Use incentives to win back that lost caller.
While incentive programs are useful for improving overall employee performance, they can be especially helpful when it comes to refining certain KPIs – specifically recapturing phone leads that didn’t book an appointment with you the first time around.
Administering an incentive program based around recapturing lost leads can be very fruitful for both your business and your employees. It is a win-win: your business gets more customers, and the employee wins some sort of incentive.
It’s been discovered that incentive programs can boost performance by anywhere from 25 to 44 percent. What could that do for your business if call handlers could increase appointment conversion ratios in those same ratios?
Although incentives can also help in boosting call handlers’ performance in booking more appointments on first-time inbound calls, let’s focus today on incorporating an incentivized call-back program with for your top-performing employee(s).
A Successful Call-Back Program
It is important for whoever you choose to be your designated call-back employee to be individually motivated. If they work better in a team setting, then you may want to pair them up with another person to be responsible for call-backs too. But if you have one person who is very motivated to do things on their own, they would be a great choice for this type of incentive program.
Just like a sales person who has to make outbound calls and can make as little or much money as the effort they put in, the call-back employee must stay on top of any missed opportunity alerts received by your call tracking provider.
As far as what incentive to offer your call-back employee(s), try to figure out what motivates each particular individual and create a tailored program. Would your employee be motivated to work hardest at recapturing a lost lead if it means “X” amount of dollars per recaptured caller? If money right now isn’t the right motivation tool, perhaps working up to something bigger like additional time off or a reward program is better. Ask your employees what they would enjoy most, and incorporate that into your incentive program.
Effectively Book Lost Leads
As with any incentive program, there must be clear parameters. A few of the things to take into consideration for a successful call-back program are:
- What percentage of lost leads vs. actual missed opportunities is the employee calling back on? Look at the number of missed opportunity alerts you’ve received, and use a tracker sheet to see how their call backs compare to that number.
- How successful is the call handler at rebooking these missed opportunities? Of those that the employee called, how many did they convert into an appointment at this second attempt?
- How quickly is the call-back employee following up after receiving the missed opportunity alert? The point of having these missed opportunities alerted to you is so that they can be followed up with right away. If the call handler waits too long, that opportunity may be long gone. Look at time stamps of when the missed opportunity happened versus when the employee called them back.
A key component of implementing this program is, of course, to actually know when missed opportunities are occurring. Receiving some sort of missed opportunity notifications, such as CallSource’s DealSaver program, is vital. Otherwise, your call handlers would have to manually inform the call-back person every time they didn’t set an appointment with a prospect – which is a very unreliable way to do this.
If you need some ideas for incentives to offer employees that are not strictly cash, check out our list of non-cash incentives.
Apply an incentive program and call-back program and start seeing your number of appointments skyrocket – it just takes a bit of effort and a little prize.
And yes, while you do have to be aware of your actual missed opportunities and put a plan in place, many CallSource clients have done so with much success. When two programs coincide with each other such as this call-back program aligned with an effective incentive program, it can be the difference that your business needs.
Wow, I didn’t know that sales incentive programs can help me recapture phone leads. I think I’ll get one for my employees so that their performance would boost effectively. This way, we’ll be able to get back the actual missed opportunities that we can still recover.
Thank you for helping me learn more about the benefits of having an incentive call back program. I like how you said to choose an incentive based on what will motivate your employees. In general, I can see how having a reward that the employee wants will help them reach their goals.