As you
will notice, we have enhanced the name of this publication from C@LL CENTER
Solutions to [email protected] CENTER CRM Solutions. The extension of the
name from [email protected] CENTER Solutions to include CRM (customer relationship
management) was to more accurately describe what we have been covering all along since
1982. At that time, in a pioneering and visionary manner, we actually laid the foundation
for the call center/CRM industry with this publication, originally known as
Telemarketing magazine. For those of you who have been reading and, in fact, are keeping
every single issue of Telemarketing magazine and its successor, [email protected] CENTER
Solutions, you know that over the past 18 years we have covered every aspect of
telesales, teleservices, customer service, customer care, customer loyalty and customer
retention in issue after issue and as such, we provided the guide book for what is now the
multibillion-dollar call center/CRM industry. Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), in
addition to pioneering this industry's first magazine in June of 1982, also introduced the
industry's first and most important trade show back in 1985. The name of the show was TBT,
which stood for Telemarketing & Business Telecommunications. This highly successful
show (TBT) was presented 28 consecutive times not only in the United States, but also
internationally in countries such as Brazil and Holland. In all presentations of this
trade show, the conference program, which was not only the first, but also the most
respected conference of its kind, covered all elements of telesales, account management,
customer service, client services, customer care, customer management, customer retention
and customer loyalty management. All of these efforts taken together laid the foundation
of what has now come to be known as customer relationship management or CRM.
French Philosophers Comment
So Appropriate To The CRM Case
A world-famous French philosopher once made the most logical comment about life
that I have always loved and admired:
The more things change, the more they stay the
same.
As most industry experts agree, call centers have been accomplishing CRM for years, but
only now has the process become simpler to implement with the help of technology, through
software, systems integration, database mining and superior call center agent training.
So, in reality, CRM is a new name for an existing process. Customer relationship
management is about how you interact with your customers. Because the call center is your
natural touchpoint between the company and its customers, CRM is naturally accomplished
through the call center. So we have enhanced the name of what we have been doing all along
to CRM. That is why the legendary comment, The more things change, the more they
stay the same, is so appropriate in this case.
During the last Direct Marketing Association (DMA) trade show, I entered the exhibit of
one of the largest (if not the largest) teleservices companies and spoke with the vice
president of sales of this world-famous outsourcing company. The conversation soon turned
into a discussion of CRM. This top executive stated, I dont know what all the
fuss is about CRM. Isnt this what we have been doing all along and calling it a
combination of client services, customer support, customer care, customer loyalty,
customer retention, database marketing and database mining' As you can see, I am not
the only one who thinks this way. This comment by a senior executive of one of the largest
teleservices companies is especially significant for two reasons:
- This particular company generates revenue in excess of one billion dollars through
inbound teleservices, customer service, customer care and CRM.
- If you have been reading my editorials during the last two decades, I am sure you will
concur that there is no one, and I mean no one, who knows the CRM, teleservices and
telesales industry better than those who head up service agencies or teleservices
outsourcing companies. The reason is very simple: they are always on the firing line and
they manage hundreds, even thousands, of different products. Since this particular
outsourcing company generates in excess of one billion dollars in sales in this area,
their managements opinion must be respected. This reminds me of another great French
philosopher who said:
The reason offered by the strongest is always
the best.
Our New Tagline: The Authority On CRM, E-SalesE-Service And
Teleservices Since 1982
Many leading e-commerce financial analysts have recently stated that every
company must be in e-business or they will be in no business. In plain English, if you are
not involved in e-commerce, it is only a matter of time before your company will vanish.
In fact, a top executive of one of the nations leading teleservices agencies was
recently quoted as predicting that by the year 2002, 50 percent of all customer contact
will be via the Internet through call centers. As savvy readers of this publication, you
know that I have always maintained that every company is a call center. You also know that
the key to success of any e-business is the quality of its customer service, customer care
and customer service management, none of which can exist without a call center. CRM is
necessary in the call center because companies that have little to differentiate
themselves in their products, particularly in light of e-commerce, must offer superior
customer service to put themselves ahead of the competition. Companies that dont
offer the best possible CRM will lose sales and market share to their competitors that do.
In short, if you are not in e-business in some way and if you do not have access to a
well-run and well-managed call center to handle your CRM, there is literally no point in
being in business. For those who dare to try otherwise, their days in business are
numbered.
As the Bible of the CRM, customer service, telesales and teleservices and
support solutions industry since 1982, we have been at the forefront of every change and
innovation in technology, training and human resource techniques pertaining to customer
contact and the CRM industry. It is, therefore, our paramount responsibility as the
leading publication of the industry to guide our valued readers appropriately and help
them avoid costly mistakes by sounding a necessary alarm.
Beware Of Self-Proclaimed Experts
The advent of CRM and the rush by many to take a position in it reminds me of the
early days of Telemarketing magazine. When we created worldwide awareness of
the explosive power of the telemarketing industry in 1982, many con artists, fast-buck
artists and downright criminals came along trying to jump on the bandwagon by passing
themselves off as experts on the industry. And indeed, to my great chagrin, many of them
were successful (only for a short time), inflicting significant damage on many unwary
customers until they (the customers) found out that these self-proclaimed experts were
nothing more than con artists disguised as experts on telemarketing. I would like to share
with you the story of only two of these criminals, what they did and how they did it so
that the new breed of them, who may re-appear as CRM experts, will not hurt you.
Case 1
In early 1983, while our offices were at 17 Park Street in Norwalk, Connecticut,
a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce pulled up our driveway one day and an extremely
well-dressed and seemingly polished individual came out of the Rolls Royce to our offices
and asked to see me. I agreed to meet with this gentleman because I saw his prestigious
appearance and the Rolls Royce fanfare, thinking he deserved my undivided attention. For
the sake of this discussion, Ill call him Mr. X. He said to me, Mr. Tehrani, I
have read every single issue of your magazine and I am fascinated by it. I have learned a
great deal from your publication. He then continued, Like you, I am also an
expert in telemarketing and I have come here to make a proposal to you that you probably
cannot refuse. I told Mr. X, I am listening to your proposal. Mr. X
continued, I intend to advertise in your magazine, pay for it in advance and in
exchange, I would like you to position me, through your magazines editorial, as an
industry guru. Then I would like you to recommend me to many corporations as an industry
expert. In this manner, we will both benefit. He then suggested we jointly run a
convention where he would be positioned as the expert and our magazine would function as
the marketing vehicle for his convention. Then he asked, What do you think of
that? I told him, I appreciate your interest in advertising, however, we have
a strong church-and-state policy where we do not tie any editorial comments to advertising
under any circumstances. Undaunted, he then offered me a percentage of his
consultant fees as well as his conference fees. Naturally, I did not accept any of these
offers, but upon examining his advertisements, it appeared he offered a legitimate service
that could benefit the industry. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, we ran six of his
advertisements over a six-month period. Mr. X paid in advance for the first three ads, but
we could not collect for the next three. The red flag went up. We decided to further
investigate this mans background and learned he was involved in a number of criminal
activities, including embezzlement, loan sharking and the like. We then began to receive a
number of calls from his unfortunate clients who also met him with the Rolls Royce, etc.,
thinking he really knew something only to find out that this guy was nothing but a con
artist. We were truly upset that this con artist tried to use the great name of our
magazine and Technology Marketing Corporation to pick the pockets of several innocent
customers of ours
Case 2
In another case, someone Ill call Mr. Y, used our trademark and copyrighted
statistics without our permission to promote his show on telemarketing. He actually
printed our material without any authorization and then he came to me and asked me to
support his show and accept advertising in support of his show. Obviously, after looking
into his background, I did not feel this was in the best interest of the industry and I
actually turned down $20,000 worth of advertising that he wanted to place with
Telemarketing magazine. Without our support, this man and his trade show did not succeed
because I simply do not approve of promoting unethical organizations. He received a
considerable amount of money from many exhibitors without giving them any return for their
investments! A less sophisticated thief!
The Moral Of The Story
The extreme popularity of CRM has attracted a similar frenzy, which I am sure
includes many people like Mr. X and Mr. Y as described above.
Today, everyone and his brother is running a trade show, a conference, a magazine or at
least thinking about starting a magazine under the CRM title. Some of them, possibly
without appropriate credentials, may consider jumping on the bandwagon and taking
advantage of innocent and uninformed customers as Mr. X and Mr. Y did. I was discussing
this matter the other day with one of my industry-respected colleagues and he said
something that puts everything so accurately in perspective. He said, These are the
people who couldnt spell it last month and are experts at it this month. I am
telling you to beware that just because someone announces a trade show, a conference or a
magazine with the seemingly right title, does not mean that they are, in fact,
the experts or that they have the necessary know-how to inform anyone on the subject.
Be wary of overnight experts who lack long-established credentials. If you trust these
so-called experts, you may be taken for a ride and lose a lot of money.
Trust only magazines, conferences and trade shows that have a long, successful history
in the industry they serve. Look for name recognition and tenure of staff. The value of a
publication is not the title, but the quality of its contents. Certainly while we have
enhanced the name of our publication, we have remained committed to serving the same
industry we have served since 1982.
What just five of our editors, with a total of 52 years-plus of combined experience on
this magazine alone, have learned about this industry cannot be duplicated overnight!
Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
ntehrani@tmcnet.com
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The ATA In
Trouble Back in the Fall of 1998, the then-named American Telemarketing
Association announced a name change to The American Teleservices Association and unveiled
a new logo. Little was anyone aware of the amount of trouble the agency was headed for not
quite one year later. In July of 1999, a meeting was called in Chicago for board members,
at which it was revealed that the executive board had met previously with J. Scott
Thornton, who at the time of the first meeting was CEO of the agency, to discuss the fact
that the agencys treasurer not only had concerns about the agencys finances,
but was having difficulty getting access to necessary financial information. Discussion at
the board members meeting also focused on alleged financial mismanagement by
Thornton, who had since departed the agency, though financial problems had reportedly
plagued the ATA for several years prior to Thorntons departure. Following this
meeting, an emergency meeting was called in Los Angeles the following month. The
culmination of the crisis occurred in mid-October when seven incumbent board members
tendered their resignations and at least one member organization withdrew its membership.
Former ATA legislative affairs director Chip Eagle believes that troubles stemmed from
a variety of causes. The Association has had a very good record in its core
competencies over the last few months and years. But he added, Mr. Thornton
tried to expand the Associations activities outside of these core areas and this, in
hindsight, was probably too aggressive for his ability to manage such expansion.
A similar opinion is shared by former ATA communications director Donna Bryce. He
(Thornton) was overly ambitious and seemed to spend indiscriminately. Bryce was
involved in putting together possible legal action, but not against Thornton. From
what I was able to determine, there was no evidence of misappropriation. We did begin
legal action against the bank involved, which gave Mr. Thornton access to accounts he had
no permission from which to withdraw funds. According to Bryce, Thornton did hire
his wife and paid her to do work that had not been approved by the board in the usual
manner.
The member organization which withdrew its membership was Oetting & Co., an
independent consulting firm which deals exclusively with the use of the telephone, call
centers and associated media for marketing, sales and service objectives. DM News quoted
Geri Gantman, senior partner with Oetting & Co., as saying problems began to arise
when the ATA changed its operations from a volunteer-based group to a staff-run
organization that was operating beyond its resources. Oetting & Co. had withdrawn from
the agency in October due to both the problems caused by the alleged mismanagement of the
association and the way the crisis was handled.
Rather than disclose further information and explanations of problems at the ATAs
annual conference in Nashville in mid-October, the agency chose to send a letter to
members outlining money and management problems. This move angered many within the
organization, prompting the withdrawal of some members and the resignation of seven
incumbent board members, including Bryce and Eagle.
Peripheral to the shakeup is a question about the health of Telewatch, an ATA
peripheral organization created by teleservices providers to help maintain standards
within the industry. Reportedly, the organization is now destined to be absorbed back in
the ATA and has been silent as of late. Telewatch aimed to provide a uniform body of
standards and accepted practices with which to measure teleservices performance. These
standards included conformance to federal mandates such as The Telephone Consumer
Protection Act (1991); The Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act
(1994); The Federal Trade Commission Telemarketing Sales Rule (1995); applicable state and
local government rules, laws and regulations; Do-not-call list requirements;
and strict adherence to the ATAs code of ethics.
Mr. Eagle, a founding member of Telewatch, stated that previous to the
organizations disclosure of problems, he had brought up the lack of forward momentum
by the group, though he believes that Telewatchs merger back into the ATA would have
happened anyway. He did state, however, that he believed Telewatch is in the process of
regrouping and will be working to establish the certification program that they promised.
Despite the troubles, members and former management are supportive of the concept of
the organization. Said Chip Eagle, Overall, I believe that the Association has been
on a very positive track in its key results areas. The primary responsibility of a trade
association is to act as a spokesperson for the industry in the public arena. The ATA has
been very successful in this area.
Ms. Bryce expressed a little more pessimism and told [email protected] CENTER CRM
Solutions she thinks things are still in limbo. Certainly the agency seems like
it may have an uphill road in winning back the confidence of members and staff and the
respect of the industry. The organizations Web site does not appear to have been
updated since last year (Mr. Thorntons bio still appears as a link on the site),
which is an eyebrow-raising state of affairs in an age of Web-enabled teleservices.
The ATA did report the election of new board members in November and has plans to fill
other vacant positions. |