TELEMARKETING SAVES TIME AND EXPANDS REACH TO CUSTOMERS

In an age when time management is king and hours spent at home are fewer than ever, a way of doing business has evolved that makes the most of the minutes in a day.

Commonly called telemarketing, many companies these days translate the term as customer service. It's direct, it's one-on-one, and, advocates say, it saves time for persons on both ends of the line.

"It takes less time on the phone to say what you need to say," said Donna Denson, manager of community relations and targeted publications at the Southeast Missourian. The three-person community relations staff conducts work on local, regional and tri-state projects by telephone.

"We have certain customers who we know are interested in certain projects," Denson said. "At times we may have four or five things coming up that we know they'll want to participate in. We can handle it all in one phone call."

Ascertaining the customer's needs in a personable manner and matching the service to the individual is critical.

"We sell based on need; we do not sell just to sell," said Sue Wagner, first-line manager at Southwestern Bell's Residents Product Promotion Center. The Cape Girardeau office, manned by some 50 employees, calls Southwestern Bell residential customers throughout Missouri and in Kansas. Focus is on a variety of services such as call waiting and caller ID.

While product knowledge is invaluable, it takes more than knowing the nuts and bolts of the product to get the job done. "All of our employees go through a written examination and a phone assessment to make sure they have the correct phone skills to be in this environment," Wagner said. As with any sales job, workers must learn to deal with rejection.

"A lot of people internalize the `no.' Part of the training is learning how to handle rejection, too," Wagner said. Workers are encouraged to learn from those instances. "If a customer says no, maybe it's because we made the product sound too complicated," she said.

Regardless of the outcome of the call, there's just no getting around the importance of building rapport. For first-time calls in particular, that is no easy task.

"We do not have a script," said Wagner. "Each person is different;" therefore, each call is different, she said. "There is no high pressure at all."

Conversely, there are the established-contact calls. "A lot of people recognize our voices right away," Denson said. The community relations department workers, she said, "have been here for some time and have developed a good rapport with many of our customers." The division, a component of the newspaper's advertising department, was formed about four years ago.

As telemarketing has become more wide spread, so have reports of fraud. It's a subject that is not ignored by those who make their livelihood in the profession.

"We have very high integrity standards set for our employees," Wagner said. "We want to make sure that we give only the correct information" and that there is no product misrepresentation, she said.

"If someone is leery, we do have a toll-free number where they can call us back and verify," Wagner said. The Missourian, likewise, has a toll-free number.

From solving a need to solving a problem, Wagner said, "our workers understand the concept of providing good customer service."