Enterprises content with outsourcers. (The Outsourcing Market).

Lately, any discussion of the teleservices industry has been awash with gloom, doom and uncertainty. Leading the list of troubles is the recent passage of the updated Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which, among other things, incorporates a national do-not-call list, places restrictions on predictive dialers and mandates that teleservices agencies identify themselves as well as the client on whose behalf they are calling. The new rules are complex and will require teleservices agencies that call consumers on behalf of their clients to make myriad changes to their business processes, not to mention investing in new technologies to comply with the law. Violation of the TSR could result in a fine of $11,000 per call. Because of this, there has been a great deal of speculation that outbound calling to consumers will cease to be an attractive marketing method for businesses and therefore, the outbound teleservices industry will collapse and take with it the jobs of millions.

On par with the TSR, the teleservices industry has been wracked with anxiety over the threat imposed by offshore outsourcers who are competing for domestic teleservices agencies' clients with exponentially lower costs and educated workforces.

Nevertheless, all of this anxiety and predictions of impending doom may be for naught. According to a report released by TMC Research, "The Worldwide Teleservices Oursourcing Market: Analysis & Forecast, 2003," enterprises that outsource (and therefore pay the bills for teleservices agencies) are content with the marketing arrangements they have established with their current outsourcers and few have plans to make any changes in their partnerships with teleservices agencies. In fact, according to TMC Research, 55% of their respondents said their satisfaction level with the teleservices agency that handles the highest volume of their work was very high. Only 9% reported a low satisfaction level, In addition, the research found only 7% of oursourcing enterprises said they would switch providers in the next 12 months.

The threat of offshore outsourcing competitors also may not be as great as it appears. A mere 14% are currently outsourcing offshore and a full 60% said they have no interest in offshore outsourcing, citing more than a half a dozen reasons for this decision.

TMC Research reported that the respondents to the enterprise portion of its survey were representatives from globally known and located companies with significant market share in the insurance, financial and telecommunications industries, among marty others. These business entities are obviously happy with the service and results they receive from the teleservices agencies with whom they are doing business, It stands to reason that these enterprises would want to stay with their current teleservices providers, especially now that the more stringent Telemarketing Sales Rule is a reality and global turmoil is escalating. It simply would not be prudent for them to try to tackle these new issues on their own when the outsourcers can handle them instead.

So, there is a bright spot on the horizon for teleservices agencies. While they will be facing new challenges, for the most part they probably won't have to face an entirely new client roster.

For information and subscriptions, visit www.TMCnet.com or call 203-852-6800.

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