Notes On The Teleservices Checklist

These notes are a supplement to the material presented in this chapter. They are not a substitute for that material. The checklist is shown in Figure 9.3.

1. Purpose. Before deciding on the purpose, suggest a brief professional updating on what the state of the art makes possible. Don't let management limit its options by not having that first.

2. Budget. Set specific, though generous, budgets, especially for getting started. Definitely get outside guidance if you are new to this medium.

3. Timeline. Be specific about dates. Set time lines for management as well as staff: Specify when testing must be done, reported, and evaluated. No "ASAP"!5 Specify when after-the-test decisions must be made, with agreement as to what that involves and on the budget to make it possible.

4. In-house/Outside. This is not necessarily an either- or decision. Often, both are required, at least for getting started.

5. Project manager. Consider separate managers if major in-house staff and a service firm are both required. Teleservicing—even its supervision—is a time-intensive job!

6. Types and purposes. Have written agreement on why the inbound services are established and what they are to achieve. Spell out the details against which evaluations can be matched.

7—9. Call payment. Decide who pays for each type of call. If different types of calls (routine orders, requests for technical data, simpler how-to questions) require different personnel, will they be available when callers are likely to phone? Who monitors what actually happens? Who's authorized to make it all work?

10—11. Outbound how-to. What outbound sales calls are to accomplish and the data available to help make it happen. Do not count on getting usable teleservices data from any computer—especially your own— without first seeing it happen. Don't settle for assurances or promises. Demand a demonstration. For new equipment or software, demand a guarantee.

12. Location. Consult your phone company teleservicing expert—there is one!—before setting up in house. Teleservicing experts may even have solutions to which you have not yet discovered the problems.

13. Personnel. Don't start up without a teleservicing start-up specialist who's been through it all before . . . several times. This is critical to everything you'll do, from finding people to write the scripts and answer the phones to figuring out who works where with whom on what. Think of them as test pilots . . . there to get you safely launched.

14-15. Equipment/training. Match equipment and training to what you need now. Allow for future expansion in long-range planning, but concentrate on making the present successful first if you want that future to arrive.

16. Budget. Do as was suggested for direct mail. Separate budgeting for start-up, testing, and ongoing telemarketing. Start-up is probably a capital cost. Testing is advertising. Ongoing teleservicing is sales. Money for start-up and testing is spent no matter what else you do. Don't let it distort posttesting success or failure. Analyze, too, the effect on budgets of changing from in-house to an outside firm or vice versa. Keeping within budget is seldom the only reason for such a decision, but it is certainly a major one.

17. Selection. Personal rapport is vital in your working relationship with the account executive, especially during start-up. Let management set parameters for the decision on which firm to choose. Let the actual choice be made by the project manager.

18. Script approval. Read scripts for what they say, not the details of how they say it. Don't try to do the teleservicer's job. It's why you went to an outside service.

19. Schedule. Allow for the learning of what works best that can be achieved only on the phone. Discuss needs and scheduling with the firm before promising results to management.

20. Reporting system. The frequency and detail of reports, evaluations, and recommendations from the firm. Who must see everything? Summaries? Only decisions?

21. Billing system. Have a written agreement on how the firm bills. What work—if any—they do before payment is made. What adjustments—if any—must take place in your system, as well as theirs.

22. Cancellation option. Get an unmistakable written agreement. (Unmistakable means that both parties understand the same thing the same way.) Establish routine checkpoints for continuation of the service. Set an automatic halt for review if specified goals are not met. Include an option for instant cancellation, with a basis for calculating costs incurred.

23. Budget. Most of a firm's charges are established as standard costs. Totals are easily estimated for purposes of budgeting.

24. Database records. Build customers as well as sales. Meet with data-processing personnel to learn whether and how a database is being built. Take the same precautions as in #10 and #11. Check!

25. Evaluations. Much of teleservices is a team effort. It's teleservices plus mailing . . . plus space and electronic advertising . . . plus selling in person . . . plus more and different prospect/suspect/customer contacts. Differentiate here and elsewhere between "prospects" on whom you spend more effort and dollars and "suspects" who are not worthy of that much attention. Relate all this to evaluation, where appropriate.

26. Reports/actions. Note especially what has been learned that may apply to future efforts. Check later to make sure the learning is actually passed on . . . and applied.

Continue reading here: Notes On The Broadcast Fax Checklist

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