Are phone orders effective?

[redex]

So the telemarketers are soliciting refills, and, I must say I am impressed with the order count however the results leave a lot to be desired. Maybe they get paid by the order taken, not necessarily shipped.


Ican imagine the conversation like so:


Refill Solicitor: Hello, This is EVA, would you like to refill your meds over the phone and save time.
Customer: Sure, sounds good.
Refill Solicitor: OK, sorry you are ordering too early.


WTF?? Here'e the results of the phone orders today. What a blood bath:


http://canaryassyellow.com/20031013.gif


I am two for five on phone order refills, that should be at least four if niot five.


I am six for sixteen for the day and a good chance that last one will convert so make that seven for sixteen : Edited by: redex

[chicago]

I don't like the idea ofphone orders and I wish I could choose to not have them done for my sites.

[rxmary]

I agree, I've posted already on this subject. But, to restate my position, it makes no sense to solicit orders that will be just be denied or placed on hold.


I would agree it was a good idea if they were due to refill on that day or are past due in refilling.

[phalaris]

I think that a customer should get a call 1 day after the date he should have ordered the refill. I have had many customers cancelling orders even when they were told that their order is on hold for just 2 or 3 days. Calling them before time and then telling them that their order is on hold is a sure shotway of losing a reorder.

[popcorn]

What drives me crazy is a phone order, for the same medication the customer has ordered before, that the doctor disapproves.


Popcorn

[Star]

How about phone reorders onholdb/c the system can't figure theBMI b/c the operator didn't put in the height? I have four of those today alone.

[rxmary]

smileys/smiley3.gif I saw one of those today too.


Sure hope the training period ends soon so our customers don't think they are dealing with a bunch of smileys/smiley8.gifsmileys/smiley8.gifsmileys/smiley8.gif

[DEWIE42]

Will save my comments for a later datesmileys/smiley8.gif

[RxRob]

Okay, time to turn off phone orders...


I don't have reorder discounts on all meds, so when a CS rep called a customer for a refill, they charged them more than what they could've ordered it for from my website!!! On top of that, hedwards set it to a future order (5 weeks from now!) grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrh ttp://www.rxaffiliateforum.com/smileys/smiley7.gif

[mmarulkamm]

on IMS 30 clicks 10 order


11 orders shipped

[mmarulkamm]

ops sorry 11 order 11 orders shipped


all

[redex]

Today's gem. Prices are going up! SAYS WHO????!!!!! LOL



<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1>
<T>
<TR vAlign=top>
<TD noWrap>Wed 11/05/03 04:12:42 PM EST</TD>
<TD>* Josephine says: i was solicited by your company to reorder, i did not order on my own, i was told something about inventory and prices going up, so of course i said yes. if this is a problem..then that is ok too.</TD></TR>
<TR vAlign=top>
<TD noWrap>Wed 11/05/03 04:09:32 PM EST</TD>
<TD>Order viewed by Josephine from 172.150.99.27.</TD></TR>
<TR vAlign=top>
<TD noWrap>Wed 11/05/03 03:49:49 PM EST</TD>
<TD>Order forwarded to physician for review.</TD></TR>
<TR vAlign=top>
<TD noWrap>Wed 11/05/03 03:49:49 PM EST</TD>
<TD>Please give exactly $140.95 to driver by Money Order/Bank Certified Check made out to E.V.A. Global, Inc.</TD></TR></T></TABLE>

[RxRob]

smileys/smiley3.gif

[scottdaman]

Oh yeah, and one of my phone orders today was put on hold because they ordered yesterday. 90 day supply put on hold for 30. Whatever. LOL

[rxmary]

LOL, I got an email about a price quote a customer was given over the phone. This price was like $20 below my set price, and not even close to the reorder price. So, are they trying to take sales away from me but underpricing me with my own customers, or did some airheaded Rep quote the wrong prices?


Needless to say the customer didn't order over the phone but from my site and then emailed pissed off because the price was different then the price the Rep quoted.


Oh yes, I have chosen to NOT have EVA call my customers, so I don't know why the call was made in the first place.

[scottdaman]

I said it before and I'll say it again. This is only going to get worse! smileys/smiley11.gif


Word is getting out to other CSRs by word of mouth that they are having success getting customers to use their site instead of ours.


Now they are disobeying your request to not have phone orders. It will only get worse unless a supervisor steps in.


Mark my words. I've seen it happen myself.

[redex]

With 52% of their sales gone, a lot of people won't be needed in customer service so they will prolly get promoted to telemarketer. There were still some empty seats in that arena.

[phalaris]

There never were enough people in customer service. Most likely because theysaw this coming and never hired and trained the staff for customer support. On the other hand staff for telemarketing was hired and trained before support staff (as per Theo's email).


So the installation of telemarketing before anything else was a desperate attempt to get as many Phone orders as possible before the D-day. So expecting any drastic improvement as a result of 52% drop in sales volumes is not correct, IMHO.

[redex]

Profit centers are the last to downsize. (read telemarketers)


Overhead will be cut back (read customer service)


smileys/smiley3.gif

[Star]

They have absolutely no controls in place. Anyone can have a site including phone reps, doctors, pharmacists, accountants. It is a HUGE conflict of interest at EVA. Theo and EVA could care less, they get paid on the order no matter who it is through. Would you care about some little affiliate getting screwed when you make high six figures per week?


I doubt it.

[scottdaman]

Yep, that's why I spread my sites out between many groups. If one pisses me off, I don't have to update 200 sites.