New concept for Aunt Emm@
The Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) held a conference on telemarketing and call centers
The Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) held a conference on telemarketing and call centersBy Andreas Panzeri Thanks to technical developments, call centers are increasingly taking on a leading role as marketing instruments in modern customer relationship marketing. Agents in the call center support customers shopping on the Internet when they want more personal advice again.
Where is telemarketing headed? A forum of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) addressed this question. The most important finding: "Telemarketing is well on its way to becoming a permanent fixture in any marketing mix, just like classic advertising and personal selling."
Together with Erwin Schmid, Head of the Telecommunications Division at the SDV, six speakers presented their correspondingly specialized companies as well as their latest ideas, techniques and customer programs at the Zurich World Trade Center.
The tenor of this prophetic analysis is that telemarketers are increasingly becoming net agents. Telemarketing is increasingly being coupled with other media. For some time now, modern telemarketing has no longer been exclusively about telephone traffic between two people. Rather, a call can also be a fax or e-mail.
Personal advice now comes from Aunt Emm@
Fundamentally, however, despite all the enthusiasm for the new technology, people were also aware that, even in the Internet age, they still have a latent longing for nostalgic shopping at the corner shop. "60 to 80 percent of all consumers abandon the purchase process on the Internet because they are at a loss or miss personal advice in special cases," say the sober statistics.
One of the hopes of the six speakers was that the combination of "electronic shopping cart on the Internet plus personal advice from the call center at the same time" could now create a virtual Aunt Emm@ of the future.
"How do I get on the net?" was the question at the beginning of the development in e-commerce, according to André Blaser of Telag AG. In the meantime, these technology-oriented problems have been superseded by the customer-oriented ones, Blaser said, and called for electronic retailers to "open up to the customer via all channels.
The Telag representative showed how this customer care center work can be outsourced with advantage, "so that a company can fully concentrate on its core competencies" and not have to deal with constantly evolving technology.
"Live communication on the Internet increases sales and customer satisfaction takes on a new dimension," was the thesis of Qris Riner, RBC Mediaphone AG. The customer should never have the feeling that he will only talk to machines.
Riner demonstrated concrete solutions through the use of technological innovations. A chat agent gives instructions to the Internet customer synchronously with the purchase. These are delivered to the surfer within seconds using predefined text modules, "which is easy to do because the chat agent is usually asked the same questions anyway".
Customers leave due to lack of customer service
"The fairy tale of the king customer" was the title of the presentation by Markus Buser, extratel AG. Buser drew up a time table and said: In 1980, the customer was still king. In 1990, the customer became "our most important partner. In the year 2000, we are now confronted with the question: "Who are our customers?"
Because on the Internet, there is so much technology between the supplier and a potential buyer "that we no longer even know the buyer. There is no longer a clear customer profile.
And customer satisfaction no longer means customer loyalty when you can pick the cheapest offer anywhere in the world on the Internet at the touch of a button. Today, statistics still show that "only" nine percent of customers are poached by the competition. 14 percent switch providers because they are dissatisfied with the product. 66 percent leave because of a lack of customer service.
Buser therefore wanted to show a way in which a provider today must develop from pure marketing to customer-related marketing (CRM). He presented the call center as the central hub in CRM, with agents at different levels such as generalists, specialists, and experts. Buser's credo for customer service was, "A customer who has been helped out of a dilemma keeps coming back."
"E-mail: Marketing curse or blessing?" was the question in a stocktaking of the current situation by Erwin Schnee, ADIM Agentur für Direktmarketing AG. He pointed out a number of "rules of decency" so that a customer is not annoyed with e-mails. As an important example, Schnee insisted on a recognizable sender address in each case, because otherwise a
E-mail is no longer read.
Where is telemarketing headed? A forum of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) addressed this question. The most important finding: "Telemarketing is well on its way to becoming a permanent fixture in any marketing mix, just like classic advertising and personal selling."
Together with Erwin Schmid, Head of the Telecommunications Division at the SDV, six speakers presented their correspondingly specialized companies as well as their latest ideas, techniques and customer programs at the Zurich World Trade Center.
The tenor of this prophetic analysis is that telemarketers are increasingly becoming net agents. Telemarketing is increasingly being coupled with other media. For some time now, modern telemarketing has no longer been exclusively about telephone traffic between two people. Rather, a call can also be a fax or e-mail.
Personal advice now comes from Aunt Emm@
Fundamentally, however, despite all the enthusiasm for the new technology, people were also aware that, even in the Internet age, they still have a latent longing for nostalgic shopping at the corner shop. "60 to 80 percent of all consumers abandon the purchase process on the Internet because they are at a loss or miss personal advice in special cases," say the sober statistics.
One of the hopes of the six speakers was that the combination of "electronic shopping cart on the Internet plus personal advice from the call center at the same time" could now create a virtual Aunt Emm@ of the future.
"How do I get on the net?" was the question at the beginning of the development in e-commerce, according to André Blaser of Telag AG. In the meantime, these technology-oriented problems have been superseded by the customer-oriented ones, Blaser said, and called for electronic retailers to "open up to the customer via all channels.
The Telag representative showed how this customer care center work can be outsourced with advantage, "so that a company can fully concentrate on its core competencies" and not have to deal with constantly evolving technology.
"Live communication on the Internet increases sales and customer satisfaction takes on a new dimension," was the thesis of Qris Riner, RBC Mediaphone AG. The customer should never have the feeling that he will only talk to machines.
Riner demonstrated concrete solutions through the use of technological innovations. A chat agent gives instructions to the Internet customer synchronously with the purchase. These are delivered to the surfer within seconds using predefined text modules, "which is easy to do because the chat agent is usually asked the same questions anyway".
Customers leave due to lack of customer service
"The fairy tale of the king customer" was the title of the presentation by Markus Buser, extratel AG. Buser drew up a time table and said: In 1980, the customer was still king. In 1990, the customer became "our most important partner. In the year 2000, we are now confronted with the question: "Who are our customers?"
Because on the Internet, there is so much technology between the supplier and a potential buyer "that we no longer even know the buyer. There is no longer a clear customer profile.
And customer satisfaction no longer means customer loyalty when you can pick the cheapest offer anywhere in the world on the Internet at the touch of a button. Today, statistics still show that "only" nine percent of customers are poached by the competition. 14 percent switch providers because they are dissatisfied with the product. 66 percent leave because of a lack of customer service.
Buser therefore wanted to show a way in which a provider today must develop from pure marketing to customer-related marketing (CRM). He presented the call center as the central hub in CRM, with agents at different levels such as generalists, specialists, and experts. Buser's credo for customer service was, "A customer who has been helped out of a dilemma keeps coming back."
"E-mail: Marketing curse or blessing?" was the question in a stocktaking of the current situation by Erwin Schnee, ADIM Agentur für Direktmarketing AG. He pointed out a number of "rules of decency" so that a customer is not annoyed with e-mails. As an important example, Schnee insisted on a recognizable sender address in each case, because otherwise a
E-mail is no longer read.
