The CEO Spotlight.

CIS:

What is your company's specialty and mission statement?

Cardella:

Our company's specialty is really three-fold, since we are comprised of three unique yet complementary brands. Precision Response Corporation is focused on inbound customer service and e-mail management, domestically and offshore, and excels in this category. PRC's subsidiary Access Direct specializes in business-to-consumer proactive sales and relationship building. Hancock Information Group, another PRC subsidiary, is 100 percent focused on business-to-business relationship building, appointment setting and prospecting.

What each brand shares is a client list that is comprised of some of the best brands in the world, each with a customer-centric focus and strategy. Our mission is clear--to deliver the highest level of service for our clients and their customers.

CIS:

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

Cardella:

The services provided by PRC, Access Direct and Hancock Information Group are not necessarily the "unique" aspect of our business, as there are many service bureaus that provide inbound and outbound customer care services. What is unique is the manner in which we deliver these services, the best practices that we have established in our more than twenty years of operation, and our clear focus on our clients' needs for top-notch service delivery with proven results. As a result, we've built long-standing relationships with our clients, serving as their partner for growth rather than merely acting as a vendor. Additionally, our parent company, IAC/InterActiveCorp, and sister companies such as HSN, Ticketmaster, Match.com, Expedia and Hotels.com, among others, enable us to bring a value-add to the marketing teams of our clients.

Our clients benefit from our approach to service delivery in a multitude of ways. The company's mission applies to everyone in the organization equally, which means that it is incumbent upon all of us to adopt a very hands-on approach to our client relationships. As a result, we run a very flat organization that enables fluid communication between the team that directly runs the operation and myself. Clients that contract with a PRC company rest assured that their account has the direct attention of the entire management team.

This translates into the second benefit: direct improvements and results. For example, one of our clients switched their customer service operations from one of our competitors to PRC late last year. Within the first quarter of operation, PRC had surpassed any quality scores previously achieved, received a multitude of customer compliments and ultimately was awarded a top rating from the clients' internal audit team, a level of rating never before achieved by an outsourced service provider. This is the way we measure our success.

Finally, I believe that our clients benefit from the top talent we employ throughout every facet of the organization, and the empowerment that they are given to achieve superior customer satisfaction.

CIS:

What is your vision of the future of the CRM/contact center/teleservices industry?

Cardella:

The teleservices industry will continue to grow at a steady rate. Companies like PRC operate efficiently and effectively for clients while staying on top of their quality standards. As clients' budgets become tight, these efficiencies become even more critical.

Additionally, service delivery continues to be a strong driver of customer loyalty. As a result, many of our new clients are relying heavily on us to proactively suggest tactics for improving their approach to service delivery as they transition the work to our centers. What they find is that having a teleservices partner with strong experience and proven best practices can deliver service results that will positively impact their entire enterprise.

CIS:

What, in your opinion, is the most pressing issue facing our industry today?

Cardella:

I believe that there are a couple of pressing issues facing our industry today that need to be addressed. From an outbound perspective, I believe that we need to do a better job of regulating ourselves and change the perception surrounding our industry. Telemarketing companies that respect the privacy and preferences of the consumer do exist. During the recent debate surrounding the do-not-call initiative, it appeared that the media attention turned to the rogue telemarketers that made it necessary for more stringent regulations to be created. I am of the opinion that we should not contact consumers who do not wish to be contacted and proactively treating all consumers with the utmost of respect should be a standard within the outbound calling industry from which no one must deviate.

From a global perspective, I believe that offshore operations and our collective response to pricing pressure will be another issue that we will all need to address. As our clients face pricing pressure, the standards for superior service delivery do not decline. PRC's approach to offshore service delivery, a blended approach with a portion of the volume for all offshore clients remaining in domestic operations, ensures that the top-notch quality standards set domestically are matched by that of PRC's offshore operations. The result is an inherent system of checks and balances, easily executed business continuity plans, and overall customer--and client--satisfaction.

CIS:

What is your vision for future trends contact center/CRM/teleservices outsourcing market regarding profitability and international competition?

Cardella:

International competition to the domestic teleservices market is clearly here to stay. I believe that quality of service and customer satisfaction will ultimately drive future trends in this arena. For example, if a domestic company chooses to contract with an offshore-based provider, there is a defined business risk in the area of disaster recovery and quality. Many of these providers lack experience in our industry and are able to compete solely on price.

PRC is certainly ahead of this trend. With multiple PRC-operated centers in offshore locations, we mitigate our clients' risk by creating an operational strategy that addresses these concerns. Business continuity is built into our model with a percentage of work maintained at one of our domestic centers. The centers are all managed and operated by PRC, our best practices, procedures and client-driven approach with an eye on customer satisfaction.

In the very near future, we'll be opening our nearshore operations, again built on the same solid foundation as our domestic centers.

Although international growth is certainly key, I believe that domestic operations will need to grow as well. PRC serves many industries in which service from an offshore or nearshore location will simply not work. To this end, a dedicated team that understands the intricacies of offshore operations is leading our international efforts. Domestically, our operations leaders continue to focus on their clients and the proactive, partner-oriented approach that has driven our success.

This month, the CEO Spotlight is on Tom Cardella, CEO of Precision Response Corporation, an outsourced provider of customer care services headquartered in Plantation, Florida.

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Tom Cardella CEO, Precision Response Corporation