The key tenets of a successful telemarketing campaign have been brought together in the Client Guide to Outsourcing. Produced by the DMA's Contact Centres and Telemarketing Council, it aims to educate clients about how to get the best from their outsourced telemarketing partners and focuses on legislation and best practice.
"There's no doubt that outbound telemarketing is getting tougher," says Peter Gale, UK manager of the Data Base Factory and a member of the Contact Centres and Telemarketing Council. "It is the responsibility of the industry to deliver best practice and that starts with the client."
The Guide will be relevant for clients who have a relationship with an outsourced partner and those looking to select a new contact centre partner. "It's about raising the bar and helping clients understand what they should expect from their partner," says Gale.
Areas covered include the management of automated dialling equipment, handling of data, monitoring and recording and quality control. The issue of quality is arguably the most important, but the least tangible. What are the components of a great, quality call? How can quality be measured?
Gale advises that the client and outsourcer work closely together to establish a quality scale they agree on. "Sometimes the outsourcer has its own in-house quality measures, but it doesn't calibrate with the client's expectations. There's plenty of scope for misinterpretation."
This can be avoided if a number of recommendations in the Guide are followed. For example, listening to call recordings together and scoring according to a pre-agreed quality matrix and seeding the numbers of company employees in the call list to ensure calls are handled according to the campaign plan.
The Guide to Outsourcing is launching at next month's IDMF (1-3 May, Earls Court) and can be downloaded from the DMA website.
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