So far in this chapter we have seen how to set your system up for telemarketing, how to use statuses and how to create campaigns. Now we will look at how your telesales staff will actually use the Mekashron Call Center Software system, and how you as a manager or owner can monitor exactly what is happening in your telemarketing operation, and what results are being obtained.
1 - The Telemarketing User
When you set up users and add them to the pre-built Telemarketing group in Mekashron Call Center Software, they will have a simplified view of the system when they log in, which enables you to get your team up and running very quickly.
When a telemarketing user logs into Mekashron Call Center Software, he immediately sees the calls that he is scheduled to make on the Telemarketing List tab, as shown below.
Figure 1.1 - The Telemarketing List Tab
As you can see, a default telemarketing user has access to limited functionality within Mekashron. The buttons available to the user are limited to the following functions.
Figure 1.2 - The Dial button
The Dial Button dials the selected telephone number.
Figure 1.3 - The Hang up button
The Hang Up button becomes enabled when a telephone call is in progress.
Figure 1.4 - The Add Entity button
The Add Entity Button allows the user to add a new entity.
Figure 1.5 - The View/Edit button
The View/Edit button allows the user to view and edit the entity that is currently selected in the grid below.
In the Telemarketing List tab, Mekashron will show your users exactly what calls they should be making at any point in time.
Figure 1.6 - The Three Telemarketing List Views
As shown in the screenshot above, there are three main views of the telemarketing tab:
- Active List
- On Hold List
- Finished List
Your telemarketers will work from their Active list when making the bulk of their calls. They will refer to their On-Hold List as appropriate to follow up on prospects and they or you can refer to the Finished List to see exactly what calls have been carried out and when.
Your telemarketing user will automatically be shown his or her highest priority active call list, identified by a Campaign name in the dropdown to the right of the Telemarketing tab:
Figure 1.7 - The Campaign dropdown
It is possible to change to the selected campaign to any other active campaign to which the logged-in user is assigned.
The main portion of the Telemarketing tab is the grid that shows the entities to be called:
Figure 1.8 - The Telemarketing List Grid
At the top of the grid the telephone numbers of the selected entity are shown, and the user can select either the main Phone or the Mobile before dialing.
Figure 1.9 - Selecting a Telephone Number for the Entity
At the bottom of the grid, there is the usual Mekashron search facility in case the user needs to search for a particular entity:
Figure 1.10 - The Search Facility on the Telemarketing Tab
When a telemarketing user is ready to work, his key buttons are the two prominent buttons that appear at the top left of the screen, the Dial and Hang Up buttons:
Figure 1.11 - The Dial and Hang Up Buttons
These buttons will connect and disconnect your telesales user as required, using the telephone number of the selected entity in the Telemarketing List.
The user can choose whether to dial the selected entity's default telephone number or mobile using the options...
Figure 1.12 - Choosing a Telephone Number
... before clicking on the Dial button.
When an entity is dialed, two things happen:
Firstly, Mekashron automatically dials the telephone number via the voice modem installed on the PC.
And simultaneously, Mekashron brings up the script so that the user has it in front of him ready for when a prospect answers the telephone:
Figure 1.13 - The Script for the Campaign Pops up when a Call is Answered
While the call is in progress, or at the end of the call, the user has new functions available. The example screenshot below shows the user's screen when he has completed the call:
Figure 1.14 - New Functions are Available During and After a Call
Call Status - This drop down must be filled in when the call is finished, allowing the entity to be routed to the next appropriate status for further calls or follow up or other actions as needed. Please see the section on Statuses for full information.
Figure 1.15 - The Call Status Dropdown
Call Progress - This bar shows the user the progress of the call
Figure 1.16 - The Call Progress Bar
Remark - This is a text area where the user can write any necessary comments about the call or the client/prospect. This field may be either optional or mandatory, depending on how you set up the current status. Note that it is possible to set the status without making an actual telephone call to the client, by right clicking on the entity and selecting Set Status.
Figure 1.17 - The Remark Textbox
Once the user has finished with this call, he can click on the Continue button:
Figure 1.18 - The Continue Button
... to be returned to the telemarketing list and make the next call. Depending on the outcome of the call that has been completed, the entity will be moved to either the On-Hold List or the Finished List.
If, when setting up the campaign, you have chosen to have Mekashron automatically dial the next entity, then once the user has finished his first call, the next entity will be auto-dialed. Otherwise the user can manually select the next entity, choose the phone number or take the default, and click the Dial button and the system will dial the next call.
In the telemarketing screen the user can double click on an entity in order to bring up all the details for that client or prospect. In addition, the call history for previous campaigns is shown at the bottom of the screen in the Finished List - see example below.
Figure 1.19 - A User's Finished List.
For each entity in the top grid that the user highlights, the lower grid will display each call that has been made to that client or prospect in the past. The fields for each historical call shown in the History grid are:
- Operator - The user who made the call.
- Scheduled - The date and time that the call / campaign was scheduled to start.
- Status - The final status that was assigned after the call was made.
- Remark - Any remarks recorded by the operator during or at the end of the call.
- Duration (sec) - The duration of the call in seconds.
- Phone Number - The telephone number that was called.
- Campaign - The campaign that the entity was assigned to when the call was made.
- Date - The date and time of the call.
Note that the contents of the history grid may either include just the information on the current campaign, or else information for other campaigns as well, depending on the setting Hide history from other campaigns option (see Creating Campaigns).
While Mekashron Telemarketing is very powerful if you have single telesales staff, it is also designed to be used with ease with multiple users - so that you can leverage the efficiencies and functions of Mekashron to even greater levels.
Mekashron automatically prevents multiple telesales staff from trying to call the same client or prospect simultaneously.
Important Note: If you run an office with multiple PCs that are built using a ghosting process, you need to check the station ID to ensure that Mekashron can successfully recognize each individual installation. Otherwise there is a risk that more than one of your telesales staff could accidentally call the same client simultaneously. For instructions on how to do this, please see the Telemarketing System Setup section.
2 - Management Information on Telemarketing
As an administrator or supervisory user, you can easily monitor the telesales process. We will see in detail the Reports and Statistics that Mekashron makes available to you in the next two sections of this chapter. However you also have access to management information at a detail level.
This section assumes that you are logged in to your Mekashron system as an administrator.
Search on Telemarketing Data: From the main Mekashron menu, select Entities -> Search Entities (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F):
Figure 2.1 - Selecting to Filter by Phone Calls
Now select the Filter Phone Calls option and click on the Settings button:
Figure 2.2 - The Available Options when Filtering by Phone Calls
As you can see, there are many filtering options that will allow you to search and find all of the entities by:
- Campaigns - Select one or multiple campaigns here.
- Operators - Select one or multiple operators here.
- Status - The status or statuses that the calls you wish to report on resulted in for the affected entities.
- When call was dialed - The time the entity was called.
- Schedule to calls - The time the calls to the entity were scheduled (i.e. the start time of the campaign).
In addition you can restrict your search to only include the most recent call that was made to the entity (the Search last record only option) or to include only entities that were called between certain hours of the day (the Limit hours option). For full documentation on the searching and filtering functions available to you, please refer to Search Entities.
Detailed Call History: When you have located an entity and wish to see detailed information on the calls that have been made to that client or prospect, you can simply view the entity (by double-clicking on it in the entity list) and choose the Communication tab.
Figure 2.3 - The Communication Tab
Here you will have the full list of communications that have been made with this entity. You can also filter them by Date or by Campaign type; in the case of telesales you will want to select the Phone Calls type, to see telesales calls that have been made.
From here you can see the full details of all the calls that have been made to this entity, and you can listen to recorded calls to monitor call quality and identify any training issues or improvements that could be made to your telesales scripts.
To play a recorded call, simply right-click on it and select the green Play button:
Figure 2.4 - The Play Button
If required, you can make additional ad-hoc calls to the entity from this screen by clicking on the Add a Call button:
Figure 2.5 - The Add a Call Button
This takes you to the following screen:
Figure 2.6 - The New Phone Call Form
In this form you have the option of selecting to call the default number or the mobile number of the entity:
Figure 2.7 - Choosing a Phone Number to Call
... or if you have a new number for the entity you can use the Dial Pad to key in the number you wish to call:
Figure 2.8 - The Dial Pad
Before dialing the client or prospect from this screen you must assign this new call to an existing campaign, or else create a new campaign from here by clicking on the red + button below the Assign call to campaign drop down.
Once your call is in progress the Hang-up button becomes available and your call progress is shown in the progress bar.
Figure 2.9 - The New Phone Call Form when a Call is in Progress
While your call is in progress you can select a status for the call from the dropdown, and write any comments in the remarks area.
Figure 2.10 - Providing a Call Status and a Remark During the Call
3 - Summary
Now that you have all the information at your fingertips to train your telesales users, and you know how to access the detailed call history for your Entities, we will look at the excellent range of reports and statistics for your telesales data that you have in Mekashron Call Center Software, in the following two sections of this chapter.