When implementing campaigns, the Telemarketing Company focuses on what represents value for our clients and strives to achieve it. To that end, we often assess past work to uncover the factors that most heavily impacted results, for better or worse. Although it’s not possible to offer a single failsafe method that guarantees success, one characteristic shared by most successful campaigns is client involvement.

For some clients, engaging an agency means devolving responsibility to a third party and distancing themselves from the matter at hand; But, time and time again, when perusing our well-stocked campaign archive, good levels of client engagement can be seen to be key.

This vital interaction between client and agency can be illustrated in a number of ways. A good example would be The Consultancy Company, which has used our services for more than a decade. Key contacts from the company have been heavily involved in the process from day one. And, this level of involvement, whilst evolving with the campaign has continued throughout the 10 year relationship and been central to the campaign’s success.

Success is a two-way street.

The first phase of any new campaign will be the briefing process, and it is here that the two-way street begins. At the outset of any campaign it is essential that there is a clear understanding on both sides: client and agency of exactly what ‘success’ looks like. Every client has a slightly different end point in mind, and this must be teased out so that all parties: telemarketers, clients and management, all know where the goal posts are planted.

For example, if the client is looking for appointments, who with, and at what level? And, what is their view of future opportunities, are these to be also classed as leads? This basic fact-finding gives the telemarketers’ parameters for the campaign, ensures focus and prevents them from building a pipeline with the wrong people in the wrong places.

Each time an appointment is generated by The Telemarketing Company as part of a lead generation campaign, it is forwarded to the client, accompanied by a recording of the call in which the appointment was set. The Consultancy Company listens to every appointment call recording in detail and a selection of other calls. They ask us and our teams how we felt about the appointments, listen to our critique and feed constructive notes back to us.

Once they have attended the appointment, their consultants circulate the Meeting Report internally and to our team, allowing us to not only hear of the successes, but also to learn from any that didn’t deliver a result. This communication helps our telemarketers polish their pitch. By making the marketing/sales process a closed loop in this way, our calling style can be improved at every step

In addition, The Consultancy Company makes a point of visiting our site whilst a campaign is running. This fosters a working relationship between the client, our account management team and the callers. They update us with new information and sit with the telemarketers and listen to their calls. Any questions that arise during the call-listening can be answered in real-time.

Another key to delivering a successful campaign is training. A good example of where this has been valuable comes from Allianz Global Assistance, who we have been working with for many years.

Allianz Global Assistance is heavily involved in the telemarketing process and provides regular detailed feedback. And yet, they are also happy to listen to our experiences and are open to discussion when aspects of the campaign need to be modified. Allianz Global Assistance provides The Telemarketing Company with ongoing training and support, so that when our telemarketers hit the phones, they are confident in their product knowledge and have a genuine feel for the brand.

All of the calling team have visited Allianz Global Assistances site, and the Allianz Global Assistance team regularly visit our offices. Regular and sustained interaction fosters trust, builds knowledge and ensures communication is open and running in both directions.

Recall is another longstanding client, which actively engages at every stage of each campaign, listening to call recordings and providing feedback to help us hone our approach. Our contacts at Recall visit our offices regularly, run joint training sessions and on occasions we’ve had members of their team work alongside our telemarketers. This level of engagement helped integrate our processes with theirs, facilitated the sharing of best practice and fostered great teamwork.

Of course, The Telemarketing Company has embarked on campaigns that have achieved and surpassed target with almost zero client engagement. However, without doubt, transparency, close collaboration, sharing success and failure alike, and a solid feedback loop between client and agency are the key factors that support continuous improvement in campaign performance. It is these interactions that ultimately drive ROI and campaign success.

In Part II of our article, we look at the other side of the coin - how campaigns can be derailed by a lack of client engagement.