Regardless of the industry, data is an essential component to any company operation. Even though the types of data elements relevant to a manufacturing plant might be different than the types of data elements associated with a b-to-b telemarketing agency, good news or bad news, data is still data – and without it, any business would crumble.
How is data obtained?
In telemarketing, data can provide managers with the information needed to make sound business decisions. With whom are the agents going to speak? What types of questions need to be developed in the call guide? Where is the campaign calling data going to be stored? When will the campaign actually start? These are the types of questions that need to be asked to ensure that a campaign is successful, and the answers to these questions provide pure, raw, data.
How is data used?
Without having reliable campaign information available for necessary qualitative and quantitative analysis, it virtually impossible for one to measure the overall performance of a telemarketing campaign. Valuable internal reporting activities can range from campaign performance assessments (dialing production, number of leads, contact list validity, etc) to comprehensive quality assurance actions (individual agent evaluation, recorded call listening, agent training, etc). It is absolutely critical for reports and statistics to be precise so that the data that is communicated back to the client is as accurate and complete as possible.
How is data viewed?
Even though reporting metrics can be different for every campaign, all campaigns have one key element in common – data. While some clients might prefer to analyze data in Microsoft Excel, others might choose to have their data imported via a delimited text file to automatically integrate with an existing CRM application. Therefore, it not only imperative to efficiently capture data, it also just as important to be able to provide flexible solutions that will enable that data to be sent to the client.
Data does a body good.
Sometimes data isn’t what one wants to see, and in those cases, it important to learn from what the data story tells. Just remember – even though data plays a significant role in internal decision making processes, it even more important to the client who paying for it.