HRS Outsourcing FAQ
How Much Does it Cost?
At Hit Rate Solutions we provide dedicated telemarketers at a flat hourly rate. Please fill out the form to the right to request a price quote. We have no set up charges, and offer service packages as small as 80-hours (two weeks) with a single caller.
How Long is the Set-up?
Our typical set up time is 2-3 business days, although it can be longer if you need a large number of callers or extensive training.
Our agreement is a short e-signature document which can be filled out online. After we get that back we’ll need to get your list and a script and a time you are available to speak to our trainer and go over the campaign. On this call we’ll have you screen several available agents and choose the person who will be working on your campaign. We do the rest of the day un-billed training and can start calling the next day.
How Skilled Are the Reps?
Hit Rate Solutions will hire the best agents to fit your campaign or project. We have a large pool of college educated applicants available. After we have selected several potential applicants, our clients have the option to do individual phone screenings to choose an agent, or leave the selection process completely up to Hit Rate Solutions. We are one of the leading call centers and telemarketing companies in the Philippines for a reason. We only hire telemarketers and customer support assistants who are right for the job. All of the applicants we screen will have the following basic skills:
- 4-year accredited university degree
- Fluent English language skills, neutral accent
- Proficient on the Internet, email, CRM, and Windows applications
How are their accents?
This is a big concern for most people when selecting an agent to work on their calling campaign. While accent is important to a certain extent, it is far from the most important concern you should have. When speaking with your prospective agent, make sure you can understand them and they have decent, and not necessarily perfect grammar. The main goal is to put someone who is easily understandable on the phone who can follow your set process and deliver results. In our ever more globally integrated world people don’t expect a telemarketer, customer service agent, appointment setter, etc. to be right down the street from their office. When drawing a business conclusion, you should focus on more quantitative factors and not put too much emphasis on an aesthetic quality such as the agent’s voice. We recommend that if you can easily understand them, and vise versa, and the agent meets other considerations, accent is not an issue.
Click here to listen to telemarketers.
Comprehension
Most call centers make comprehension a central focus when making hiring decisions, so in many cases your work is already done for you. A quick way to test is to jump around in your conversation and see if the agent is able to keep up. Ask unrelated questions, or for directions to a place the agent will know. Ask for clarification on a given answer. Make the agent think and speak outside of the box from a typical interview where they expect to be reading the script in a roll-play situation.
Script Adherence
While most clients who are new to using outsourced voice agents often want the agent to be “conversational” with the script and process, this is usually not the best idea. Having a concrete, repeatable process means you can easily scale, and that you will have much more consistent results. Scripts should be crafted to quickly get the proposition out there and then in an “if, then” format. Rebuttals for common objections should be scripted as well, and additional common objections can be worked into the script as the account is running. While getting an agent than can get off script and effect a casual, friendly manner with prospects would be ideal in some situations it is simply not scalable and defeats the purpose of outsourcing.
Additional assignments
What will the agent need to do other than call and execute a script? Do they need to email leads? Fill out a web-form? Instant messenger you with appointment times? These are all aspects to consider when setting up and staffing a campaign. How much time do these tasks take you to complete? Try to get an idea what the agent will need to do on a day to day basis, you may need more staff to complete all required tasks.
What are Working Hours?
Hit Rate Solutions will hire the right candidate to work around your schedule. Your employee will typically work a 40 week (however overtime can be arranged for if needed). A basic schedule might be from 8am to 5pm EST with a 1 hour lunch break.
For larger jobs or those in need of 24 hour support we can arrange for the right number of reps to fit your needs.
What types of campaigns do you offer?
Managed vs. Unmanaged campaigns
When considering a managed vs. unmanaged campaign its important to understand what goes into each. With a managed campaign the day to day work of reporting, agent training and coaching, process assignment and quality assessments are done for you. This does not mean you cannot be as directly involved as you would like with the agents and process, but the heavy lifting will be taken care of by someone else, such as your account manager.
Unmanaged accounts are a different story. Your agent is your direct employee. The company will handle payroll, staffing, and making sure the agent is available at their station with working computer and phone. After that its up to you. Things to consider in this case are the process; what are the inputs (calling data, script, additional contact materials such as email), outputs (leads, appointments, reporting, etc.), verifying quality, coaching agents, amending script changes, etc., etc.
A good way to decide which option makes sense is to diagram out how the account will work. What you need to give to the agent, what they need to produce, how that information is transfer and what you will need to provide as feedback. If you have a very simple project an unmanaged solution might be the best fit for you. If your process is going to take up more of your time than you would save by opting to have someone else manage the account that is probably the best choice.
Campaign design
This is a much too complicate issue to discuss every facet here. The best practice I’ve found is to diagram everything out, start to finish, and ask yourself is this a process I could adhere to using only the information I’m going to provide (without any industry specific knowledge). Remember that the entire call should be scripted for voice campaigns. In most cases your account manager can help you with this step. Below is a list of items to consider:
- Agent contact – how should the agent contact you with questions, do you want to be able to contact them directly?
- Phone system – Do you have any specific requirements such as call recording, predictive dialer, etc? Keep in mind these features may add cost to the campaign.
- Conversion delivery – leads, appointments, contacts, or whatever else the goal of a campaign it is to produce needs to be delivered somehow. Should these be emailed, entered in a web lead form, pasted into a spreadsheet, or some other function? Make sure you have this process designed and implemented prior to launching the campaign.
- Reporting – decide on the metrics you are going to use to track success. Of course conversions will be there, maybe on a daily or weekly basis, but what else do you need to know?
- Account terms – How long do you plan on running this campaign, what hours, days of the week, etc.