Talking about Telemarketing Today

I tend to be an optimist--a believer in the goodness of humanity. I like to think that my world of direct response marketing is filled with only completely honest, innovative people who enjoy the business of targeting the right offer to the right person, and, in doing so ultimately benefit with good sales and a nice profit margin.

Of course, the world at large, the general public, typically thinks the exact opposite. We're junk mailers, awful people who fill our in-boxes with SPAM and dishonest pests who call us just when we're picking up our forks to eat dinner. Well, unfortunately, sometimes the general public is right...

See this article about what's being called the "largest telemarketing scam in a quarter century."

It's about a company called Strategia Marketing, who the FTC accuses of cheating "thousands of Americans out of tens, and perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars."

"The FTC maintains Strategia Marketing operated for several years under at least 15 different business names. Investigators say telemarketers called consumers to offer ‘free’ trial memberships in discount buyer and travel clubs and later charged consumers for a series of programs without their knowledge."

Hmmm. I guess this is a tad worse than simply annoying people when they're trying to enjoy a nice dinner.

And, then there's been lots of talk lately about how the Do Not Call is just about to hit the 5-year mark. Remember, after 5 years from your original registration, you'll have to re-register your phone number to ensure that you won't receive telemarketing calls. This is making lots of people hopping mad.

And, legislators tend to agree. There are a couple of bills recently introduced that will make DNC registration permanent. See this article for good detail.

Well, I think it goes back to this--what is good for the consumer? And, as much as I hate the fact that when my legitimate clients want to implement a telemarketing campaign, there are so few non-DNC phone numbers available, I have to agree with the proposed legislation. If someone added their phone number to the DNC and they haven't moved, or changed their phone number, why make them re-register? There's nothing that says that now, all of a sudden, they want to be telemarketing calls. Of course they don't.

Finally, when we read about the illegal scams like those reported today, telemarketing continues to get a bad rep. Which, of course, will result in more people adding their phone number to the Do Not Call Registry.

What say you--is telemarketing dead? Or, is it a viable direct marketing channel?

Harnessing Passionistas Through Digital Media

Well, thanks to our friends at Yahoo! we have a new study and a new title for a group of passionate consumers. The Yahoo! study, which was entitled"Passionistas: The New Empowered Consumers, tracked the online behavior of consumers with specific passions including health, sports, food and entertainment, and it showed that Passionistas spend significantly more time engaged in activities related to their passions than the average consumer." Hence, the name!

And it really is quite interesting. When you think about it, whenever individuals are passionate about anything, they tend to spend more time thinking and talking about whatever it is. Here are some highlights from Yahoo!'s study:

-- For every one minute a typical Internet user spends online with the same content, Passionistas spend six minutes.

-- Passionistas will visit a website related to their passion three times more than a typical user.

-- Passionistas search online for information about their passion 184 percent more than typical users and conduct more than 100 related searches related to their passion per year.

-- Passionistas heavily engage with communities of like-minded consumers who use email, text messaging, and instant messaging significantly more than typical users, and are more likely to create and share user-generated content online such as photos, blog posts or videos about their passions. Because of their intense engagement around sharing information about their passions through digital media, Passionistas are natural brand advocates and 52% more likely than typical users to recommend or influence others about brands aligning with them.

Wow! So how can direct marketers successfully find these passionate folks and make them passionate about their specific products and services? Well, Mark McLaughlin, Vice President of Audience Strategies at Yahoo! states it this way: "Marketers who build their campaigns from the start with the goal of tapping into passions are inviting consumers to get engaged and create an authentic dialogue."

In addition, the study found that timing is critical in making a connection with passionate-types of consumers. For example, noteworthy events such as "Britney Spears' appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, the beginning of the NFL season, the premier of a new TV show, or the opening of a new restaurant" get our passionate crowd going! These types of "triggers" make Passionistas excited about the topic of their passion and get them to become engaged in all sorts of sharing activities, like blogging, IM'ing, or participating in some other type of social media. In fact, Jim Kite, President of Connections Research and Analytics at MediaVest, states that, "Accessing Passionistas online also offers the ability to track this valuable group's media consumption habits, enabling brands to optimally -- and accountably -- leverage their advocacy power."

This is why we are so excited about utilizing social media/marketing channels as part of our overall marketing strategy. How better to get prospects and customers involved in what you sell than to get them to do all of the talking about it? Picture this: Consumers are online shopping, blogging, sharing links, etc., about what you offer . . . and there simply is no better advertising than word-of-mouth. It is the ultimate testimonial about the greatness and value of your product or service.

We advise you to take a look at this excellent study -- and thanks to the creative folks at Yahoo! for bringing these compelling results to us.

Another Data Breach...

This time it's at Ameritrade, where 6.3 million customer records were compromised. Yesterday's DM News reported: Ameritrade lost 6.3 million names from database

"TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, an online brokerage company, said one of its databases was hacked into and the personal information for more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. The company found malicious code in one of its databases."

These data breaches are happening all too often. In July, we posted about a data breach at Fidelity where a disgruntled employee stole over 2 million customer records.

Now, I do realize that it's extremely difficult to stop hackers and bad people (especially in-the-know employees). However, it's so important to the direct marketing industry that we nip this in the bud. If we intend to store customer information, we absolutely better ensure its safety. We need to invest in the right people, technology and practices to make it virtually impossible for the wrong people to access sensitive information.

If we don't do it, and do it now, I guarantee that some ambitious legislators will get involved. And, I think we all would agree that we don't need to work within more rules and legislation...

Customer Service Excellence

Often, we've spoken of the importance of bridging the gap between sales and marketing. A key outcome of accomplishing this is more highly satisfied customers. The way your company interacts with customers before, during and after the sales process is as important as any other element in your marketing strategy. In fact, some argue that it is the most important piece of your marketing strategy.

Case in point . . . in an article from Inside Retailing, author Alison Higgins-Miller talks about the "Customer Service Paradox." Higgins-Miller states that "while CRM systems and customer retention are key focuses for retailers, customer service is not yet seen as a core part of customer retention efforts. I suggest that, in light of the ongoing empowerment of consumers, customer service deserves equal billing with sales and marketing in a retailers’ priorities list." She also argues that the ability for a customer to complain -- then have that complaint resolved successfully -- creates a better customer relationship than one in which there was no complaint. In other words, the consumer was able to effectively interact with the company and experience first-hand (hopefully) great customer service. This great experience leaves a more lasting impression in the mind of the consumer and when they go to purchase again, they think of that company who demonstrated that they cared the last time around.

Excellent customer service also helps marketing and sales better position and sell more product. As Higgins-Miller discusses, "Further, in light of increasing skepticism and immunity towards sales and marketing messages, an effective customer service operation can often become an important marketing channel for an organization. For example, one retail organization emails its customers with regular hints and tips for consumer electronics products they have bought. This is not only appreciated by the customer as a useful, post-sales communication but an opportunity to cross- and up-sell relevant products and services. "

Overall, the importance of fostering a culture of excellent customer service cannot be overstated. From culture to technology to processes, a company can create excellence in customer service. You can start with the basics, and build from there. Higgins-Miller talks about six areas to consider as you look to create excellence in customer service in your business:

Define your strategy -- The first step in creating better customer service is to determine which strategy or strategies are most applicable to your business today. Some organizations start with the simplest approaches, and build from there. Others are more aggressive, using customer service as a communications channel from day one. As part of this it’s vital to listen to your customers and identify their needs, so any strategy developed is in line with their needs.
Assess your technology needs -- Customer service departments are most effective when they are empowered by the correct technology and able to offer the customer multiple contact channels. To provide the customer insight necessary to address a customer enquiry or complaint, for example, it's vital to have a CRM system in place that captures relevant information across all these communication channels and presents this to frontline staff as useful knowledge.
Embrace customer centricity --To deliver first-class customer experiences, the whole organization must make the customer the focus of their efforts and develop new business processes that enable it to provide seamless customer experiences. These processes must often cross departmental boundaries. Marketing departments, for example may be called upon to define new customer-opportunity profiles. Companies that want to achieve top-level customer service must have the ability and commitment necessary to design and implement these innovative business processes.
Empower customers to help themselves -- Provide customers with an individual portal area where they can see all sales and logistics information, perhaps even track queries or complaints. Enable customer to opt in and out of communications from this portal and adjust their preferences. Provide customers with a dynamic knowledgebase of questions, answers, tutorials etc. where they can find answers to their questions themselves. This knowledgebase can also be used internally by frontline staff to help customers with their queries.
Engage your customers proactively -- Don’t wait for customers to voice their concerns directly, regular proactive communications around products and service satisfaction can identify any problems before they get out of hand. Customer feedback will also help your organization to measure customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
Clarity of vision --It's hard to get somewhere - or lead others in the right direction - if you do not know your destination. To improve customer service, managers need to have a strong sense of how customer interaction histories can be leveraged to discover revenue opportunities.

We agree with Higgins-Miller. These are some great areas to take a look at to begin thinking about improving your own customer service arena. Certainly, after giving these six areas some thought, you will be armed with some good data to improve your customer's experiences with your company. And by engaging all areas of the company, you will change the culture of your company to one that creates excellent customer experiences.

What is Your Data Quality Gameplan?

If you are frequent readers of our blog, you know that one of the subjects that we are most passionate about is that of maximizing good data quality. Data quality can make or break your direct marketing success -- and it's been proven time and again. We are always amazed when we run into those who have not adopted this mantra -- and the resulting dollars that are wasted on marketing with dirty data. It's all about data cleanliness, my friends -- and there is simply no way to market effectively without clean, quality data.

In fact, QAS has recently posted several articles about this very subject. In their most recent post, they post some of our very favorite kind of proof -- dollars! According to the article, "Businesses across the US are expected to have increased their budgets for direct marketing as they see the potential benefits of campaigns launched on the back of effective data quality systems, according to new figures. The latest Media Business Report from Jack Myers revealed that traditional types of marketing, including direct mail, continue to be popular among businesses of all sizes. Based on current rate of growth, the group has forecast that total direct marketing budgets across the country will increase by 3.6 per cent in 2007." Now, that's music to our ears for sure!
It seems like such a simple equation-- so why doesn't everyone just do it? Well, in order to consistently clean and manage your data, it takes both a time and a financial investment. However, even with the use of very simple techniques, like widely-available, inexpensive data hygiene tools, you can distinctly improve your data quality in short order.

It is very important to fully understand what your company actually needs when you look at data quality tools. There are those firms out there that have expensive, sexy data management and integration tools that are very effective -- but only necessary in some circumstances. When beginning to look at your data and database to determine what types of data cleansing tools and techniques you need in your particular company, start with a hard look at exactly what you are trying to accomplish. If you aren't sure, bring in an expert (like us!) to help you assess your situation and wade through the many different tools and solutions that are out there in the market. It's just as important not to over-spend in this area as it is to actually bring the tools in themselves. For more of our tips on this, take a look at our Data Quality Whitepaper. We wrote this Whitepaper based upon our experiences in assisting our clients in implementing sound data quality practices. It outlines some of the pitfalls to avoid -- and these will definitely be helpful to you as you assess your own particular situation.

The good news for us direct marketing types, is that direct marketing budgets are expected to increase -- yahoo! As the article states, "In comparison, several other areas of traditional media advertising, including yellow pages, are expected to grow by less than one per cent as marketers react to poor rates of return."

We'll take our 3.6% all day long!

New Direct Marketing Resource

We've long used NextMark as part of our tool-kit. NextMark offers a service to search for mailing or e-mail lists. They compile a directory of just about any database that's out there and up for sale. You can get datacards with pricing and universe counts right off their service. The tool has saved us countless phone calls and really makes our (sometimes) job of being list brokers so much easier.

Well, today DM News published an article about NextMark's expansion of their directory. NextMark unveils directory of marketing service providers

"Users can search for marketing service providers by name, by services provided or by market specialty.

Service categories cover list/media procurement, creative, data enrichment, list preparation, direct mail production, delivery, response handling and response analysis. Vendors matching the user’s criteria are displayed on a Google map and also in an alphabetical listing."

A while ago, I posted about some other useful (and free) resources that make my day-to-day job as a direct marketer easier. Check this post out for good demographic look-up tools, ZIP code finders and other helpful tools.

In any event, this new NextMark service promises to be super useful, and best of all: "Use of the directory is free."

CRM Alert: New CRM Blog Added to Keep us Up-to-Date

There's a new blog that is devoted specifically to all of the happenings around Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It's brought to us by the folks at CRMIndustry.com, which is a fabulous website that gives direct marketers the ability to research different CRM applications, and review the different research that is being conducted in the CRM landscape. Their blog is published on a regular basis and it consists of highlights and newsworthy items specific to CRM. For those of us who keep track of these things, this is a nice resource tool to utilize as we assist our clients in building more profitable customer relationships. And, as blog aficionados, we're always happy to see well-written, information-packed blogs available for our reading pleasure.

Carolyn Healey is the creator of the company, the website and the blog, and she has some excellent experience. She is actually a microcosm of what has transpired in CRM over the last 10 years. She started out with a website dedicated to helping service and support centers effectively manage customer relationships. This was before CRM became our favorite acronym. In 2001, she launched CRMIndustry.com and a year later, RecognizeServiceExcellence.com. All of these websites focus on different areas of creating satisfied and loyal customers. This is a subject that we, too, are passionate about, and we applaud Carolyn's efforts.

Take a look at her new blog (actually, she has blogs related to all three of her websites). We think you'll enjoy her posts and insight on the goings-on within CRM.