so, especially with the Nimblevox cloud solution offered by Interact. The company simply needs to put together a list of individuals to call, agents willing to make the calls, a script, desktops with Internet access and the campaign is ready to launch.
With an IVR system in place, some of the steps involved can be automated, minimizing the amount of time an agent needs to spend on the phone. As a result, more contacts can be reached in less time, reducing the cost per call. When implemented correctly, the IVR system can also help drive conversations.
Before setting up the campaign, however, there are few things the company needs to examine and build into their calling strategy. First, what is the purpose of the campaign? Second, will the calls be cold calls? Third, what is the motivation to encourage the person on the other end of the line to act? Finally, what information will be provided to the agent before making the call, and how will success be measured?
In addition to the use of an IVR system to help in the telemarketing campaign, companies may also want to consider the use of an auto dialer, computer telephony integration and the proper training for agents or telemarketers. A calling campaign can quickly fail if the right technology and training are not in place, putting more pressure on call center managers to effectively outline their strategy before launching calls.
Once the campaign has started, monitoring of the calls is critical to overall success. This process not only allows call center managers to ensure all agents are following the script and converting when given the opportunity, but also that the IVR system is working correctly. The recorded calls can also be used for training purposes, giving feedback to those who need a little work to improve and to demonstrate to others what they are doing right.
With the Nimblevox solution from Interact, companies can easily design, deploy and manage voice applications, an IVR system, SMS campaigns and even telephony services operating in the cloud. The solution provides an easy drag and drop service creation tool to create voice, call flows and SMS applications.
In a press release announcing the solution, Ed McKee, Director of Marketing at Interact Incorporated (News - Alert) said, “Nimblevox was designed to be accessible to any business; we take care of all the telephony management and provisioning, letting organizations focus on their business of innovation.”
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Edited by Brooke Neuman