Alliance TeleServices
Who Ya Gonna Call?
Alliance TeleServices is a full service call center specializing in providing quality telemarketing services to a variety of clients, including other call centers. Why are we telling GS readers about Alliance? Because, among other services, Alliance offers lead generation and appointment setting, and has experience within the financial and retail industries.
Who Should Use Alliance?
Alliance does not concentrate on any specific industry, but rather provides inbound and outbound telemarketing for any business that needs the services but does not want to or is unable to do it themselves. According to Don Williams, President, many organizations find that it is less expensive to outsource than to perform the telemarketing themselves. Of course, it is up to each company to find out how much in-house telemarketing would cost and if outsourcing would be a better solution. In the past, Alliance has performed lead generation and appointment setting for both ISOs and banks seeking new merchant acquisitions.
How Does it Work?
Williams does not have a romantic image of telemarketing. He understands the challenges all too well. In his words, "The salesperson gets a kick off the front porch and the telemarketer gets two kicks."
Even so, Williams is not discouraged. His positive attitude is due, in part, to his company's technology. His phone agents do not have phones. Instead, they have PCs which are networked to "the dialer," or server. The contact list is downloaded into the predictive dialer, and all the dialing is automated. The system can detect answering machines, busy signals, disconnects, operator intervention, and live answers. Once the call is engaged and there is a live answer, an Alliance agent operator is on the line. If there is a busy signal or machine, the call is tried again later.
Now, you may have received a call at home from a similar system. You hear that telltale click and you hang up before someone can try to sell you a magazine or a trip to the Bahamas. Well, according to Williams, that is the result of old technology. And, in his business, anything three years old or older is obsolete. Alliance's latest system upgrade was in March and they have another scheduled for later this year. With Alliance's system, there is no lag time between a live answer and when the agent gets on the line.
The predictive dialing allows Alliance to double and triple an agent's time. A minimum of three phone lines per agent are dialed simultaneously. According to Williams, the industry standard is that for every 10,000 numbers dialed, 30% will be answered by a machine. In this time of voice mail and caller ID, many people just do not answer their phone anymore.
At the end of each day, Alliance can e-mail the results of their calls to the client. In the case of appointment setting, for example, the e-mail will contain a list of time, dates, and addresses of appointments that have been set up for the client. The e-mail will also contain any other notes or intelligence they've gathered.
Who Do They Call?
When dealing with Alliance, the client is financially responsible for the contact database but the company can direct the client to a list broker or other list source. For example, the state of Texas, where Alliance is based, posts new businesses on the Web. Downloading the list of 3000 new businesses per week, on average, is free for the asking.
What's the Fee?
Alliance's base operator rate is $30 per hour. That may seem a bit high to you at first, but think about it: Alliance's services can raise an agent's talk time from 15 minutes per hour to closer to 45 minutes per hour. Yes, you could hire a telemarketer for $8 to $10 per hour, but you also need to consider the time and money spent on training, benefits, etc. After you have that number, you will need to do some research and find out how much time is spent dialing, waiting for pick-ups, listening to answering machines, etc.
Finally, you will need to do some analysis and discover just how much time is spent achieving your goal (setting up an appointment, selling the product or service, generating a lead) and what your return on that $8 to $10 per hour is.
The answer for each company is different but, if you look just at the cost per hour, you will most likely find that Alliance is more expensive than what you would pay a telemarketer. But, if you consider the cost per goal achieved, it may very well be less expensive. It is up to you and your organization to decide.
Can I Trust Them with My Company's Image?
That's a good question. Let's face it, if you are trusting someone to set appointments for you, you want to know what they are telling your prospective customer, right? This is your company's image at stake. Well, Alliance will write the script for the client who signs off on the text before the first call is made. Alliance has found that it takes five seconds to earn another 30 seconds of attention so they write their clients' scripts to buy that extra 30 seconds. Also, they train their operators using input from the client, as well as the client's marketing materials. The average agent has been with Alliance for at least one year and each member of management has at least 10 years of call center management experience.
Alliance does suggest a test segment of a limited duration, typically 100 hours of calls. After 100 hours the data can be analyzed and the client can determine if the calls are getting the required results and if not, adjustments can be made.
Alliance TeleServices clients include Quality Benefits, Stratasoft, Inc., and American Direct Mailing Services.
What Else Does Alliance Do?
Alliance does not just make calls, they also accept inbound calls. For example, if a client needs to set up registration for a conference or seminar, those calls can be routed to Alliance who will handle the registrations. But, keep in mind Alliance does not handle contests or home improvements.
Alliance also conducts surveys. For example, a client may want to survey their current customers or members of a market they are considering entering. Williams reports that when customers are speaking with independent third parties, they seem to be more honest. Questions are set up as multiple choice, to enable analysis without bias. If the client does want subjective answers, they can add a question such as "How do you feel about..." When such questions are asked, Alliance has the technology to digitally record the response so the client can hear the response and it can be archived. Williams reports that this feature is also helpful for credit card verification and purchase approvals.
Alliance has different programs for different needs. Services can be billed on a per hour basis or, if a client has a smaller project and is willing to share agents, services can be billed on a per call/per minute basis. The organization does not usually perform services for one-time events, they are focused on continuous campaigns. To find out more, Alliance TeleServices can be reached at (800) 706-0608, ext. 0, or visit their Web site at: http://www.allianceteleservices.com.
