Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

This is the first time I’ve worked on customer satisfaction surveys for telemarketers.  It is something you see that is common in an inbound program, but not in outbound.  When we first received the report, we all thought it was a mistake.  But, much to our surprise, it wasn’t.

One thing to notice is that the survey touches on simple things such as communication skills, professionalism, compliance on laws and product knowledge.  The questions are geared on making sure the telemarketer had a level of customer service when presenting benefits, product specifics and closing the sale.

When the CSAT group analyzes the responses and comments, we’ve seen a lot of satisfied scores (based on the questions) but comments show otherwise.  You would find a lot of DNC (Do Not Call) comments or “take me off the list” complaints, but they were still satisfied with the interaction.  Their experience is based on how the agent handled the call, whether the offer was rejected or not.

So, does this mean it’s worth starting a CSAT survey on outbound programs?  I would say yes.  This gives the company a snapshot of how telemarketers are handling their calls because we’ve heard of horror stories when someone gets too aggressive, forgetting about compliance and laws.  The comments that customers place is relevant data for future marketing efforts.  I personally think it’s a technique to get surveys out there, not for customer satisfaction but to get more information on what they really want.