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Dear Mr. Tehrani:
After reading your Publisher's
Outlook in April's Customer Inter@ction
Solutions', I startled myself and my associates
by loudly saying, "bravo, bravo, bravo!!" The
piece is a concise, cogent and authoritative summation
of the things we know to be true but can't seem to
persuade many customers to believe. What has always
amazed me is that some people who might otherwise be
good at their jobs (CFOs, CEOs and the like) seem to
have mutant marketing links in their management DNA
helix. The mutations have robbed them of their ability
to perceive value in the marketing process in good AND
bad times. About the best that some of these folks can
do is reluctantly tolerate marketing's existence, as
one would tolerate that strange uncle that exists in
every family tree.
Your article should be recited aloud at every
gathering of corporate boards of directors, much like
school children do with the Pledge of Allegiance. It
should become a document that CEOs, CFOs and "Os"
of all kinds must read and sign before they get their
stock options.
Thank you for taking the time to compose and
publish this compelling message. It provides great
comfort to know that we are not alone.
Bravo. Well done.
Brian L. Moran
MarkeTech Associates, Inc.
Dallas, Texas
Dear Mr. Tehrani:
I am an equity analyst and a newcomer to the
industry, and have recently begun doing extensive
research on the customer management industry
(particularly West Corp., TeleTech and Convergys). I
was hoping you could assist me as I attempt to piece
together an industry mosaic while establishing a
rationale investment thesis upon which to base my
equity research. I currently receive Customer
Inter@ction Solutions' and read your Publisher's
Outlook religiously. There is one editorial in
particular that caught my attention (March
1999) regarding "slowing call center growth, a
possible blessing in disguise." I was interested in
finding the outcome of this scenario over the past two
years, since the publication of this article. In
particular, I was hoping you could provide the
accompanying data for 2000 and 2001, regarding the
chart on page 10 reflecting growth in total billable
minutes by the top 50 outbound companies. I was also
curious if this chart reflected total (inbound and
outbound) billable minutes for the group of 50
outbound providers or if it reflected total outbound
billable minutes for the respective providers.
Hopefully these data will shed some light on the
relationship between growth, pricing dynamics and
quality of service.
Sincerely,
David Foertsch
First Union Securities, Inc.
Business Services - Equity Research
Nadji Tehrani Responds:
Dear Mr. Foertsch:
The total minutes for each chart represent only the
inbound and outbound minutes, respectively, of the
companies in the Top 50 rankings, as we have them
separate the inbound and outbound minutes for the
rankings each year. The trend we saw in 1999 of a
slowdown in outbound minutes has continued, as in 2000
the cumulative outbound totals actually went down 1.02
percent over the 1999 totals, and the 2001 totals were
only .28 percent higher than the 2000 totals, while on
the inbound side, 2000 saw a 24.6 percent increase
over 1999, and 2001 saw a 27.7 percent increase over
2000. We believe these figures are driven by an
increasing emphasis on and awareness of the value of
providing quality customer service/support and
customer relationship management, and the continuing
growth of e-commerce, which always increases the need
for people to talk to a live human being.
Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
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