Call center software: A marketing tool

It is clear that email marketing is one of the most used advertising resources today. As is well known, more than 3930 million people use email. In addition, 64% of those who trust a brand or company will simply open it.

Email marketing is a strategy that beyond the final purchase results, is always beneficial. The best thing is that it costs practically nothing and can be done without bothering customers or potential users. It is about proposals, offers and information that, finally, stays in the inboxes reminding the customer that your company exists.

However, this does not imply that a company should rely on email as the only advertising medium. There are other methods and tools that can be used to expand the entrepreneur’s range of action. One of them is call center software, which contains multiple useful functions for marketing.

What is call center software?

 

Call center software is a business communication manager. Previously, it was only responsible for managing the company’s outgoing and incoming telephone contacts. Many large companies have similar programs in their contact centers and with these they can perform various tasks to improve the quality of service.

A call center software is what allows a call center operator to transfer calls, put them on hold and so on. These are its basic tasks and are aimed at improving the customer experience in the middle of a call. At the coordination level, this type of program allows recording and monitoring contacts to verify the quality of service.

Now, this is what traditional programs installed in customer service departments used to do. What today’s call center software does goes far beyond phone calls. Applications such as Neotel’s open up a number of avenues for both marketing and customer service to the entrepreneur. Below, you’ll see some of the most useful modules in these programs.

Send bulk SMS: Reaching the customer’s Smartphone.

As with emailing, SMS marketing is all about sending advertising text messages. Statistics show that this can be a powerful medium. According to some consulting firms, 80% of Internet users have a smartphone and 45% of purchase inquiries start on these devices.

The best thing about SMS is that it appears in mobile notifications and is confused with others coming from social networks. In fact, today’s call center software offers a module that allows you to compose text messages and send them en masse.

This function allows us to create the advertising message, configure the sending to a list of customers and the system sends them. This automated function is an excellent way to take advantage of any company’s database. In this way, you can notify an offer, a new product, or motivate the customer to enter through a link that redirects to your website.

Robot call: Massive voice-activated calls

The robot call works in a similar way to emailing tools and sending bulk SMS. In this case, the messages are voicemailed by an operator and sent through a call. This is what happens when a utility company calls us and we hear the operator say the amount of our bill.

The point is that you can also use this automated system for marketing. Massive voice calls can be made to customer lists to offer a new product, offers, sweepstakes and messages on holidays. This is an effective mechanism to deliver short business messages.

This tool is extremely useful within a telemarketing department. SMEs and family businesses can use this module to perform loyalty and product proposal tasks if they do not have a call center.

Why is it important to maintain a customer service hotline?

Nowadays, metrics are everything in marketing. In fact, the rise of social networks has made us aware of the value of statistics. The problem is that not all customers buy online or through apps. There are still many potential customers who do not fully trust the Internet.

In addition, telephone customer service is internalized and well regarded by users. According to some consulting firms, 69% of customers say that they can resolve their concerns and questions over the phone. 79% want to contact their customers over the phone. Seventy-nine percent want to contact their companies by calling the call center and not by other means.

Social media metrics are great, but they don’t tell the whole story. The good thing about having a call center software is that we can access new metrics. Having a hotline means opening another channel for purchases that is very attractive for many people. Likewise, it will be feasible to get to know customers better and obtain data such as phone number, email, among others.

The «click to call me back» button

The innovative virtual PBX goes far beyond phone calls. One of the modules that allows to reconcile the web page with the telephone communication is the so-called «click to call me back».

Click to call me back is a button that is added to the company’s website. When the user presses it, a box appears where he can leave his number so that a company operator can call him back. In this way, companies open up another means of online communication.

This module is very interesting because it breaks the usual barrier between the web page and the user. Many sites are very well organized, but do not have fast ways to communicate with the user. The important thing is for the entrepreneur to offer the relevant attention to Internet users who express their intention to communicate in this way.

How to obtain customer emails through call center software?

All of the above indicates that call center software is useful for collecting customer and user data. In fact, one of the data that can be obtained thanks to this tool is the emails of those interested in our products. This can be achieved through several of the tools mentioned above.

For example, by using the module for sending bulk SMS, you can invite the customer to provide us with his e-mail address.  The implementation of a CRM allows us to create a database with emails of our clientele. All these tools can be contracted with a company that offers a virtual switchboard service.

The call center software simplifies the advertising work through various tools and ways. Nowadays, it is very simple and cheap to obtain this type of services. Entrepreneurs can put together packages tailored to their needs, budgets and strategy. The best thing is that everything can be managed from a smartphone and it works very well. The only thing needed to operate this type of system is an internet connection. Undoubtedly, a tool to consider if we want to promote a venture.