Nearshore Callzilla goes head-to-head vs. offshore direct response call center
Summary
A couple of years ago, we were approached by a U.S. car seller running a direct response campaign. Leadership asked us whether Callzilla’s results would be better, worse, or about the same as their incumbent’s. Here’s how we answered… then proved our answer.
Omni-channel client acquisition, appointment setting
Client-branded live chat via web or mobile app
Created new reports per key performance indicators
To tap the large Hispanic market in the United States, the firm had launched a direct response campaign aimed at getting pre-approved car buyers into dealerships. The desired path for their target audience was as follows:
- Buyers see an ad on TV, radio or the web directing them to call a phone number
- Agents gather information about the buyer and the kinds of vehicles they want
- The company would get the customer pre-approved when possible, and
- Agents would schedule an appointment with a member dealership
The Chief Marketing Officer had started with a small pilot program, then expanded the direct response campaign to 18 markets and several hundred dealerships. The core value proposition resonated with his company’s target audience. He had fine-tuned their ads. He had optimized the media spend.
So he was frustrated to see how many callers were hanging up while waiting on hold; that agents didn’t speak English or Spanish well enough to consistently convert; and how the contact center was not doing some after-call work to foster sales opportunities.
Bringing the contact center’s attention to their service level agreement had not improved things. So the Florida company was cautiously exploring working with other contact centers.
The CMO thoroughly vetted his options this time. He got to know Callzilla CEO Neal Topf, traveled to our contact center in Bogota, and held video conferences with some of the Callzilla agents who would be interacting with customers. (Just because the customers were of Hispanic heritage didn’t necessarily mean they spoke Spanish as their first language, so the agents had to be fluent in both English and Spanish.)
Eventually he decided to split the work between the old vendor and Callzilla to get a true comparison of performance. We’ve accepted the head-to-head challenge.
Our approach emphasized:
- Focusing on omni-channel customer acquisition, not just phone
- Training agents for setting appoints, creating memberships, and closing sales throughout the life cycle of car buying customers
- Creating client-branded live chat, available via web or mobile app
- Creating new messaging and reporting
Callzilla primarily handled phone interactions, following up with customers as needed by email and text. It also powered the chat function on the website.
Within two months of being hired, Callzilla outperformed its predecessor across the board: average response time, conversion rates, and more.
Callzilla’s quality control system provided consistent results, and our Client Services team responded quickly if issues came up, he said.
“Neal and his team were fabulous. If we could have I would have moved all our volume to Callzilla. They did a better job. They had better quality agents, our flows were good, and our costs were already competitive with our incumbent.” – CMO, U.S. Auto Reseller
Our takeaways: keep digging deep to understand each client’s needs and challenges. Focus on experience-oriented key performance indicators. And when it comes to results, show, don’t just tell.
The Callzilla difference
The elements of the above solution only work in the right context. For example, Callzilla has a robust quality management system certified to ISO 9001:2008 standards, that generates actionable insights to improve customer experience and client services.
Under ISO 9001:2008, Callzilla commits to being responsive and attentive to detail, delivering a satisfying experience to each customer, guaranteeing the security of customer and client data, continually improving our operations, achieving high quality in our production, and developing team members’ skills and abilities.
A strong talent acquisition and retention program yields 3x longer employee tenure than average contact centers. And our technology intelligently routes and supports interactions, with infrastructure and data protected in a Tier IV data center, NAP of the Americas.
