By Melissa Hinrichs, Director of Client Services
In every aspect of business you are going to hear the word ‘Report’. And for different companies reports mean different things, but every company uses reports for a variety of reasons. For outbound telemarketing, reports are essential for two primary reasons. First, reports help inform the client how the outbound telemarketing program is performing. Second, reports provide key information that a well-trained telemarketing operations manager will use to make critical business decisions that are necessary to maximize performance on the outbound telemarketing program. For these reasons, it is imperative that reports are created with a good understanding of what will be required to ensure a successful program.
What are your outbound telemarketing objectives?
For any report it is important to make sure you know what the key objectives are. And the key objectives are often reported as key metrics. With most outbound telemarketing the key metrics are
- hours
- sales or other types of completes
- conversion %
- contacts per hour
- finalized per hour
- your lead pool, callable vs penetrated.
It is essential that you have all of these factors on the report. And if it’s a program where you are selling something it’s nice to have the revenue per hour on the report as well. In addition to these important factors it’s also good to have the number of sales and/or completes and list the different type of refusals so the client can see the reasons people are not purchasing. Another section of the report should include unworkables (wrong numbers, disconnects, out of business, etc). This information provides key insight about the health of the call list and if there are issues with the list. Having lots of bad phone numbers can really hurt a campaign. All of these facets are good for those reviewing the report and analyzing various aspects of the campaign.
Presentation
This to some maybe seems senseless but it really is important to make sure that the report is easy to read and looks professional. The last thing you want is your client to open the report and find it nauseating and hard to understand. It’s important to have everything identified correctly and clearly. Making it look pleasant also shows the client how much you care about their program and if they see that you take the time to make the report look good, it’s a good representation of how you will treat their data and the rest of their program.
Accuracy
As I mentioned before both the clients and the operations team uses these reports to make business decisions so it’s very important that the report you’re sending out is an accurate account of the data. The last thing you want is a decision being made on the wrong information. It’s good to always have checks and balances in place that can help you identify potential inaccuracies before the report is sent.
Branding
This is simple. Be sure to always put your company’s logo on the report. Not only does it make it look more professional but every time the client looks at your reports or shows them to another that is just more recognition for your company.
Reports are very important for every outbound telemarketing program. Some reports may need to get more complex based on different lists being dialed or even different offers being presented. Regardless of how much you may need to drill down your report it’s important to make sure you have displayed these key elements. A great outbound report is just another great telemarketing service we all can provide for our clients.
Melissa Hinrichs is Director of Client Services for Quality Contact Solutions, a leading outsourced telemarketing organization. Melissa leads a talented team that ensures client data and reports are delivered on-time and without errors. With more than 20 years of database management and reporting experience, Melissa loves helping her clients make better business decisions by providing them with relevant data and reports on a daily basis. Melissa can be reached at Melissa.hinrichs@qualitycontactsolutions.com or 516-656-5125.
