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DSC Tech Library
Telemarketing Services
Organizations looking for outbound and inbound telemarketing services can outsource their IVR and voice broadcasting projects at our affordable telemarketing center. As designers of Interactive Voice Response IVR systems and Voice Broadcasting software, Database Systems Corp. (DSC) is uniquely positioned to manage your outsourcing programs saving your company both time and money. Because our products are created in-house, we can deliver comprehensive telemarketing services quickly -- providing you with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Plus you will find our inbound and outbound telemarketing outsourcing services to be quite affordable.
The following is an article relating to the telemarketing industry including products and services in our business areas.
Can Sector Warm the Public to Cold Calling?
The following is an extract from the article "Can Sector Warm the Public to Cold Calling?" from Contact Center Today:
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Although telemarketing still appears to be a thriving business, selling around US$5.7 billion worth of goods and services every year, the study makes grim reading. It reveals that 40 percent of companies have experienced decreasing numbers of sales resulting from telemarketing in the past year.
There can be little question that the UK telemarketing industry is in the throes of a consumer backlash. Industry bosses agree that a lethal cocktail of increasingly restrictive legislation, offshoring and new technology allowing consumers to stop incoming calls has slowly been poisoning the sector, making business a lot tougher for its thousands of employees.
The industry has taken a continual beating from negative press and soaring numbers of people signing up to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). It is estimated that some 6,000 phone numbers are added every day. Meanwhile, the number of outbound telemarketing calls being made is rocketing, with growth in call volumes being fueled by the use of predictive dialers. The result is "data burnout," with the pool of targets rapidly drying up.
Experts think the future looks bleak for the beleaguered sector -- cold calling in particular. Death of the cold call, a scathing report from contact center customer management consultancy CM Insight, goes as far as to predict the death of the telemarketing sector will strike within five years.
But is this doomsday scenario really a possibility, or is the report simply written to scare a sector "locked in a policy of proliferation" into action? And if the industry really is in a cycle of self-destruction, what steps can be taken to ensure its survival?
Although telemarketing still appears to be a thriving business, selling around US$5.7 billion worth of goods and services every year, the study makes grim reading. It reveals that 40 percent of companies have experienced decreasing numbers of sales resulting from telemarketing in the past year -- a trend that the paper says is likely to continue. Some 57 percent expect the public to become less accepting of cold calls, and 73 percent expect legislation and regulation from the UK and Europe to become increasingly restrictive.
The report also warns about the dangers of industry-specific legislation, such as the Financial Services Authority's ban on cold selling of mortgage products, to be introduced in October. CM Insight says this move will squeeze the sector further, and may have a knock-on effect on financial services, energy and telecoms sales.
Mike Havard is managing director at CM Insight and co-author of the study, as well as special adviser to industry body the Call Center Association. He explains that the problem stems from untargeted telemarketing campaigns undermining the sector.
Havard says: "Much of the industry could be at risk if companies continue to bombard consumers and businesses with unwanted, irrelevant sales calls. Consumer resistance is causing falling returns and fuelling calls for stronger legislation.
"In the end, that means the economics just won't stack up -- it will no longer make sense for companies to try to win business by cold calling. Many people won't be sorry if these calls stop, but the impact on telemarketing and UK businesses will be significant."
He adds: "Many companies rely on cold calling as a primary means of winning new customers. If that route is no longer available, their business will be under threat."
The report urges companies to move away from telemarketing towards other marketing channels, such as digital TV, sponsorship and the Internet. It also outlines a survival strategy, "options for action," which points to best practice as a key way to combat consumer resistance.
It adds: "Companies must pursue the golden rules: be focused, relevant, respectful and upfront. Every call makes an impression, so if a call is ill-managed, it establishes a lingering bad impression."
The worst excesses of the industry are carried out by "telemarketing cowboys" and include recorded and silent calls. BT says it currently receives around 112,000 queries a month from consumers complaining about silent calls, while a recent NOP survey, commissioned by the DMA (UK), revealed that 37 percent of people registering on the TPS file were doing so to protect themselves from silent calls.
Deborah Terry, head of outbound at British Gas, says: "While it is by no means the end for telemarketing, there are rogue businesses that are destroying our sector through bad practice."
British Gas says it has witnessed an overall increase in its sales conversion rates through telemarketing, but is cutting back on its use of the channel to focus more on its inbound services as part of a five-year plan....."
To view the entire article, visit www.contact-center-today.com.
© 2005 Centaur Communications Ltd.
Telemarketing Mortgage Leads - Database Systems Corp. provides products and services for the telemarketing industry. Products include predictive dialers and call center phone systems. These systems are ideally suited for generating and tracking mortgage leads.
Mortgage Marketing Leads - Database Systems Corp. provides products and services for processing mortgage loan leads. Products include phone dialers and mortgage loan processing software for loan officers including generating and tracking mortgage leads.
Mortgage Loan Software - Mortgage software and telemarketing mortgage loan processing software for online management of loan applications. Used in conjunction with mortgage predictive dialers and phone systems.
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