Savvy telemarketers change tactics to survive

Communications industry workers, take heart: Canada's slow-moving telemarketing do-not-call list (DNCL) probably won't destroy the telemarketing industry, which employs many telecom-technology professionals. But it will force telemarketers to change the way they operate.People who have worked under DNCL rules say telemarketers - and telecom experts who support them - should prepare for new business challenges, and new operational procedures, as Canada ramps up a national DNCL.It's been a long time coming. The process began three years ago, and the CRTC, overseeing the process, only issued a request for proposals for a list operator a few days ago. It could be a while yet before the DNCL starts up in earnest.Meanwhile, industry experts say Canadian telemarketers should get ready.Expect a dropIn the US, which has had an enforced national DNCL since 2003, the telemarketing industry isn't what it used to be. "The number of people in call centres hasn't gone down all that much, but the telemarketing business I would bet was 30 to 40% impacted by this," says Jim Mitchell, senior VP of technology at Aspect Software Inc. in Chelmsford MA, which sells contact centre equipment.Successful telemarketers have shifted their focus away from outbound cold calls to other services, including inbound calls for companies and particular outbounds such as collections. "Call centres will have to learn to specialize in niche industries, beyond calling and asking people if they need siding on their house," says Robert Kaiser, head of Telemarketing Consulting.com in Barberton OH.For the most part the US telemarketing industry is used to the new regime, says Wally Hill, VP of public affairs and communications at the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), which has operated a DNCL for its members since 1989. "There were some...in the US that pronounced the list the doom of the industry. While there was an adjustment, they've moved forward, and the industry seems to be pretty healthy down there."Scrub the listBut US telemarketers had to change some of their procedures. An important amendment has to do with the lists of names and numbers telemarketers use. These sources must be "clean," with no co-ordinates for people who have joined the DNCL.Having a clean list is a good business practice regardless of the DNCL, Hill notes. "People who do not want to be contacted for marketing purposes by telephone, you're better off knowing who those folks are, being able to identify them, contacting them by other means, and saving the dollars involved in having your call centre place those calls. They are not fertile ground for marketing purposes."According to Kaiser, call centres that provide telemarketing services to other companies and use client-supplied lists will start to insist on contracts releasing them from liabilities if the list includes numbers that are on the DNCL. But in his experience, many call centres run their own databases, and know which numbers shouldn't be dialed, so chances are people on the DNCL wouldn't be called anyway.A new business balanceThe US DNCL is a good news, bad news situation, says Mitchell from Aspect. "Telemarketers call X number of people, and one in 10 or two in 10 are going to buy. There are X number who are never going to buy no matter what you do. Those are the people who usually sign up for the do-not-call list. We've seen that the percentage of sales per phone call have gotten better. The bad news is, the pool of people you can call has shrunk dramatically - I've heard around 50 to 60%."The DNCL has had a positive effect on the working environment for telemarketing agents, he says. "They're much more professional and tenacious, looking for a good word, not a bad word on a sale, as opposed to thinking, ‘You don't sound like somebody who's going to buy. I'm just going to hang up.'"Mind the rulesBut the negatives outweigh the positives for telemarketers that try to skirt the regulations. "In the US, some smaller firms when the laws were initially passed really didn't think it was that important, and as a result they've been taken to court and sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars," says Kaiser. "If it's something important enough for the government to pass a law, then companies within that environment have to follow the rules."Mitchell agrees. "You can't fight city hall," he says, but adds: "In the US...they're not going after every call. They're going after people who are blatant - 500,000 calls to people on the do-not-call list, for instance."Hill says things could be worse for Canadian telemarketers. In 2004, the CRTC introduced rules (Telecom Decision 2004-35) that required telemarketers to begin each call with the agent's name his company name and phone number. Telemarketers also had to man the number provided after hours."It was going to be very restrictive, imposing requirements that some people argued would make telemarketing virtually impossible," Hill says. "They stayed that decision, and heard the industry: the answer is not to impose all kinds of restrictions on the sector, but instead have people who do not want to be contacted list themselves."Some telecom industry observers bemoan the fact that Canada's DNCL rules include exemptions for certain kinds of telemarketers - those working for newspapers, politicians and polling firms, for example.But others highlight the good points: DNCLs can control the industry to most consumers' satisfaction, and support better business practices."Will it be hard on the small centres that do the aluminum siding calling? Yes. It will weed them out, and I think that's the purpose of the legislation," Kaiser says. "Will it destroy the telemarketing and call centre industry? Of course not. Call centres are going to realize they have to change what they're doing."

Savvy telemarketers change tactics to survive

News | August 2, 2007

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