Tele-marketing: new rules of the game

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banks, credit card companies, retailers and telecom companies.

Evolution of the tele-marketer: Say bye to the conventional tele-marketer you knew. The tele-marketing agent will be compelled to take on the role of a more frequently engaging concerned service provider and not just a commission-driven aggressive (and some- times insensitive) salesperson.

So now, many calls that will need to be initiated to the customer will now have to be a service call—that is, the caller will need to update or discuss an issue that a customer is facing. Only on the successful resolution of the same will the customer give him time to push the caller’s sales agenda further.

This is significant as, especially in India, a prospect is hounded till he/she gives the tele-marketing organisation business but the same organisation becomes incommunicado when the customer has a service query. Ineffective automated channels, lengthy protocols and red-tape are deployed to discourage the consumer from following up. How long would a customer follow up for Rs 50 incorrectly charged to his bank account/or telephone bill?

Fifty rupees for an individual is not worth the bother but multiply it with 200 million customers and one can appreciate the stakes involved.

Pay customers to receive your message: Another possibility is the emergence of services equivalent to Boxbe in the Internet world. Those are willing to receive tele-marketing message may actually get paid to do so. So if you are willing to receive a call, you may actually be able to subscribe to a service that gives you an alternate telephone number where people can reach you for the pure purpose of selling their wares. You will need to submit a detailed profile of yourself to the service provider. The service provider will, in turn, hand over your data (or at least the part you permit him to) to the seller.

Since the seller is now paying to get you to hear, he will automatically attempt to sell you a relevant product as he is paying for every minute of your time.