Idea Factor offers a white glove customer service inbound call center to assist both customers and consumers, as well as a guaranteed program for lead generation.
Our mission is to deliver the best customer service experience every time, bar none!
Our vision is to create a workplace where people will say: “This is the best job I’ve ever had!” resulting in long-term happy employees and long-term happy customers.
I think it’s working. Some of our employees have been with us for 28-plus years, and our customers for 30-plus.
Tell us about yourself?
I am the owner and founder of the company with a background in marketing. That said, everything I learned in school truly did not apply in the real world. It’s been a thrilling ride for the past 33 years.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Never do anything when you are emotional, and prepare a pros and cons list to ensure that your action will address your goal.
What problem does your business solve?
This is a great question, and there are so many.
When it comes to a Customer Call Center, we offer just-in-time resources with a pay-as-you-play invoicing system, so you only pay for the time while we are engaged in assisting your customers and consumers.
- No downtime
- No staff turnover
- No issues for vacation or sick days
This is completely process-driven, which ensures excellence in service with a keen eye to the bottom line. And if you like data, you will love us as we capture EVERYTHING in detail, from calls, emails, social media, live chat, MS text, and even good old snail mail (which we still get).
For our lead generation services, we take away the heavy lifting required to open doors for your field sales to present your products and services to new prospects. Our MODEL is proven, predictable, repeatable, scalable, and guaranteed.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I started this business because I used to sell software. I did all the things you should do in marketing, brochures, trade shows, and yellow page ads (see how old I am?). The only thing I didn’t have after all of this activity and money spent was any customers. I decided there had to be a better way.
I had 20,000 flyers printed and asked Canada Post to deliver them to surrounding businesses. I did not get one phone call. After thinking a great deal, I decided I needed to get contact names for the companies I wanted to work with and mail them something. But what?
Most mail was thrown out before being opened. I tore a letter in half. I mailed that letter in a number 10 business envelope to key executives at a select group of companies where I had obtained the decision maker’s name.
The letter said: We want to talk to you about increasing your sales, but that is only half the story… We’ll call you soon to discuss the other half.
A week later, I started the follow-up calls, and the first person I spoke to was Minolta Canada. He said, “I don’t care who you are, I want to meet you! I read your letter and accused my secretary of ripping my mail, then I read it. What day can you come by?”
The power of lead generation and direct mail was born. We use similar tactics today for a variety of customers across North America. Global clients like IBM, HP, and Castrol and community clients like local insurance companies and employment agencies.
Some years after the lead generation division was born. We noticed a lack of excellence in customer service in a number of industries. In fact, one office manager told me that when she walked by her in-house customer service agents, half the time, they were playing solitaire on their computers! There was no tracking in place to understand volume, trends, common questions, etc.
We built a Customer Contact Centre that is truly WHITE GLOVE. All calls are answered within two rings by a real-life human. We have less than a two per cent abandon rate, which is eight per cent less than the global average.
Our agents are uber-agents who answer every call with: “How can I make this a great call for you today?”
Then, end each call with: “Thank you for your call. __________ appreciates your business.”
What is your magic sauce?
I think our culture drives excellence in all categories of our business. We treat everyone like a customer. Our employees, our vendors, contractors, and, of course, our customers. If you work with Idea Factor, we want you to be thrilled with all the ways in which we might interact.
We also subscribe to a WIN, WIN, WIN philosophy. If it’s a win for YOU and a win for your customer, then it will be a win for US.
If something doesn’t look right, we would prefer to walk away from the business.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We are so grateful to our customers and employees who have made our workplace a great place to be. Everyone wants to grow their business, and, of course, so do we. Our biggest goal is to keep our customers coming back for more.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
COVID-19. The difficulties of having a 100 per cent remote workplace were huge. Now that things are semi normal, we have a hybrid workplace where half of the team are in the office one week and then they switch with the team that stayed home.
We offer services that have two things:
- Telemarketing
- Direct Mail
With many offices closed and people working from home, a host of new challenges presented themselves, but they have somehow worked out for the best.
How can people get involved?
We would be delighted to hear about your campaigns or marketing needs and can be reached at 1-866-384-2158 or www.idea-factor.com or directly with me at cheryl.cappellano@idea-factor.com.