Automated Telemarketing: Its Here To Stay
Call centers and telemarketing companies have started to use automated telemarketing. Technology has brought with it a change of times. Automated telemarketing is a process of using automated telemarketing systems to simplify the telemarketing process. For example, these systems can be used to deliver prerecorded messages with the aid of automatic dialer software and a computer connected to multiple phone lines. The process of automated telemarketing is very simple. The company records the telemarketing message in the computer system. Then set the automatic phone dialer and load the message that shall be played when someone answers. Record different versions of the message so that a variety is maintained and all the products are included.
Automated phone software is pointed to telemarketing lists from where it can get numbers. The software has an automatic dialer to make calls. The dialer picks up a number and starts to make telemarketing calls. As soon as the customer answers the call, the automatic dialer hands the control back to the automated telemarketing systems which starts to play the prerecorded message to the customer. However, automated telemarketing is not without its advantages and disadvantages. Most important of all, automated telemarketing saves the obscene amounts that are now being charged by telemarketing companies for making outbound telemarketing calls and other call center services. With automated telemarketing call center systems, the process of telemarketing becomes much more effective and it does not even ask for a fat pay check or a raise as would be the case with in house telemarketing agents. Moreover the automated telemarketing system would not ask for breaks, though it may ask for a system upgrade and overhaul. So it can work and it can keep on working. On the flip side, the automated telemarketing system is nothing more than a machine. The last thing, humans want to listen is a machine talking to them as if it was a human. Most of the automated telemarketing calls are disconnected within the first 15 to 20 seconds of the call. People just do not like the idea of talking to a machine. What is more, even if someone does listen to the call for sometime, the automated telemarketing system is just like a passive announcer which cannot cause any two way interaction to take place. The system becomes useless if the customer has any query because the company cannot record the answer of every query that people may have, nor can the machine understand the question. After all, artificial intelligence is still very dumb. With almost everything going automated the telemarketing sector can not be left behind but there are certain things which only the humans can do. Automated telemarketing is here to stay, but it can only stay by carving a niche in collaboration with human telemarketers. |
