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May - 2012 - issue > siTech10 2012
SalesPortal Customer Engagement and Revenue Generation in Contact Centers
SI Team
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
In spite of the ubiquity of the Internet and the growth of social media, the contact center—and the voice channel in particular—continues to be the most significant and reliable source to capture the "Voice of the Customer". The primary goals of an enterprise contact center are to deliver outstanding customer experience and to maximize customer engagement. In addition, revenue generation is also a priority – especially given the high costs associated with operating an in-house contact center or outsourcing this function to an outside service provider.

Founded in 2009 by Saurabh Khetrapal and Karandeep Sandhu, SalesPortal's cloud-based technology enhances customer engagement and generates new revenue streams for companies with contact centers.

SalesPortal's patented methodology is modeled after the customer engagement systems that are widely used in the online world. Online travel sites, for example, engage their customers by presenting a host of relevant offers from hotels, rental car companies, and other travel-related services on the confirmation page of a flight purchase. However, this type of relevant customer engagement is conspicuously lacking in the voice channel. In contact centers, enterprises attempt to implement cross selling programs, which are fraught with pain points. The major challenge with traditional cross selling is the inability of agents to sell effectively. In fact, a recent independent study concluded that almost 90 percent of enterprises think that their reps do not have adequate cross selling skills.

SalesPortal's cross pitching technology overcomes the difficulties and shortcomings of traditional cross selling by enabling and building marketing partnerships for enterprises and their contact centers. "Enterprises have existing marketing partnerships already – for their online channels as well as for other co-marketing and cross-marketing programs. Until the launch of SalesPortal, these enterprises did not have the capability of extending these marketing partnerships to their voice channel. SalesPortal provides this technology solution. We enable enterprises and brands to build an ecosystem of marketing partnerships that include their existing marketing partners as well as other like-branded companies that have products and services with a high degree of relevance to their own," says Saurabh Khetrapal, CEO of SalesPortal.

SalesPortal's cross pitching technology is based foremost on relevancy. By optimizing relevancy, it offers the maximum benefit for the consumer. At the end of a sales or service call, the caller can opt in to learn more about special deals on products directly complementary to the initial product that they called about. If the consumer accepts the invitation, they are seamlessly routed to the marketing partner's call center. This enhances customer engagement and generates significant revenues. Proof of the model's ability to accomplish these goals is evidenced by the fact that for the average program on SalesPortal, the number of consumers opting in to listen to the additional product offer is almost 20 percent.

"Our platform is easy to join and navigate. An online registration form is all that is required to become instantly operational, and the entire SalesPortal infrastructure is hosted in the cloud. There is no cost to register – it is a 100 percent performance-based service," says Khetrapal.

SalesPortal's technology has been launched with almost 600 clients across a range of verticals including telecom, home services and utilities, health and fitness, travel, automotive, consumer goods, insurance, and financial services. Since the platform is free to implement, the ROI for clients is instant and significant. SalesPortal's rapid growth is a testament to their ability to deliver on the promise of enhanced customer engagement and revenue generation in contact centers.

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