Category: Business

Business articles by Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

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Business

Bombay Calling

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I recently stumbled onto a TV program entitled Bombay Calling. It was about an offshore call center, providing a compelling exposé of an India-based outsourcing call center and the people who worked there. In a gripping documentary style, it showed both the good and the bad in offshore call centers.

Just as proponents of offshoring would find plenty to celebrate, opponents would likewise be encouraged. I was both mesmerized and saddened by what I saw.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Although I have been privileged to visit many call centers in the United States, I have not had the opportunity to tour an offshore operation. Through the eye of the camera, I was fascinated to witness a call center in a culture for which I was not too familiar, functioning in a manner that was very familiar.

I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the same call center conventions repeated in this overseas operation (with only a few adaptations to accommodate culture). I was greatly encouraged with the bright-eyed, enthusiastic workforce, their can-do spirit, and an optimistic outlook. How wonderful it would be to have a call center—regardless of location—filled with reps like these; but, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The show begins by introducing us to Kaz Lalani. Not only does he outsource calls to Bombay, India, but he also operates call centers in other countries. Kaz boasts that his Indian reps have a strong work ethic.

They try hard and really care—unlike agents in Britain, he states (which is where this outbound campaign is targeted). His experience with British agents was not positive.

He says they don’t want to work and are always watching the clock, leaving the moment their scheduled shift is over. Not so with their Indian counterparts, who work hard and eagerly stay late when needed.

There is an air of joyous excitement and capable confidence among the agents. The call center is filled with hard-working, fun-loving staff who enjoy their co-workers, their jobs, and the work they do.

Staff interviews reveal why. “It’s a great job, for good pay,” states one agent, “even for an undergrad.” Another boasts that he makes more than his girlfriend—even though she has a graduate degree. A third employee dropped out of engineering school for the express purpose of pursuing a call center career.

As astounding as all this seems, the average starting pay for a call center agent in Bombay was reported to be more that four times the average Indian income. This is why young people to leave rural areas for call center work in Bombay.

This does cause some angst, both for parents—who lament a loss of tradition—and their children—who must adapt to city life without the nearby help of family. Nevertheless, there is a general acquiescence to the situation.

Several of the agents send money back home, pay bills for their parents, or do things to increase the standard of living for their family; all of which is made possible by their call center jobs.

With even more call centers opening in Bombay, these agents are acutely aware of the great demand for their English-speaking skills. They perceive this ability as their unrestricted ticket to opportunity and success.

A paradoxical aside is that the show’s producers occasionally resorted to subtitles for some of their English-speaking interviewees—a necessary decision, which, by my reckoning, was not made often enough.

Eight months later, the call center is hurriedly expanding. They are calling Australia (first shift) and the U.K. (second shift). Some reps have been promoted to training, supervisory, and QA positions. However, the dark-side of their sharp rise in income is beginning to show.

One rep proudly admits that he has become materialistic; another longs for more time to spend with his wife and child; a third wants to leave the call center, but can’t—he has become accustomed to his new standard of living.

Many of the reps are now complaining about the stress of the job—and they turn to partying and alcohol—every night—to dull the pain.

With the rapid expansion, not all of the new hires are ideal and some do not work out; sales numbers plummet. Some reps aren’t concerned—they’ll just go to another center; others are worried, but at a loss what to do.

One once-confident rep has lost his swagger—he has gone two days without a sale—and has a shell-shocked glaze.

This call center is no longer producing like it used to—or like the others ones in the network. An ultimatum is given. Some agents are sent to retraining, others are terminated. The call center is now a somber and dreary place.

A pall hangs over the cubicles; the optimism is gone. Eventually the operation is scaled back to 25 agents—some of the agents we met survive the cuts, others do not. Kaz turns his concentration to other call centers.

In Bombay, call center work is truly changing the lives of it’s agents—for better and for worse.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Respect Your Existing Business Relationship Status

Unrestrained Marketing Can Drive Business Away

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

In most cases, businesses face legal restrictions when it comes to calling residential phone numbers. Aside from some carved-out exemptions, the one key exception is if there is an existing business relationship (EBR) between the company and the person they’re calling.

So, if you’re only making existing business relationship calls, you may think you have nothing to worry about, right? Not so fast. Just because it’s legal to dial that number doesn’t mean you should.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Simply put, calling too often or for the wrong reasons could turn an EBR into a former EBR. This happened when I retaliated against a company that was overcalling me—and others could do it to you.

I used to have a subscription to the local paper. Since I only had time to read it on the weekends, those were the only days I received it. This was an ideal arrangement, one which I would have gladly continued if not for overzealous telemarketing.

One evening, during dinner, I received a call from an enthusiastic employee of the paper. They had a special upgrade price so that I could enjoy the paper all week long. When would I like to start?

I explained that I only wanted the paper on the weekends. Receiving it when I didn’t have time to read it would only serve to make me feel guilty—either for wasting time by reading it or for wasting money by not reading it. The agent laughed and said she understood.

A few months later, I received another call with the same offer from a different rep.

I assumed turnover had occurred and no one recorded my preference for weekend-only delivery. (So much for an effective customer relationship management system—CRM). I repeated my explanation and again stated my desire for weekend-only delivery.

These calls became a regular occurrence, and I grew increasingly annoyed. Sometimes the interval was two or three months, other times only a couple of weeks, and once it was two days. They always came at an inopportune time.

No one seemed to realize that no matter how often they offered it, I wasn’t going to upgrade my subscription. Even when they offered it at no added cost, I declined, citing my concern over landfills.

I even asked them to stop calling, but they ignored me.

My frustration with their continued phone calls grew to where it exceeded my satisfaction from reading their paper. I realized that by canceling my subscription, the EBR provision would soon cease to be a factor, and I would have legal recourse should they continue to harass me.

I expected that the ploy to cancel my subscription would give me one final opportunity to stop the phone calls—and continue receiving the paper, without telemarketing. I was wrong.

Incredibly, when I called to cancel my subscription, no one asked why or gave me a chance to explain that their incessant calls irritated me.

Most surprising of all—especially given their proclivity for phoning me—no one made a follow-up call, even though there was a window of opportunity for them to phone and win me back. They never tried.

But the unwelcomed calls stopped.

I do miss the paper—at least a bit. Though I’ve switched to other national and regional news sources, I’m out of the loop on local happenings. But it’s a small price to pay to avoid the incessant dinnertime interruptions to sell me something I’ve repeatedly declined.

The paper thought they were safe by placing calls that met all legal requirements, but they were wrong. Their unbridled calling turned a happy reader into an irritated former reader.

I wonder how many other subscriptions they lost because of their legal, but unrestrained, calling practices to people where they had an existing business relationship ?

Marketing Tactics Success Tip

When it comes to contacting customers, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

The Politics of Calling

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

With the fall elections in the United States now in our rear-view mirror, we can now take a calmer look at what happened. In the days preceding the election, more than one person shared with me their eagerness for the voting to come to a conclusion.

Quite succinctly, their common refrain was, “I’m sick of all political commercials—and especially the phone calls.”

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Here are some of my observations:

  • Unlike in the past, I did not receive one live call. Not even a “don’t forget to vote” reminder.
  • The number of recorded messages I received this year, far outpaced the total number of automated and live calls during past campaigns.
  • My mother, part of the senior citizen demographic, received about three times the number of automated political calls that I received.
  • People do not understand why they receive these calls when they are on the “Do Not Call” (DNC) list—and they are angry about it. (Our self-serving elected officials conveniently exempted themselves from the DNC legislation.)
  • My wife’s common response is to lay the receiver down (or put the call on hold) and walk away. It’s her small way of retaliation.
  • I never listened to more than a few seconds of a single robo call I received.

Therefore, our politicians calls should consider:

  • Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it right. Check numbers against the DNC list when making political calls. Those who signed up did so for a reason. Calling them will only make them mad, cause them to assume you or your client are breaking the law, or both.
  • Don’t overcall people. Even if you have them donations to call the same number multiple times, don’t do it—especially not on the same day!
  • Don’t mislead people and do provide responsible discloser. Email messages must contain legitimate subject lines; print and broadcast ads must state who paid for the ad; and mailed messages have their own content requirements. Apply these reasonable and accepted practices to recorded messages—people have grown to expect this from other channels, provide it on calls as well.

Given the electorate’s outcry over robo calls, specifically, and political calling, in general, we can expect the practice will come under greater scrutiny.

To address this, our elected officials will adopt a more regulatory attitude towards telemarketing and robo calling, even though they, in part, contributed to the problem, causing some of the exact voter angst they are seeking to appease.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Fax Removal Line: A Lesson in Futility

Unethical Business Practices Hurt Everyone

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

The deluge of phone calls was not how I wanted to start my week. These calls slammed my company’s sales line—with complaints against another company. What unfolded was a revealing look at the ugliness of unethical marketing tactics.

Though I haven’t had a fax machine in years, there was a time when most businesses did. This story harkens from that era, yet its lessons remain relevant today and apply to the present use of email, phone calls, and social media.

Be sure not to repeat this mistake of yesterday in how you use technology today.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Fine Print

The calls came from irate—and often not-too-polite individuals—thinking they were calling a fax removal line. They had received an unwanted fax solicitation from a travel company offering 75 percent off Florida and Bahamas cruise vacations.

Not impressed, these angry people called the fax removal line listed in the fine print at the bottom of the fax to stop the unwelcome intrusions.

The problem was that, between a too-small font and the low reproduction quality of faxes, two fives in the removal phone number looked like two sixes, matching our sales phone number.

With voicemail now screening the calls to our sales line (even a recording saying that callers had not reached the fax removal line did not stop them from leaving their information—along with a piece of their angst), I turned my attention toward averting a reoccurrence of this fiasco.

The solution seemed straightforward. Call the number in the ad, ask for a manager, explain the situation, and request that future faxes use a larger point size to display the fax removal number. Boy was I naive.

Boiler Room

I called the phone number in their ad. An agent who cared nothing for professionalism or customer service answered. The cacophony in the background confirmed I’d reached a call center boiler room.

Once the agent realized I didn’t want to hear her spiel for vacation cruises, she became even less interested in my call. I realized my explanation was futile, so I asked to speak to a supervisor. She hung up on me.

Fuming, I called again, this time reaching a different agent. “Someone just hung up on me,” I said and launched into my story.

This rep cut me off. “I’ll have your fax number removed from our list,” she said with irritation. I tried anew to explain. She responded with the same words, only louder.

“No, you don’t understand,” I pleaded.

“Yes, I do understand,” she yelled back.

I demanded to speak with a manager. I waited on hold for several minutes. After a long delay, a dial tone greeted me.

Hiding

By now, I was furious. I searched online for a different means of contact. Their company name revealed three matches: a forum post complaining about the company, a listing that gave a street address, and a website covering fraud and scams, with the contributor mentioning timeshares and “bait and switch.”

The street address gave me two matches in California. I switched to the satellite view, which showed both addresses in residential areas. That didn’t help.

I searched online for their phone number. This brought up the prior post about fraud and a number look-up service. These people did not want me to find them.

Any ethical business would have a website and list contact options. But when a sales and marketing outfit works under the covert darkness of anonymity, it’s reasonable to assume they have something to hide.

I suspected a service bureau had sent the fax. This same scenario had occurred before. That ad was for a different company, and they did not use a call center.

This time I gave up on the deadbeat marketing company, turning my attention to the fax service bureau that was complicit in the mess.

I called the real fax-removal number. I reached a recording, with no way to talk to a person or leave a message. I pressed zero—many times. It tried to remove phone number 000-000-0000. It was already “removed.”

Next, I searched online using the fax removal number and got no matches. The faxing service company, it seems, didn’t want me to call them either.

Lessons Learned

Even now, I shake my head with disbelief. These types of unrestrained activities and fly-by-night antics by an unscrupulous few have caused problems in the past—and they continue to do so now. This madness must end.

At the risk of stating the obvious, here are some recommendations that apply to all businesses:

  • Train staff to be polite and professional. Retrain or terminate those who won’t conform.
  • Don’t hang up on callers.
  • Transfer calls to a supervisor or manager whenever asked.
  • Make it easy for people to find and contact you. This means having a website and listing your phone number, along with other contact methods.
  • Don’t use bait and switch tactics.
  • Police your staff so they don’t take shortcuts or treat customers badly when it doesn’t serve their interests.
  • Compensate your staff for the results you want. If you only pay for closed sales, expect nothing else from them.
  • Don’t force customers to use automated solutions.
  • Provide a way out of automation. Let them press zero for an operator or at least leave a message.
  • Offer an alternative means of contact, such as email or even snail mail.
  • Don’t send illegal or unethical faxes, emails, or chat messages. Don’t make illegal phone calls.
  • If you perform services for other companies, don’t work with unscrupulous clients.

Since you’re reading this book, you don’t need this advice. But others do. I hope these words will somehow find their way into the hands of a manager or business owner who needs to reform their sales and marketing practices and do right for their customers and prospects.

Marketing Management Success Tip

Confirm that your marketing practices are legal and ethical. Then review your staff’s training. Work to make sure they represent your company with excellence, every time.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Digital Advertising is Being Clobbered by Traditional Media

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

“Digital Advertising is Being Clobbered by Traditional Media,” so reads the headline from TradingMarkets.com, PIworld.com, and others in summarizing research reported by Zussi Research in August 2010.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

The report notes that contrary to the hype surrounding online advertising, traditional advertising is perceived as more informative and necessary than online advertising.

Additionally, 69 percent feel that traditional advertising is relevant to them, versus only 45 percent for online. Interestingly, for the 25-34 year old demographic, the gap widens, with 81 percent feeling that traditional is relevant versus only 53 percent for online.

Furthermore, annoyance with online advertising is twice that of traditional advertising, with many online users irritated at the annoying tricks often used to grab attention.

These findings are something to keep in mind when planning your advertising mix for next year.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Don’t Miss the Economic Recovery

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

As our economy—both in the US and globally—begins to slowly emerge from recession, now is the ideal time to revisit your marketing strategies.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

For companies that scaled back their advertising expenditures during the downturn, it is advisable to ramp up marketing efforts as buyers ready themselves to make those purchases that have been on hold. Missing this window of opportunity opens the door for your competition to get your sales.

For those who were able to maintain their level of advertising, as is the recommended strategy, take a critical look at your ads.  Is it time to update them? Do they need a redesign or some new graphics? Should you make a fresh, innovative offer? If you’ve run the same ads for more than a year, the answer is likely yes.

Finishing this year with a strong advertising push will set the stage for a successful 2011.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

The Benefits and Perils of Digital Publication

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

It seems that every other week there is a study extolling the virtues and desirability of digital publications. They make such claims as:

  • increased engagement (that is, more time spent with the issue),
  • greater appreciation for rich media (video, audio, slide shows, and so forth), and
  • improved esteem for the publication

While I don’t dispute findings such as these, their survey base can render any conclusions as errant. The problem is that surveys about digital publications involve talking with those who use digital publications.

These folks elected to go digital because they prefer that format, therefore they will view it favorably, just as the surveys prove.

However, ask these same digital-centric questions of print subscribers and the opposite findings will most assuredly result: decreased engagement, less appreciation (that is, irritation) with rich media, and lowered esteem for the publication.

Again, this follows naturally. Readers using print do so because they prefer it. In comparison to digital, print subscribers will most likely have:

  • increased engagement (more time spent with the issue),
  • greater appreciation for traditional print advertising, and
  • improved esteem for the publication

It all depends on who you ask as to the results you will obtain. If the majority of subscribers opt for print, don’t project the opinions of digital readers on the entire subscriber base. Doing so will result in wrong conclusions and bad strategic decisions.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Why Do-Not-Track is a Bad Idea

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

As if marketers don’t have enough to worry about, the FTC is reportedly considering a “Do-Not-Track” registry. This would allow consumers to sign up to have their Web browsing activity hidden from advertisers.

(This effort comes after the consumer favorite “Do-Not-Call” bill, which decimated the telemarketing industry and reportedly cost millions of jobs. There have also been “Do-Not-Mail” efforts, prompting me to somewhat facetiously write an article called “The Impending Do-Not-Market Threat.”)

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

The details of how a “Do-Not-Track” regulation would be accomplished are lacking at this time. But I can’t imagine how this could be effectively implemented, tracked, and enforced. It seems that it would be rife with abuse—and essentially ignored.

As a consumer, I see value in allowing advertisers access to this information, as it theoretically presents me with ads in which I might have interest, as opposed to ads that I find offensive or which have no interest.

However, I do see the privacy aspect of this. It seems to me that a simple solution resides in Web Browser software—not in more regulation—adding an option to suppress this information.

Even now, one can manually clear browsing history from their browser and some can automatically clear it each time the browser is opened. It would be one small incremental step to completely suppress this information.

Of course, the other solution is to not surf the Web.

One thing that I do know is that if the FTC’s trial balloon garners widespread interest, our elected officials will get involved, creating a bill of their own. If they do, you can be sure that they will exempt themselves—just as they have done on other legislation in the past, such as with the Do-Not-Call bill!

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Beware the Ever-Changing Fine Print

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I once received a 17-page booklet from my credit card provider covering their revised “customer agreement.”  They mailed it under the guise of good customer service, but I’m sure that buried somewhere inside is a policy change that will effect me. 

However, I don’t have the time or interest to read all 17 pages to figure out what it is.  Even if they highlighted the section, there is often so much double talk, qualifying statements, and caveats, that I would likely not fully grasp what they are changing.

I just hope that the change is not too onerous or detrimental to me.  One thing I can be quite sure of is that with the current credit situation, depressed economy, and increased oversight, that the changes will not be in my favor.

A few months ago, my local credit union sent me a notice of new fees.  This seemingly happens every few months, so I gave it little thought, especially since I do not incur fees on my account — well I didn’t use to incur fees.

They changed one number; however, that was the “gotcha.”  They doubled the minimum balance required to have free checking.  Although I have many times that amount in CDs, they dinged me for a monthly service fee anyway.

To make matters worse they managed to bill it twice on the same statement, one for the current month and one for the prior month.

They did eventually refund the charges “this one time.”  I don’t plan on there being a second time.  When my CD comes due this fall, I’ll close my account, moving it to my other credit union that doesn’t play those types of games.

I hoped I won’t be forced into doing the same thing with my credit card.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Tips on Responding to the Woes of Direct Mail

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

As I’ve read the responses (more correctly, the “outrage”) from the direct mail industry to the proposed USPS postage rate increase, I try to put myself in their situation.

I would be frustrated too. Like them, I would cut back on mailings, like them I would think about putting more effort and resources into the Internet (email, blogging, social media, Twitter, etc.), mobile, and so forth. However, I would also ask, “What alternative options do I have to physically place my offer in their hands?”

Bill stuffers would be one consideration; a co-marketing piece (that is, two complementary produces from different companies sharing a mailing and splitting the cost) would be another. There might also be some creative co-branding options as well.

But perhaps the biggest and best option to consider would be to shift some direct mail dollars to print advertising. Let the publication worry about rising postage costs and list management. If the right publication is selected, the desired target audience could still be reached, but at a lower cost.

Print advertising isn’t the answer for everyone or every situation, but it is worth giving it a serious look. Perhaps it is more effective and cost-effective than other options, deserving a fresh consideration.

It’s something to think about.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.