Outbound – an art form and an immensely powerful communication instrument

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Outbound, in my eyes, is an art form and an immensely powerful communication instrument. And here is why…

Initially I was going to revisit my old blog that I wrote on Outbound, over 10 years ago, then I thought, No. I would just be making the same comments, lack of coaching, training, management direction, guidance, blame culture, it’s the data, it’s the dialler, its everything other than what is smack in your face – Operations taking ownership.

Again, before you take Umbridge, I am not talking about all Outbound that is out there, of course there are some very talented players in the market, however the percentage of not good ones, is on the far higher side.

Therefore, I thought I would look at Outbound from a different angle, one where we talk about the positivity that can surround having the right outbound strategy, and please remember when speaking about Outbound, we are talking about Voice, Email, SMS – all of these together can play a beautiful part of a strategy of engagement with your customers.

Do we do enough Outbound? In my opinion, definitely not. And why is that?

One of the main reasons is that companies are scared to undertake outbound to their customers as the perception of those type of calls themselves is not a good one, and to be honest, I do not blame them. If you have been on the receiving end of outbound calls over the last couple of years, you will totally understand why outbound would not be the choice of communication by a company, to promote to their customers, or potential customers. 

However, I think it should be!

I believe that Outbound is an art form, if it is undertaken correctly, then it becomes an amazing instrument for any company, and should be used in part of your communication strategy to keep your customers engaged. 

I say instrument, well your voice is an instrument! Many people play the violin, the flute, the oboe, the guitar…some people are not good, some are pretty okay, but then there are some people who are brilliant. These people practice constantly as they wish to excel, they rehearse and then rehearse again to be able to play beautiful music. 

Well, that’s my feeling on Outbound, whether it is voice or written communication the wording is everything, how you portray those words, if written, how they spring off the paper to conjure that perception in someone’s head. If it is voice, the speed in which you speak, the inflection, the intonation, the meaning of how you are you are portraying those words, then of course there are the words themselves – how do we tickle the thoughts of the customer, so they are enticed to listen more.

As you can see my journey into outbound this time is about how well it can be undertaken, how this can be the exciting instrument of the next couple of years to support engaging once again with your customers.

Editorial by:
Marianne Withers
Chief Executive Officer
The Verity Centre

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