Credit Card Company’s Outbound Call Performance Triples
The Challenge
In the highly competitive consumer credit market, a U.S. credit card company had found that their direct mail campaigns were not as effective as they would like to be. They changed strategy to use telemarketing efforts as their primary method for card sales. Lagging behind sales projections, their telemarketing performance needed a significant boost in improvement to meet the company’s sales target. The expectations on Wall Street were also running high. They needed to discover the right components to include in the sales call to increase performance that achieved all the goals of the company.
The Strategy
The company used MSLLC techniques to help them improve their outbound calling process. The key objectives for the project were identified as:
1) Discover the right mix of call elements to maximize outbound call conversion rates
2) Ensure that the quality and value of accounts obtained from these call elements met company standards
Client executives, call center managers, CRM specialists, supervisors and agents brainstormed more than 100 ideas on how to increase conversion while maintaining the quality of the accounts. Through a simple, yet effective, selection process, eleven ideas were chosen for the experiment.
The Experiment
The call center chosen to execute the experiment was located in a Southeast town with a major university. The call center employed a large number of students from the local university. The 36 college students approached the test as a treasure hunt for knowledge.
A 12-run test design was used to evaluate the 11 ideas during an eight week blitz period. Each agent was given specific training and scripts to follow regarding how to execute the telemarketing calls. Each agent used different combinations of the following test ideas.
| Tested Idea |
Option A |
Option B |
| Greeting |
Current |
New |
| “Extra” Card Script |
Current |
Assumptive |
| Script Length |
Current |
Shorter |
| Cards Offered |
Personal |
Personal + Business |
| Rewards Program |
Full Fee |
Offer 1st Year Free |
| Guarantee |
None |
Money-back |
| “Extra” Card Fees |
Extra |
None |
| Annual Card Fees |
Current |
Lower |
| Interest Rate |
Current |
Yes |
| Free Gift |
No |
$ Credit |
| $ Off |
No |
Yes |
The Results
The analysis showed that four of the eleven ideas had the ability to more than triple the call conversion rate. In addition, the interaction of two options (a finding that would not have been seen testing just one idea at a time) proved capable of increasing “extra” card sales by more than 20%. These results, when implemented, provided millions of dollars of additional revenue to the client.