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September 2003

 


At the executive roundtable this month is Tom Cardella, CEO of Precision Response Corporation, an outsourced provider of consumer care services headquartered in Plantation, Florida.


CIS: What are your thoughts on the trend of outsourcing offshore? There are a variety of mixed opinions being expressed. Do you think that many companies are bringing their teleservices back to the U.S., and if so, which services and why?

Cardella: I believe that the trend of outsourcing offshore is certainly here to stay. According to Gartner research, the offshore outsourcing hype cycle is still significantly on the rise and is in the early stages of maturing. In fact, a similar Gartner study of 76 top U.S. brands found that 20 percent of them will be outsourcing some part of their business offshore by 2004. PRC has been doing business offshore since early 2001. As a result of this experience, I feel we are poised to not only support our clients in this offshore transition, but to guide them through the process so that it is seamless for their customers.

With four PRC locations in offshore markets, we recommend to clients who are looking to go offshore that they keep a percentage of their work in domestic locations. This builds in the necessary redundancy/ business continuity and allows for proper benchmarking between locations. We believe that e-mail management will continue to grow in offshore locations, but voice services will remain strong here in the U.S. Customer service needs will continue to grow and I believe this growth will be felt domestically, offshore and nearshore.

CIS: What advice do you have for call centers that need to quickly build their inbound services to make up for the potential loss of outbound services? Is there any advice about technologies, hiring new agents and management concerns you can offer?

Cardella: It is important for outbound organizations to remain responsive, flexible and proactive with clients. Establishing a solid relationship with the client and an understanding of their industry and specific marketing challenges has always been an important key to success. In the case of PRC's subsidiary, Access Direct, this approach led us to establish inbound relationships as a result of successful outbound campaigns and we have grown naturally into a provider of both outbound and inbound services for several of our clients.

Companies faced with the loss of outbound market share may find themselves in a position of having to shift focus from primarily outbound to a greater percentage of inbound services. This shift in services will certainly present more of a challenge for some organizations. But those companies that have maintained a good product mix in addition to demonstrated value to the client will be able to successfully weather this transition with minimal impact to the bottom line.

It has been our policy to hire top talent at all levels. In the case of Access Direct, we are fortunate to have operations, client services and IT staff who have all had training in both outbound and inbound telemarketing. Telephone sales representatives are hired with the premise that they will call outbound campaigns first and, if they become top performers, will have the opportunity to be considered for cross-training to inbound programs. This allows the organization flexibility as staff can be moved as decisions are made in the best interest of the client.

In terms of technology, we have always used the SER (formerly EIS) Call Processing System, considered top of the line for outbound predictive dialing, yet our team has been able to fully leverage the system's inbound capabilities. We were able to transition into inbound calling without the need to introduce a new technology platform. So flexibility in one's outbound technology is critical. A good IT team can develop solid, customized inbound and outbound applications on any system provided the system is flexible and the staff has the right experience.

Organizations that are lean in bureaucracy and agile in nature are best positioned to make the transition from outbound to inbound services. Again, our determination to hire the best possible staff for our management positions has provided us with a core management team that has solid experience running both types of campaigns for a wide variety of industries. Our client management model is designed to oversee campaigns from the client perspective ' not separated out by outbound versus inbound. We have found that organizing account management by client rather than by application keeps the team focused on the needs of the clients and their campaigns while delivering the best program results.

CIS: Though outbound is only a small part of PRC's business, what are you doing to make sure you remain compliant?

Cardella: PRC's core business is inbound customer service, but again, our subsidiary Access Direct is more focused on outbound service for clients. As the founder of Access Direct, I am very familiar with current compliance issues that outbound companies face as well as the existing constraints. Our business at Access Direct is focused on calling the existing consumers of our clients. We have always been compliant with the various forms of legislation that have governed this industry and, because of our niche and existing structure, believe that the newer regulations will have a minimal impact on our business.

CIS: Over the years, has it become more or less difficult to hire and retain good agents, as client demands have increased and the number of media options (e-mail, Web and form-sharing, plus telephone, postal mail and fax) have broadened?

Cardella: Hiring and retaining good-quality employees has not been a problem for us at PRC. We have always been very stringent with our recruiting and hiring practices. Because our site selection process has been so intertwined with our human resources group, the markets in which we operate have proven to be quite good for recruiting quality-focused agents who enjoy handling multiple communication channels.

For example, in April of 2000, PRC opened a facility in Cutler Ridge, Florida, just south of Miami. Our goal was to create approximately 1,200 jobs in this area within three years, but we chose to start out small with 400 jobs to test the market. Because of client satisfaction and the superior quality of this labor market, we reached our goal of 1,200 employees a year and a half ahead of schedule.

To complement our external recruiting, we continue to invest in PRC University, our internal training curriculum for enhanced skills development. This enables our employees who, for example, joined the company as phone representatives to expand into an e-mail position or into management. As a result, over 70 percent of our team managers are promoted from within.

CIS: What do you think are going to be the big issues in teleservices, moving forward?

Cardella: Offshore operations will continue to be a high priority for us at PRC, and I believe it will be the same for everyone in the industry. With pricing pressures on the rise, providers like PRC are positioned to offer an end-to-end solution to clients, one that marries top-notch service with a blended service model when needed.

As we look ahead, we will continue to face issues in our industry as they come up. However, the focus for the entire organization is on the core basics ' service and quality for our clients. Strategically, I believe we are poised for solid growth, but as competition tightens in the industries we support, maintaining high customer satisfaction levels becomes even more critical. Therefore, exceeding the expectations of the clients that we currently support is, and will always be, PRC's number one priority and area of focus. To this end, we have recently hired several seasoned service professionals to augment and grow our management team. I'm very enthused with this team, and certainly with where we are going.

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