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Advanced techniques are transforming customer service calls into new business opportunities.
Out of respect for consumer privacy, publishers traditionally have been reluctant to reach out and touch prospects at home with annoying telephone pitches. But when a consumer calls a publisher--well, that's another story altogether.
It's a 'golden moment'
"The opportunity of having a subscriber on the phone when they've called you is too good to pass up," says David Obey, consumer marketing director at Conde Nast. "It's a golden moment. They're ready to buy, they're in the mood, and they've been trained to have their credit-card numbers handy. It's a completely different dynamic from when you're calling them."
For most consumer magazine publishers, telemarketing has primarily been limited to renewals, and billing and collection efforts. Inbound telemarketing, in particular, has long been "like wallpaper"--an easily forgotten background source that produces limited volume, says Obey. "Nobody's really thought to pay it too much attention."
But the current circulation crisis is forcing consumer marketers to scrutinize and re-evaluate every available source. In recent years, despite increasingly controversial privacy issues, publishers have given outbound telemarketing more play. The use of third-party agents--the primary users of outbound telemarketing--increased by 3 percentage points in 1998, according to "Capell's Circulation Report," But publishers are not stopping there. Today, the unique opportunities that inbound telemarketing offers are being reassessed as well. According to this year's FOLIO:/Circulation Management consumer circulation trends survey, 54 percent of publishers report that they are currently using inbound telemarketing as a source, compared with 41 percent in 1997--making it the fifth most widely used source today. Two years ago, it ranked ninth.
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