August 2003

infoUSA is the premier compiler of business and consumer information in the United States and Canada. infoUSA's database of 14 million businesses and 250 million consumers supports our customers through the application of compiled data, dynamic online tools and market intelligence to their sales, profiling and marketing efforts. Content is the essential ingredient in every marketing program, and infoUSA has the most comprehensive data in the industry, and is the only company to own a proprietary database of 250 million consumers and 14 million businesses under one roof.

What makes your services unique and how can users benefit by using them?

InfoUSA believes that data drives all organizations. If the core information is aged, incorrect or not relevant, the foundation for all applications and decision-making rests on a faulty base. As a result, it is a business imperative to ensure that the underlying foundation contains data that are accurate, timely and up-to-date. infoUSA is the only organization that telephone verifies all the business data in our file. The telephone verification process ensures quality while at the same time enriches the file with unique data elements.

InfoUSA's CallerID++ ASP service leverages the quality and robustness of infoUSA in a teleservices environment. Through a simple API, clients can provide infoUSA with an incoming phone number directly from the ANI or workstation, to which infoUSA will append name, address and other demographics. This all happens in real time. Further data enhancements, such as age, income, length of residence for consumers; and category, contact name and years in operations for businesses, can be made available through the same service. Clients using CallerID++ can gain efficiencies in their selling efforts through reduced call times, while automatically collecting valuable demographic information to support their back-end marketing at the same time. Further ROI is gained through reduced keystrokes and error-free data entry.

What is your vision of the future of the CRM/contact center/teleservices industry, and what are the challenges?

Obviously, the FTC Do Not Call Legislation will change the face of the industry today. Telemarketing companies will be unable to recover from the loss in business, and conservative thinking estimates that millions of jobs will likely be lost. The negative impact that comes from the FTC ruling will have other results as well. Marketers will continue to integrate their contact centers in all aspects of their promotional activities. Traditional direct mail and advanced e-mail services will gain a larger mind share for corporate marketers, and will be emphasized as companies develop their coordinated marketing program.

Intelligent marketers will need to coordinate their activities to leverage their existing teleservices business. Each channel will need to complement the other; it is no longer acceptable to consider your email marketing separate from your teleservices unit, just as businesses can no longer treat their catalog marketing separate from their contact center. Each channel needs to reflect upon the others. This accomplishes the dual goals of unified messaging and improved customer service.

Successful companies will need to focus on coordination at every point of customer interaction. The most successful marketing efforts relate to the ability to interact on a complex level and provide a one-to-one service engagement. Successful contact center operations share the unique strength of allowing for relationship-building between the customer and the call center employees. A businesses marketing efforts, whether through e-mail, direct mail, radio, television, etc., should continue to drive contact point back to the teleservices center, which should then be able to maximize the customer relationship. If your marketing efforts reflect back directly to the call center, and the call center is enabled to handle complex customer interactions, you have the recipe for customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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