If a career in telemarketing is your calling, firms are hiring
by R. N. Rajan, Advertorial Writer
Bergen Record - Sunday, July 20, 2003
If it seems the number of telemarketing calls being made to your home has steadily
increased, it has. Industry estimates show telemarketers may attempt as many as 104
million calls to customers and businesses every day.
It's not surprising then how many Americans have registered with the national Do
Not Call Registry, which was recently announced as a means for consumers to avoid
telemarketing calls. As of July 16, consumers registered 26.3 million telephone
numbers, according to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Web site. The FTC and
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will jointly implement the registry,
which will become effective Oct. 1. Moreover, the FTC estimates as much as 60 million
numbers could be registered on the list by then.
However, industry insiders, such as the American Teleservices Association (ATA),
a trade organization, said telemarketers have gotten a bum rap. Brad Rateike, manager
of member services at ATA, said the much-maligned industry performs a valuable function.
"Teleservices remains a legitimate and positive method of getting competitive prices
in goods and services. Some people don't agree with it, but it works," said Rateike.
Rateike said, each year, the average person makes 11 purchases over the phone, of which
three are from incoming calls generated to the customer. Rateike said the teleservices
industry has had double-digit growth in the last 10 years, and is a $662-billion industry,
employing 6-1/2 million in the United States. The ATA said the government's own estimates
state the national registry could result in the removal of as much as 60 percent of American
households from the marketplace. When the national registry is implemented come October,
two-million jobs are projected to be lost in the industry within eight months, Rateike said.
Bob Paulson agreed the industry bashing is undeserved. Paulson is the vice president of The
Wats Room, Inc., one of the largest independent interviewing firms in the industry, employing
more than 400 people at its facilities in Bayonne and Rochelle Park. Paulson said The Wats Room,
in business for 21 years, is hired by market-research and data-collection firms to conduct
telephone interviews. Its subsidiary, Paragon Integrated Marketing Corporation, is an
independent, full-service, business-to-business call center. Paulson said the market- and
opinion-research calls his employees make help keep prices for goods and services in check.
"Without market research, companies will not know what consumers want and will have to
experiment on products. Many of these products will fail and the costs associated with that
product will be passed on to the consumer. Many times the person who takes the time to provide
this much-needed market research is given free products, coupons, money, or they simply realize
that their opinions really do make a difference. If we weren't allowed to call people, the
price of everything, from chewing gum to cars, would go up," Paulson said.
He said the planned Do Not Call Registry has already had a negative effect on his business,
which grew this year 18 percent, to $7 million.
"It's already dramatically hurting our industry. Our business has gone down because of it," he said.
Paulson assailed government officials for not making it clear who exactly is targeted by the
planned registry.
"When the federal law goes into effect, many companies in the research field will feel
the pain. Too many people will not respond to [telephone] surveys because they don't
understand the intention of the law and, once again, the government made a law without
proper planning," he said.
However, despite the dip in business, Paulson said the firm is hiring for telephone
interviewers. He also said in the next two to three years, the company plans to open
another site and hire an additional 200 employees.
DialAmerica Marketing, Inc. in Mahwah, is also hiring said Frank Heller, the company's
recruiting and retention manager. Established in 1957 as Life Circulation Co., DialAmerica
has annual sales in excess of $200 million. It has 80-plus dedicated call centers with 6,000
workstations in major markets in 26 states. On average, the company employs more than 10,000
teleservice representatives (TSRs) who carry on four- to five-million conversations each week
for its clients.
Heller said the company has seen an increase in business over the past few years due to
the quality of service it provides to clients.
"Our clients know we're ethical. We have quality people, and quality clients," Heller said.
Heller said the company seeks telemarketers at its various call centers on an ongoing basis
as there is some turnover, but it's not as high as across the country.
"Telemarketing has turnover in general. Our turnover is well below the national average,"
Heller said.
The company is also recruiting marketing professionals at its corporate headquarters in
Mahwah, Heller said. However, Heller declined to speculate what impact the Do Not Call
Registry will have on the company's employee base.
Both Heller and Paulson said the skills which are and will be most in demand in the
teleservices field include strong communication skills, good phone personality, computer
skills, positive attitude, enthusiasm, and increasingly, bilingualism.
Rateike said the ATA and the Direct Marketing Association, the largest trade association
with more than 4,750 member companies, have filed separate lawsuits against the FTC to stop
implementation of the registry on the grounds that it violates the First and Fifth Amendments.
|
