Outbound CallingSuperior Productivity & Customer Experience Unite

Creating Tomorrow’s Contact Center. Today.

The Customer Revolution: Service & Experience Take to the Forefront

Today there’s an unstoppable trend in motion. It’s a shift of power from companies to customers. And it’s accelerating. Technology may be the greatest enabler of this shift. Like Moore’s Law, the shift is exponential. Now there are more ways than ever for customers to provide reviews and feedback, express frustrations, and demand exactly what they want. The best companies are evolving to provide not just superior products, but also superior experiences. Providing a superior customer experience is no longer a “nice to have,” it’s a must.

Research shows that customers expect to be able to reach a company through multiple channels, including phone, SMS/Text, email, chat, and social sites like Facebook and Twitter.1 Given these growing expectations, many companies are developing new ways to provide improved and proactive customer service.

The customer’s voice is having a profound effect on how businesses are run. In this fast-changing business environment, dated technology platforms and products are no longer sufficient to effectively compete. This customer revolution is manifested in many areas of technology and business, like the transition from desktop to mobile, the adoption of social media and collaboration tools, and the move to cloud computing.

Predictive Dialing: A Breakthrough for Productivity

Back in the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, traditional predictive dialing helped boost productivity for the outbound call center. Today it is hard to fathom that before predictive dialing came on the scene, agents talked to customers just 10 to 15 minutes per hour. Predictive dialing ushered in an explosion of productivity. Practically overnight, agents were talking to customers 40 minutes or more per hour.

The Elephant in the Outbound Room: Call Latency

Soon after the advent of predictive dialing, call latency issues began to develop. Predictive dialing technology takes time to listen and detect a customer on the line before connecting to an agent. Customers learned to recognize these pauses, and answering machines only exasperated latency problems.

Today, many consumers recognize and hang up on dead air or that telltale clicking sound. In fact, a recent study found that 49% of consumers surveyed hang up when they hear a delay or pause when answering a call from an unfamiliar phone number. Customers who do stay on the line are likely to ask to be removed from further communications, confront the caller, or get impatient.2 And, let’s not forget the agents. They either hear silence on the other line due to hangups or must deal with unhappy customers at the start of each conversation. This certainly does not lead to optimum effectiveness. Finally, contact centers must pay surcharges for short call durations from hangups.

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Traditional PredictiveDialing:Causes of Call Latency

• Voice recognition: call routed and connected only after a voice is detected

• Call routing and distribution: finding an available agent takes time, hold cues are not tolerated

• Answering machines, voice mail: techniques designed for legacy tape-based answering machines only add delay in the age of voice mail

02

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49%

Percentage of consumers surveyed hang up when they hear a delay or pause when answering a call from an unfamiliar phone number.2

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Current Situation: Timing is Right for Innovation

Traditional predictive dialing’s issues, coupled with the shift of power from the company to the customer, make the timing right for outbound dialing innovation.

Traditional Predictive Dialing Problems

• Outdated technology

• Major delay between when customer answers and agent connects • Customers are likely to hang up • Customers who don’t hang up ask to be removed from further communications,

confront the caller, or feel impatient • Negative brand impression created • Contact centers pay for short call duration surcharges from hangups

Customer Demands Are Increasing

• Consumers have sophisticated technology in their own hands, and expect sophisticated service

• Products are becoming commoditized, excellent service is becoming the new

differentiator • Customers want personalized and flexible customer service experiences • Customer loyalty is tenuous at best • Poor service threatens profitable revenue streams

Because positive customer experiences are so vital to revenue growth and profitability, some companies have returned to preview dialing. These call center executives have chosen to provide consistent positive customer experiences even though they have to sacrifice efficiency.

More than 30 years ago, predictive dialing was an important breakthrough. Today it is simply outdated. But there is good news – there’s a new, better way for outbound.

A New, Better Way for Outbound: Making a Personal Connection

Choosing service quality over operational efficiency, or vice versa, is an unfortunate choice. And now it is unnecessary. Thanks to a new outbound dialing innovation, IT and Call Center executives don’t have to choose. Call centers don’t have to sacrifice excellent service for productivity. Now they can increase efficiency and improve customer relationships. Now they can have high agent utilization and connect calls at the first hello.

*Three patents protect Personal Connection: U.S. Patent No. 7,734,029, U.S. Patent No. 8,184,789, and U.S. Patent No. 8,548,144, other patents pending.

inContact’s Personal ConnectionTM * Outbound Solution Connects at The First “Hello” How Groundbreaking Outbound Solution Works: The Conversation Model

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

The customer never waits in silence: agent monitors calls that are likely to become conversations while Call Progress Analysis is determining call results

Dialer calls customers

Result: Personal Connection allowed the called to have a more natural and persuasive conversation with the customer without sacrificing the productivity benefits of traditional predictive dialing.

Once conversation begins, the agent is dedicated to the customer and other calls are moved to other agents

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Personal Connection Outbound Dialer Technology Process

1. Dialing begins and the agent is listening to ringing.

2. When the customer picks up, the agent is connected and listening for the first hello.

3. The outbound dialer technology is actively monitoring both voice channels – the customer and the agent’s. It knows when each party is engaged.

4. The technology knows when a conversation begins, or does not, because it is listening to both channels.

5. If the agent hears a voice mail message, he or she does not engage in a conversation and the technology disposes the call. Another call’s ring is now sent to the agent. No agent action is required for voice mails.

6. If the agent hears a customer voice, a conversation begins. The customer and agent are connected prior to the first hello.

With this new solution, improved customer service and relationships can come first. Why? They lead to efficiency, effectiveness, and business success. Contact centers that have considered but not employed proactive outbound customer service due to call latency issues can now make a positive change.

Personal Connection Outbound Dialing Benefits

• Effective: Agents are connected at the first hello, paving the way for better outcomes and higher conversion rates

• Efficient: Pacing engine algorithm delivers new calls at an optimum pace to maximize efficiency and minimize abandons, resulting in better list penetration and dramatically improved agent productivity

• Simple: Simple to change and manage outbound calls and campaigns in the cloud

• Flexible: Able to scale from small to large outbound campaigns

• User Friendly: Agents can see their call progress in an intuitive visual manner, making for a more natural experience when agents and customers are connected

• Compliant: Do Not Call List Management and Intelligent Call Suppression dispositions records found in the suppression database; also, users are able to edit lists and make real-time dialing list adjustments

“We were extremely pleased to convert to Personal Connection Technology. The best feature is the lack of latency in call connection. The dialed party only hears your agent’s voice, resulting in fewer hangups. Agents and managers alike are happy.”

- Cort WalkerDirector of Operations, Tosh, Inc.

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New Paradigm for Outbound Brings Positive Business Outcomes

When contact centers connect naturally with customers, at the first hello, positive results follow. This natural, personal connection clears the way for agents to focus on each individual customer, rather than setting them up for dead air or strained conversations with defensive, frustrated, or confused customers.

Now call center agents can focus on what they do best: Creating customer relationships and serving customers’ unique needs, all while helping meet company goals.

When one compares traditional outbound dialing technology to the new Personal Connection solution, the difference is significant. The patented dialing technology means the customer will never again wait in silence. The clear advantages of Personal Connection demonstrate why inContact is confident that it will emerge as the new standard for automated dialing. It’s here, it delivers, and it is native to the cloud.

Positive Business Outcomes of Personal Connection

• Stronger personal relationships with customers

• Maximized agent productivity

• Improved list penetration

• Increased customer satisfaction

• More positive perception of brand and company

• Stronger brand loyalty

• Lower customer churn and higher customer retention

• Reduce customer acquisition costs and increased profitability

• Increased likelihood for additional purchases

• Increased likelihood for referrals

• Increased likelihood for incremental revenue from outbound sales, collections, and referrals

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Making a Change to Achieve Better Outbound Results

Making a change to new technology is never easy. But, when business benefits outweigh costs, change can be for the better. Today, many IT and operations professionals are choosing to move various services to the cloud in order to elevate their roles in the enterprise and add more strategic value.

Replacing outdated technology like yesterday’s predictive dialing products also clears the way for business growth. Giving your outbound call center agents the ability to connect with customers at the first hello, while also maintaining efficiency, can only yield positive results: better customer relationships, improved personalized experiences, stronger loyalty and retention, more customer referrals, improved collections efforts, and incremental revenue.

Cloud Contact Center Benefits

Customer-driven contact centers continually evolve to improve efficiencies, customer service, and business results. In today’s 24x7 world, customers want what they want, when they want it. The best contact centers have innovated services to deliver just that, while keeping things as simple as possible for agents.

Agents perform best when they are able to focus on the customer rather than technologies that put a barrier between them and that very customer. inContact strives to provide new solutions to help contact centers create high quality customer experiences. Connecting at the first hello and attaining outstanding outbound calling efficiency with Personal Connection is an example of how we innovate to meet contact center needs. We listen to customers, they influence our innovation cycle, and we are dedicated to an aggressive innovation pace.

Advantages of Cloud Contact Center Solutions

Cloud contact centers offer a myriad of benefits, including flexibility, and ease of implementation and maintenance. If you haven’t moved your contact center to the cloud and are thinking about such a move, consider cloud’s advantages over premise-based systems.

• Simple, flexible on-demand scalability

• Streamlined implementation and ease of use

• Substantial cost savings

• No up-front hardware and software investment

• Significant time savings

• Streamlined technology management

• No ongoing equipment maintenance or hardware and software upgrades to manage

• Freedom to focus on strategic IT and operational initiativesoutbound sales, collections, and referrals

For additional information on cloud contact centers, explore these whitepapers:

Frost & Sullivan’s “Premise vs. Hosted Contact Center: Total Cost of Ownership Analysis”

Ovum’s “Choosing the Right Cloud Contact Center Solution”

inContact’s “Reduce Costs and Increase Performance: The SaaS Advantage for Contact Centers”

Why Improving Outbound Matters

In a recent survey of 2,029 U.S. adults, 87% said that they would want to be contacted proactively by a company with certain information and updates. The purposes for which they’d want to be contacted included notification of fraudulent account activity, appointment setting/reminders, questions regarding an order, account changes, status updates, and offers and specials. And, almost half of these consumers said they would want to be contacted by phone.2

For more information on best-in-class contact centers, get a personalized benchmark from this contact center assessment.

There is a significant opportunity to proactively reach out to customers by phone to provide superior service, enhance relationships, and capture incremental revenue, all while maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. But, if your contact center is using an outdated outbound dialing solution that results in hangups, confused and frustrated customers, and agents starting conversations on the defensive, you’re hurting your chances of actually pleasing the customer.

Many industries are embracing outbound calling as a targeted marketing strategy. They are using outbound to enhance relationships, create long-term customer loyalty, and increase profitability. In fact, consumers recently reported2 having had positive incoming call experiences with several business types, including:

• Bank or financial institution

• Healthcare provider, such as a hospital or clinic

• Travel company, such as an airline or hotel • Retailer

• Charitable/non-profit fundraising organization

Outbound Outreach: What Consumers Want2

• Timely and actionable information

• A personalized and conversational call

• Provision of information directly relevant to their account

• A caller who went above and beyond expectations

• Communication of relevant opportunity or offer that otherwise would have been missed

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Challenges:

• Competition for new customer acquisition has intensified, making proactive service a key differentiator

• Targeted calling lists are becoming more costly

• Timely and prioritized customer calls are extremely important

Proactive Outbound Calling Industry Use Cases: Financial Services/Banking

Opportunity: Proactive outbound calling helps financial services organizations enhance customer relationships, sell more services, and acquire new customers.

Personal Connection Solution:

• Virtually eliminates hangups • Increases connections rates • Maximizes penetration of targeted lists, improving list

• Eliminates call pauses

• Conversations with customers and prospects are natural and positive

• Prioritizes record handling

• Enables timely response to new customer inquiries

• Improves productivity

• Enhances sales efforts

• Tightly integrates backend data, which makes more customer information available to agents during calls

• Streamlines communications • Personalizes agent’s approach

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Proactive Outbound Calling Industry Use Cases: Healthcare

Opportunity: Healthcare organizations can streamline operations, improve patient relationships, and boost business results with proactive outbound calling. Healthcare provider calls may address admissions procedures, appointment reminders, insurance questions, or billing issues.

CChallenges:

• Growing legislative oversight and shrinking margins

• Multiple sources of patient information which lead to compliance issues

Personal Connection Solution:

• Eliminates call pauses, and thus resultant hangups, caused by traditional predictive dialing

• Empowers healthcare staff to reach more customers the

first time a call is made

• Makes healthcare staff immediately available when patients answer

• Demonstrates caring and consideration to patients

• Enables natural and normal conversations

• Strengthens customer relationships

• Improves integration of patient data

• Reduces compliance issues

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Challenges with Outbound Calling: Compliance

Frequently changing FCC regulations and complex regulatory requirements make outbound calling compliance a challenge. So much so that some contact centers have not leveraged outbound calling’s benefits due to compliance-related costs.

inContact understands compliance challenges and risks and has expertise in this area. We are focused on helping our customers maintain compliance, so that they can focus on what contact centers do best – create superior customer experiences.

inContact stays up-to-date on the latest regulatory changes and manages to them carefully, including staying abreast of TCPA changes and DNC guidelines. The inContact solution includes DNC List Management and Intelligent Call Suppression, which dispositions records found in the suppression database. And, users are able to edit lists and make real-time dialing list adjustments.

inContact knows, tracks, and understands regulations. We work diligently to be in compliance and are constantly certifying. To the right is a list of our compliance efforts and certifications.

inContact Compliance Efforts & Certifications

• FCC regulatory compliance • TCPA tracking and compliance • PCI DSS assessment and attestation of compliance • U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Certified Partner • SOC 2, Type II (AT101) • 404/404 SOX certified • CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) rules compliance • Third-party vendors required to provide security assurances

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Conclusion

Today is an exciting and challenging time to be in business. Customers are demanding more and more, and the best companies are delivering while differentiating their brands with proactive, personalized service. Outbound calling that connects agents to customers at the first hello, while maximizing efficiency and productivity, helps your company better compete.

Personal Connection’s Impact

Customer Impact

• Better experiences, better impressions, happier people, better results

• Increased retention, loyalty, referrals

Operations Impact

• Substantial productivity gains and ROI

• Higher connect rates • Higher list penetration • Reduced short call durations

Business Impact

• Improved, competitive customer service • New and incremental revenue streams • Increased revenue and profitability

Why stay with the status quo when you can have an agile, flexible solution that gives you both efficiency and customer satisfaction? The upside of change will be great, just as it was in the ‘80s when traditional predictive dialing was beginning to be accepted.

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Additional Information• Personal Connection online video

• Proactive Customer Service: Being Proactive and Generating Results – 1to1 Tips & Takeaways From Peppers and Rogers Group

• Cloud vs. Premise TCO: Frost & Sullivan whitepaper: “Premise vs. Hosted Contact Center: Total Cost of Ownership Analysis”

• Customized Contact Center Benchmark Assessment

Research Sources

1. inContact / Harris Interactive Study; February, 2013

2. inContact / Harris Interactive Study; July 2013

About inContact

inContact (NASDAQ: SAAS) is the cloud contact center software leader, helping organizations around the globe create high quality customer experiences. inContact is 100% focused on the cloud and is the only provider to combine cloud software with an enterprise-class telecommunications network for a complete customer interaction solution. Winner of Frost & Sullivan 2012 North American Cloud Company of the Year in Cloud Contact Center Solutions, inContact has deployed over 1,300 cloud contact center instances. To learn more, visit www.inContact.com.

Corporate Headquarters7730 South Union Park Avenue, Suite 500Salt Lake City, UT 84047

Main: 1.801.320.3200Email: questions@inContact.com

info@inContact.com |© inContact, Inc. 1384