CVMBoK

A Guide for Customer Value Management

Collaboration with Outbound Channels (Assisted) team

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Purpose of functional area #

Role of Outbound Channels (Assisted) function as understood here is to proactively reach out and sell to the customer via telephone or via appointments/meetings in person, or to provide service to the customer on his premises (e.g. installation at home).

Inputs: How it impacts CVM #

  • The Outbound channels (assisted) are the third among the most crucial gatekeepers for CVM success in the organization – many key Moments of Truth happen in Outbound Assisted Channel during the conversations there. Therefore if the Outbound Assisted Channel team does not collaborate well with CVM, a large portion of results is not achievable.
  • In-person interaction provides real-time insights into customer needs and preferences allowing CVM team to understand better how their idea works in reality. Outbound Channel (Assisted) generates a small amount of high resolution data in the form of conversation recordings that can be an invaluable source of qualitative market research.

CVM work related to function #

  • CVM team produces target groups, offers and supporting communication messages that are sent to the Outbound Channels (Assisted) on a daily basis and are used to plan the daily work of the channel.
  • CVM team is driving the quality of these interactions by providing personalized recommendations for every customer based on customer historical data, boosting the performance of Outbound Channels (Assisted) and directly impacting the commercial results.
  • CVM team trains and educates the Outbound Channel (Assisted) team on the CVM programs, their details, and ensures that they are implemented properly in the channel.
  • CVM team tracks the performance of the Outbound Channel (Assisted) team in terms of how well they execute various CVM programs.
  • CVM team contributes to or designs the compensation/bonus systems in the Outbound Channel (Assisted) to ensure that they are aligned with CVM programs.
  • CVM team contributes to or designs many of the requirements for the IT systems in the Outbound Channel (Assisted) to ensure that they are aligned with CVM programs.

Outputs: How CVM impacts this area #

  • CVM team has decisive impact on the performance of the Outbound Channel (Assisted) by providing the right or wrong target groups and products and offers that contribute to the achievement of CVM KPIs.
  • CVM team can make the work of Outbound Channel (Assisted) team completely unproductive by giving them incorrect target groups, offers or conversation scripts; or by imposing arbitrary KPIs and deadlines.
  • Mistakes made by CVM team (e.g. errors in personalization output) may cause the Outbound channel (Assisted) to be perceived poorly (e.g. by repeatedly calling the same customers or giving previously rejected offers).
  • CVM team often dictates the level of compensation available for a campaign by virtue of being aware of different product margins; thus CVM team may improve or reduce profitability of the Outbound Channel (Assisted) team, especially if it is an externally outsourced agency.

Key handshakes to consider #

Alignment with Outbound Channel (Assisted) team is crucial for CVM success:

  • Offer and message information – it is crucial to ensure that Outbound Channel (Assisted) receives timely and correct target groups with personalized offers/recommendations in a way that manages the repetitive contact with same customers properly (e.g. avoiding repetitive contact more than once every X months).
  • Target audience, offer and message conversion tracking – it is crucial to ensure that Outbound Channel (Assisted) can register target customers who have been reached, the conversions and provide feedback for CVM process improvements
  • Campaign planning – it is crucial to align Outbound Channel (Assisted) capacity plans with campaigns schedule to ensure adequate agent capacity is planned and available
  • Team education – it is crucial to educate Outbound Channel (Assisted) about CVM initiatives
  • Data collection – it is crucial to collect Outbound Channel (Assisted) recording data as it is a gold mine of high resolution qualitative insights for CVM.
  • Agent Feedback: Collect direct feedback from agents to understand how better to refine offerings.
  • Sales Training: Equipping sales representatives with insights and techniques for better customer engagement based on insights into top performing offers

Impact of collaboration quality on CVM team results #

HIGH – lack of alignment with Outbound Channel (Assisted) team results in dramatic under-performance of CVM.