The Concept of telemarketing is not a very old thing in Bangladesh. Now-a-days many organizations are involved in conducting telemarketing activities for their businesses. For the purpose of accomplishing the research objectives regarding how telemarketing is used in different industries of Bangladesh, what procedures are maintained for these purposes, what level of effectiveness is ensured by telemarketing activities and what is the customer responsiveness regarding telemarketing activities conducted towards them. The findings can be used for the betterment of telemarketing & lead management team of GameenPhone Ltd.
In Bangladesh the concept of Telemarketing is not very old. It has become an important issue due the existence of telecommunication industry. All the 6 telecom operators in our country conduct a significant amount of telemarketing activities to an extent to attract customers, informing new packages, informing new offerings, lead generation, verification, information gathering etc. Telemarketing is also used in other industries of our country including: Financial institutions (Banks), Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Insurance etc. It is also being used in manufacturing industries but the intensity of its uses in this industry is not very much significant. In Banking industry this is basically being used for Loan persuasion, mortgage information etc. But, Telemarketing activities should not be totally engrossed only with financial and telecom industries, it has much more things to do for the prospect of Manufacturing industries too.
The intensity of telemarketing activities in different industries of Bangladesh is very much important because it is cost effective and supportive to focus on core compliance of the organization in the same time. The procedure, policies, training facilities, practices, operations, and services offered through telemarketing by the different industries needed to be studied and analyzed carefully and effectively. Because the compact and specific information regarding this study will help to reshape and restructure any telemarketing section of any organization (Ex: GameenPhone telemarketing and lead management section) to perform much more effectively and efficient way. Besides, if telemarketing can be used properly with effective manner than it will help to increase brand value and ensure brand loyalty. The reason is that rather than focusing too many just on persuading customers to increase sales, after sells services can be used extensively in a better way which will help the organization to gain emotional attraction and faith of the customers towards the organization.
Objective of the Project:
The primary aim of this report is to identify the extent to which telemarketing is used in different industries of Bangladesh focusing on its practices, policies, facilities, services, training programs etc. and use them to reshape and restructure the telemarketing concept and lead management team of direct sales, commercial division of GameenPhone Limited.
The other objectives are-
- To understand how telemarketing is used in the different industries of Bangladesh focusing on telecom and banking industry.
- To identify the procedures through which telemarketing is conducted.
- To know the effectiveness and efficiency of telemarketing practices in the different industries of Bangladesh.
- To identify the gaps between the telemarketing practices of GameenPhone with that of other industries in Bangladesh.
- To identify the procedures through which telemarketing practices in other industries can be used at the Telemarketing & Lead management team of GameenPhone to increase capability and performance.
- To find out SWOT analysis of the Telemarketing from the Bangladesh point of view.17
Methodology:
Research Approach:
There are basically two approaches of conducting research. One is Quantitative approach and the other is qualitative approach. However, there is another approach which is called mixed approach. Here both the quantitative and qualitative analysis is conducted. For the purpose of having an exploratory research on the concept of telemarketing in different industries of Bangladesh this approach is most suited because for the procedures and policies qualitative approach will find out the answer and for effectiveness and efficiency and brand value concept quantitative will be most suitable.
Research Questions:
Based on the research objective blow questions will be answered through this paper. They are:
- What types of products and services is offered by telemarketing?
- What categories of telemarketing activities are conducted for offering products and services?
- What are the procedures, policies, practices, structures for the telemarketing which are followed and maintained by the organization?
- What is the performance measurement tool?
- How the performance is measured?
- What are the training services and facilities provided for the effective operation of telemarketing?
Research Method:
Research method is all about the data collection process. Here data will be collected through interview and survey questionnaire. A representative sample will be taken for further analysis.
Data Collection Process:
Data will be collected both from Primary sources and secondary sources. These will include:-
1. Websites and books regarding theoretical background of telemarketing concept.
2. Company Websites visit, Face-to-Face conversations with respective officers and staffs in order to identify the procedures, policies, operations, training programs of telemarketing activities.
3. Practical Work experience with the team to identify the performance and effectiveness.
4. In depth analysis using research and statistical tools to compare with the standard operations.
5. Conducting Survey to find out the customer responsiveness regarding telemarketing activities conducted by GameenPhone and other industries.
Research Tool:
Descriptive analysis will be conducted regarding the structural and conceptual framework of telemarketing in the organizations. Moreover, a questionnaire will be designed to fulfill the research objectives. The questionnaire is comprised of questions aimed at seven variables related to consumers’ perception of nature of telemarketing in Bangladesh and their response to it.
Case Study:
Based on the GameenPhone organization a case study will be conducted. Here, telemarketing activities conducted by GameenPhone, training programs related telemarketing concept, operation systems of telemarketing and concept of telemarketing from different industries of Bangladesh will be implemented for GameenPhone.
Telemarketing: The Concept:
The term telemarketing was first used extensively in the late 1970s to describe Bell System communications which related to new uses for the outbound WATS and inbound Toll-free services.
Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call [Wikipedia]. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing. Telemarketing has come under fire in recent years, being viewed as an annoyance by many. We can assume from the title, in practice telephone marketing is “Using the telephone to sell directly to customers” (Kotler & Armstrong 2004, 549). Cron and Decarlo (2010, 40) on the other hand define the term more specifically: “Telemarketing refers to customer contacts utilizing telecommunications technology for personal selling without direct, face-to-face contact”. Third type of definition is written by Brassington and Pettitt (2003, 758): “Any planned and controlled activity that creates and exploits a direct relationship between customer and seller, using the telephone”.
Telemarketing may be done from a company office, from a call center, or from home. It may involve a live operator wise broadcasting. An effective telemarketing process often involves two or more calls. The first call (or series of calls) determines the customer’s needs. The final call (or series Prospective customers are identified by various means, including past purchase history, previous requests for information, credit limit, competition entry forms, and
application forms. Names may also be purchased from another company’s consumer database or obtained from a telephone directory or another public list. The qualification process is intended to determine which customers are most likely to purchase the product or service. Charitable organizations, alumni associations, and political parties often use telemarketing to solicit donations. Marketing research companies use telemarketing concept techniques to survey the prospective or past customers of a client’s business in order to assess market acceptance of or satisfaction with a particular product, service, brand, or company. Public opinion polls are conducted in a similar manner. Telemarketing techniques are also applied to other forms of electronic marketing using e-mail or fax messages, in which case they are frequently considered spam by receivers. Today people are familiar with telemarketers who call and sell their products straight to customers. We often think negatively about telemarketers and feel 20 like they are teasing ourselves constantly. However, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2004, 549) over 58% of all telephone marketing sales are done by business-to-business marketers and not to private customers. This emphasizes the value of telemarketing in today’s business world.
Categories of Telemarketing:
There are basically two main categories of telemarketing. They are:
1. Business-to-business Telemarketing.
2. Business-to-consumer Telemarketing.
They are explained below:
1. Business to Business Telemarketing: B2B Telemarketing is the process of maintaining all the B2B transactional activities through the intense uses of telemarketing. Business-to-Business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Contrasting terms are Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-toGovernment (B2G). B2B branding is a term used in marketing. The overall volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub components or raw materials, and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying
tires, glass for windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.
2. Business to Consumer Telemarketing: B2C Telemarketing is the process of maintaining all the B2C transactional activities through the intense uses of telemarketing concept. Here, the telemarketing activities are conducted to contact directly with the customer. In this phase several product offerings are made to the customer. The basic purpose is to generate lead and convert them into sales.
Sub-categories of Telemarketing:
There are basically 4 subcategories of telemarketing. They are:-
1. Lead Generation: The gathering of information and contacts
2. Outbound Telemarketing: Proactive marketing in which prospective and preexisting customers are contacted
directly
3. Inbound Telemarketing: Reception of incoming orders and requests for information. Demand is generally
created by advertising, publicity, or the efforts of outside salespeople.
4. Telesales: Using persuasion to sell a product or service
Inbound Telemarketing:
In the telecom industries most of the companies have their own call center who receives the call from the customer or prospective customers. They have all the necessary information with them. If the customer face any problem or need any sorts of information they provide this instantly. If the customer wants to provide any order then they also forward this or provide adequate information regarding the prospective order for lead validation. Basically the total customer service care is ensured by the call center of the different telecom companies by their own.
Outbound Telemarketing:
For general clients the telecom industries hardly use outbound telemarketing unless any special offer is to give to the premium customer. Basically for corporate client or prospective corporate client they use outbound telemarketing. Through IP phone facility they call to the several prospective customers whose data has been collected from different sources mentioned above. As most of them have their own call center they maintain well trained call agents to maintain this facility. Some telecom (Grameenphone) has their own telesales team to lead generation and other call
facilities.
SWOT Analysis of Telemarketing (Bangladesh perspective):
Strength:
- Telemarketing is very much cost effective from the marketers and organizations point of view.
- Telemarketing has a broad reach than any other forms of direct marketing. As huge number of people in our
- country uses mobile phone so it provides a broader reach and opportunity to connect with this huge number of people just by dialing their number.
- In many cases it is easier than any sorts of direct marketing approach.
- It has a huge possibility to target huge number of people and convert them into valid leads.
Weakness:
- The biggest weakness of telemarketing is that some people have negative outlook regarding telemarketing concept.
- Most of the time there are negative responses out of this. At present only 10%-15% telemarketing calls become valid lead in telecom industry.
- Sometimes it is difficult to find the right people especially in case of organizations.
- Many times people don’t pick up the call and it takes much time to find that person again.
Sometimes, there is high maintenance cost and complexity issues arise out of this telemarketing.
Opportunity:
- Increasing number of mobile phone customers is an opportunity because the target area will thus get increased.
- There is no “Do not call register” facility in Bangladesh to prevent telemarketer to call. Thus it becomes a bit opportunity.
- Because of technological advancement further opportunity will arise to use telemarketing much more effectively and efficiently.
- Telemedicine can become a pioneer to create good reputation for telemarketing.
Threat:
- The biggest threat of telemarketing is that most of the cases people feel irritated and annoyed due to telemarketing calls.
- BTRC rules and regulations might prevent the scope of telemarketing.
- In future if “Do not call register” facility gets opened in Bangladesh than it might become a potential threat.
- Technological advancement or complexity in technological sector might make telemarketing vulnerable.
Telemarketing of Telecom Industry:
Telemarketing has been used extensively in banking industry. Mainly for information giving, providing feedback, proposal for giving loan, credit card, mortgage loan, product offerings etc. For sample Standard chartered Bank and Eastern Bank Limited of telemarketing practice is described below.
There are several telecom companies in Bangladesh like, GrameenPhone, Banglalink, Airtel, Robi, Teletalk, Citycell which uses extensive amount of telemarketing activities. Infect, telecom industry is one of the pioneer in conducting telemarketing. In this industry telemarketing concept is basically used as bound and outbound telemarketing.
Lead Generation Through Telemarketing in Telecom Industry: They need to generate lead time to time or daily basis and convert them into sales in an attempt to survive in this industry. Basically these companies uses lead generation
for the purpose of sales and information upgrade. They have their prospective sales team which gathers information from:
- Customer care center
- Call center
- Distribution Centers
- Websites
- Yellow Pages
- Employees
After this they contact with the customers through phone; gather information, make inquiry, and update requirements etc. After this they validate lead through some standards and decide to go for further sales approach. Basically here telemarketing is extensively used for information gathering regarding prospective lead and all the
facilities or maximum facilities are provided through telephone rather than giving personal visit which is very much cost effective.
Inbound Telemarketing in Telecom Industry:
In the telecom industries most of the companies have their own call center who receives the call from the customer or prospective customers. They have all the necessary information with them. If the customer face any problem or need any sorts of information they provide this instantly. If the customer wants to provide any order then they also forward this or provide adequate information regarding the prospective order for lead validation. Basically the total customer service care is ensured by the call center of the different telecom companies by their own
Outbound Telemarketing in Telecom Industry:
For general clients the telecom industries hardly use outbound telemarketing unless any special offer is to give to the premium customer. Basically for corporate client or prospective corporate client they uses Outbound telemarketing. Through IP phone facility they call to the several prospective customers whose data has been collected from different sources mentioned above. As most of them have their own call center they maintain well trained call agents to maintain this facility. Some telecom (Grameenphone) have their own telesales team to lead generation and other call
facilities.
Telemarketing of GrameenPhone Ltd:
GrameenPhone is Bangladesh’s one of the largest Telecom company. At present it has 42% market share in the telecom industry compared with others. Being a mobile phone operator company, providing voice communication services is its ultimate product, but there are other facilities too which is provided by this organization. These are: internet services, VAS (Value Added Service), VTS (Vehicle Tracking System), Team tracker, Bulk SMS, product
offerings etc. Its request for order comes from basically from GrameenPhone center; call center, employees’ etc.
Telemarketing concept has been used in this organization since its beginning. It is basically conducted by two divisions. One is Direct Sales; Commercial division and the other is Call center. Call center basically deals with inbound telemarketing and outbound telemarketing focusing on internet package, VAS, postpaid services etc. Direct Sales, Commercial division only deals with the Business Solution package. One of its working team is “Telemarketing & Lead Management”. This is the team which basically conducts telemarketing activities all over the country regarding Business solution package, provide services and maintain account of several corporate clients.
Telemarketing & Lead Management Team:
Although direct sales division has been working for a very long time but telemarketing & Lead management team has just started its journey from April 1, 2013. Its main function is quite similar with that of other team regarding lead generation, lead verification, lead validation, lead management, Account management etc. But it conducts most of its
operations over the phone rather than giving personal visit to the clients. That’s why it is called telemarketing & Lead management team. It has several corporate clients all over the country and it doesn’t have any particular zone of operation or handling clients. It handles lead came out of itself or passed away from other account managers or key account managers. It provides several services to these clients and fulfills their requirements. In short it maintains the account of the client. Its main purpose is to earn revenue from these clients by providing several services.
Since it has just started its journey it requires shaping its overall operations and need to have specific idea regarding the uses of telemarketing in several companies or organizations. That information will be helpful to reshape the team and become much more effective and efficient. The team is new but a small analysis of its operation is described below mentioning its structures, procedures, offerings and performance measurement.
Categories of Telemarketing Activities:
There are several categories of telemarketing activities conducted by this team. They are:
- Inbound telemarketing (mostly from corporate clients only).
- Outbound telemarketing (Lead generation, lead validation, verification, negotiation for new and prospective clients).
- B2B telemarketing.
- Appointment setting.
Structure:
The telemarketing & lead management team is one of the crucial team of the direct sales; commercial division. The overall structure of this division focusing on the telemarketing team is given below.
From the figure we can see the hierarchy Direct Sales and the telemarketing concept and lead management team. At present there are 5 Account managers working in the telemarketing & lead management team. Their head or the manager is called Head of telemarketing & lead management. There are several zone managers at the direct sales division under the Business Sales category and each of them have 4 to 5 account managers working under their supervision. There is a Planning & Execution Support team which monitors the overall operations of the division and formulates strategies.
Work of Telemarketing & Lead Management Team:
The telemarketing & lead management team need to do two different works to do. They are
- Tele Sales
- Lead Management
1. Tele Sales:
In this section the team members need to connect with the customers through telesales activities. They sale different kind of corporate products to the corporate client through telephone also give other services or the existing clients through this. The main motto of this team to work effectively with all the telemarketing tools and do not give any physical visit to the client. That easily reduces the cost of visit and also makes sure that the customer can get any help from its account manager through telephone.
In this team, all the account managers have the highest amount of customer as GrameenPhone really want to work through telemarketing activities.
2. Lead Management:
In the lead management working process, the team members get different leads collected from GrameenPhone Center (GPC), Customer Service 121, Employee reference, Email etc. The account managers need to call every single coming lead and validate it. If the leads are big in amount like if it gives vast revenue to the company then it was
transfer to the zone manager or if it’s a small lead then the TMLM team take care it by own selves.
Step by Step Procedures of Working:
1. Collect leads from GrameenPhone Center (GPC), Customer Service 121, Employee reference, Email etc.
2. Validate the leads through telemarketing activities
3. Receives valid Lead.
4. Allocate lead to appropriate Zone Manager of TMLM’s account manager.
5. Fixes appointment with customer over phone.
6. Meeting with the customer & understand his requirements.
7. Update visit information in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) into prospect customer database.
8. Prepares presentation materials, arranges product demo, collect & analyze status report, prepare the 1st proposal & send the proposal.
9. Fixes 2nd appointment with customer (existing + potential)
10. Offer agreement to customer.
11. Sign Agreement.
12. Enter details into CRM with relevant documents – agreement, trade license etc.
13.Generate BS code.
14. Create a move order in ERP.
15. Final discussion with customer for delivery.
16. Create documents – Bulk Subscription Management (BSM), Challan, bill etc.
17. Do physical delivery and collect required information / documents
18. Receive documents from sales team (AM)
19. Send scan sales doc to Activation.
20. Send all related and important document related to deal to electronic archive.
21. Provide other service through telephone if needed
Telemarketing of Banglalink:
Banglalink is one of the leading telecom companies. It has two types of telemarketing. One is inbound and the other is outbound. Inbound telemarketing is handled totally by its call center. The outbound is conducted by itself through its own facilities and this is the main concerning issue of this study.
Products & Services:
The products and services for which Banglalink uses telemarketing are:
- Value added service offering
- Post-paid( Corporate and general)
- New feature offerings
- Reusing or re-open offerings.
Categories of Telemarketing:
It mainly operates outbound telemarketing and appointment setting services through telemarketing. After a customer become agree to purchase or agree with its offering than its later phase begins.
From them telecaller and BDO have the responsibility to make call to the customer and make offerings to them. Back office agents have their responsibility to monitor the overall activities and formulate strategies and decide targets in accordance with the higher authorities.
Procedure:
1. Make call to the customers or prospective customers.
2. Provide product or service offerings.
3. If the customer is not interested then no need to transfer lead.
4. If the customer is interested then consider this as lead.
5. Validate lead.
6. Transfer this to the zone manager.
7. Sending representative to the customer.
8. Close the deal by the account manager.
Telemarketing of Robi:
Robi is also another telecom company operating in Bangladesh. It also uses telemarketing concept extensively for acquiring new customers and providing information to the current and prospective client.
Products and Services:
Different products and services are offered by Robi which are as follows:
- Prepaid (Robi Club, Prothom, Muhurto, Shoccho, Shasroyee, Shorol, Uddokta & Easy load Super, Uddokta & Easy load Regular)
- Post- Paid (Simple plan, Normal Plan)
- Corporate- In corporate package they have both prepaid and post paid. In this case they have some segmentation for postpaid like- Trial pack-1, Trial Pack-2, Base Pack.
For the corporate clients they also provide SMS based solution (CMP- Corporate messaging Platform)
Categories of Telemarketing Activities:
Like Banglalink it uses inbound and outbound telemarketing. Outbound telemarketing is conducted to offer:
- Value added service offering.
- Post-paid( Corporate and general)
- New feature offerings.
Structure:
Robi maintains almost the same structure of Banglallink and has employees for conducting telemarketing not more than 100.
Telemarketing of Banking Industry:
Telemarketing has been used extensively in Banking industry. Mainly for information giving, providing feedback, proposal for giving loan, credit card, mortgage loan, product offerings etc. For sample Standard chartered Bank and Eastern Bank Limited has been surveyed for data collection
Lead Generation through Telemarketing in Banking Industry: There are several Banks which used telemarketing for lead generation. Some of them have their own call center others rely on outsourced for lead generation because lead generation is a time consuming and costly procedure. Moreover, most of the cases much leads don’t get validated for further sales approach because they become nonvalid lead. That’s why relying upon other call center is sometimes cost effective for them and also relief some pressure for the sales team by focusing just on the valid lead. Those who have their own team for lead generation focused basically on their own image and develop expertise for further sales approach. Some of the Banks who have their own call center are: Standard Chartered Bank, Eastern Bank Limited,
HSBC Bank etc. They contact with the prospective client through telephone offering them to have loan, credit card and other product offerings. Existing customers also give them call for several queries and other services.
Inbound Telemarketing in Banking Industry: Some of the Banks have their own call center to handle the customers query and information. Other depends on the other call center. Whatever the situation is Banking industry provide 24/7 customer care center focusing:
- Activation of your Debit Card and Credit Card
- Enrolment to our state of the art Remote Banking Channel
- Balance & transaction details of your account
- Cheque book & Card Cheque requests
- Credit Card bill payment
- Utility bill payments
- Stop payment of cheque(s)
- Pay Orders & Demand Drafts46
- Blocking of Debit / Credit Cards & replacement requests
- Requests for duplicate statements & certificates
- Changing of address & contact number
- Financial consultation and application for credit card/loans
- Outbound Telemarketing in Banking Industry:
Some Bank has their own outbound call center facilities. Others have to depend on the outsourced call center. No matter whatever the situation they provide call to influence prospective customers acquired from their database. They have several offers regarding:
- Loan.
- Credit card.
- Mortgage Loan.
- Product offerings.
Telemarketing of Standard Chartered Bank:
Standard Chartered Bank is one of the renowned Bank operating in Bangladesh. They have introduced the telemarketing concept on their selling different new offerings and also other benefits to the customer through telephone.
Categories of Telemarketing Activities:
It has basically two types of telemarketing activities.
- Inbound telemarketing
- Outbound telemarketing
Inbound telemarketing is used in Standard Chartered Bank for:
- Activation of your Debit Card and Credit Card
- Enrolment to our state of the art Remote Banking Channel
- Balance & transaction details of your account
- Cheque book & Card Cheque requests
- Standard Chartered Bank Credit Card bill payment
- Utility bill payments
- Transfer funds between your Standard Chartered Bank accounts (same currency)
- Stop payment of cheque(s)
- Pay Orders & Demand Drafts
- Blocking of Debit / Credit Cards & replacement requests
- Requests for duplicate statements & certificates
- Pay Orders & Demand Drafts requests
- Amendment of address & contact number
- SafetyNet de-enrolment / re-enrolment for Credit Card accounts
- InstaBuys transfers & Reward points redemption for Credit Card accounts
- e-Statements / Internet Banking / SMS Banking enrolment
- Financial consultation and application for credit card/loans48
Outbound Telemarketing is mainly used in SCB for:
- Loan
- Credit card
- Mortgage Loan
- Product offerings
Structure:
Now if we look at the structure we will find:
Here, there is one head of telesales. Under him there is one head of telecaller and another is head of back office. Each of them has agents. For tellecaller the agents call and for Back office they monitor the overall operation. At present there are in total 50 agents working as telecaller and 10 as back office agent.
Procedure:
As far as the procedure is concerned it is quite simple. First of all they have specific database which they maintain. From this database they choose who have the ability and interest to take a loan from the bank. Suppose, for car loan if they see that a depositor earn more than 30,000 taka per month and working in any reputed organization might become a prospective customer to take loan. After filtering out from the database based on these criteria they give
call to those persons who have the eligibility to become a prospective client. For credit card the criteria is bit different. If any depositor has more than 1,00,000 taka in his/her account, based on this criteria he/she might become prospective client. For mortgage loan telesales is also conducted in SCB but not at an extensive level. In some cases they make this offer. In order to give product offering the procedure is also bit different. From the database if any depositor falls in the criteria to have any product by installment which will be deducted from the account become the prospective customer to give call.
Telemarketing of Eastern Bank Limited:
Eastern Bank Limited also maintain almost similar level of telemarketing activities like SCB. But, the parameter is bit different. They maintain their telesales activities through outsourcing. For this reason they are not directly involve in the process.
Categories of Telemarketing Activities:
It maintains both inbound and outbound telemarketing. It conducts inbound telemarketing for:
- Account, card, product related information
- Card activation
- Card lost
- Theft reporting
- Branch and ATM location
- Exchange rate information
- Fund transfer
- Bills payment
- Cheque book.
It uses outbound telemarketing for:
- Loan offer
- Credit card offer
- Mortgage loan
- Product offerings.
It conducts its operation through outsourcing that’s why providing information precisely is bit difficult.
Structure:
It also has the same structure like Standard Chartered Bank. But they maintain the whole thing with outsourcing
Conclusion:
This study was mainly conducted to understand the overall scenario regarding the telemarketing concept in the different industries. After this study it can be implied that telemarketing concept can become the next big thing in Bangladesh if it is used with more dedication and carefulness. Sometimes, the customer gets irritated due to telemarketing. This thing needs to be carefully analyzed. The offerings need to be summarized and customer oriented. Everybody related to the field believe that telemarketing is effective. Although, the structure, policies, procedures are quite different from one another but the perspectives and purposes are quite similar. They prefer telemarketing due to cost effectiveness and ability to reach customers easily. However, Negative Reponses and finding the right people might be the reason for ineffectiveness of telemarketing.
Telemarketing is basically used for mostly conducting inbound (giving feedback to customers) and outbound (persuading customers to purchase) telemarketing concept. In the end it can be identified that according to GrameenPhone perspective telemarketing is very much effective. But, the managers also added that it is easier to handle individual person through telemarketing rather than any organizations or companies. Because, there are lots of protocols, hierarchy and procedures maintain for this. Almost it is clear that telemarketing is useful due to cost effectiveness and it has the highest reach with easiness rather than any other direct marketing plan. Since, GrameenPhone uses telemarketing concept for its direct sales division and handling corporate clients, none of the other telecom companies use
telemarketing in this way than GrameenPhone. They basically handle these through call center but GrameenPhone has separated the corporate clients from that of call center.
Recommendation:
Telemarketing should not be confined with inbound or outbound activities. It must be used in a way so that rather than giving personal visit by the clients to the company, each tasks can be conducted over the phone quite easily and vice versa.
Telemarketing can be used in a way that it will help to increase customer loyalty. In the study it has been shown that customers prefer those organizations which cares for its customers and maintain communication with them extensively. It can be done through telephone too.
It has also been showed that telemarketing increases brand value of the organization. Because, telemarketing in case of after sale is rarely used in our country. But, if any company conducts time to time query about their products or services with their customers, it instantly helps to earn faith of the customer. A positive reaction and feeling grow up within their mind regarding the company.
Telemarketing activities should be done carefully so that customers don’t get irritated.
Telemarketing concept in our country is used extensively only for intangible products or services. But, it can be used for manufacturing sector too. It might create a new era for customer service and satisfaction.
