Television drives dramatic response, but it does so in a two- to three-minute period, which means you have to work out how you are going to manage these big spikes of activity. These are your ‘moments of truth’ – if you don’t manage to capture the customer information in that time, you will lose those leads.
Charles Weiser, former chief executive of RAMS Group and head of customer relations at British Airways, once spoke about the 10/24 rule. He said you have to call the customer or potential customer back within 10 minutes, once you have fielded the call, and you must solve their problem within 24 hours, or it’s over.
That’s a great illustration of how you need to respond to leads generated through DRTV. But if you have a call centre staffed by ten people, and you have 60 calls in two minutes, you’re going to drop 50 calls. So how can you manage this?
One of the techniques used in call centres is to divide your call centre team in half. While the first half service the calls they get straight away – because there is nothing more powerful than being able to respond to that caller without delay – the other call centre staff members take names and numbers, and promise to come straight back to the caller. As the number of calls dissipates, more of the call centre team can begin servicing those calls and getting stuck into the sales task.
Electronic phone systems such as Avalanche also help to stagger the calls coming into the call centre, and after callers have been waiting a couple of minutes, can record their number for a callback. This is then converted to an email, which is sent to the call centre manager, so they can manage the flow of calls and ensure operators follow up all the leads received as soon as possible. The only drawback with this is that the caller’s name is not recorded – meaning a quick response is required so you can catch the person before they go on with their day and the lead goes cold.
Perhaps surprisingly, with SMS, the best way to respond is slightly different – our early learning is that you should delay at least a couple of hours, even up to a day. This is because if you ring the person straight back, they assume it will be the call centre and may not accept the call. By leaving it for a period of time, they are more likely to take the call, and the operator can deliver the information offered.
The key issue is making sure you have the right measures in place before your ad airs, to ensure your leads don’t slip through the net.