The state of the industry: time to look at the crystal ball. (Publisher's Outlook).As we begin a new year, it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to asses the state of the industry by asking the following questions: * Is the contact center at a crossroads? * Where's the industry now? * What lies ahead? * What will grow and how fast? * What will not grow and why not? * Who will gain market share? * Who will lose markertshare? * What is the impact of new technology? * What about the offshore market? * Last, but not least, what is the impact of new legislation? Having covered the contact center, call center and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. industry since 1982 when this publication laid the foundation for what is now a multibillion-dollar industry, and as the owner of the registered trademark for Telemarketing telemarketing, the practice of selling goods or services to customers by means of the telephone or of surveying consumer preferences in telephone conversations. [R]', I have had the great pleasure of watching and helping the industry grow from the ground up! I have seen the ups and downs ups and downs pl.n. Alternating periods of good and bad fortune or spirits. ups and downs Noun, pl alternating periods of good and bad luck or high and low spirits , the grief and happiness; I have witnessed teleservices companies as the Darlings of Wall Street and, yes, hotter than most Internet stocks Internet stock The equity security of a company engaged primarily in a business associated with the Internet. Also called dot-com. ! THE CONTACT CENTER AT A CROSSROADS The year 2003 brings new challenges and opportunities for all of us. If we make the "RIGHT DECISION:' we will prosper and if we don't, forget it! Where's The Industry Now And What Lies Ahead? In spite of the current, severe recession, which has forced numerous companies to bankruptcy, the contact center industry has done exceptionally well and as far as I know, not one major and well-managed teleservices company has filed for bankruptcy! In fact, the inbound in·bound 1 adj. Bound inward; incoming: inbound commuter traffic. Adj. 1. inbound sector of the teleservices industry, for example, continues to grow at 30 percent per year every year since 1992. Yes...even in this economy! You might ask why I use the teleservices industry as an example. There are three important reasons for that: 1) Teleservices outsourcing companies List of Outsourcing Firms<ref name="who" /> Revenue (USD) Logo Company Headquarters Country of Largest Employment Service $3300 million work for Corporate America and as such they are a true indicator of what is happening in American business. 2) Their performance and growth is measurable and verifiable as it is based on their billable minutes, as provided to us for our annual Top 50 Teleservices Agencies Rankings. 3) The above information cannot be obtained from inside sales and customer service departments of corporations without great difficulty. Even if one were able to obtain such information from corporate inside sales and customer service, it would be nearly impossible to verify. As far as I am concerned, there are too many unsubstantiated statistics floating around that are generated by people who call themselves "analysts." To the best of my knowledge, most of the analysts that I have come to know are the type of people who could not spell call center last year, but they are "experts" at it this year. Our industry doesn't need more numbers like that. What Will Not Grow And Why Not? Outbound out·bound adj. Outward bound; headed away: outbound trains. Adj. 1. outbound - that is going out or leaving; "the departing train"; "an outward journey"; "outward-bound ships" will not grow for a variety of reasons. The most important of which is anti-contact center legislation dealing with privacy, do-not-call lists and predictive dialer An automatic telephone dialing system that dials from a list of numbers and turns the call over to an agent when a human responds. It increases productivity in a call center, because the agents can spend their time talking rather than waiting for calls to go through as well as hanging up restrictive rule making. In addition, extreme competition has forced drastic price-cutting, which means extremely poor quality service, which in turn creates more restrictive legislation. There is also an absence of innovative applications, which adds to a lack of vigorous growth. (For examples of innovative outbound applications, see the sidebar (1) A Windows Vista desktop panel that holds mini applications (gadgets) such as a calendar, calculator, stock ticker and Vonage phone dialer. It is the Windows counterpart to the Dashboard in the Mac. See Windows Vista and gadget. to this column, written by Dean Brown, vice president of Sales and Marketing of TeleDirect International.) Who Will Gain Market Share? The companies that are blessed with a strong marketing strategy and are able to effectively execute such strategy will gain market share provided: * They properly position themselves. * They are able to effectively differentiate themselves from competition. (Remember, quality alone is NOT a differentiator because everyone claims that!) * They really know how to use integrated marketing and...above all, THEY DON'T STOP marketing and advertising in a recession. On the contrary...that's the time to vastly increase your market share and remember, * PR alone without the above WILL NOT DO IT! Who Will Lose Market Share? Companies who cur cur a derogatory term for a mongrel dog. marketing and promotion budgets, particularly in this economy, will be first to go out of business or nor grow beyond a certain point. Such companies want to get FREE promotion without spending a dime. You have to wonder about them, Separation of Church and State
tr.v. en·ti·tled, en·ti·tling, en·ti·tles 1. To give a name or title to. 2. To furnish with a right or claim to something: , "If Business Gets Any Worse...We Should Probably Start Advertising" http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/0401/0401po.htm. What Is The Impact Of Technology? Great advances in technology in the last few years are beginning to have a profound effect on the industry. Systems have become open, allowing greater interconnectivity between channels and freer data exchange. This freer data exchange has led to the visions of CRM to become practicable, with customer information no longer being siloed, unreachable when the agent needs it most, when dealing with the customer. Data analytics packages are becoming more refined and affordable by a greater number of companies. I look to more companies providing CRM solutions for the mid-market in the coming year, perhaps spurred by the entrance of Microsoft in this market, perhaps spurred by the relatively untapped size of this market segment. Advances in speech technologies are providing many exciting new opportunities for better serving customers, allowing easier access to information. The convergence of the voice and data networks, VoIP and related technologies are providing adopters with greater flexibility for their systems and services capabilities, as well as providing impetus to the decentralization de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. of the contact center and greater offshore opportunities. What About The Offshore Market? These days, it's impossible to discuss outsourcing (1) Contracting with outside consultants, software houses or service bureaus to perform systems analysis, programming and datacenter operations. Contrast with insourcing. See netsourcing, ASP, SSP and facilities management. without at least considering the wide variety of offshore options that seem to crop up almost monthly. Companies may choose to outsource offshore for a variety of reasons: they may perceive that the U.S. call center labor pool is rapped out and go looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. greener pastures PASTURES, pastures. The land on which beasts are fed; and by a grant of pastures the land itself passes. 1 Thorn. Co, Litt. 202. ; they may be looking for cheaper labor; they may be attracted to the generous tax and facilities assistance offered by foreign countries. For all these reasons, the topic of outsourcing offshore is hot right now. But how do you make the decision to go offshore and, once you do, how do you determine nor only which country, but which continent, is right for you? Years ago. outsourcing outside U.S. borders meant crossing the border to Canada; Canada has become a popular option, particularly the Maritime Provinces Maritime Provinces or Maritimes, Canada, term applied to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, which before the formation of the Canadian confederation (1867) were politically distinct from Canada proper. where ready labor pools are available in light of decreases in the former number one industry there: fishing. Additionally, oursourcers are becoming available in the Caribbean at a furious rate: Jamaica is a popular destination right now. But its impossible to discuss outsourcing offshore without bringing up the most talked-about destination, Asia, particularly India and the Philippines. Many Fortune 500 companies have set up contact centers, help desks, back-office functions and software development centers in Asia with a great deal of success. There are pros and cons pros and cons Noun, pl the advantages and disadvantages of a situation [Latin pro for + con(tra) against] about setting up shop in both India and the Philippines, and describing the pros and cons is beyond the scope of this outlook, though both destinations have been covered extensively in this magazine in the last few years. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. research soon to be published by TMC TMC Technology Marketing Corporation (Norwalk, Connecticut) TMC Texas Medical Center (Houston, TX) TMC Traffic Message Channel TMC The Movie Channel TMC Traffic Management Center Research in The Worldwide Teleservices Outsourcing Market: Analysis & Forecast, 2002-2003 (to purchase a copy of the report, call Bruce Hirsch at 203-852-6800, ext. 130 or see www.tmcnet.com/research), there are a variety of challenges facing U.S. teleservices agencies. Respondents from teleservices agencies cited the following challenges, in order of importance: * Pricing -- 21% * International competition -- 17% * Legislation -- 16% * Competition with in-house centers -- 14% * Turnover -- 10% * Equipment costs -- 9% * Hiring -- 7% * Expansion -- 3% * Consumer rejection/Caller ID -- 3%. As one can see from the figures above, turnover and hiring are a problem for teleservices agencies. When asked what obstacles to hiring they faced, they responded as follows: * Area is saturated with other teleservices agencies -- 33% * Wage demands too high -- 29% * Located in a high employment area -- 17% * Located in an unskilled labor market labor market A place where labor is exchanged for wages; an LM is defined by geography, education and technical expertise, occupation, licensure or certification requirements, and job experience -- 12% * Position is undesirable to the local labor market 5% * Regional accents too strong -- 3%. On the consumer side of the report, respondents who are potential purchasers of teleservices outsourcing services pointed out the areas in Chart i as areas they would consider for outsourcing offshore. Of the potential consumers for releservices who responded to the survey, those with concerns about offshore outsourcing Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions in a country other than the one where the product or service will be sold or consumed. outnumbered Outnumbered is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One in 2007.[1] It stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a mother and father who are outnumbered by their three children. those who did not have concerns about offshore outsourcing 62 percent to 38 percent. The concerns they have about offshore outsourcing ranked as follows: * Difficulty with ongoing management of program/quality concerns -- 19% * Agents' accents -- 18% * Cost of travel for setup/training/management -- 15% * Inexperience Inexperience See also Innocence, Naïveté. Bowes, Major Edward (1874–1946) originator and master of ceremonies of the Amateur Hour on radio. [Am. of offshore call center outsourcers -- 14% * Turmoil in global areas -- 13% * Loss of control of campaigns -- 12% * Lack of familiarity with offshore outsourcing -- 9%. To counter the pressures of international competition, U.S. teleservices agencies will have to begin to develop areas of expertise at which they excel, which differentiate them from others. As is shown in this research, a surprising 38% of potential teleservices outsourcing customers have no concerns about offshore outsourcing, so U.S. companies must continue to work their hardest to improve their quality and their offerings, and make themselves indispensable partners to their clients if they expect to continue to prosper in the coming years. Here's How You Can Get The Teleservices Outsourcing Report You can purchase The Worldwide Teleservices Outsourcing Market: Analysis & Forecast, 2002-2003 report at www.tmcnet.com/research or by contacting Bruce Hirsch at 203-852-6800 or 800-243-6002, ext. 130 or e-mail Bruce at bhirsch@tmcnet.com. What Is The Impact Of New Legislation? New legislation must not limit legitimate business practices and adversely affect commerce, but marketers must also always keep in mind the needs and preferences of their customers and never abuse them. As always, I maintain that relemarketing should be a part of an integrated marketing campaign and in the best use of relemarketing inbound must feed outbound. We will be sure to cover legislative developments and their impact on the industry in the coming year. As always, I welcome your comments. Sincerely, Nadji Tehrani Nadji Tehrani is an American businessman, the founder and CEO of Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), which publishes magazines and runs conferences devoted to the business of telemarketing, a word on which Tehrani himself holds a registered trademark. TMC Chairman, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and Executive Group Publisher ntehrani@tmcnet.com reas of customer interest for offshore outsourcing. South Africa 2% India 22% Latin/South America 18% The Philippines 17% The Caribbean 15% Europe 14% China 9% Canada 3% Note: Table made from Pie Chart |
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