In the age of service frustration and cynicism, it is still possible to “wow” customers. Proactive outbound contact enables companies to connect with customers, anticipate their needs, reach out with useful and timely communications, and trigger execution of the right transactions and outcomes at the right time.
I love that my air carriers offer me the opportunity to tell them what updates interest me (e.g., upgrades, schedule changes) and how I want to hear about them. With little time to check on credit card charges and bank account balances, I rest assured knowing that my financial services companies will let me know when my accounts hit defined thresholds or prescribed events occur. And it’s good to get those reminders of appointments, prescriptions or payments due to stay in good stead on various fronts. Recently, a notice of a delivery that was sitting on my front porch helped me quickly arrange the care of that important package.
Proactive outbound notification can support parallel notification, informing multiple people and/or using multiple channels. Sometimes I want a text message, sometimes a call may be better. Let’s do both! Let me know and let my husband know, in case I am unavailable and we need to react quickly.
And with today’s channels, an interaction may be one-to-one and one-to-many. Invoking social media, a message could go out as a “tweet” to followers or a status update to “friends” who follow a company or are members of a defined group. The intelligence built into the business application and proper scripting ensure the right information is shared with the right targets at the right time.
Here’s a quick sampling of proactive outbound communications applications:
| Vertical Market | Representative Application Opportunities |
| Travel |
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| Transportation/ Shipping |
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| Banking/ Financial Services |
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| Utilities |
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| Healthcare |
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| Retail/ eCommerce |
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| Telecom |
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Companies can also use proactive outbound systems for internal alerts and notifications with employees. This technology can be an integral part of disaster recovery and business continuity plans, ensuring rapid notification of a defined list of team members. Companies who get hit with unplanned peaks can quickly put out the “all hands on deck” notice to qualified back up staff. And reminder messages can go out on schedules or schedule changes with the option to confirm or request swaps.
Want to learn more? Read my Contact Center Pipeline article on Proactive Outbound Contact.