Affiliate Management, Getting Relief from a Call Center

Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, 12 of February , 2008 at 2:32 am

Affiliate management is tough at the best of times, but if your affiliates are of the overly communicative type, the job can be a nightmare. What can you do if your affiliates are taking up too much of your precious time?

Outsourcing your Affiliate Management Communications
Marketing Pilgrim reports that more online retailers are using call centers than ever before. It therefore follows quite naturally that some businesses will piggyback their affiliate communications onto their online retail communications system. It can work, but there are a few things that you need to ensure before outsourcing any aspect of your affiliate management communication.

In general, affiliate management communications are suitable for offloading because they do not occur too frequently. As long as any call center agents are well briefed on your affiliate management procedures, there is no reason why you cannot offload the work onto your call center.

• Shop around and don’t just settle on the first call center that you come across. Some people look for the cheapest call centers that they can find. These are usually located offshore and have quality levels that vary. While you can get great service from these companies, it is a hit and miss affair. Do your research if you wish to take that route with your affiliate management communications.
• Get to know the call center company and get to know your agents. If they are dealing with the added responsibility of handling phone calls that would normally be the responsibility of those in affiliate management, you want to be sure that they are up to the task.
• Test your call center. You should be doing this anyway if they are running your business communications. Ask them a few affiliate management related questions from time to time and ensure that their responses are appropriate. Remember, if they are off course, your reputation suffers.
• Don’t be complacent. You never know when your call center is going to change staff. Stay on your toes and make sure that they are doing their job to your satisfaction.

Greg Howlett offers this final thought in an article appearing on Marketing Pilgrim:

In general, call centers are a necessary part of growing for most internet retailers. The key is simply this–you cannot hire one and forget about them. You have to remember that those people whom you have little control over have the ability to make or break your business. That is scary thought.

Affiliate management can be quite a responsibility and it can be hard to keep up with phone calls when a business operates 24/7. Outsourcing your affiliate management communications responsibilities does work; just make sure that you pick the right company to help you with this task.

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Category: Affiliate Network Management

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