Answering Service Use Saves Paper and Money for Direct Marketers
Answering Service Alternative for Direct Mail Biz
Direct marketers are discovering the benefits of using an answering service to grab sales. Direct response advertising, direct mail campaigns and other forms of direct marketing rely on paper. Once you’ve developed your business’ e-commerce strategy, you need to devise backup contact methods for customers who aren’t comfortable shopping online. They prefer talking to a real person who can answer their questions and process their order through a single phone call. For most direct marketers, this means discovering the best way to outsource telephone orders and customer service tasks.
Using answering services help direct marketers go green. Answering service companies help them embrace using less paper. The direct mail business might be changing, but it’s still active and viable. Opt-in email marketing and other forms of electronic marketing are gaining fans in the industry, but direct mail campaigns, catalogs, and other paper-based materials aren’t disappearing. In this pro-environment, digital age, does your company really want to pay money for analog, paper-based response materials? Reply forms and return envelopes are made of paper, ink and cash. Directing customers to a toll-free answering service provided line eliminates a significant portion of wasted paper.
While e-commerce solutions help connect your business with customers who prefer to shop online, you still need a back-up way for customers to talk with you. Email isn’t the only answer. When direct marketing companies use an answering service to set up a telephone customer service and sales line, they give customers, vendors and the general public a way of contacting them. An answering service telephone number, staffed with friendly voices, is your company’s best public relations vehicle. A real person answering your phones lets your customer know that your offer is valuable, and your business takes itself and your customers seriously. Answering services offer the cachet of physical brick and mortar store identity that websites offering only email or web form support just can’t match.
Answering service companies provide telephone outsourcing support for your direct marketing campaign. There are many ways of setting up an answering service for your sales and customer support options. You need to consider how you’ll collect responses for your offer and customer service tasks. Will your target market prefer to connect with you online, where you only need answering service backup? Is your toll-free number going to be the primary sales contact for your customers? How many responses do you expect to receive in 30 days? In 24 hours?
There are huge call center companies that cater to direct marketers. They handle hundreds of clients and charge a hefty premium for their services, and tie businesses into long-term contracts. They may outsource customer service and sales support to third party providers outside the United States. Your typical Answering Service provides an alternative to higher-priced call center services, and can provide exactly the same level of service and support that larger contact center vendors offer. In addition to web-based order taking, answering service companies offer ways to schedule sales appointments, offer various levels of customer service and support, and generally staff their locations with personnel around the clock to provide service for all of their customers. Some answering services that started as local companies offering limited evening and weekend support are now nationwide providers of call center services. They provide answering service for smaller and mid-size companies that have periodically high call volume, and their client base includes retailers, sales, the general business and professional community, and direct marketers like you.
Your direct sales business needs to reach hundreds of potential clients every day, and your potential customers need to connect with you. The image that you project through the voices that answer your calls directly determines how successful you can be. Taking advantage of the call center services that answering service vendors can offer bolsters your sales potential and lowers your paper use.
Tags: Answering Service, BPO, call center, company outsourcing, direct mail campaign, direct marketing, direct response advertising
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