DRTV loses millions in telephone failings
Extract from Marketing Magazine
Customers telephoning to respond to DRTV commercials are getting a raw deal and poor service,
according to a new survey of direct-response advertising.

Freefone numbers, 0800 for BT and 0500 for Mercury, are most commonly
used in DRTV to encourage response from viewers, but many advertisers
still make customers pay for replying to an ad.

The survey of 25 TV campaigns found that more than one in four ads used
0990 numbers, charging callers at a national rate, and 11% used a local
rate 0345 number.

Only a third of advertisers had live operators staffing the phone lines,
with two-thirds preferring to leave customers to deal with an automatic
answering system.

Expensive calls
Only 79% of customers got through, with the remainder giving up after
finding the line engaged or being made to queue too long. Lost customers
mean lost sales, which can mean millions of pounds of wasted ad revenue.

Media agency CIA Medianetwork last year published research showing
pounds 99m in DRTV ads is wasted yearly because advertisers cannot cope
with the response.

Once customers have battled through the answering system, they can wait
for days to receive information (see graph).

‘When consumers are asked to respond immediately to an ad, they expect
to receive information quickly,’ said Don Iszatt of Direct Marketing
Solutions, which carried out the research. ‘Not all consumers are being
satisfied as quickly as some advertisers think.’

Only half the advertisers surveyed sent out the information first class.
A third posted their packs more than a fortnight after the customer
called and 42% did not even personalise their letters.

Telemarketing bureaux, hired to handle calls from customers, are often
blamed for not doing their job properly. But the problem often rests
with advertisers who don’t put fulfilment higher up the list of
priorities.

‘Advertisers pay more attention to the big money that’s spent upfront on
advertising and developing products,’ says Henry Patrick, managing
director of telemarketing company IPMS. ‘Fulfilment is seen as a
background activity and is not given the attention it deserves.’

Tim Davis, direct client services director at CIA Medianetwork, agrees.
‘If advertisers don’t answer calls, or follow up, or are not prepared
for the calls, then they risk damaging their positive image.’

Davis suggests the media-planning process should be turned around to
consider call-handling first. ‘This is better than planning the media
first, seeing how many responses they can generate and briefing the
telemarketers at the last minute.’

A healthy approach
One company that takes this approach is healthcare company Private
Patients Plan. Its personal sales consultants took the calls and did a
detailed fact-find with customers in order to match a product to their
needs. A pack was sent out within two days.

Tony Davis, marketing manager of PPP, says the firm begins its planning
of direct-response campaigns with customer interaction. ‘The consumer-
fulfilment process is part of the brand-building work we are doing in
our above-the-line campaign,’ he says. PPP loses only 4% of calls during
the daytime when people can’t get through and only 8% during the
evening.

‘We phase our advertising to ensure we can answer calls and meet our
promises. We have to give a good first impression because we may not get
a second chance.’