Know: ‘timing is everything.’

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Marketing Insights from A to Z

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The contraceptive pill, for example, was a factor leading to smaller
families, more working wives, and larger discretionary income—re-
sulting in higher expenditures on vacation travel, durable goods,
and luxury items.
New technologies will hopefully increase productivity at a greater
rate than their cost. But avoid adding a new technology to an old orga-
nization. This will only result in an expensive old organization.
elemarketing and 
Call Centers
Using the phone to hear from customers and to talk with customers
can be a great asset if done right. Not only can you learn more about
each customer but the conversation can leave the customer with a
feeling of being well served. Done right, telemarketers can pick up
new ideas from customers, carry out surveys to learn about the mar-
ket, and even cross-sell other items.
Lands End does it right. About 85 percent of their orders come
in by phone. New operators are given 75 hours of training before go-
ing on the job. Customers can phone 24 hours a day, and Lands End
can answer 90 percent of the calls within 10 seconds. Overflow calls
are routed to stand-by operators working at home. And customers
Telemarketing and Call Centers
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who use Lands End’s web site can also reach a live operator just by
clicking an icon on their computer screens.
Unfortunately, most companies don’t run their phone service
in this enlightened way. Companies have rushed to automate their
phone service and remove any human interface. One calls and
hears a digital voice offering nine different choices, followed by
another four choices, followed by three choices. And very often,
the phone line is busy (because the company refuses to have
enough terminals or operators), or one is put on a long waiting
line before hearing a human voice. And the human voice half the
time is tired, curt, or bored.
One airline goes so far as to disconnect its waiting customers af-
ter 59 minutes, all because the manager is compensated based on the
average time required to handle customer calls. Can you imagine
waiting 59 minutes and then being disconnected, and the impact of
this experience on customer feelings toward the company?
There is a legitimate issue of how much time to spend on the
phone with a customer who tends to be talkative. Most companies
have trained their telemarketers how to handle a talkative person
with grace. Aim essentially for customer satisfaction, not for phone
speed.
Management should let telemarketers know that their conversa-
tions will be monitored. The purpose is to make sure that customers
are treated respectfully and to learn best practices from the better
telemarketers. Beyond this, some companies ask their executives to
do some telemarketing to sense its power and problems.
Telemarketing in the future must move from one-way sales
pitches to two-way conversations; from cold calls to efforts at rela-
tionship building; and from knowing nothing about the prospect to
making targeted, meaningful offers.