Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. An Environment without a Customer Care System

2. Develop or Buy

3. Needs of Consumers

4. Needs of Service Providers

5. Technology for Customer Care

6. Functional Requirements of a Customer Care System

7. Customer Service

8. Telemarketing

9. Repair

10. Implementation

Self-Test

Glossary

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Telemarketing activity is usually outbound (i.e., sales representatives make outbound calls). Telemarketing services, a more proactive way of obtaining service sales, include the following:

• targeting the customer—This is the process of identifying consumers to be called. Randomly targeting consumers is not productive and can even result in annoyed customers. A customer care system produces a list of consumers most likely to purchase an offering.
• campaign execution—Once the product and the list of targeted consumers are available, the campaign can begin. The sales representatives call using the list of consumers, inform the customers about the campaign, and, if the customer is interested, order the product for them. A customer care system automatically calls the unprocessed consumers in the list; passes only the calls being answered by consumers (as opposed to calls being answered by answering machines); displays customer information automatically; and provides product consumer match analysis and product information, as well as the capability to order the product on the spot.
• inbound sales—Sometimes interested consumers call in to purchase a product being offered in a campaign. Sales representatives provide various information about the campaign and order the product for them. A customer care system automatically marks this customer as processed in the campaign's target consumer list to avoid an unnecessary call.