by Kaela Heft, a Customer Service Supervisor
Managing Inbound incentives for Telemarketing Services can be pretty easy if you know your team, what they like, and what drives them. It’s also the fun part of the job, for both the frontline team and us as managers. It’s a tough job, and shame on us if we don’t take every opportunity we can to make the job more fun.
It’s all about prizes, money AND recognition.
A lot of managers may think that the best incentives that drive a team to do better are prizes and money. Well, if there is one thing that I have learned in the 18 years working in the telemarketing services industry, the biggest prize that drives the frontline team is recognition for a job done well. Yes, prizes and money are GREAT, but the satisfaction of hearing from your manager give a shout out of “Great Job” or “Thank You” is something much more valuable! Recognition is a guaranteed confidence booster and it will drive the rep to want to do better and keep them motivated and happy. Motivated employees are productive employees. Happy employees create happy customers!
Great incentives can help a team hit their telemarketing goals.
Of course, money and prizes are an added bonus that no one is going to turn down! The key is to find what is motivating to the team and helps drive performance. A lite friendly competition never hurt anyone! Here are my Top 10 Tips to keep in mind when considering your inbound incentives.
- Make sure everyone knows the goal. Your key performance indicators (KPIs) won’t be achieved if everyone is not on the same page.
- Gear incentives around different products they are not used to pitching. I like to call this “moving their cheese.” The more they pitch the product; the better they understand it.
- Offer incentives that relate to their job that maybe they can use in their office. Headsets, office supplies or book shelf.
- Gear incentives around the season. Ex. For the summer time I like to give away outdoor stuff such as a fire pit, a grill or a water tube.
- Give the reps an opportunity each month to tell you what they would like to see for incentives that month. Get them involved.
- Play a game each month and make it something different from month to month to keep them excited.
- Base incentives around their successes. If they score a 90% or above on their Quality monitoring; have a prize geared around that.
- Set goals for not only the team, but for each individual.
- Engage. Asking telemarketing services frontline reps to share successes with the team is another huge motivator. This lets your frontline know that you recognize their abilities and appreciate their hard work and dedication. This also shows helps reps that are struggling get a different perspective on what to try.
- Competition. A little friendly competition is good for the team. Create it and reward it!
Whether you are looking for telemarketing services or you are working to improve your own team in outsourced telemarketing, knowing your team is crucial. Every team is different, and when you can determine what works and what doesn’t it’s a win-win.
Kaela Heft is a Customer Service Supervisor for Quality Contact Solutions, a leading outsourced inbound and outbound telemarketing organization. With deep experience in outbound telemarketing sales, inbound customer service and a myriad of other outsourced telemarketing programs, Kaela has been in the telemarketing business for over 18 years. Kaela currently supervises an elite team of Customer Service Representatives with QCS At Home, a work-from-home telemarketing and call center operation.
