Call Center Magazine: When most people think of outbound, they think of telemarketing, that is, agents calling people up to try to sell them stuff. Lately, we've heard that there's much more potential for outbound, especially in the areas of customer loyalty, service, reminders, and call backs. Is this a real trend? Is there real traction in these uses?

Jim Mitchell, senior vice president, technology office, Aspect Software: This is very true and these are real trends we are seeing within our own customer base. Many companies are using dialers for high-touch campaigns. For example, a customer calls their favorite retail store's contact center to place an order and asks the agent a question that he can't immediately answer, but the agent vows to find the answer and call back. Rather than placing a sticky note on his computer as a reminder, the agent schedules a callback with the predictive dialer. The dialer automatically initiates the return call from that same agent at the time specified and to the phone number provided. The customer is guaranteed a call back with the information they need, and the customer's opinion of this retail store will most likely increase based on this pleasant experience.

In addition, some contact centers are developing and implementing proactive customer care strategies. Take, for example, a large cell phone company. The company uses its predictive dialer to contact new customers to make sure they understand the features of their phones and simultaneously ask if they have questions about their service or the charges on their first bill. These activities are geared toward improving customer satisfaction and retention rates.

We are also beginning to see the integration of predictive dialers and text-to-speech capabilities as companies call their customers and then pass the calls to a speech self-service application rather than to an agent for routine interactions. Customers speak their responses directly into their phones and the automated systems responds appropriately, engaging customers in "conversations." For example, if you’re 30 days delinquent on a payment, a collections contact center may call you and ask for the last four digits of your social security number. You speak the digits into your phone. The system then asks you to submit payment and offers you the option to speak with an agent. This is a quick, private and convenient way to render payment. Another example of this is a power company that uses its predictive dialer to contact customers during an electrical outage to let them know when they can expect to have their service restored. Customer satisfaction with this company skyrocketed after this program was implemented.

Call Center: It's been almost three years since the federal "Do Not Call" legislation. Some say that the list merely weeded out the citizens who were unreceptive to telemarketing pitches anyway. Is telemarketing still viable?

Mitchell: Telemarketing is absolutely still viable. Although the size of the lists that companies have to call has decreased between 30 and 50 percent, the quality of the remaining prospects is better since the people who wouldn’t buy anyway are no longer on the list. Also, since contacts are now fewer, the agents work harder with each prospect, resulting in an increased sales-per-contact. In fact, what we’ve heard from our customers is that it has actually helped them hone their business processes, increase efficiency, improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction.

The laws require that companies regularly fine-tune their calling lists and the end result is that companies are making better contacts with more of the right people. Companies are spending more time dialing and talking to consumers who are interested in doing business with them. What could be better for revenue than that?

Call Center: What trends do you see in dialing?

Mitchell: The biggest trend we’re seeing is customers using predictive dialers for proactive customer care initiatives. The responses to these types of interactions are extremely positive and customer satisfaction increases as a result.

Other trends we are seeing include:

• Skills-based routing capabilities incorporated into the predictive dialer functionality making interactions more pleasant for customers and agents. This feature enables companies to match appropriately skilled agents with specific customer call records as call records are processed.
  
• Same-agent callback and account ownership functionality allowing customers to deal with the same agents, eliminating the need for lengthy conversations to bring a new agent up to speed.
  
• Integrating predictive dialer functionality with other contact center solutions -- such as automatic call distributors (ACDs), performance optimization solutions, analytics tools and multichannel solutions -- gives consumers more channels through which they can interact with companies. This can streamline the overall interaction process, maximize contact center productivity and increase customer satisfaction. Integrating the dialer with the other applications also enables companies to utilize blending which can virtually eliminate inbound agent idle time. The seamless movement of agents between outbound and inbound tasks ensures that customers receive prompt service and the agents are efficiently utilized.
  
• Text-to-speech tied into the dialer is also a growing trend – particularly with outbound customer service. For example, after a customer brings their car into the dealer for service, the dealer can place can place an automated call to the customer to let them know their car is ready to be picked up. Additionally, the dealer could use text-to-speech functionality to synthesize information contained within their business systems into speech. When the customer receives the automated call from their service provider, this speech can be played to the customer. The customer will not only understand their car is ready, but also have detailed information about the service, enhancing their service experience.