Inbound call center: The key to inbound marketing
Good inbound marketing always benefits from a strong call center. In contrast to outbound marketing, where customers are actively canvassed, inbound marketing means that employees are contacted themselves and should always be available and easy to reach. We at ComCare 360 will inform you about the most important facts in this article: What is inbound marketing? What does an inbound call center do? How do I make the best use of inbound calls?
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing, as is usual in marketing, is about attracting the attention of potential customers. Every contact with a company should be an experience for the customer and offer added value. This can be an easily accessible website, an appealing social media post or a pleasant call to the service hotline.
Because only those who provide their potential customers with further information – by email, chat or phone call – in the most accessible way possible will stand out from other providers. With trustworthy content and content with added value, qualified prospects will become aware of you and your company.
Growing with the inbound methodology
How can good inbound marketing be expressed in figures? The faster your customers complete a purchase, the more successful your company will be. Buying behavior is crucial in inbound marketing. However, the relationship with the customer begins before that. With good content and quick access to your products, services and content as well as excellent service, you will stand out positively even before the sale.
This is exactly where the inbound methodology comes into play. When potential customers and prospects are supported at every stage of the buying process, this builds a satisfied and hopefully long-lasting relationship. The goal of customers and your sales team is the same: to move quickly and easily towards a successful purchase .
The phases of the inbound methodology
The inbound methodology is based on four phases:
Phase 1: Dressing
Before a successful purchase can be made, customers first have to get to your website. The first hurdle is therefore getting visitors and traffic to the website. Marketers know the problem, but they also have a few helpful marketing methods at the ready. With informative content, social media marketing and target group-specific advertising, the company lands on the radar of potential customers. If the SEO marketing is also right and the website is SEO-optimized, visitors will find their way to you when searching for a product, service or service.
Phase 2: Convert
However, just attracting attention to your company does not mean that the visitor will actually become a buyer. Therefore, the next goal is to convert visitors into leads (potential customer contact). This does not have to be a large number of leads, as the focus is on high-quality customers. This is achieved by collecting leads and contact data. There are various ways to obtain this information. One method is the so-called call-to-action, in which potential customers are actively asked to take action. However, social media content, forms and other inbound tools also lead to sufficient leads. Professional call centers are also very familiar with collecting leads.
In order to obtain this information, it is important to provide real added value. This provides an incentive for visitors to disclose their valuable lead data. Once this has been achieved, the decisive phase of the buyer’s journey begins.
Phase 3: Finalize
If the lead generation was successful and you have collected some high-quality leads, it is now time to close the deal. Only in this step do you really actively approach the prospective customer. This makes inbound marketing an effective method that creates incentives.
If the customer is still a little hesitant to make a purchase at this stage, email marketing or another CRM method can be used to create final incentives for your products or services. The right information at the right time for the right leads is the key in the closing phase. In this way, you can quickly acquire your first customers.
Phase 4: Inspire
Anyone who thinks that inbound marketing is finished after the sale should think long-term. After all, few customers will remain loyal to your company on their own. Use the inbound methodology as a guide for customer acquisition. Ask yourself why customers have bought your product or service. Through detailed market research, find the reasons why you offer added value for visitors, leads and customers compared to other providers. Maintain what is associated with this so that your customers remain loyal for longer.
Because the best thing about loyal customers is that some of them become advertisers themselves and recommend your company to friends, family members and colleagues – advertising that reaches the target group directly.
Inbound marketing & outbound marketing
In inbound marketing, potential customers become aware of companies and products on their own initiative through appropriate content. This is why inbound marketing is also often referred to as pull marketing. If people search the internet for solutions to problems and find your platform or your company, this happens without you actively approaching the visitor.
But to get attention, you first need content. Content marketing is therefore an important part of inbound marketing. Above all, the interaction between content strategies, content production and content advertising is crucial. You can use permission-based email marketing or social media marketing to create momentum. This is because inbound marketing is all about incentives so that visitors also build up interest in your content.
The opposite is the case with outbound marketing. Here, the impulse comes from the company and is therefore also referred to as push marketing. A product or service is aggressively promoted to the target group and future customers. Providers use banner ads, mass emails or video ads on social media. However, companies and brands also use traditional television and radio advertising or posters to attract attention.
Why inbound marketing?
Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers: Would you like to be hassled by an employee as soon as you enter the store or would you prefer to shop in peace? It’s similar on the Internet, because outbound marketing is based on disruption. Mass emails, pages full of banners and pop-ups as well as spam – this is why a certain banner blindness has crept in among many users.
So why should so many resources be invested in marketing tools and content that isn’t even seen in the end? Inbound marketing doesn’t do everything, but it does important things differently. One term that comes up again and again in this context is added content value. In other words, a marketing method that is not only well received, but also desired by the customer. With their permission, a basis of trust is created in which customers approach you with questions and interest – just as they would in a store.
The advantages of inbound marketing
Even more attention: Inbound marketing is a wonderful way to really get noticed. This is because potential customers become aware of your high-quality content and therefore of your company when surfing the Internet.
Trust as an expert: If your content is of convincing quality and offers real added value, readers will come to you with questions and problems. And you are already considered an expert in your field. Regular content expands this status even further and goes so far that potential customers trust your expertise when making a purchase decision.
Leads with quality: Once you have built up your inbound marketing, you will quickly notice an increase in the number and quality of your leads. If you then provide regular content, your website will become a real magnet for potential customers.
Detailed database: While with classic outbound advertising it is never really clear how many interested parties have actually been reached, inbound marketing provides detailed figures. Every click can be recorded and therefore also proven.
Inbound marketing strategy: call centers interact with customers
Many companies rely on true marketing experts for the second phase of the inbound methodology (converting or interacting). With a trusted call center at your side, you can easily outsource inbound marketing and save time and resources. Professional call centers offer modern inbound solutions so that you can concentrate on your core business and your products.
What is an inbound call center?
An inbound call center works with companies from different industries to develop their own inbound marketing. They help with incoming phone calls from existing customers, leads or customers looking for support or further information. As this contact is often the decisive factor in the purchase decision, you should only rely on professional call centers. Their highly qualified call agents know their way around every area thanks to extensive training and can help with complaints or inquiries from your customers.
Reasons for an inbound call
Inbound calls, i.e. incoming calls from customers, are mostly about:
- Service questions
- Appointments
- Message recordings
- Order acceptance and processing
- Complaints and acceptance of complaints
- Technical support requests
- Improving customer loyalty
Inbound call strategies
Once you have found the right call center for your inbound marketing, it’s time to set up marketing strategies. Here are a few tips for making the most of the advantages of an inbound call center.
Urgent calls have priority. After all, phone calls are expensive, and not just because of the call center agents’ wage costs. Although there are often live chats or support via email, many customers like to use the telephone for questions and problems.
Some calls are so urgent that direct help is required. To ensure that these inbound calls actually get through, customer communication should be optimized for effectiveness. After all, it is not always necessary for clients to call a service employee. Sometimes other channels are simply a good option, for example when requesting a copy of an invoice.
It is therefore important to carefully consider which inquiries really go to a call center agent so that they can concentrate on the really valuable calls such as purchase advice.
Be reachable. If you offer a hotline for defined service times, incoming calls should also be answered or preferably go straight to the right contact person. Many communication systems offer such functions and forward calls to the right call center area according to customer interest.
This also contributes to customer satisfaction, because the more attention you give your callers, the more they feel valued.
Improve your inbound call strategy. Many services offer helpful functions to filter calls according to interest and quality. This allows you to analyze and improve the performance of inbound calls. If you have premium customers, for example, for whom customer service should ideally be available 24 hours a day, you can also set up specific service levels.
Integrate customer data. Because if the service employee knows who they are about to speak to, they can prepare themselves effectively. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) data allows all customer information to be collected and accessed anywhere. This not only saves valuable time, but also gives the caller the immediate feeling that they are currently the most important customer.
You should know these inbound terms
If you are already thinking about your inbound marketing with a trustworthy call center, the first call is coming up soon. Here are a few technical terms that you will come across.
IVR
IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response. It is a voice dialog system that allows customers to select the department they need. The caller can select the desired number and the desired contact person (such as support, sales or marketing) at the touch of a button using various selection options.
ACD
Automatic call distribution means that calls are routed to the relevant department. These can be support hotlines or telephone hotlines for product advice. However, the ACD function not only provides a good overview of all incoming calls, but also forwards them either to the first available agent or to the agent with the longest time without an inbound call.
Queue
The larger the company, the more customers call. Queues are therefore sometimes essential in order to be available despite full call capacity. A maximum waiting time and even music on hold can be defined for the caller. If no call center agent answers the call during this time, the customer is either forwarded or has to call again at a later time.
CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a cloud-based system that stores customer data. This data is displayed to the call center agent before the call so that the employee can optimally prepare for the customer.
CTI
Of course, physical telephones are a thing of the past thanks to computer telephony integration (CTI). Modern call centers use CTI directly on the PC via headset to make calls. Programs such as Outlook & Co. also use the available customer data to improve inbound performance.
Important key figures for an inbound call center
In order to measure the quality and customer satisfaction of a call center in terms of values, there are a few revealing key figures in inbound marketing.
With the average handling time (AHT) includes not only the customer call itself, but also the follow-up by the agent. But the hold time also plays a major role here.
If a customer calls again because of a problem, this is recorded using the First Contact Resolution (FCR). The lower the FCR, the more likely it is that customers did not receive a suitable solution the first time.
The abandonment rate includes all customers who ended the call before speaking to the agent. The reason is often that the waiting time is too long.
Conclusion: Inbound marketing thanks to call center support
The fact is: Inbound marketing is becoming increasingly popular and has great potential. This is because customers are interested in your content and offers, not the other way around. High-quality content marketing gives your website maximum relevance, which also benefits your own inbound marketing.
However, if you only have limited resources for interacting with and maintaining customer contacts and still want to improve your own inbound marketing, you can outsource these tasks to a Reliable call center outsource. This means you are always available and easily accessible. Not only will questions or problems be resolved quickly over the phone, but your customers will also enjoy the personal customer service.
ComCare360: Your inbound experts
As a professional call center, we take your inbound marketing to the next level. ComCare 360 not only offers the full range of inbound solutions, but also builds trust with your customers. Do you have any questions? We look forward to hearing from you.