June 1999

Newscast

BY ERIK D. LOUNSBURY, C@LL CENTER SOLUTIONS

Teleservices With A Twist
A recent startup in New York City is providing a unique combination of vocational training and a revenue-generating teleservices agency. NewTel, Inc. was started in 1998 to both provide a nonprofit call center and vocational education in call center skills and also provide paying clients with the services of an outsourced teleservices agency.

Government funding for NewTel is provided by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), the New York State Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) and the New York State Department of Health, AIDS Institute, while the Clark Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the Robin Hood Foundation and the Tiger Foundation also provide private funding.

NewTel's board of directors brings a variety business and not-for-profit experience with such corporations as Anderson Consulting, Atwood Richards, Kramer, Levin, Naftalis and Franklel, and Oliver Staffing. American Express' Cynthia Hill, chairperson of NewTel's board of directors, said that the goal for NewTel is to be 75 percent funded by revenues from the teleservices NewTel provides for its clients.

All students accepted into the program go through a four-component training program. The first component is a three-week initial assessment period to determine if the individual has the ability to acquire the skills necessary to be successful in the industry. Basic-skills training, the second component, which lasts 12 weeks, includes oral communication skills, remedial education, telephone etiquette, keyboarding skills and computer literacy. The third component of the program, telemarketing class room training, which lasts for four weeks, includes role-playing and intensive training in telemarketing specifics such as overcoming resistance and an introduction to predictive dialers and ACDs. (NewTel is equipped with Digisoft's Telescript call center software and uses Mitel switches.) The fourth component is an eight-week session of on-the-job-training, which begins with the trainees showing agents to observe how the call center operates. The trainees are then phased into the NewTel workforce, with supervisors giving close support. Throughout this phase, the trainees are given work adjustment skills training that includes segments of positive work values, personal problem solving and job-seeking skills. NewTel also offers employment-related support services to help them during training and employment. NewTel will also provide 18 months of follow-up services after job placement.

Hill emphasized that NewTel will keep only students who show a positive attitude and a true desire to work. She said that right now there are 34 students in the program, representing all five New York boroughs. They are learning all forms of teleservices, as NewTel provides a range of inbound and outbound services. NewTel's completed and current programs run the range from market research, get-out-to-vote campaigns and lead generation, as well as appointment setting and scheduling, and inbound and outbound sales.

Hill said the students are motivated by the career path provided by NewTel, and the chance to turn their lives around with a program that will provide them with useful skills. This worthwhile program is not only helping people help themselves, but is also turning out trained teleservices employees. For more information, contact Jonathan Greengrass at [email protected].

Expect Big Things From Down Under
I recently spoke with Mara Moustafine, senior vice president, Global Customer Contact Solutions at Telstra Corporation , about the growth of the Asian, and more particularly the Australian, call center market. According to Moustafine, the industry in Australia is growing at a 25 percent per year clip, with New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong following closely behind. She explained that despite the financial troubles that came to a head in 1997, the economic outlook for the 21st century in the Asia Pacific region is a bright one, for it will possess 25 percent of the world's GDP and one-third of its purchasing power.

Moustafine cited a Deloitte report stating that there are around 5,000 call centers in the Asia Pacific region, with 1,200 of these located in Australia. Corporations as diverse in their products and services as American Express, Citicorp, Iridium, Accor, Lufthansa and Hertz have opened regional call centers in Australia, as well as IT companies such as IBM, Novell, Siemens, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. Moustafine pointed out that among the factors leading corporations to locate in Australia are the highly educated and multilingual workforce (some Australian call centers are providing services in up to 14 languages, with native capabilities), strong government support for foreign investment and high-quality telecommunications infrastructure in a deregulated environment.

According to Moustafine, Australian call centers have been implementing the latest telecommunications technologies, and Telstra has developed a network-based CTI solution that it is about to implement for customers. The networked solution from Telstra will reduce large up-front technology costs and provide users with the ability to establish virtual customer contact centers that possess such CTI functionality as screen pop, skills-based routing and cohesive management reporting. Telstra's research laboratories are also currently at work at a number of Internet telephony call center projects that will help corporations in the 21st century realize the full potential of Internet telephony, such as multimedia interactions with customers at lower costs. Soon, down under will be as close as the smiling agent you are chatting with while she pushes you Web pages of buying choices or technical advice from her home in the Outback

Employment Opportunities On The Internet
Accompanying the growth of direct marketing and the proliferation of call centers throughout America, a nagging problem for businesses has been finding qualified, experienced people to manage marketing campaigns and run call centers. To help companies locate the right direct marketing and call center professionals, Jerry Bernhart, CEO of Bernhart Associates, started a Web-based employment service eponymous with its Web site, directmarketingcareers.com.

In just three months, the directmarketingcareers.com site has grown to more than 100 direct marketing job postings from companies such as Time-Life, Transunion, Charles Schwab, DMW Worldwide, Williams Sonoma, Airtouch, Federal Express, Corporate Express Call Center Services and JCPenney. Bernhart reported that job postings on the site are growing at a rate of 25 percent per month. "During the second week of April," said Bernhart, "more than 900 visitors came to our Web site; 325 of them used our job search page to search for direct marketing-related employment opportunities." Job postings on directmarketingcareers.com can fall under 36 direct marketing categories, with six of these being teleservices oriented. Bernhart stressed that the site is focused on teleservices and direct marketing, unlike most other employment sites on the Internet.

directmarketingcareers.com maintains a resume database and an e-mail notification service of job postings for passive job seekers and currently has more than 400 candidates on its list.

"Our e-mail newsletter now contains more than 2,500 subscribers," said Bernhart, "and our rapid growth has proven it is time for more industry-specific employment sites."

directmarketingcareers.com is one more example of how one company is using the speed and flexibility of the Internet to provide consumers what they want, when they want it.