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B2B Events Firm Gets Solid Registrations from Long-Term Partnership with Callbox

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The Client

The Client is a London, UK-based B2B events organizer with a portfolio of in-person exhibits, tradeshows, and conferences across various industries worldwide. The company also offers web and banner advertising services, B2B broadcasting and data services, as well as digital and print media services.

Founded in 1918, the CLIENT is widely considered to be one of the largest B2B events coordinator today, with 70 offices in 20 countries. THE CLIENT currently operates in two main service segments: one for events, and the other for general marketing services. The company is subdivided into three geographic units: Americas, Asia, and EMEA.

As of 2017, the CLIENT has over 3,500 employees and has reported annual revenues of more than $1.3 billion.

The Challenge

Since 2014, one of Singapore’s major professional and industry events organizer has been working with Callbox to help promote several of their B2B events in Asia.

When the Singaporean event company was acquired by the Client in 2016, Callbox remained the organization’s official marketing partner tasked with handling their portfolio of high-profile tradeshows and conferences, including:

EVENT A – An annual event billed as Asia’s largest conference for professionals and businesses in the global telecommunications industry that typically draws more than 40,000 attendees

EVENT B – A biennial trade event for the food and hospitality industry that features exhibitors from 70 countries and attracts more than 47,000 visitors

EVENT C – An annual international event that highlights trends in the professional audio, film, digital media, and broadcasting industries

EVENT D – A leading trade event and conference held every two years that showcases Asia’s oil and gas industry, attended by more than 18,000 visitors

EVENT E – A biennial industry event for Asia’s machine tools, precision engineering, and metalworking sectors that generates more than 12,00 attendees in event turnout

EVENT F – A paid, annual event that focuses on IT security and cyber threats, widely considered as the top InfoSec industry conference in Asia

While each event has its own unique requirements, the key challenge is to connect with the right number and the right kind of attendees to impact event turnout. Also, with so many live projects lined up in its calendar, the CLIENT faces very tight time tables to prepare and generate enough buzz for each event.

The Callbox Solution

Throughout its four-year partnership with the CLIENT and its Singapore subsidiary, Callbox planned and launched an end-to-end event marketing campaign for each of the live event mentioned earlier. With the exception of the infosec-focused conference, Callbox has ran multiple campaigns for each of these events.

Each campaign centered around using targeted outreach through a mix of different marketing channels (phone, email, and social media) to engage attendees and prospects at key points in the event process.

A. Setting up the campaigns

Before each campaign began, Callbox and point persons from the CLIENT worked out a campaign plan and completed the needed preparations.

  • THE CLIENT was assigned a campaign team that handled all aspects of the event marketing activities.
  • THE CLIENT reviewed the call scripts, email templates, and other campaign materials prepared by Callbox.
  • THE CLIENT also provided the list of target attendees which Callbox would update and profile (the next figures show record counts and target industries for each list):
B2B-Events-Firm-Gets-Solid-Registrations-from-Long-Term-Partnership-with-Callbox-records

B. Profiling and screening potential attendees

One month prior to each event, the team started the pre-event outreach activities. Aside from sending out invites, completing registrations, and confirming attendees, the Callbox team also scrubbed and cross-checked the target attendee list.

Since database profiling played a crucial role in each campaign’s success, Callbox devoted a great deal of time and resources to thoroughly validate and enrich each database record through desktop research combined with email and phone verification.

  1. THE CLIENT wanted the campaigns to focus on driving online pre-registrations and to collect deeper intelligence on each potential attendee.
  2. For the paid infosec event, Callbox coordinated with reps from the Client’s subsidiary to handle contacts who wanted to find out more about payment details and other information.
  3. The machine tools/precision engineering campaigns focused exclusively on data profiling.

C. Following up and converting prospects

The post-show re-engagement phase of each campaign was launched two days after the event. This step began with a personalized thank-you email and continued with a series of follow-up phone calls.

  1. Callbox prioritized registered attendees who came to the shows, and the team also reconnected with other prospects.
  2. Each contact was thoroughly screened based on the CLIENT’s requirements before hand-off.
  3. Throughout each campaign, the CLIENT kept track of each prospect’s status through Pipeline CRM.

Results

In all, the campaigns generated the following results in terms of registered attendees and other KPIs:

B2B-Events-Firm-Gets-Solid-Registrations-from-Long-Term-Partnership-with-Callbox-results

To date, the CLIENT continues to partner with Callbox for targeted promotion of its in-person events. Callbox will be handling pre-event and post-event outreach for all upcoming conferences and exhibits hosted by the CLIENT in Asia.

Managed IT Firm, a Long-Term Callbox Client, Closes $150K in One Campaign

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The Client

The Client is an Atlanta, GA-based managed IT services provider with a branch office in Sydney, AU. The company works with SMEs in both the Atlanta and Sydney metropolitan areas, offering a variety of IT services including procurement, consultancy, technical support, project management, and cloud management.

The Challenge

The Client started working with Callbox in 2017. Throughout the ensuing 12 months, Callbox has remained a strategic marketing partner for the company, helping them reach key business milestones.

As an extension of the Client’s marketing team, Callbox is responsible for planning and executing targeted outbound prospecting campaigns based on the company’s growth objectives and revenue goals.

During the project’s first two campaigns, the Client focused on increasing awareness and acquiring customers for its growing suite of managed services aimed at SMEs in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

As the company’s marketing priorities shifted (such as the addition of new offerings like its IT advisory and cloud management solutions into the product mix), Callbox was consistently able to readapt how it planned and managed campaigns according to the Client’s changing requirements.

The specialized nature of the Client’s services also meant that marketing reps handling the Client’s campaigns needed to have a good technical grasp of the offerings. This ensured that the company’s unique value proposition was effectively communicated to the target prospects.

In August 2018, the Client expanded into the Australian market by setting up an office in Sydney. The bulk of the outbound activities have since been refocused toward engaging potential customers in the new market.

The Callbox Solution

Each three-month campaign consisted of an integrated phone and email outreach cadence designed to qualify prospects and book them for a meeting with the Client’s reps. Accordingly, each campaign focused on three main activities:

Researching and Profiling Contacts

  1. Callbox helped the Client refine its ideal customer profile (ICP) by analyzing and documenting its target market and existing customers.
  2. Callbox’s database team then collected contacts that matched the ICP through Callbox’s in-house data repository and also through desk research.
  3. For both Atlanta and Sydney campaigns, the Client wanted to target business owners, office managers, it managers, and finance managers from companies in 10 industries, with 15 to 500 employees.

Outreach and Follow-up Activities

  1. The campaigns followed a multi-touch outreach cadence primarily made up of email and phone touches to contact and schedule prospects for one-on-one meetings with the Client’s reps.
  2. Social media was also used in later campaigns as an added touch point for profiling and nurturing leads.
  3. The Callbox team prepared all campaign materials including the call scripts, email templates, landing pages, and social media posts.

Lead Management

  1. The first two campaigns were executed using the Client’s own CRM, but later projects were migrated to Pipeline (Callbox’s proprietary marketing automation tool).
  2. Pipeline includes SMARTCalling, a data-driven call optimization feature, to maximize decision maker reach, as well as Lead Nurture tool to help the Client customize the outreach cadence.
  3. Callbox also provided real-time updates on campaign progress and lead/appointment status, and sent out timely notifications to ensure meetings took place as scheduled.

Results

The Client was able to win new contracts worth $150,000 from the appointments delivered by the Callbox team.

The project has now completed three full campaigns (each with three months of appointment setting activities) and is currently in the middle of the fourth campaign. So far, the results are in line with the Client’s targets.

The three completed campaigns have generated a total of 90 qualified appointments, or an average of 30 per campaign (around 10 per month). The Client says this far exceeds what their team can produce in-house.

More importantly, during the second campaign, the Client was able to win new contracts worth $150,000 from the appointments delivered by the Callbox team.

B2C FinTech Startup All Set to Grow Active Users for Flagship App

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The Client

The Client is a pre Series A FinTech startup based in Singapore that provides a P2p remittance platform developed primarily for migrant workers in Singapore and Hong Kong. Its flagship app processes an average of $1 million in users’ money transfers to their home countries in Southeast Asia each month. The startup has so far raised $2.2 million in funding after three seed rounds.

The Challenge

With more FinTech startups joining Southeast Asia’s growing P2P remittance market, players in this space are turning to more proactive customer acquisition strategies to sustain their growth momentum.

Having secured $2.2 million in seed funding and handling more than $1 million in monthly remittance transactions, the Client seeks to expand the number of active users of its flagship app. Currently, the company’s online P2P money transfer platform caters mainly to migrant workers sending money to Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia.

The company maintains an in-house database of prospects collected through its list-building initiatives and opt-in campaigns. But as the list steadily grew, the company’s sales team has only been able to convert only a small percentage of the prospects into sales opportunities.

The problem came down mainly to reps not being able to promptly follow up on enough leads, leaving a huge number of potential customers practically uncontacted. Plus, many of the prospects that got contacted turned out to be a poor fit with the company’s target customer profile.

It was clear the Client needed more manpower to handle the tasks of initially contacting and screening prospects. Accordingly, the company decided to outsource much of these activities to a third-party provider and let their reps focus on the final steps in the conversion process.

The Callbox Solution

The Client chose Callbox because of the latter’s experience in B2C financial services and its track record of implementing integrated phone and email outreach campaigns which closely matched the company’s specific requirements.

A plan was drawn up for a one-month campaign that would run each January or February to coincide with the company’s seasonal sales activity. As of writing, the project has completed two full months and is currently in its third. Each campaign involves three key steps:

Step 1: Profiling the Client’s in-house list

  • Callbox’s data research team checked and verified each record in the Client’s prospect list.
  • The list was thoroughly scrubbed, then duplicate and incomplete records were appropriately processed.
  • The first month’s list was exported into Callbox Pipeline, while the second month’s campaign exclusively used data in the Client’s own CRM.

Step 2: Pre-qualifying each contact

  • The team followed an outreach cadence that initiated contact with email touches and then engaged warm prospects through live phone conversations.
  • These interactions achieved the two-fold objective of deepening awareness of the Client’s offer and qualifying potential leads for the company’s reps.
  • The Client also gave Callbox access to its proprietary creditworthiness calculator to help the team identify which prospects qualified for their cash advance promo.

Step 3: Following up and nurturing leads

  • The campaign’s outreach cadence also included a sequence of additional email and phone touches to follow up and keep leads engaged.
  • Appointments were confirmed via phone call to ensure leads show up for their meeting with the Client’s reps.
  • The added touches also provided the Callbox team with more opportunities to gather crucial marketing intelligence about the prospects.

Results

The project has now wrapped up a total of two campaign months, with the first campaign completed in January of 2017 and the second in February last year. Based on the KPIs specified by the Client at the outset, the project has so far produced very good results: 201 booked appointments and 67 completed leads.

The Callbox team was also able to profile 2,147 records from the Client’s in-house list and maintained response rates of 31% for phone calls and 17% for emails throughout the two campaigns.

The Client continues to partner with Callbox, and the project is about to launch its third full campaign month.

31-Month Campaign Yields New Cleaning Contracts for NY Janitorial Firm

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The Client

The Client is a family-owned commercial cleaning company that serves businesses in the Long Island, NY area. The company offers janitorial services, building maintenance solutions, as well as sanitary supplies. It specializes in commercial, medical healthcare, educational, industrial, and retail properties.

The Challenge

With limited manpower and resources to carry out outbound prospecting activities in-house, the Client hired the services of Callbox in January of 2015. For the next two-and-a-half years, Callbox served as a close extension of the company’s sales team, consistently providing appointments and leads to its reps and marketing staff.

Before working with Callbox, the Client had been following a 3-point messaging approach in all its marketing communications and sales collateral. The Client required all marketing/sales materials to:

  • Be precisely tailored for the Client’s target audience
  • Be clearly Mapped to the right stage in the company’s sales cycle
  • Tie benefits and pain points back to specific business outcomes

The Client was very clear about meeting these standards. This formed the basis for selecting Callbox since the agency was able to demonstrate these qualities through its flexible service proposal and actual track record in deploying successful marketing campaigns for commercial cleaning firms.

In addition to the Client’s messaging requirements, the company also went into the partnership with Callbox expecting to receive at least 15 qualified appointments from the campaign each month.

The Callbox Solution

Throughout the whole effort, the campaign plan centered on carrying out multi-touch, multi-channel appointment setting mainly through an outreach cadence of phone and email touch points.

Callbox then helped the Client identify and refine the campaign’s target prospects which consisted of decision makers handling facilities management, operations, and business service procurement.

The target companies included businesses having at least 75 employees, that operated large Buildings like schools, laboratories, manufacturing facilities, medical practices, and large retail establishments located throughout the Long Island, NY area.

Appointment Setting

  1. With the Callbox-supplied prospect list, the campaign was able to increase its reach and scope much more than what was possible with the Client’s own database.
  2. The Callbox team used SMARTCalling, its proprietary call management algorithm, to determine the optimal times to contact prospects and increase success call rates.
  3. Prospects who agreed to an in-person or phone meeting with the Client’s reps were tagged as qualified appointments, while contacts who accepted company literature via email were labeled as completed leads.

Email Marketing

  1. The outreach cadence was made up of a combination of phone and email touches tailored for the Client’s specific objectives and targets.
  2. The campaign relied on emails to initiate contact and nurture prospects, in particular leveraging targeted send-outs for both qualifying leads and distributing marketing literature.
  3. Callbox’s exclusive Lead Nurture tool enabled easy orchestration of event-driven email touches.

Results

The entire project ran for 31 months from January 2015 to July 2017. In terms of the KPIs agreed upon at the campaign’s outset, the whole effort generated the following results:

  • 622 total qualified appointments (averaging 20 per month)
  • 993 total completed leads (averaging 32 per month)
  • 1,047 total net new prospects (averaging 33 per month)

Callbox was able to maintain delivering 17 to 22 qualified appointments each month throughout the project, which meant that the campaign consistently met the Client’s expectations.

Although the Client did not disclose any figures, the company has mentioned that it had already converted “a great deal” of the Callbox-supplied appointments into new customers.

SG Corporate Car Rental Firm Expands in 4-Year Team-Up with Callbox

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The Client

Founded in 1995, the Client ranks as one of the leading providers of corporate car rental services to business customers all over Singapore and Malaysia. The company offers both self-drive and chauffeur-driven vehicle rentals through a number of flexible packages for short- and long-term leasing arrangements.

The Challenge

Singapore is well-known for its high cost of vehicle ownership, making it an ideal market for car rental companies. The Client is one of dozens of rent-a-car providers competing in the lucrative corporate vehicle leasing segment, a sector which is currently undergoing some major developments.

The Client’s service portfolio includes both short-term and long-term car rentals, but with competition heating up in the business travel market for their type of service (especially with the entry of smaller boutique players via Singapore’s real-time online car rental booking platform), the company wanted to refocus its marketing efforts on long-term rental services, where the Client could better differentiate its offerings.

To maximize results for the new marketing initiative, the Client planned to concentrate its in-house resources on inbound activities, while letting a third-party provider handle the bulk of its outbound strategy. The Client expected this approach would allow them to redirect their internal team on more crucial stages of the sales process.

The Client partnered with Callbox for a pilot three-month appointment setting program. After this initial campaign, it remained with Callbox for four years, achieving key business milestones throughout the period.

The Callbox Solution

The campaigns carried out during the four-year partnership revolved around Callbox’s multi-touch, multi-channel lead generation approach & appointment setting. The campaign schemes involved contacting and nurturing high-value prospects through multiple touches throughout the outreach cycle. The program consisted of:

  • Account-Based Multi-Channel Lead Management via Voice, Email, Chat, Web, and Social Media
  • Sales Enablement & Support which covered Training, Setup, and Back Office Sales Support
  • Tools & Subscriptions to the Callbox Pipeline and HubSpot CRM
  • Account Management with Strategy Building, Reporting, and Product Knowledge

The Goals

  • Each campaign’s main objective was to book phone appointments with qualified prospects on behalf of the Client’s reps.
  • The Callbox team was also to promote the Client’s services via web and social media.
  • And, manage the database, keeping it clean and accurate throughout each campaign cycle.

Below is the two-step campaign process:

Account Research and Selection

  1. The Client specified target attendees, locations, industries, and company size.
  2. Callbox worked out the Client’s ideal customer profile (ICP) which served as a basis for identifying qualified accounts.
  3. Callbox then compiled a list of potential contacts to target which was reviewed and approved by the Client.

Account and Prospect Profiling

  1. The Client provided target decision makers for the Callbox team to reach out which consisted of detailed demographic and firmographic segmentations.
  2. The campaign’s primary targets were General Manager, Procurement Manager, HR Manager, Hotel Manager/Director, Events Manager, Sales & Marketing Managers
  3. The master contact list was segmented based on these personas, and was further grouped according to title, industry, location and company size.

Results

The entire project ran for 4 years, and met most of the objectives set by the Client. The project booked a total of 782 Sales Qualified Leads, 391 Marketing Qualified Leads, 195 Follow-ups, 97 For Call back, and 622 Social Media Connections.

Overall, the Client was satisfied with the quantity and (more importantly) quality of the leads and appointments Callbox delivered. While the company gave no specific figures, the Client cited gaining a steady stream of opportunities and conversions as the main reason why it continued to work with Callbox for more than four years.

VoIP Switches to Callbox, Gains High-Value Sales Appointments

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The Client

The Client is a US-based company that primarily provides telephone voice and data communications services. The company also develops software for IP communications and telephony systems.

The Challenge

Despite having already worked with a number of third party providers for the Client’s lead generation campaigns, finding companies interested in their services for the long term remained an unresolved challenge.

The Client’s previous marketing partners had clear difficulties delivering consistent campaign results, which in turn made it very hard for the Client’s sales reps to meet their numbers.

Most of the leads and appointments from their former partners were a poor fit for the Client’s enterprise VoIP solutions. When those prospects reached the Client’s sales team, reps uncovered that many of them were actually still not in the market for the company’s offerings.

Additionally, the Client also observed that their previous providers were not able to fully capture and communicate the company’s unique value proposition, failing to map out key product benefits with business pain points in campaign materials used in the outreach programs.

With the lessons gained from these earlier campaigns, the Client searched for a reliable marketing agency that can provide them with a full suite of tools and strategies to book sales meetings with interested and qualified prospects.

AU Janitorial Firm Wins 6 New Clients and $330K in Deals from Campaign

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The Client

The Client provides professional managed cleaning services to businesses, government offices, and nongovernment organizations across Victoria and all over Australia. The company’s customer segments include: office, commercial, hi-rise, industrial, retail, medical, and hospitality buildings.

The Challenge

Although Australia’s commercial cleaning sector is projected to grow at a healthy 5.0% each year until 2019, commercial cleaners continue to face fierce competition and strong downward price pressure, leading to falling sales and shrinking profit margins across the industry.

As a result, commercial cleaning providers like the Client now look to include more proactive marketing tactics in their customer acquisition programs. This is especially true for the Client which operates out of Melbourne, one of the areas in the country with the highest numbers of cleaning companies that are all vying for very similar target markets throughout Victoria and Australia.

In fact, the Client had already partnered with Callbox several years ago and completed a successful three-month outbound prospecting campaign that helped significantly expand its sales pipeline. But due to changes in marketing strategies, the Client thereafter prioritized inbound lead generation.

This time, the Client plans to reintroduce outbound prospecting into its marketing mix to supplement its inbound efforts. The company’s current prospecting program generates an average of 20 face-to-face appointments each month, and the Client aims to increase this by at least 25%.

The Callbox Solution

Having already worked with Callbox, the Client chose to let Callbox plan and handle a new appointment setting campaign since Callbox has already demonstrated how it uses its capabilities to deliver solid results.

The Client then signed up for a three-month appointment setting program. The campaign plan included implementing a sales cadence using both email and phone touch points delivered at optimal times for engaging each contact.

The main goal was to book office appointments with qualified prospects for the Client’s reps to conduct a free cleaning estimate.

Appointment Setting

  1. Callbox compiled the list of target companies that included mid- to large-sized Melbourne, VIC businesses that own or operate office, commercial, hi-rise, industrial, retail, medical, and hospitality building types.
  2. The target prospects consist of general managers, operations managers, maintenance managers, office managers, and owners.
  3. Callbox also prepared the call scripts that probed prospects’ fit and interest using customer pain points and the Client’s unique selling points.

Email Marketing

  1. Emails played a key role in the campaign’s prospecting cadence, and were used to initiate contact (intro emails) and to nurture prospects (targeted send-outs).
  2. Callbox created and tested all email marketing materials used in the campaign, including email templates, landing pages, and other email components.
  3. The campaign’s email specialists managed and monitored all email marketing activities

Results

After three months of appointment setting activities, the campaign wrapped up with a total of 23 qualified appointments handed over to the Client.

Together with the client’s 20-appointment monthly average from inbound channels, the appointments generated in the campaign represent at least a 35% increase in the total number of appointments per month.

An even more important result is that, while the campaign was still ongoing, the Client was able to close six of the delivered appointments as new customers. At an average deal size of $55,000, this works out to $330,000 of additional revenues the Client gained from the campaign.

The Client was very pleased with the results that they’ve recently renewed the contract for a new three-month campaign.

L.A. Physician Streamlines Back Office Ops in Ongoing 11-Year Partnership with Callbox

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The Client

The Client is a Los Angeles, CA-based physician who specializes in rheumatology and internal medicine with more than 21 years of medical practice. The Client is affiliated with a group practice health center in the Los Angeles area.

The Challenge

The Client has been working with a virtual assistant (VA) from Callbox since 2007. The VA handles a number of back office and administrative responsibilities, including various data processing, bookkeeping, and other office support tasks.

A key hurdle that the Client faced early in the outsourced program was to ensure seamless integration of the remote workload into the practice’s internal processes. This was particularly crucial since the Client’s office had been using a diverse set of tools to carry out many of the admin activities in-house prior to partnering with Callbox.

Another critical challenge that occasionally surfaced throughout the 11-year partnership was the need to quickly modify the outsourced workflow in response to the Client’s changing requirements. For example, when the Client’s affiliate health center began expanding its patient base, some key steps in the internal processes had to be significantly readapted.

Since the Client’s schedule changes from time to time, the Client also expects a high level of flexibility and availability from the remote assistant.

The Callbox Solution

From a pool of candidates who had extensive background in medical administrative and support roles, Callbox provided the Client a virtual assistant with a high level of proficiency in many of the back office tools that the Client was using. Some of the tools included:

  • QuickBooks
  • Yahoo Business Email/Yahoo Calendar
  • Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
  • RingCentral (phone, messaging, and video conferencing)
  • eFax
  • Password Managers
  • Dropbox

Selecting the assistant based on relevant experience significantly shortened the learning curve and enabled smooth deployment. Callbox also provided ample opportunities and incentives for continuous improvement. This helped the designated virtual assistant continually increase efficiency and productivity across multiple tasks, such as:

  • Recording transactions on QuickBooks
  • Submission of credentialing applicationfor Medicare, Medi-Cal and other insurance provider
  • Managing the practice’s disbursements and payables
  • Processing the practice’s licenses, permits, and other requirements
  • Updating and processing CRM records
  • Carrying out specialized desk research
  • Handling email communications
  • Providing phone support
  • Creating and posting online ads

Callbox also arranged holiday and sick cover for the assigned virtual assistant to minimize disruptions and ensure availability.

Results

The Client mentions that Callbox’s virtual assistant has helped streamline and improve the practice’s operations.

Not only has the outsourced assistant made the Client’s back office processes more efficient and helped the practice cut costs, but the outsourced arrangement also frees up time and resources which allows the Client to devote more attention to patient care. This is the main reason why the Client continues to choose Callbox as an outsourcing partner.

Utility Gains Omni-channel Inbound and Admin Support with Callbox

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The Client

The Client is the sole electric power distribution company for one of the cities in the Central Philippines. Founded in the 1920s, the company primarily serves a metropolitan area consisting of more than 54,000 households and commercial establishments.

The Challenge

In 2013, the Client faced a number of business challenges that prompted a thorough review of the company’s internal processes. An increase in the frequency of power outages and multiple billing disputes caused a spike in consumer complaints. This, in turn, overstretched the company’s customer welfare desk, leading to long hold times and request backlogs.

Understaffed and struggling to meet customer demands, the Client decided to farm out part of their customer care operations to a local contact center, which handled phone-based customer care, billing follow-up, and notification campaigns.

But nine months into the outsourcing program, results showed only a minimal performance improvement in terms of resolution rates, ticket backlogs, and satisfaction scores.

Further review of the Client’s customer service processes revealed that it needed to overhaul many of its inbound and admin workflows. Customers were reaching out to the company through other channels than phone, but the Client has yet to adequately cover those other touch points.

The Client also understood the need for having a unified view of each customer for better reporting and case management, since customers often found themselves repeating the same requests and complaints to different customer service reps, while reps persistently experienced difficulties in updating and retrieving customer information.

It was clear that the company’s outsourcing requirements went beyond processing inbound customer calls.

The Callbox Solution

In 2014, the Client switched providers and entered into a two-year outsourcing contract with Callbox, having chosen the latter for its multi-channel customer service capabilities, broad range of outsourced back office solutions, and comprehensive process management tools. The contract was renewed in 2016, in which the Client doubled the number of Callbox agents handling the project.

Upon signup, Callbox then closely collaborated with PECO to evaluate and recommend improvements to many of the key inbound activities in its customer service desk, including:

  • Customer Care and Support
  • Billing and Payment
  • Complaint Resolution
  • Hotline and Dispatching Services
  • Notification Campaigns
  • Outage and Emergency Reporting, and internal coordination with the Switchboard and Field Trouble Shooting Teams
  • Customer and Market Research

To carry out these roles, Callbox had originally assigned a dedicated six-person team consisting of five full-time specialists and a support staff. This was later increased to 12 agents during contract renewal in response to a growing customer base and largely positive results in the initial two years.

Some of the team’s main responsibilities include back office and administrative tasks such as:

  • Answering email and chat inquiries
  • Assisting with inbound and outbound calls
  • Documenting and routing complaints to the appropriate departments
  • Processing account inquiries and billing disputes
  • Following up on bills and late payment notifications
  • Accessing and updating customer records in CRM

Throughout much of the outsourcing program, Callbox provided the CRM platform and ensured seamless integration with the Client’s internal system. In August 2018, data from back office and administrative activities handled by Callbox have been migrated to the Client’s own CRM without disrupting any customer service process.

Results

The Client’s outsourcing program with Callbox is now in its fourth year, and Callbox remains a key strategic partner for the company.

By transferring much of the back office and administrative workload to the Callbox team (plus leveraging its omni-channel and process management capabilities), the company’s customer welfare desk has been able to focus on core activities that resulted in:

  • 85% rep occupancy rate (up from 62%)
  • 27% Reduction in average case handling time
  • 32% increase in daily case resolution rate
  • 19% improvement in median case quality scores

Mobile Platform Deepens Pool of Potential Merchant Partners in SG Campaign

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The Client

The Client is the Singapore office of a South Korea-based Internet platform developer that specializes in ecommerce, online-to-offline (O2O) solutions, and digital marketing. The company is a fully-owned subsidiary of a Fortune Global 500 firm with 2,300 employees and offices in eight countries.

The Challenge

Headquartered in South Korea, The Client established its Singapore office in 2012, providing a suite of integrated marketplace platforms tailored for the local online and mobile commerce segments. This included its flagship social discovery app launched in 2013 that allowed users to share and recommend places of interest in Singapore.

One of the app’s key selling points was that it featured an extensive network of merchant partners that actively engaged users with exclusive offers and promos. The app gave participating merchants an added channel for having real-time conversations with customers, improving brand visibility through user-generated content and micro-influencers, as well as gaining valuable customer insights and contextual marketing information.

Several months after releasing the app, the Client wanted to accelerate the growth of its merchant partner network in response to very positive user adoption numbers. This led the company to consider implementing targeted marketing tactics alongside its inbound marketing efforts.

But with little experience in direct marketing and much of its marketing resources already tied up in existing programs, the Client realized the best way forward was to work with a third-party provider that specialized in targeted outreach.

The Callbox Solution

The Client chose Callbox after reviewing a shortlist of marketing agencies, pointing to Callbox’s long-term experience deploying successful campaigns in Singapore as the deciding factor.

Callbox and the Client then developed a campaign plan that combined emails and phone calls delivered as a sequence of multiple touches. The main campaign objectives included:

  1. Engaging target contacts to gauge fit and interest
  2. Booking face-to-face meetings with qualified prospects
  3. Collecting information needed in the Client’s sales process

Appointment Setting

  1. The target prospects included business owners, restaurant managers, marketing managers, and general managers from retailers in Singapore.
  2. Callbox prepared all campaign materials including the call script and campaign list, which were reviewed and approved by the Client.
  3. The Callbox team maximized target contact reach rates by leveraging SMARTCalling, Callbox’s proprietary call management system.

Email Marketing

  1. The campaign’s first touch point was an intro email that primed prospects up for the sequence of one-on-one calls. Follow-up emails and targeted send-outs (for distributing additional marketing materials) were also used at later stages in the campaign.
  2. The Callbox team created and tested all email materials including templates, copies, and landing pages. The team also handled replies and prospect requests.
  3. The Client monitored the entire campaign (including both email marketing and phone-based appointment setting) through Pipeline CRM, Callbox’s lead management and marketing automation tool.

Results

Callbox completed the campaign in six months (or 132 days at 22 days per month), and handed off a total of 129 qualified appointments and 302 verified leads to the Client.

Since the campaign followed a multi-touch cadence that started with email activities designed to initiate contact, the Callbox team only began generating appointments near the end of the first month. Once the nurtured contacts began converting, the campaign was able to consistently deliver between 18 to 25 qualified appointments each month.

The Callbox team also achieved a relatively high target contact reach rate of around 24% and, by the end of the campaign, the team connected with a total of 3,045 target contacts.

The Client projected that 80% of the appointments generated in the campaign would convert into qualified sales opportunities, with 60% turning into signups. That translates to 62 potential new merchant partners for the Client’s social discovery app.

SG-based 3PL Company Doubles Sales Appointments, Gears Up For Expansion

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The Client

The Client is a Singapore-based third-party logistics (3PL) provider that offers warehousing, distribution, transportation, and freight management services primarily to freight forwarders and shippers. The company also provides value-added services including crating, labeling, sorting, sub-assembly, and fumigation.

The Challenge

Third-party logistics (3PL) is the process of outsourcing part or all of a business’s supply chain and logistics operations to another company. As supply chains become more complex, many shippers now find it more cost-effective to work with 3PL service providers that take care of transport, warehousing, customs brokerage, and freight forwarding—instead of doing these activities in-house.

In Singapore, the 3PL market makes up over $3 billion (or 12%) of the country’s logistics industry, with the majority of providers competing in saturated segments such as automotive, retail, and electronics. For its part, the Client chiefly targets international freight forwarders and shippers from a wide range of industries.

As part of its effort to improve the company’s market position, the Client looked into expanding the outbound component of its customer acquisition program. The bulk of its lead generation initiatives were mostly tied up in inbound tactics, but the Client wanted a more proactive approach and a bigger role for outbound in its marketing mix.

The Client teamed up with Callbox to deploy an outbound prospecting program that would complement the company’s current marketing efforts. Under its existing strategy, the Client averaged 8 to 10 appointments each month, and the company wanted Callbox’s help to develop a new lead source and increase the flow of qualified prospects into their pipeline.

The Callbox Solution

Callbox and the Client worked out a plan for a three-month appointment setting campaign. The strategy implemented an outreach cadence that combined targeted email touches and live phone conversations with the main goal of identifying and scheduling qualified prospects for an introductory meeting with the company’s reps.

Appointment Setting

  1. Callbox helped the Client refine its target customer profile and ideal decision makers so that the Callbox team could compile a complete and accurate campaign contact list.
  2. Calling agents received basic product training on the Client’s specialized logistics solutions, since the Client wanted the team to gain some level of technical familiarity with its offerings.
  3. Callbox and the Client put together the call script which was tailored to identify fit and to generate in-person/phone meetings with qualified prospects.

Email Marketing

  1. The campaign relied on targeted emails to initiate contact and to nurture prospects throughout the outreach cycle.
  2. Emails helped the campaign team prioritize which prospects to engage and to maximize conversions through timely responses.
  3. Callbox crafted and tested the templates, landing pages, and other campaign materials used in email marketing. The team maintained delivery, open, click-through, and bounce rates within the set benchmarks.

Results

The three-month campaign met all the Client’s expectations, particularly in terms of the number of qualified appointments delivered and net new prospects added into the Client’s pipeline:

  • 45 qualified appointments
  • 193 marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)
  • 24 sales-qualified leads (SQLs)

The first few touches in the campaign were spent warming up the target prospects and learning about their current logistics processes. Accordingly, it was only near the end of the first month when the campaign started converting prospects into leads and appointments.

The 45 total appointments generated in the three-month outbound campaign meant that the Client’s reps were now handling 2.5 times more sales meetings. The Client was very pleased with the results that they renewed for another campaign, this time targeting freight forwarders and shippers outside of Singapore.

At time of writing, the new campaign is in its 6th month, and the Client has added Callbox as a long-term marketing partner for its outbound prospecting initiatives.

AU Security Firm Gets 1,800+ Sales Appointments from 18-Month Callbox Campaign

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The Client

The Client develops, installs, and maintains access control and CCTV systems for businesses, as well as offers security integration services and customized security solutions. The Client primarily sells to small and medium-sized organizations across a wide range of industries all over Australia.

The Challenge

The Client ranks as one of the leading Sydney-based security companies that specialize in fully-integrated video surveillance solutions for businesses. The company offers its products and services directly to customers, as well as through its network of channel partners and contractors.

To address the growing competition in its home state of New South Wales and some areas in Queensland, The company adopted a more proactive marketing approach, which added direct outreach into the marketing mix to complement its existing inbound program.

The Client initially carried out outbound activities in-house with its inside sales team researching and contacting cold prospects via phone and emails. But the effort only managed to deliver 37 appointments after six months (or an average of 6 per month).

It was clear that the Client had a hard time scaling its outbound marketing activities. Prospecting took up nearly half of their inside sales team’s time, and the company wasn’t sure how hiring new reps would improve results.

That was when the company decided to outsource its outbound marketing program and let Callbox handle the time-consuming tasks of identifying and setting sales appointments.

The Callbox Solution

Callbox planned an initial one-month campaign for the Client, since the company wanted to see first how partnering with an outside provider would work out. The main strategy behind the campaign was to use a combination of email outreach and phone conversations to qualify prospects and schedule meetings on behalf of the company’s reps.

Right after the pilot program, the Client decided to proceed with the campaign and reviewed the project status on a monthly basis. The two main campaign components (phone-based appointment setting and targeted email outreach) focused on these activities:

Appointment Setting

1. The campaign primarily targeted proprietors, managing directors, managing partners, and (secondarily) other persons in charge of business security at SMEs in NSW and QLD.

2. Callbox closely collaborated with the Client to create the materials for the campaign, including call scripts and the prospect list.

3. Agents engaged the target prospects in one-on-one conversations in order to introduce the Client’s latest line of video surveillance systems and to book qualified prospects for a face-to-face consulting session with one of the company’s licensed security specialists.

Email Marketing

1. The Callbox team used emails to initiate contact with prospects and to nurture them throughout the campaign.

2. The campaign also relied on emails to follow up with and respond to prospect inquiries and requests.

3. Callbox crafted and tested the email templates and landing page based on the Client’s requirements and feedback.

Results

The campaign ran for a total of 18 months. In the campaign’s first month alone (despite two weeks spent warming up and nurturing prospects), the Client received 55 qualified appointments, which was around 1.5 times what the company was able to generate from its six-month in-house prospecting activities.

This led the Client to request more calling agents from Callbox to be assigned to the campaign in the subsequent months. This, in turn, helped steadily increase the number of qualified appointments produced during the first few quarters of the campaign, as shown below:

By the end of the 18-month campaign, Callbox handed a total of 1,829 qualified appointments to the Client, (or an average of 101 qualified appointments each month). The campaign also added 1,993 follow-ups and 414 requests for information to the Client’s prospect pipeline.