Taking the Initiative to Make a Sale

Customer service representatives aren’t just on the phone to help customers – they’re also there to make sales. It’s easy to get this when you are a customer service representative who spends most of the day answering customer questions, but it’s true – your job is to represent the country and continue to drive sales.

Many other call centers don’t consider this fact, and as a result, their representatives’ sale skills suffer. But at TeleDirect, we understand how important it is that customer service representatives have an understanding of sales skills and a knowledge of how and when to take the initiative to make a sale on a call.

A good customer service representative always has the attitude that he or she is an actual salesperson. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are always pushing customers to buy products – it could just mean that they are “selling” the company’s brand image, or other things of that nature. But in the cases where customers are calling in and asking for opinions about different products, it is important that the representative has the knowledge and sales skill to make a recommendation and complete a sale.

Representatives should be able to give detailed information about a variety of different products on the spot, describe what makes them different and how each product would benefit the customer in his or her situation. If a customer has a certain problem that they’re calling in for, the representative should also be able to describe how that problem can be solved, perhaps with a particular company product. If the representative has these skills and works toward closing the sale, there should be no need to bring in a salesperson to finish off the sales job.

Best of all, call centers that work on taking this sales-like attitude to customer service are able to give the businesses they work for significantly more business. In TeleDirect’s case, we answer the phones 24/7/365, meaning you could be making sales in the middle of the night while you are comfortably curled up in bed!

Contact TeleDirect today to see how your business can benefit from all our services. We’d love to help revolutionize your approach to customer service.

The Grading Process at TeleDirect

One of the ways in which we hold our employees at TeleDirect Call Centers accountable for their work is with our comprehensive grading process. Each task that is completed undergoes this process, and in this way we can assure that our customer service representatives are maintaining the high standards that we have set for them. Here’s a little bit of information about how the process works:

Grading only begins after a project is published. Before that, it stays in brainstorm mode, which allows for team members to edit the project at will. After publication, the project is graded by the average of all tasks and milestones, unless the project date is moved or the project becomes overdue. In the event a project due date is moved, it is instantly downgraded by 10 points. Should the project become overdue, it is downgraded by 30 points, and the best grade it can receive is a D.

Tasks, however, are graded differently than projects, as they are not affected by the average grade of milestones. If task dates are moved, it will turn yellow and lose 10 points. Canceling tasks altogether results in a 20-point deduction, and if the task goes overdue, it gets downgraded by 30 points. So if an employee moves the due date after the task has been published, his or her best grade possible is a B, but if they give up altogether it becomes an F. Tasks may not be closed until all milestones are canceled or finished.

This grading system makes using the brainstorming mode extremely important. This allows TeleDirect employees to communicate with owners of tasks and get the highest grade possible. The grading system keeps owners of tasks, as well as those who carry them out, accountable for their work. We invite you to read our recent blog post “Training in a 24/7 Environment” to learn more about employee training at TeleDirect.

If you have any other questions about TeleDirect’s grading process for our call center, please contact us today. We have representatives available to answer any questions you may have about our services, and we look forward to hearing from you! www.TeleDirect.com

Training in a 24/7 Environment

Hopefully, if you’ve worked with us in the past, you know that the customer service representatives (CSRs) at TeleDirect Call Centers provide great customer service. And that’s no accident. In fact, while we hire people who clearly have a desire to help people and who can pleasantly answer calls, the real secret to the success of our call center is the ongoing training we provide.

Because TeleDirect does not believe in giving our employees only a week to learn their jobs, our CSRs are constantly learning and improving in order to provide you with the most outstanding service they can.

All of the customer service representatives at TeleDirect are set up with their own personal dashboard. This area presents them with any training “quizzes” that need to be completed, or training issues that must be taken care of. The dashboard also features a training center, which is put into place to make sure that every CSR is held to the same level of accountability.

Any supervisor or manager can change or update training issues or tasks. If any problems or updates arise, they can be addressed with self-trainable methods. The representatives read through these on their own, although there are no self-trainable issues that must be addressed in a classroom environment. Regardless of the type of issue, we make sure to emphasize the importance of completing the training. Not a single CSR will be answering calls without having completed all of their training items that have been allotted to them.

Our representatives are entrusted with keeping up their own training databases, but we do make sure they stay up to date. A significant portion of the bonuses our CSRs earn are based on how well they keep up their databases.

When representatives finish their training issues, their progress is logged and they are able to return to work. Our quizzes are specifically tailored to ensure high retention rates, and trainees must score at least 80% to pass the quiz. Should they fail three times, they must meet with a supervisor or manager to discuss why they failed and what they can do to improve.

These training methods allow TeleDirect Call Centers’ CSRs to offer you the highest level of customer service possible. You can be sure that our employees at our call center are constantly learning and improving, with the goal of doing great things for our clients’ businesses!