When it comes to gathering business
intelligence, everyone does the
basics. However, a well-run call center program — either inbound or outbound — can provide a host of very granular information that will boost response.
“Businesses don’t just want to know that
homemakers are by the phone between
noon and 2 p.m. or that businesspeople are
home after 8 p.m.,” says Michael Van Scyoc,
senior vice president of information technology client services for InfoCision Management Corp. “We want to know exactly
when we can reach any certain individual —
say, between 1 and 1:30 or between 7 and
7:30. Today’s databases can give more
sophisticated data than ever before.”
With predictive modeling against national
databases and demographic breakdowns
that go beyond age or sex, today’s call center databases can provide a granular mother
lode of business intelligence, he says.
Smart Business spoke with Van Scyoc
about databases, what information can be
gleaned from them and how to use that
information to make your call center hum.
What kinds of intelligence and information
can a call center gather?
There is so much information that can be
gathered from a call center operation.
Perhaps the more important thing to keep in
mind is the speed at which you can gain the
intelligence. The call center provides immediate feedback. You can change your sales
pitch or fundraising appeal, go live with
your changes and immediately see the
results of your changes. You simply can’t do
that with the radio, TV or mail. By the very
nature of a one-to-one interaction over the
phone, you are able to collect very specific
information about a specific customer. And,
more importantly, with this specific information, you are able to market to and service your customers with great intelligence
about them.
How often should this intelligence and
information be updated?
Frequently and continuously. You may be
replacing old information with new information, but often, you are adding new information to the existing historical information
to add more clarity. You really have to
understand the life cycle or trend of the relationship with your customers. The same is
true for new leads or prospects. A single
interaction doesn’t really tell you enough.
What if I don’t have a lot of historical information on my customers?
That’s where data enhancement services
come in. With limited information about
your customers, it’s possible to add demographic information like age, income, religion and occupation. It’s also possible to
add purchasing behavior and psychographic segmentation. With this level of information, you can better provide the desired
services or products to your customers. You
know the best time to call them, with what
up-sell or cross-sell products or services
they will have a high propensity to buy.
When it comes to identifying new leads,
you start by modeling your current customers. By using key customer indicators,
you can build valid statistical models to predict the likelihood of a sale or positive
response from prospects.
With all the data out there today, how do
you decipher what’s most important?
Today, we are often overwhelmed with so
much information to wade through. It really depends on what you are trying to
achieve at a given time.
Basically, there are two aspects to focus
on: productivity and performance. Productivity is your measurement of efficiency or
use of time, like talk time, average speed of
answer, abandon rates and service levels.
Performance is your measurement of effectiveness or desired outcome, such as sales
conversion, response rate and dollar per
transaction. These are the basic statistics
you need to look at from a tactical perspective. All of today’s well-run call centers have
this type of information at their fingertips in
real time.
How do I know which metrics to follow?
It’s really based on your current business
drivers or campaigns. Maybe you are trying
to increase the number of leads that are converted to sales. Maybe you are trying to
increase the sale amount while maintaining
a conversion rate. Or, maybe you are trying
to maintain sales and conversions rates
while lowering talk time in order to reduce
costs. You may not even be interested in
sales. Maybe your metrics are all based on
cost-effective, high-quality customer service
to your existing customers. It really depends
on today’s focus. Tomorrow the focus may
be the same or it may have change to meet
changes in business.
MICHAEL VAN SCYOC is senior vice president of information technology client services for InfoCision Management Corp. Reach him at
[email protected]. In business for 25 years, InfoCision Management Corporation is the second largest privately held teleservices company and a leading provider of customer care services, commercial sales and marketing for a variety of Fortune 100 companies and smaller businesses. InfoCision is also a leader of inbound and outbound marketing for nonprofit, religious and political organizations. InfoCision
operates 32 call centers at 13 locations throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. For more information, visit www.infocision.com.
