Connecting with the client

By Reuben Dawkins

You may think that a telemarketer’s role is to deliver appointments/leads to clients through our telephone conversations. Wrong! Our role is much broader than that. We always aim to deliver a World Class Experience for our clients, which is beyond the scope of how many appointments/leads we can give them. The ultimate goal is to be an invaluable extension of the clients business, creating long lasting relationships.

Communication

It is important to be in regular contact with our clients, through a combination of calling and email. Daily Report emails are a fantastic method to give a client insight of your day. This could highlight:

• Appointments/Leads generated that day
• Pipeline development and positive conversations
• Breakdown of call statistics
• New insights that benefit the campaign

This report gives the client a full understanding of how their campaign is progressing. From my experience working in the hospitality industry, the feeling of being left in limbo, can create a feeling of dissatisfaction and neglect. This applies in our industry as well; so let the client know you care about their campaign and getting them results.

Ask questions about their day, responsibilities and interests as this can encourage a positive relationship to form. Adding subtle questions to each conversation can build a range of talking points after only a couple of weeks. Conversely, letting them know a snippet of your day and life in each call, can really personalise the relationship you have with your client. Breaking down these barriers can have enormous benefits; it can allow you to make suggestions about changing and extending the campaign.

Personalisation

Our clients are human, with thoughts and emotions, and getting to know them can help tremendously in building a long lasting relationship. In a previous job I had as a waiter, I had customers repeatedly leaving reviews saying they would definitely return, just for my service, regardless of their overall experience. Meaning that the relationship with the client can have large impact, irrespective of the appointments/leads.

Let’s bring this to every client in telemarketing! Learn about your client, this is where DISC Profiling can be of great assistance. A ‘Dominant’ client is not necessarily going to want to discuss weekend plans. Knowing their personality type can help to communicate with them most effectively.

Through adding a simple question of ‘What’s your plan for the rest of today?’ we can gain so much. Firstly, simply by being polite and listening, we can relate with our clients. It is said, “Politeness has become so rare that some people mistake it for flirtation.” We want our clients to look forward to our calls and think positively through each interaction with us. Secondly, those nuggets of information that they supply can be used to greater effect in the future. For example, for a client who is travelling to Venice next week, I would research things for them to do while in Venice. I would either mention in a following call, or drop comments in corresponding emails related to places to visit or historical facts etc

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Conviction

We are experts in our industry – so talk like it! Speak with conviction and positivity, if we intend to inspire our clients. We need our clients to believe we deliver them a service that that they cannot find anywhere else… because we do.

When communicating with a client, always have a plan of action, demonstrating our pro-activeness. No matter how long the campaign, speak in a manner that suggests that this is a long-term partnership. For example “Across the course of the year, there are many other markets that we will tap into and make breakthroughs with”. Creating a self-fulfilling prophecy creates an environment where the natural decision of the client is to continue with us, and the idea of discontinuing would be a ludicrous thought.

Analysis

Know what you’re talking about! When communicating with clients, reading the statistics of the campaign is just the beginning. Information regurgitation is not world class service in our industry. In regards to higher order thinking, we want be providing analysis, evaluations and creating ideas. This can really entice the client and create an assurance level that they cannot find a better service anywhere else.

Following these guidelines will cause you to see a dramatic increase in your client relations!

Reuben

Tags: blog, clients, connecting