Telemarketing Call Center Tasks

In general, when you begin working as a telemarketer, you’ll be provided with a list of names, telephone numbers and a pre-written script to follow. Your objective will be to make direct contact with an individual and then try to sell them a product or service. Unfortunately, most people will tell you they aren’t interested in your product or hang up on you as soon as they figure out you are a telemarketer. In most cases, that happens as soon as you tell them your name and the company you represent – if you don’t deal well with rejection, seek another line of work.

Legal Guidelines

Because telemarketers are often viewed as a nuisance, many consumers registered their phone numbers with the Do Not Call Registry. If you’re a telemarketer, you aren’t allowed to call individuals on this list. If you try to call an individual on this list and they determine that you’re a telemarketer, you may have to pay fines and penalties or be subject to investigation by law enforcement authorities.

Issues You Might Encounter

Just like collections call center professionals, chances are you’ll receive a certain amount of verbal abuse. Depending on the policies of the company you work for, you’ll either be asked to hang up immediately or try to diffuse the situation. As you might expect, the likelihood of making a sale in these situations is very low.

In other instances, people frustrated with telemarketers may decide to play along and pretend they want to buy from you. These individuals can use any number of conversation lines to make you feel very uncomfortable, and perhaps even embarrassed. As you might expect, gauging legitimate interest from these customers in the products you have to offer may be difficult, but it’s all part of the territory.

Unfortunately, when you call someone’s home, you won’t know what was going on prior to your call. Among other things, individuals can and do drink excessive amounts of alcohol, as well as get into family disputes. As a result, you may be exposed to any number of comments and a wide range of emotional atmospheres. If you’re an emotionally sensitive person, or can’t tolerate foul language, it may not be best for you to work in a telemarketing call center.

Even though you may find a number of positions related to telemarketing, it’s not always an easy job. In particular, if you’re offered payment based on sales, you may find that it’ll take a huge amount of calls to attain any kind of success. On the other hand, as a telemarketer, you’ll gain experience dealing with many different kinds of people and communication behaviors, all while earning a healthy income.

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Typical Tasks

When working in an outreach call center, you’ll be spending most of your time contacting individuals by phone. In most cases, you’ll have a pre-designed script or format that you’ll need to follow during the course of the conversation. For example, if you’re calling on behalf of a charity organization, you’ll begin by telling the recipient of your call who you are and which charity you represent. These scripts are designed to achieve a specific purpose in the minimal amount of time and you’ll need to adhere to them as much as possible.

Career Opportunities

Depending on your interests and skills, you may qualify to work in a wide variety of settings. Government agencies may operate outreach call centers in order to disseminate important information. As mentioned previously, charities and other non-profit organizations may use these centers in order to raise money or awareness for their cause. You may also be able to work on your own as an independent outreach call center coordinator by providing services to smaller companies who can’t afford their own centers.

Starting an Outreach Call Center Service

Even though the cost of telephone equipment and service can be steep, reaching out to customers by this method is invaluable to many business owners. Receiving a phone call gives a much more personal feel than a letter. Unfortunately, it’s becoming significantly harder for businesses to meet their financial obligations, so many are looking to outsource large volume calls to a professional service.

Today, there are also many businesses that need the services of a call center for a one-time event. For example, if a local business wants to have a special celebration, they may decide to use telephone calls to invite people. If you can provide the same service for less than it would cost the company, you might just be in business. In other cases, you might be able to find work catching up on the backlog of outgoing telephone calls that are normally managed by routine office staff.

For the most part, incoming and outgoing call centers perform similar tasks for a wide variety of companies. That said, the difference in who initiates the contact leads to a number of differences in how you will focus and structure each call. When you work in an outgoing call center, your conversations will be much more script-driven and you may be required to comply with a number of specific government regulations.

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Survey Call Center Tasks

In many cases, you’ll find that survey call centers focus their calls on specific geographic regions, or target audience characteristics. For example, you might receive a list of phone numbers of people that download a specific type of music from services like iTunes. While you won’t be trying to sell a product or service to the customer, you will be trying to find out what makes a person buy – or not buy – a specific item with a series of predetermined questions.

In other instances, business might use survey call centers to obtain customer satisfaction information. For example, if a consumer purchased a piece of equipment, the manufacturer might want to know if the customer is happy with the item or not. This type of information is often used to help formulate new versions of a product, as well as highlight areas that need improvement.

Businesses That Use Survey Call Centers

Electronics manufacturers, restaurant franchises, and service related businesses are just a few of the different types of businesses that may outsource some of their marketing research to a survey call center. During political campaigns, candidates running for office may also utilize call centers to help them create and maintain the impression they’re making on the general public. You may also find that a variety of public service organizations want to get specific information from community members, which requires the assistance of an independent survey group.

Career Opportunities

In some cases, you may be able to find a job as a survey call center professional dedicated to a specific franchise. That said, the parent company will have to be fairly large in order to provide enough work for a full time position. You may also be able to find work at traditional survey organizations. During an election season, you may also be employed by a candidate, or their party.

Starting Your Own Survey Call Center

In some cases, business owners may not be able to afford the fees associated with hiring large survey organizations. At the same time, they may not have enough work available to justify hiring someone. Therefore, you may be able to offer your services on a call volume basis. While it may take some work to start this type of business, it’s an ideal situation if you prefer working for yourself.

Without question, candid consumer feedback is vital the success of a company. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to obtain this information. Focused telephone surveys can help gather sufficient customer feedback to help businesses make a number of decisions related to future product offerings.

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Non-Profit Organization Call Center Tasks

As with any other type of business, non-profit organizations need to obtain an enormous amount of information from individuals that are likely to make donations. In addition, when you’re working in a non-profit organization call center, you may also make calls directly asking people for donations. Depending on the situation, you may find varying levels of receptiveness to your requests – including everything from generous responses to quickly hung-up phones.

Because non-profit organizations also seek to raise awareness of specific issues, some of your call center work may involve distributing educational materials. For example, a women’s shelter might conduct a campaign to raise awareness about domestic violence. Typically, if you’re involved in an educational outreach effort, you’ll be given a series of points to cover with individuals that are willing to listen to you.

Getting Paid for Working in a Non-Profit Call Center

In many cases, you’ll find that non-profit organizations are under-funded and under-staffed. As a result, you may be asked to conduct phone-a-thons, or related services on a volunteer basis. Even though you may not be paid for your work, you may find the experience valuable if you plan to start your own call center business. You’ll also have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped a worthwhile organization raise needed funds.

Aside from this, you’ll also gain an opportunity to expand your communication skills, without having to worry about job performance reviews. Your experiences as a non-profit organization call specialist may also be useful to include on a job resume. Not only will this give you the chance to highlight a significant amount of experience, it’s a useful way to present yourself as an individual interested in humanitarian goals.

Fraud Alerts

If you’re going to work as an outsourced non-profit call center specialists, it’s important to research your clients carefully. Individuals have posed as everything from police offers to clergy members in order to obtain donations. Unfortunately, some people will even pretend they’re trying to raise money in order to help people affected by disaster situations. Make sure the organization is legit before you start soliciting donations.

In many cases, non-profit organizations rely on call centers to help them raise funds to continue their operations. Unfortunately, due to the limited nature of non-profit funding, it may be impossible for them to find qualified personnel to fill this position. Therefore, if you choose to work in this field, it’s likely your services will be accepted only on a voluntary basis. However, if you gain enough experience in this field, you may eventually be able to move on to bigger and better things.

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Collections Call Center Tasks

As a collections call center specialist, your first duty will be making direct telephone contact with the customer. Depending on the situation, this may be difficult – if not impossible. People that are already in financial hot water may have already had their phones disconnected or been evicted from their offices, so getting ahold of them through conventional means can prove difficult.

If you’re able to reach a customer that owes money, you’ll likely find yourself in the middle of a volatile situation. It’s best to be polite and remove any trace of superiority from your tone – imagine how you would feel if you were in this kind of helpless position. Understandably, the customer will already be inclined to anger, fear, and embarrassment, just at hearing from you. It’s important to understand that they would pay their bill if they could afford it – so you both actually have a common goal.

In order to reach a point where you can discuss payment arrangements, you’ll need to diffuse the aggression inherently created by the impression of opposing goals. If you fail to neutralize these problems, you won’t be able to do your job and may wind up having to report an incident to your supervisor. Unfortunately, if your own behavior falls outside of certain guidelines, you may well have to account for your actions to consumer protection and law enforcement agencies.

Legal Regulations and Guidelines

As per the Fair Debt Collections Procedure Act, there are a number of things you are not allowed to do. You may not call outside of normal business hours and you aren’t allowed to threaten or harass the individual that owes money. If they tell you to stop calling their home or work place, you are legally obliged to stop calling. Unfortunately, if you fail to keep informed about state and federal guidelines on these issues, the company you work for may be subject to a number of fees and penalties.

Some Issues You Might Encounter

In some cases, you may face a number of threatening issues as a bill collector. Without question, as more people experience debt problems, the types of verbal and physical violence you’ll experience are bound to escalate. For example, you may make contact with customers that can and will use foul language and make some very plausible threats to your physical safety. However, you aren’t allowed to respond in a similar manner – no matter how tempting – so if you aren’t comfortable with this, consider seeking other types of employment.

If you’re planning to work in a bill collections call center, you’ll need to review legal guidelines, as well as internal policies. It’s important to know what policies are in place for reporting an incident. If a customer threatens your life or well being, you’ll want to be able to report it to the appropriate authorities without having to fear losing your job.

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