Does Telemarketing Have a Future?
We’ve all experienced it. You’re somewhere doing something and your phone rings. It’s not your mom, dad or significant other, it’s an unknown number. You answer it and the next thing you hear is: „Hi, this is X from Y, I’m calling you to inform you about a special opportunity…“ and so on. What do most people do at this moment? They say „I’m busy, I can’t talk right now.“, or „I’m not interested.“ or something downright rude. I’m talking about telemarketing, of course.
What exactly is telemarketing?
By definition, telemarketing is the marketing of goods and services by means of telephone calls, typically unsolicited, to potential customers. In simpler terms, it’s when a company representative calls you to offer some of the company’s products. This is not to be confused with telesales. Telesales sells services directly to customers, while telemarketing generates interest and creates opportunities.
Is it dying?
Lots of people believe that telemarketing is dying. In today’s world, people have less and less time and they just don’t like being called by unknown people, that’s why they mostly deny telemarketers the opportunity to tell their story. Part of the reason for that is that people often confuse telemarketing with telesales, so it’s a good idea to immediately let them know what you’re calling them for. People prefer using email, instant messaging and other online channels for communicating more and more, so talking over the phone is a bit of a bumpy road.
These are the results of a survey conducted by Deloitte. As you can see, companies see less and less prospect when it comes to telemarketing. All in all, it’s not looking good as some people go as far as predicting that telemarketing will go extinct within the next 10 years. They just don’t see the point in it as they do not get the results they want while spending their budget.
But what if there is a way?
Enter Google. Last year, they demoed something called Duplex. The idea is that Duplex is an AI assistant who can make phone calls and arrange stuff in such a humanly way that it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between Duplex and a regular person. And the demo actually worked, this AI assistant managed to reserve a table at a restaurant and schedule an appointment at a hair salon. But, what does this have to do with telemarketing? I read a story online where the writer talked about his experience with a talented telemarketer. The writer is a telemarketing professional himself, so he decided to challenge the telemarketer who was on the phone with him. The telemarketer had no pauses, no filler words, no unnecessary stuff, just perfect textbook answers. The writer began to wonder if he was even talking to a real person, so he again asked the telemarketer a question to which he had just received a perfect answer. The telemarketer then said the same answer, word for word. So, what happened? Well, the writer realized that he was talking to a robot. Robots, artificial intelligence, big data and speech recognition software are likely to become the future telemarketing and telesales representatives. A robot can remember small details and save information that might prove to be crucial later. For example, let’s say a robot calls a company which specializes in obtaining parts for used cars. The robot asks for a specific Ford part, and the person on the other side says that they can’t assist at the moment because the guy named Steve who is in charge of the Ford division is currently on vacation and that he will be back in two days. The robot then says „Okay, thank you, have a nice day!“, but also remembers everything that the person said. When Steve comes back, his phone will ring and the robot on the other side will say „Hey Steve, hope you had a great vacation! I would like to ask you about 2011 Ford Fiesta camshafts.“ Just like that, a robot made the perfect phonecall and arranged the parts that it’s owners needed. If it were people responsible for arranging the parts, they might forget to call Steve or ask for Ford parts all over again. This slows down the entire process and wastes time, not to mention budget.
In my opinion, telemarketing is not dying. It is, however, evolving. Pretty soon AI will take over phone calls and students will no longer work in call centres as their first job. Does this mean that profits will decrease because AI technology is still expensive and needs powerful hardware and lots of development? Well, not really. It will be expensive at first, but it might pay off very quickly. If you think about it, AI is constantly improving, and after being rejected a couple of times, the robot will adapt and turn itself into an almighty telemarketing machine. The future is now and we should embrace it. The world will be a much more different place than it is 40 to 50 years from now.
Sources:
Capterra — Trends in Call Centres
The Atlantic — The Surreal Cyborg Future of Telemarketing
