Why DRTV should hang up the phone. Call centers of the 21st Century.

A few years back, it was unbelievable that text messages will rise to become a popular medium of communication. Now, the majority of actual calls that I receive come from telemarketers. Even my mom sends me text messages more frequently then actually calling me.

So, with the majority of phone calls I receive being from telemarketers, I am not very likely to start calling them on my own. The irony is that DRTV campaigns are geared towards making their potential customers do exactly this. Unfortunately, customers are averse to calling a marketer to make a purchase.

Due to the stiff and intense competition in the marketplace today, efficiency and prompt delivery rule the game. DRTV Agencies that fail to adjust and adapt to the ever dynamic demands of the 21st century will in no time be out of business. What can these agencies do to change their TV-based marketing strategy and continue to be a force to reckon with even in the face of stifling competition?

A functional call center in this age must have an efficient online chat system to attend to clients queries. The call center becomes a communications center. A modern call center has to be properly equipped to enhance efficient communication and customer support. The phone call option may be introduced as a secondary option, but, marketers should focus on using web sites with trackable promo codes to drive sales. With this shift, call centers should be accessible online at all times and complement the online effort with a functional telephone sales and support option.

The call center employee must undergo training on how to help customers complete their online purchases. The primary importance of call center agents, on the telephone, will be to function as a mouthpiece for lead generator campaigns. Importantly, they have to serve as the brand ambassadors of their products or services and not just take notes at random. So, call centers should consider phone calls as playing a complementary role to effective online communication except in the case of many type of campaigns designed to generate quality leads where the average person would rather speak to a specialist one on one.

This is an area where call centers have not been correctly used in this past.

Many lead-generators send hot leads to call centers that simply take down names and phone numbers and then allow the lead to grow cold. Trained salespeople then call back to cold leads who thanks to caller ID will never even answer the phone in the first place. A relationship should be created during the first phone call. If it's not, it's no different then when someone gives you there phone number at a club. (Remember once upon a time?) The chances they will answer your call the following day has already diminished significantly. "Strike while the iron is hot." It's what call centers should do and what service based direct response marketers must do.

Back to direct sales; Considering the high rate of identity theft in recent times, consumers prefer a simple and secure online store that requires less of their personal identity without revealing such confidential information to a third party. If customers have important questions relating to presales, adequate customer support should be available to attend to them on and offline but mainly online.

It's time call centers start putting down the telephone and picking up a keyboard.

frankie@directresponse.tv