January 2004

THE INDUSTRY

WOW, What A Year 2003 Was!

As we begin a new year, it's time to assess the state of the industry by asking the following questions: In the aftermath of the DNC regulations, '

Q. Where is CRM going?' The NEW direction.

Q. Who will profit the most in CRM?

Q. Who are the winners and losers?

Q. How has the industry been affected?

Q. How have the FCC regulations become a blessing in disguise?

Q. How have predictive dialer manufacturers been affected?

Q. Who will gain market share?

Q. Who will lose market share?

Q. What were the offshore disappointments?

Q. What are the onshore growth predictions?

Q. What lies ahead?

Offshore

Q. Why did Dell Inc. pull out of India?

Q. What does it mean for the rest of offshore outsourcing?

Q. How can domestic establishments beat very low-cost and poor-quality offshore at their own game?

Q. How are Canadian, Caribbean, European and Philippine offshore outsourcers different?

Q. What are the predictions for offshore outsourcing?

Having covered the contact center, call center and CRM industry since 1982, when this publication laid the foundation for what is now a multibillion-dollar industry, and as the owner of the registered trademark for Telemarketing, I have had the great pleasure of watching and helping the industry grow from the ground up for the last 23 years!

The Basic Facts About Telemarketing

If you take the telephone out of any organization, the result would be as follows:

1. No company can exist without outbound and inbound telemarketing.

Without the telephone, there will be:

' No marketing,

' No sales,

' No collections,

' No customer service.

Therefore, the company will go out of business.

2. Why telemarketing is unique.

Long ago, I defined telemarketing as 'people-to-people interactive communications.'  As such, telemarketing is unique and it should not be confused with tangible products such as computer and auto parts, sneakers, software, etc., which could be outsourced to offshore with no apparent problem. You simply cannot easily blend people of different backgrounds, cultures and languages without corresponding challenges and problems, not to mention inexperience, embedded cultural rudeness and ignorance of FTC regulations and fines.

Indeed, I have heard of many problems relating to the above and no doubt, some or all of the above may have contributed to Dell's 'mounting customer service problems' and eventual departure from India.

Having said all of the above, I would like to focus on the questions stated at the beginning of this editorial.

In The Aftermath Of DNC Regulations' Where Is CRM Going?' The NEW Direction.

Over the last several years, this publication has written dozens of articles covering every aspect of CRM applications. We have clearly indicated the right way and the wrong way as well as the reasons for significant CRM implementation failures. As a prerequisite, we urge you to read the following references in order to better appreciate the significance of doing the right thing when it comes to implementing CRM: Publisher's Outlook June 2003 (http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/0603/puboutlook.htm ); Publisher's Outlook July 2002 (http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/0702/0702po.htm); Publisher's Outlook August 2000 (http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/ccsmag/0800/0800pubout.htm); Publisher's Outlook October 2002 (http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/1002/1002po.htm); Publisher's Outlook November 2000 (http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/ccsmag/1100/1100pubout.htm); Publisher's Outlook May 2000 (http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/ccsmag/0500/0500pubout.htm); Publisher's Outlook February 2000 (http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/ccsmag/0200/0200pubout.htm).

Having read all the above, it should become clear to you that 'one size fits all' does not work well for CRM application development and execution. It seems to me that the most effective way to profit from CRM implementation is to develop tailor-made software for each and every different application. The user groups and availability of user input and related surveys will help you immensely in developing the appropriate CRM software, not to mention successful implementation of any given CRM technology.

Therefore, in my opinion, the new direction for CRM applications for 2004 and in the foreseeable future will be the development of customer-specific application software.

Who Will Profit The Most In CRM?

As for who will profit the most in CRM, it should be simply stated that companies that comply with the above suggestions and the users who use tailor-made CRM products and services will make the most profits.

Who Are The Winners And Losers? 

The winners are the companies that have upgraded technology and have acquired a full and complete understanding of all federal, state and local regulations pertaining to the do-not-call regulations and have the ability to implement and abide by the law 100 percent.

The losers are obviously those that are not equipped or knowledgeable enough to fully comply with all of the relevant regulations, thereby subjecting themselves to a $11,000 fine levied by FTC per violation. As stated in previous editorials, 91 violations is equal to 1 million dollars worth of fines. Obviously, in larger in-house operations where the likelihood of making considerable unlawful calls is greater, the fine could be in the millions of dollars and that could be devastating on the company's existence, not to mention the bottom line.

How The Industry Is Affected And How FCC Regulations Were A Blessing In Disguise

Obviously, and as stated in previous editorials, many smaller to medium-sized outsourcing companies that were unable to fully comply with FCC regulations actually went out of business and thus created tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unemployed agents. On the positive side, however, by putting people who in fact do not want to receive any unsolicited incoming phone calls on the do-not-call list, the regulation has actually increased the return on investment on the calls made to those people who actually received such calls. In other words, a greater percentage of the calls are now resulting in sales because such calls are not considered by the recipients as nuisance or intrusive calls! 

How The Industry Is Affected Further

The extremely complicated FTC ruling has literally shifted the industry from in-house call center support to outsourced call center support. In other words, many companies simply do not want to bother to understand or take the responsibility for compliance and, therefore, they are outsourcing more and more to reliable, high-quality and compliant teleservices outsourcing companies. In plain English, this has resulted in a significant improvement in domestic sales for outsourced teleservices agencies.

To the extent that the FTC regulations have helped to increase sales results per call, this phenomenon can be considered a blessing in disguise.

How The Predictive Dialer Manufacturers Were Affected

Prior to passage of the FTC ruling, practically everyone in the industry was extremely worried and afraid of what regulations might do to their businesses. However, to the extent that existing predictive dialing equipment was unable to comply with the FTC regulations, this fact has created substantial new business for virtually all predictive dialer manufacturers. I made it a point of talking to the CEOs of the top predictive dialer manufacturers and each and every one expressed complete satisfaction for significant new sales from call centers seeking new technology to upgrade their existing dialers so that they could be DNC compliant.

Who Will Gain Market Share?

Obviously, companies that fully understand federal, state and local regulations and have the know-how and the technology for implementation of compliance within their call centers will indeed be the market share gainers.

Since many small to mid-sized companies have gone out of business, their customers are now looking to outsource to remaining companies that are a.) fully compliant with FCC regulations and b.) deliver extremely high- quality customer service. The above is true provided that the companies seeking to expand their market share are fully committed to implementing a comprehensive, integrated and multi-media marketing program, thereby convincing customers through effective differentiation. Such companies can literally expand market share overnight.

Who Will Lose Market Share?

Simply stated, companies that are unable or unwilling to undertake what it takes to succeed, as indicated in the above section, will definitely lose market share. This also applies to companies which primarily use price (not quality) as the main criteria for outsourcing.

Domestic Outsourcing Growth Predictions

Back in October 2003, I contacted several CEOs of outsourcing companies at a given trade show and asked them point blank, 'how is business?'  Without exception, everyone was satisfied with the new growth and dynamic market share expansion by their companies. When I asked, 'to what do you contribute the increased business?' the responses varied, but the following seemed to have the greatest support for the reason behind the new growth:

1. To the extent that several small to mid-sized companies have literally abandoned the industry and laid off thousands of people, their customers are now seeking new outsourcing vendors for CRM, and many other inbound and outbound contact center needs. Therefore, approximately 25 percent of the growth is created as such.

2. To the extent that many in-house call centers simply do not want to bother with the highly complicated new FTC rulings, not to mention state and local regulations, they have decided to simply outsource their CRM and other call center needs to a fully compliant, high-quality outsourcing teleservices company. This accounts for another approximately 25 percent of growth in demand.

3. The third new source for new business for domestic operations is a return of the companies that have outsourced to offshore companies and are fully disappointed with the quality and lack of performance of the much cheaper offshore teleservices companies. Such new business accounts for an additional 25 percent of the growth. An example of that is the computer giant, Dell, the world's largest personal computer manufacturing company. Let it be known that Dell is NOT the only company that is dissatisfied with offshore performance.

Improved economy is also cited for another 25 percent of growth.

Offshore Status And Predictions

' Why Dell pulled out of India.

According to an article in the Washington Post dated November 24, 2003, Dell pulled out of India for the following reason:

'After an onslaught of complaints, direct sales computer king Dell Inc. has stopped routing corporate customers to a technical support call center in Bangalore, India.'

I urge all of our valued readers to refer to my Publisher's Outlook in the August 2003 issue of CIS titled, 'Offshore Outsourcing In Perspective, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' (http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/0803/ 0803puboutlook.htm). In that article, I clearly pointed out that indeed, when business conditions were substantially superior to what they have been after 9/11, local outsourcing companies were unable to hire the necessary labor in the U.S. at an affordable price. At that point, offshore outsourcing seemed attractive because of the substantially cheaper labor cost. As I expressed concern in that editorial, which should be a must- read for anyone planning to go offshore, I was concerned about the lack of quality and quality control and appropriate training when the relatively low labor costs are gradually forced to go down even further to remain competitive. Therefore, the quality must have been non-existent. As a result, problems will arise from time to time.

Obviously, the pull out of computer king Dell from India does not speak well for further outsourcing of telemarketing services to some areas. As the saying goes, 'yes it will cost you substantially less to go offshore, but you will always get what you pay for.'  If the computer king could not offer high-quality technical services offshore, how can smaller companies do so? 

How To Beat Very Low-Cost And Poor-Quality Offshore Outsourcers At Their Own Game

It has come to my attention that some leading companies in the U.S. are currently working on a few new business models, which would offer high-quality teleservices at substantially lower costs domestically. These companies are not prepared to provide us with full detail at this time. However, when they are, I assure you we will be first to announce it.

How Canadian, Caribbean As Well As Firms Located In The Philippines And Europe Are Different

Here is a brief country-by-country accounting of relative experience and perceived quality:

1. Canada ' Canada has been conducting telemarketing and teleservices businesses for practically as long as the United States has. Therefore, several of the Canadian companies are known to offer excellent quality outsourcing teleservices.

2. Caribbean ' The Caribbean offshore companies, although new, offer close proximity and understandable spoken English. Their close interaction with the U.S. mainland has helped them to offer satisfactory performance in teleservices.

3. Europe ' Europeans have also been conducting teleservices and telemarketing for at least 15 years and perhaps more. They seem experienced and among the leading European countries, one might mention Ireland, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands.

4. Philippines ' As far as the Philippines goes, although I don't have personal experience regarding the quality and the nature of the operations in outsourcing companies there, we have heard several satisfactory comments about Philippines operations, particularly in the back-office customer service cases.

In all the above cases, we strongly suggest due diligence before you select an outsourcing partner.

As always, I welcome your valued comments. ([email protected]).

Please read about where the industry is heading on the following page.

Sincerely yours,

Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief

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