The terms and jargons commonly used in the telecommerce industry is outlined and listed below. The list is by no means exhaustive but aims to provide a basic understanding of the terminologies used.
GENERAL TERMS
Telecommerce
"The nurturing of a commercial relationship from a distance."
Telecommerce leverages on alternative communication touch points (for e.g. telephone, fax, email, web or SMS) to communicate the right information, at the right time, to a customer or prospective customer.
Lead generation
The process of gathering information from a prospect or customer in order to qualify and score the opportunity for future follow-ups.
Up sell
The process of offering customers, with whom the company has an existing relationship, either an upgraded or better deal on a product/service purchased previously.
Cross sell
The process of offering customers, with whom the company has an existing relationship, related products to the product/service the customer already uses or which is available.
Contact Centre
The hub of a telecommerce operation where a multitude of customer touch points are integrated and managed. Customer touch points could include telephone, e-mail, fax, instant messaging, mobile texting (i.e. SMS) and even regular mail.
Outbound
When a company proactively contacts consumers or businesses in order to make market or sell a particular product/service.
Predictive dialler
Telephone dialler system that systematically places calls from a preloaded database list of numbers on a single or multiple line. Successful connections are routed to Telephone Sales Executives whilst numbers that are disconnected, engaged or invalid are screened out and documented.
Business to business telemarketing (B2B telemarketing)
Providing the services of outbound telemarketing to a company notably in customer acquisition, closing sales, qualifying leads, processing orders and making up-sell/cross-sell offers.
Telephone Sales Representative (TSR) – also known as Telephone Sales Executives (TSEs) or Telephone Sales Agents (TSAs)
A term commonly used in contact centre industries for employees who proactively place calls to customers or prospects to obtain data, share information, or sell products and services
Cold call
A term used in outbound teleservices when a TSR calls a customer who has no existing relationship with the company which is offering a new product or service that is now become available.
Warm call
A term used in outbound teleservices when a TSR calls a customer who has an existing relationship with the company to conduct cross-sell, up-sell or for lead generations.
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