How did Bouygues Telecom achieve a 15% success rate in cold calling?
The goal
To create a new approach to telemarketing that increases sales, increases agent retention and aligns with newly introduced French regulations regarding the practice of cold calling.
The outcome
15%
success rate
4.6/5
CSAT score
0.5%
agent attrition rate
The challenge
Bouygues Telecom is a leading French mobile network operator, internet service provider and IPTV company that, due to the hyper-competitive nature of its industry, relies on cold calling and direct marketing to grow its customer base. Direct marketing is a valuable source of revenue. Even if the initial success rate is low, once the brand has won a customer’s trust, it can upsell and cross-sell over the lifetime of that relationship. In the telecoms market, competition is so intense that every brand is constantly searching for an idea of innovation that can give it an edge over its rivals.
Despite being viewed as old-fashioned and a form of selling that traditionally achieves a single-percentage success rate, cold calling’s persistence is due in part to the fact that it’s still a relatively cost-effective and simple-to-quantify means of marketing. So how do you improve the success rate and do so in a new regulatory environment that limits how and when an organization can call a person without their consent?
The solution
Support delivered from France to customers in the French market
Industry
Telecoms
Channels
Chatbot, voice
Language
French
Working together with Bouygues and internet advertising data brokers, Foundever® developed a new approach to cold calling, called Hot Leads. It earned its name because each phone number passed on to our outbound marketing teams has been filtered and qualified — in real time. This means that our agents are reaching out to someone who has expressed an interest in a product or service just minutes before. Not only does this reduce the length of time for a typical call, but it also markedly increases the possibility of sales success.
How it works
- We develop and build a chatbot for internet data brokers.
- The brokers work with Bouygues to develop interactive targeted ads and sponsored links on search engines and social media feeds.
- Potential customers interact with the chatbots integrated into the advertising.
- The chatbots gather a greater level of insight, qualifying that a potential customer is interested in a product or service and wants to learn more.
- These hot leads are passed to our teams who make contact.
And, of course, this approach to generating and interacting with potential leads perfectly aligns with the letter of the law regarding France’s recently introduced telemarketing activities regulations.
Results
15%
success rate
4.6/5
CSAT score
0.5%
agent attrition rate
Since hot leads have hit the French market, Bouygues has enjoyed a 15% success rate and the agents have been more engaged and happier in their roles as one in every six calls they’re making ends in a sale.
This is reflected in agent attrition and absenteeism rates that have been running at 0.5% and 1.8%, respectively, since the client adopted the hot leads approach. Over the past 12 months, that 15% success rate has translated into an average of 400 sales per agent and, crucially, they have achieved these results without tarnishing the client’s brand reputation or perceptions of its CX capabilities. Our hot leads FTEs consistently average a 4.6 out of 5 CSAT score.
When the French government outlined the full scope of Decree N°2022-1313, many called the regulations the death of cold calling. However, the hot leads program has done more than simply resuscitate telemarketing, it has given it a second life and proven that there’s an easier way to sell directly to existing and potential customers without damaging brand reputation, without damaging the employee experience and without leaving success to chance.