Setup an Infusionsoft + turboDial Call Center

If you are implementing a formal Outbound Call Center with assigned calling agents then we have provided this list of steps and decisions that will guide you through the setup process.

1. What are the Stages of your Sales Process?

You need to decide how to track your leads and prospects through the stages of completing a sale. For many companies only two or three stages are needed, but others will need several stages. Infusionsoft provides a good place to start when designing your sales stages.

In most cases you will define your sales stages in Infusionsoft using the Opportunity module or using Tags. If you don’t know which approach to choose we recommend you use Tags because of additional capabilities they provide when you are building your Call Outcome Automation.

2. Decide Contact Ownership rules

Some companies need their calling agents to operate in an “inside sales” mode, where their agents are skilled at direct selling and can work with a Contact over time toward a successful sale. For other companies the calling agents operate more like “appointment setters” or “lead qualifiers” and do not put an emphasis on relationship with Contacts.

If your company is in the “Inside Sales” category then you should setup your process in Infusionsoft so that an agent is assigned as the Owner of the Contact Record for the Contacts that they call. Use the “round robin” or some other method to assign ownership.

For the “Lead Qualifier” category agent ownership of the Contact is not necessary.

3. Create Saved Search lists for your Calling Stages.

You will assign your agents to call Contacts in specific stages of the sales process. Decide which stages will require calls and create a Saved Search list for each of those Calling Stages. These will be Contact Saved Searches if you use Tags, or Opportunity Saved Searches if you use the Opportunity module.

• For “Lead Qualifier” it doesn’t matter which of your calling agents talks to each Contact and you can allow multiple agents to call to the same list.
• For “Inside Sales” you should create separate Saved Search lists for each of your agents – each agent is assigned to their own list or set of lists, and you will not allow multiple agents to call to the same list.

4. Decide & Configure your Call Outcomes

As you consider your sales process you should be able to identify the typical Call Outcomes your agents will achieve from a phone call. You will train your agents to always save one of the Outcomes after each call.  These Outcomes are stored by turboDial in the Call Note Record and provide important insights that can be captured in the Reports you create and display on the Infusionsoft Dashboard.

Instructions for configuring your Call Outcomes are available here.

5. Setup Call Outcome Automation in Infusionsoft

In many cases you can reduce effort and avoid work-flow mistakes using Infusionsoft Campaign Builder automation when a specific Call Outcome is saved. turboDial can trigger your Call Outcome Automation in your Campaign Builder using the approach described here.

There are two basic types of Call Outcome Automation to consider:

• Automated follow-up: Use a Campaign Builder sequence to send information to the Contact via email, or assign a task to a User in your team.
• Automated stage move: Use a Campaign Builder sequence to apply/remove Tags to move the Contact from one sales stage to another. Or, if you’re using the Opportunity Module, the sequence can use the turboDial Stage Move utility to move stages.

If you have used Tags to define your Sales Stages then it becomes simple to vary the automation that is triggered by a given Call Outcome depending on the current Sales Stage. Just use a Decision Diamond after the API Goal to check the tags and direct the automation to the sequence specific to the current stage.

6. Setup your Calling Agents as turboDial Users

Every time you add a new calling agent to your team you will want to follow these steps:

• Your turboDial account owner will add them to the list of authorized users in turboDial, using the form on this page.
• Teach the agent to choose a specified “Caller ID” in turboDial whenever they are making calls. For example, do you want all agents to use a single Caller ID company-wide, or will you want each  agent to add their own personal phone number as a Caller ID they will use?
• Direct the agent to the Saved Search lists they are assigned to call.
• Direct the agent to make calls from the Contact Record in Infusionsoft, or to load their List into turboDial and navigate the List in turboDial using List Dialing.
  If multiple agents are calling to the same List then they should be using Power Dial and will need to load the List into turboDial.
• Direct the agent to the Recorded Message they should leave as a voice message when their call is answered by a voice mail system. In some cases you want your agents to use a single Recorded Message company-wide, and in other cases you may allow each agent to record and use their own personal message.

7. Handle Inbound Call Backs

Your outbound calling effort will result in some Contacts calling you back at the Caller ID number they see displayed on their phone. So you will want to be setup and prepared to handle those calls similarly to your outbound calls.

If you want to distribute those inbound calls to the right agent and track them in Infusionsoft then you can use the “Hosted Voice” add-on in turboDial. With Hosted Voice your inbound calls will have an associated Call Note Record and you can configure inbound numbers to deliver calls to specific agents in your team.

With “Hosted Voice” your agents can also save a Call Outcome for an inbound call they answered and in that way your existing Reports and Call Outcome Automation can be equally useful for inbound calls.

8. Manage Call Back Dates

Often when an agent is having a conversation with a Contact they will decide to continue the conversation at a later date. In that case the agent needs to set a “Call Back Date” and be automatically reminded on that date to make the follow up call.

With turboDial there are 3 alternative methods most often used to set Call Back Dates.

1-Call Back Date Method: turboDial has a feature specifically for setting a Call Back Date. See full details at this page.

2-Quick-Add Task Method: turboDial gives you access to a special-purpose tool for quickly creating an Infusionsoft Task, and setting a call back date is one possible use. See the “Display My Tasks & Quick-Add?” section at the Global Options page for details on enabling that tool. With this tool enabled your agent will see their call back Tasks displayed in turboDial. And Infusionsoft can also remind the agent when the call back date has arrived.

3-Quick-Link Task Method: turboDial gives you access to a “Quick Link” to open an Infusionsoft New Task window for the Contact. To set a call back date your agent can click the Task Quick Link and fill in the fields to create a Task. Infusionsoft can remind the agent when the call back date has arrived.

9. Setup Infusionsoft Saved Reports and Dashboard Widgets

For this step you should start by becoming familiar with the Saved Reports and Dashboard Widgets capabilities in Infusionsoft. Then you should next review the turboDial support sections for Dashboard Reports.

With that knowledge you are equipped to display the report data you need to manage your calling campaigns and supervise your calling agents. Here are some example ideas for data to display on your dashboard for a specified interval:

• Total calls
• Total calls by agent
• Total calls with a “success” Call Outcome (e.g. Sold a Widget)
• Total calls with a “success” Call Outcome by agent

Summary

You’re now ready to launch your call center. As you gain experience you will continually identify new ways to fine-tune and improve the system.  In particular you should look for ways to leverage Call Outcome Automation as extensively as you can. And you may see a need to include more dashboard reports to help you supervise your calling agents more effectively.

If you have suggestions or questions about Call Centers with turboDial, please send us an email.