Letters to the editor.

Dear Mr. Tehrani:

Before, during and after the October deadline for the FCC and FTC regulations, many in our industry were subjected to some wild and unsubstantiated claims. One vendor, in particular, seems to be bent on creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in hopes of generating sales for its product. Unfortunately, Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R]' recent article "Putting The TSR And Dialer Controversy In Perspective" [High Priority!, August 2003, www.tmcnet.com/cis/0803/0803hipriority.htm] did little to dismiss the hype and misinformation surrounding regulatory compliance and the use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP).

The sensationalized assertion, that outbound dialers which rely on DSP are unable to comply with the new FCC and FTC regulations, is absolutely incorrect. The fact is, most outbound dialers that use DSP also support network signaling. Systems that rely solely on networking signaling are a return to pre-1989 technology and a very costly solution for contact centers performing outbound dialing.

Regrettably, these misguided claims are based on the capabilities provided by DSP technology a decade ago. Today, the leading outbound dialing vendors leverage the most advanced DSP available on the market. As a result, voice is detected in milliseconds rather than the six seconds claimed in the vendor's recent white paper.

In addition, outbound dialing systems that rely only on network signaling from the telephone carrier cannot perform answering machine detection. Therefore, a contact center's agents are forced to handle answering machines, fax machines, pagers, voice mail and operator intercepts, which are estimated to make up between 30 to 40 percent of all outbound calls. As you can imagine, the cost to contact centers is significant.

At SER, we have led the industry with a comprehensive solution that ensures compliance while maximizing productivity. Our outbound dialers use a combination of network signaling and DSP to provide contact center operators the most accurate answer detection system on the market today. The instant SER's switch detects a live answer, it connects the call to an available agent.

At the same time, the SER Call Manager displays database information about the customer on the agent's terminal. The switch and Call Manager are synchronized so the agent hears the customer saying the first "hello" at the same time the customer's information is displayed on the agent's screen.

Unfortunately, these recent DSP and non-compliance claims are divisive and counterproductive to the entire industry. Now more than ever, we all need to work together to ensure that the teleservices industry continues to thrive. As our past experience has shown, the teleservices industry has had, and will continue to have, a significant positive impact on the overall national economy.

Hopefully the next time someone makes an outlandish claim, Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] will take a stand or, if not, seek out industry experts to set the record straight.

Sincerely,

Carl E. Mergele

Chief Executive Officer

SER Solutions, Inc.

Rich Tehrani responds:

Dear. Mr. Mergele:

Thank you for the feedback. Letters such as yours help us improve this magazine, and this type of dialog is always good for the industry. The article to which you are referring [High Priority!, August 2003] is by far the most controversial article we have run in the 23 years we have been publishing Customer Inter@ction Solutions[R] magazine. As you can see from the other responses in that article's "Great Dialer Debate" section, many of your industry peers agree with your stance.

Our intention in writing this article was to shed light on the current dialer controversy and help readers make a decision for themselves. By allowing Castel to present its case and allowing five of the major dialer vendors (industry experts) to respond with lengthy letters, we have done our best to present all sides of this controversy. We believe that shedding light on industry problems and presenting a forum for discussion is the job of a good trade publication. We feel that we have already achieved the spirit of your letter with this well-balanced article and industry response.

Sincerely,

Rich Tehrani

Group Editor-in-Chief

Technology Marketing Corporation