When thinking about a possible application of call center the first thing that comes to mind is making cold calls. Well, trying to sell to people something that they don’t actually need is not the best idea.
What I like more is a marketing approach when you are trying some free product and after trying the product you are contacted by a person who is able to answer your questions and eventually sell some service or product to you.
This approach is getting more popular here in Europe, for example living in Barcelona I’ve faced with telemarketing in Spanish language.
For my look it works much better than cold call. For example I was contacted by a local energy company that suggested my to buy an insurance for our family. Their idea was simple, as long I’m a client of their company, I’ll more likely buy something from them, even if it is not related directly with their main business.
Did it work for me? Well, I already had a similar insurance managed with other company, but still the approach was interesting enough.
Another example is when call center is used to market some add-ons to existent service. For example, a gas company offered a maintenance contact for heating system. Would I sign up for it? Well, before their call I simple did not know about this opportunity. They just called me and mentioned that this opportunity exists and that I can contact them them to sign up.
Looks like a great way to marketing something to existent customers. What about new clients? My personal belief is that this is less effective, if they got my phone from some public database. If I was the one who gave a contact to them, then it will work much better, as everybody want to have some additional information and offer about some service.