1. Introduction. 2. Statement of the Problem

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1 1. Introduction Banglalink is the second largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh. When Banglalink entered the Bangladesh telecom industry in 10 th February 2005, the scenario changed overnight with mobile telephony becoming an extremely useful and affordable communication tool for people across all segments. Within one year of operation, Banglalink became the fastest growing mobile operator of the country with a growth rate of 257%. This milestone was achieved with innovative and attractive products and services targeting the different market segments; aggressive improvement of network quality and dedicated customer care and effective communication that emotionally connected customers with Banglalink. As of April 2012, Banglalink has a subscriber base of 25 million. Consequently, there is an emergence of studying the related facets of the Telesales to retain and increase its market share. In such competitive telecom sector the Telesales department of Banglalink have already acquired more than 150, 000 competition customers leading to an increase in customer base. Hence, in the current study, the research intends to examine the activities of the Telesales department and the behaviour of customers towards telemarketing in case of purchasing Banglalink SIM from Telesales. 2. Statement of the Problem The job of Telesales is to acquire competition customer offering duplicate dial and bridge a relationship between those customers with the company. Another function of Telesales is to communicate information and entertain requests from customers. Many articles and research reports regarding direct marketing and telemarketing often state the benefits that the companies can obtain if they conduct their operations of promotion and selling through telephone communication. They tend to focus companies perspective in regard to telemarketing, ignoring what customers/consumers feel about it. Often telemarketing has been entitled as cold calls and if so, how Telesales department of Banglalink can improve their services in order to reach and serve successfully to their potential customers by understanding their thoughts. The activities of this department during the ongoing years are very important to the company. So the effectiveness of the activities of the department needs an evaluation. Moreover the behaviour and opinion of customers towards telemarketing services needs to be known in order to improve the performance of Telesales. 1

2 3. Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is to provide a specific and accurate synopsis of the overall activities of the Telesales department of Banglalink. Moreover the study is intended to explore out how customers behave towards Telesales services while purchasing Banglalink SIM from them and effectiveness of Telesales in acquiring competition customers. 4. Company Overview Banglalink was previously known as Sheba Telecom which began operation in It was a joint venture between a Malaysian Conglomerate, Technology Resources Industries Berhad and a local firm named Integrated Services Ltd. (ISL). In 2005 Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) acquired Sheba Telecom and gave a new trading name Banglalink. At present it is holding 2 nd position in the telecom industry with respect to its market share. Orascom Telcom Holding, established in 1998, is one of the most dynamic telecommunications powerhouses in the world. Orascom is based in Egypt and has operations in 11 countries worldwide. It has grown to be one of the largest and most diversified GSM network operators in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. 4.1 Mission Statement: To deliver innovative, customer focused products and to be the benchmark for customer service excellence. 4.2 Vision: Banglalink understands people s needs best and will create and deliver appropriate communication services to improve people s life and make it easier 4.3 Share Value: To ensure their vision is achieved, they have set themselves a few values, they want to be: Straight Forward Reliable Innovative Passionate 4.4 Objectives: The main objective of Banglalink is to serve or provide better network and coverage to their valuable subscribers and improve their communication level. The core departmental objectives to achieve their vision are as following: 2

3 Provide effective and accurate front line and back office customer care and support to provide a high quality service. Researching and resolving customer-highlighted issues and problems. Retain valuable customers for the company as well as generate revenue and increase company s profitability. Maintain a management culture of high performance and strong accountability. Treat customers with courtesy, respect and consideration at all times. 5. Telesales Telesales is a type of telemarketing which uses call centres with telemarketers who call on the telephone to sell company s product or service. Banglalink has a Telesales unit within the Customer Care under Business Development and Customer Retention. The strength of Telesales is selling, customer acquisition and the emphasis is on customer retention. Telesales is made to establish the customer service as a major sales channel. The objective is to build the framework in customer service regarding inbound and outbound selling, and to acquire competition customer offering duplicate dial. If customers want to get this connection he/she does not need to go anywhere as there is a home delivery process. Some talented people are being chosen from all around the contact centre for this department. They are working hard as they come up with different sales target over the time according to the business needs. They organize sales competition from time to time to boost up the sales. They regularly update sales report to evaluate the performance. Moreover they are in regular contact with the management in order to bring new dimension within the organization. Telesales is already running its operation in 4 districts (Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna) including Gazipur, Savar, Narayangong, Norsinghdi, Comilla, Kushtia, Jhenidah, Chuadanga and Munshigonj with Business Development Officers and covered most of the district with around 450 Banglalink Service Points (BSP). At present 45 Callers and 60 BDOs are working. Telesales have a team of highly trained and experienced telemarketers who are experts in leading a non-scripted, two-way conversation with customers to reaching great results. Their offices are equipped with the latest contact centre technology designed to meet their goal to help Banglalink succeed. 3

4 5.1 Working process of Telesales Department: Data Source Internal Data Warehouse Data Bank (Third Party/ Reference (Internal - BL) WMS (DDMS) /Personal contact Sales Lead Appointment reconfirmation by BDO Sale Stand by Rejection Telesales process start with calling to customer for lead generation and ends up with sales. The tele-callers receive auto dialled calls from the IT department in a software system namely Avaya, offering a duplicate number or any special number with attractive offers. If customers want to get a new connection, they need to book for their number by providing their name and address. This entry is made in software and afterwards BDO gets a SMS with this information in their cell phone. BDOs are responsible to contact those interested customers 4

5 and reconfirm their booking. Accordingly after reconfirmation, he goes to the customer s address and delivers the SIM (includes SIM registration and activation). 5.2 Present Structure/Organogram of Telesales: Head of BDCR Telesales Manager Tele caller BDO Back office 5.3 Telesales Products: 1. Inspire. 2. Call and control. 3. Handset bundle 4. Bundle 1 (1000) 5. Bundle 2 (500) 6. Professional: Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Teachers and Business 6. Literature Review Several forces shape and influence the society that we live in. TMT burst have created favourable conditions for marketers to use with the scope to retain and make loyal their customers. So, explosion of media has created conditions of selling products and services directly to the customers through the help of: print and broadcast media, catalogues, direct mail, and telephone marketing also fax machines, , the internet, and on-line services. (Kotler, 2001) In this way, marketers are struggling to become more competitive and effective than its competitors and reach to their customers in a faster way. Marketers have to develop a more efficient approach to customers. This idea is sustained by Mallin and Finkle who claim that: 5

6 Today s marketing trend is for firms to focus on a narrowly targeted customer segment. To reach these customers one-on-one, direct marketing is used. (Mallin & Finkle, 2007, p70). 6.1 Direct marketing and the advantages that derive from using direct marketing According to Kotler (2001), directly marketing represents marketing through various advertising media that interact directly with consumers, generally calling for the consumer to make a direct response (Kotler, Armstrong, Sauders, & Wong, 2001) Mallin and Finkle present their definition: The primary purpose of direct marketing is to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships. Furthermore, direct marketing is to obtain an immediate response and cultivating lasting customer relationships. Furthermore direct marketing can be applied in any type of for, profit or nonprofit organization and may exist in various forms (Mallin & Finkle, 2007, p71) The advantages that reside from using direct marketing consist in the time advantage, as direct marketing distribution channels are faster, easier to access and have a predetermined target group of customers. This will save the marketers from unnecessary costs and expenses to find customers, select and categorize in specific groups for future activities. R.Iyer and J. Hill (1996) present diverse authors opinion in their article about direct marketing from: Thorton, Berger and Roberts, Milmo and Stone that companies that use telemarketing have a quick marketing feedback (Thorton, Berger and Roberts, Milmo and Stone 1990), marketing strategy and implementation is fast (Stone, 1984), control is enhanced (Roberts and Berger, 1989), and it is easy and cheap form of market entry (Milmo, 1986). As direct marketing represents direct distribution with no intermediaries directly to the clients, direct marketing constitute a new and complete model for doing business (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, & Wong, 2001, p784). In this way, marketers have to become more competitive and aware of the advantages that reside from using direct marketing: becoming more efficient, faster, being aware of customers needs and being the first to respond to their demands, and in conclusion to make a long lasting partnership with the customers through a relationship contract. 6.2 Telemarketing According to Kotler (2001), telemarketing as a form of direct marketing consists of: using the telephone to sell directly to consumers (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, & Wong, 2001, 6

7 p792). In the simplest of the words, Telephone marketing is the planned and controlled use of the telephone for sales and marketing purposes (Stevens, 1991, p17) It has also defined as a new marketing discipline that utilizes telecommunications technology as part of a well planned, organized, and managed marketing program that prominently features the use of personal selling, using non face-to-face contacts (Stone and Wyman, 1985 cited in Johnson and Meiners 1987, p66) But Kotler elaborates telemarketing definition with specifying few purposes of this approach; according to him telemarketing is the use of telephone operators to attract new customers to contact existing customers to ascertain satisfaction levels or to take orders (Kotler, 2001). A more recent definition by Mehrotra and Agarwal states that Telemarketing is an interactive process between a company and its customers that uses a comprehensive system of media and methods to elicit a response. It is the art and science of getting the right offer, to the right people, at the right time, and recording and fulfilling their request for products or services. (Mehrotra & Agarwal, 2009, p172) They added a sense of dependency between company and customers into previous definitions, where not only company but also customers play important role in the final outcome of telemarketing effort. 6.3 Two main forms of Telemarketing, inbound and outbound Inbound marketing is explained as when a customer uses telephone to contact the company for purpose of making complaints, obtaining information, placing orders and so on.(mehrotra and Agarwal, 2009) In this case customer takes initiative to call the company and plays active role by managing the conversation. Therefore inbound telemarketing relays for success on mass media advertising, direct mail and other promotional techniques to encourage calls from customers and prospects. (Johnson and Meiners, 1987) On the contrary, the outbound telemarketing is when a company tries to contact a customer for selling a product, to conduct market research and other things. (Mehrotra and Agarwal, 2009, p172) Telemarketing has become a key direct marketing instrument which is responsible for billions of dollars of worth sales to customers. Different from other direct marketing media, such as personal mail, the use of telephone allows instant two-way communication. It provides feedback of every contact made; this feedback can be recorded, measured and analyzed to help understand the effectiveness of the message, the kind of interest it holds among its target audience and other possible variables, on continuous basis. (Stevens, 1991) 7

8 Telemarketing can be more effective if proper telemarketers are chosen, then they are trained well and provided with proper performance incentives (Kotler, 2001) It also requires high quality customer data, cluster capabilities and explainable outcomes that provide action items for strategy and testing. (Mehrotra and Agarwal, 2009, p172) The key factors which could enhance telemarketing efforts include pleasantness in the voice of the telemarketer, his enthusiasm and quality of improvisation. (Kotler, 2001) 6.4 Consumer behaviour towards telemarketing From the behalf of companies, telemarketing tool represent an efficient, flexible and cheaper way to reach customers. However, as consumers are responsible for the act of accepting or rejecting the calls, telemarketers should keep in mind some issues that can affect their communication with consumers. Consumers are active participants in direct marketing; increasingly buying via the phone or post and happy to do so, yet on the other hand, are increasingly cynical of marketers intentions and method of approach. (Evans et al, 2001, p7) P Drucker stated that company s main task is to create customer. Nowadays, on the market there is a wide selection of products and services. The intriguing question is how customers select their choices and on what basis? For marketers it is important to understand the psychology of consumer buying behaviour. Usually the perceptions of the value of product or service are based on a specific set of physical cues and beliefs that customers are aware of. Therefore, customers are deciding regarding the value of products or services on the perception of what is given and what is received. The concept of consumer behaviour therefore is of a colossal importance for marketing efforts of a company, including telemarketing services. Consumer behaviour is defined by the American Marketing Association as the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behaviour and the environment by which human being conduct the exchange aspect of their lives (Peter, Olson, 1998, p6) In simple words, it includes the way of thinking and feelings people go through and the things they do in consumption processes, under the influence of all the environmental elements around them at that time. Companies divide or separate customers into various groups on basis of these outer broad environment elements as well as certain inner commonalities. This sub-division or segmentation into groups can be in terms of psychographics and/or demographics. 8

9 Psychographics refer to a customer s individual lifestyle and personality. Whereas the demographics involves division on base of population characteristics like age, gender, family structure, race and ethnicity, geography, income, occupation, education etc (Solomon, 2011, p32) The idea behind the psychographic or demographic segmentation is that consumer behaviour under different groups will be same for everyone in that group. For example if we take people of same age group although they differ in many ways but they do tend to share a set of values and common cultural experiences that they carry throughout life. (Solomon, 2011, p37) Same is the case if we take people from a certain geographical location; they will be uniform in number of ways. Customers in a country have a certain pattern of responding to marketing (particularly telemarketing) depending on their diverse behavioural and environmental factors including variant demographics and psychographics. Customers can be classified in two groups: acceptors and rejecters of telemarketing services. We want to analyze the cases and situations in which two parties are involved: customers and telemarketers, that leads to the rejection of telemarketing services. Even if the cooperation of the respondents to the calls fall and there is a tendency of cynicism and criticism, companies are much more worried towards sales and costs and do not pay attention to this signals. (Mehrotra and Agarwal, 2009) This is the case where consumer behaviour should be studied and understood in order to succeed and enlarge the number of acceptors, rather than rejecters. Further, these authors present factors that can lead to rejection of telemarketing calls. Perceived ad intrusiveness- can be defined as the degree to which an unwanted marketing communication interferes with an individual s cognitive process and tasks, as well as interference from media contents, including offensive materials (Mehrotra & Agarwal, 2009, p174). As telemarketers are approaching potential customers over phone, there is a possibility of disturbing customers from their tasks and responsibilities which can lead to negative approach and also irritation of the perceived calls. As Mehrotra and Agarwal present in their study of the customer behaviour in relation to telemarketing calls: receiving promotional calls on the telephone, especially mobile phones, can be considered an interruption of task performance, as the phone is used by customers for specific purposes such as receiving or making business-related important calls. The ringing of the phone when the customer is engrossed in work could cause a great deal of disturbance (Mehrotra & Agarwal, 2009, p174) This leads to irritation due to various advertisement and telephone 9

10 calls. In this way, customers feel that they lose the freedom of their decisions and actions. The mistakes that telemarketers usually commit are: the group that they target is wrong, the time that they call is wrongly chosen, the formulation of messages does not take into account the particularity of groups and the telemarketers are too insistent in their conversation which leads to irritation and negative reactions from the behalf of customers.(mehrotra and Agarwal) Telemarketers should understand in their effort to gain customer acceptance that: customers do not like to be told what to buy, time is very important in order to not clash with busy day time, customers mostly like to have their own initiative of the purchase. As a conclusion, the effort to convince customers to buy over phone represent a delicate issue, as customers may feel that they are used only to purchase the products that cannot be sold on the market. Psychological resistance- consumers may feel that marketers control his/her time, space, information and security. In the context of consumer evaluations of telemarketing calls, if individuals find such calls intrusive, then they may also feel that these calls pose an obstacle in their receiving important calls, cause disturbance in their ability to process information cognitively and in their performance of certain tasks. As a result, users may feel that they have lost the freedom to be engaged in particular behaviours and/or may feel that they have lost control of their own behaviours (Mehrotra & Agarwal, 2009, p176) Freedom and control of their actions represent general aspects of the consumers in their purchasing behaviour. For this, telemarketers should be very attentive in their effort to approach customers; to not make them feel that they are just used for commercial purposes and to not be too much insistent with the calls and messages. Information orientation and perceived usefulness In the context of telemarketing, the perceived usefulness of calls will be defined as the degree to which a customer perceived that the company has made proper and efficient use of their personal information to target the right customer with the right product or service, making purchasing easier and more convenient for them. For positive reaction to telemarketing calls, it is necessary that the companies making such calls make consumers aware of the value they are providing to them in terms of giving them personalized information about products and in making available only those products and services that will definitely be of use (Mehrotra & Agarwal, 2009, p. 177) It is very important to create a dialogue with customers and to be transparent in your intentions with their personal information. In case when telemarketers are informing and announcing how they will handle information, customers will have an increased degree of 10

11 trust and confidence that they will not be victims of different types of scams. Also, in order to make customers accept the telemarketing calls, it is important that telemarketers accentuate the value that they might receive and the opportunity cost with these aspects as: speed of products or service delivery, convenience to not be forced to pick up the products from a phisical outlet, trust in the personalized approach of their needs. Multinational companies selling products/services in various regions or countries across the globe therefore usually prefer to adapt a geographical segmentation to better understand and cater the customers of a particular country grouping them together and design their marketing policies accordingly. For example the Coca Cola Company uses Urdu advertisement to reach customers in Pakistan and English for North America. As Urdu is the national language in Pakistan and English is the most common language in North America. (Ibibio, 2010), (ad week, 2002) It is apparent that consumers want to be treated in different ways. That is, not only in terms of the offer itself, but how it is presented. (Evans et al., 2000 cited in Evans et al., 2001, p7). But there have not been much effort put up by companies or researchers to understand the consumers from various countries on the basis of their unique demographic and psychographic characteristics which helps build their responses towards telemarketing services provided by company. Wyman (1990, p38) in his study regarding consumers acceptance of proactive telemarketing or outbound telemarketing stated that the difference between acceptors and rejecters of telemarketing calls consist in how they regard the calling attributes and how important they are for them: The three calling attributes that made a difference were: the company calling has a good reputation; the sales person will be courteous and professional; and the consumer has an interest in the product or service 7. Conceptual Framework Conceptual framework for proposed research topic: Consumer trust Perceived risk Perceived benefit Beliefs and intention Purchase Behaviour 11

12 8. Research questions This study proposes to investigate the following research questions: 1. What are the main activities of the Telesales department of Banglalink? 2. What is the behaviour of consumers towards telemarketing in case of purchasing Banglalink SIM from Telesales? 9. Hypotheses The hypotheses derived from the research questions are: 1. Telesales is an important department of Banglalink to retain and increase its market share. 2. There is a difference in the way customers trust telemarketing service and in consumer s thinking that telemarketing is a convincing way to contact customers. 10. Research Methodology 10.1 Research Design The present study will investigate the activities of the Telesales department and the behaviour of customers towards telemarketing in case of purchasing Banglalink SIM from Telesales. The research is exploratory in nature. There are less chances of error as the sample size is limited here. It can be conducted by a single researcher with a minimum number of sample sizes. This kind of research gives more insights for developing an approach to the problem Research Approach For this study, quantitative data is being collected. Information is gathered from the post-paid subscribers of Banglalink who will visit the Banglalink service center during the data collection period of this study and by telephonic interview. All participation was voluntary. Quantitative data that I have collected will help to understand the attitude and behavior of customers towards telemarketing in context of purchasing Banglalink SIM from Telesales. The data and with the help of measurement and further analysis, I will further generalize the social behavior from sampling. 12

13 10.3 Sampling Method The study is conducted only in Dhaka city due to time and budget constraints. The population would be all the subscribers of Banglalink in Dhaka city. The sampling frame for the subscribers is official register list for the interested customers against whom a lead was generated, and currently are subscribers of Banglalink, which is provided by Banglalink. Based on the study s focus, samples are taken only from the service centers of Banglalink. First of all, as the customer listing could be drawn, probability sampling technique would be appropriate to draw a sample from the sampling frame. In this regard, for the current study a simple random sampling method would be utilized. The sample size of the current study is Survey Instrument To gather data, questionnaires were used. Personal interview was also possible to be conducted over telephone. As a result, the questionnaire survey and telephonic interview is the most effective method for this study to collect the data for the current study. The data gathered is easy to put in quantitative analysis. And it takes less time to fill up a questionnaire and talking over phone. Therefore, the customers will not be reluctant in providing accurate data. A structured questionnaire will be used in this study to collect data from customers. The previous researchers have used 5 points Likert scale starting from 1 for strongly disagree to 5 for strongly agree. So I have also used 5 point Likert scale to measure variables Data collection The present research is a unique one for Banglalink. Therefore, primary data as well as some secondary data were used to investigate research questions. To collect data from the primary sources, I have used the questionnaire survey method and also telephonic interview. This method is commonly used in consumer surveys to collect data from primary sources. Secondary sources of data include marketing report of Telesales, articles and the internet for related information Limitations of the study There were a number of limitations in this study. The sample population will be limited in terms of size and composition. Data collection is restricted within Dhaka city only, which 13

14 may fail to represent the factual scenario. My focus is on the different people from age of 18 and above, who have experienced an incoming call from a telemarketer; that is to say I only look into outbound form of telemarketing. People of this age have been chosen due to their certain level education, understanding and analytical thinking that could provide with valuable input for the research. Also, I am only focusing on outbound telemarketing as considering both forms of telemarketing (inbound and outbound) would require more time than available and different kind of research work. The research was prepared and conducted during my internship period. So it was difficult for me to accommodate time for preparing this report. 14

15 11. Results and Discussion Age 30% 8% 22% 40% From the above figure regarding age path we can see that we have an evident unequal distribution. From path age 18-25, I gathered 11 replies, from path age 26-40, I gathered 20 replies, from path age 41-55, there are 15 replies and from path age 56+ there are 4 replies. 10% Occupation 34% 20% 36% Businessman Student Service Housewife The above figure provides us with the insight what is the occupation of my respondents, 18 respondents are businessman, 10 respondents are students, 17 respondents are service to government/private firms and 5 respondents are housewives. 8% Present subscribers of 26% 28% 38% Grameen Phone Robi Airtel Teletalk The above diagram shows that among the total respondents, 19 respondents are presently Grameen Phone subscribers, 14 respondents are Robi subscribers, 13 respondents are Airtel subscribers and the rest of 4 respondents are Teletalk subscribers. 15

16 Type of SIM connection 20% 38% 42% Prepaid Postpaid Corporate The above diagram shows that around 42% of the respondents are prepaid users, while 38% are postpaid users and the rest 20% are corporate users. Reason for purchase 8% 40% 6% 46% Quality product Low price Brand image Pattern of product The above figure depicts a clear picture that almost every respondent wants to purchase Banglalink SIM because of their product quality and low price. 23 respondents bought Banglalink SIM for its product quality, 20 respondents for low price, 4 for brand image and 3 for pattern of the product. Aware of telemarketing services 22% 78% Yes No The above figure shows that almost 78% of the respondents are aware of telemarketing services while 22% are not. 16

17 12% 34% Influenced by whom 12% 42% Relatives Friends Colleagues Callers From the above diagram it is clear that almost 42% of the respondents are influenced by their friends to buy the SIM. 34% of the respondents are influenced by the callers, 12% by colleagues and 12% by relatives. 7% Media source 13% 80% Television ad Radio ad Billboard ad The above diagram shows that around 80% of the respondents know the product from TV ad while 13% from Radio ad and the rest 7% from Billboard add. Purchase from 12% 30% Banglalink service point Banglalink office 46% 12% Home Shopping mall From the above diagram we can say that 46% of the respondents would like to purchase the SIM from their home, 30% from Banglalink service points, 12% from Banglalink office and 12% from shopping malls. 17

18 Home delivery service 12% 16% 16% 56% Easy to buy Effective process Hamper privacy Difficult to trust The above diagram depicts the fact that 56% of the respondents think that the home delivery service of Telesales, Banglalink makes it easier to buy SIM. However 16% of the respondents think it is an effective process, 16% thinks it hampers privacy while 12% thinks it is difficult to trust. Telemarketing is a convincing way 38% 62% Yes No The above diagram shows that 62% of the respondents think telemarketing is a convincing way to contact them as a potential customer while the rest of 38% thinks it is not. Preferred type of numbers 44% 20% 36% Dial duplicate Silver Golden From the above diagram we can say that around 44% of the respondents want to get dial duplicate numbers, while 36% wants golden numbers and 20% wants silver numbers. 18

19 Switching reasons 40% 42% Dial duplicate offer Low price 18% More attractive offers From the above diagram it was clear that almost 52% of the respondents want to switch their present SIM to Banglalink SIM or use Banglallink SIM besides for more attractive offers while 30% for duplicate dial offer and the rest of 18% for lower price. Expectations from telemarketing services 14% 18% 12% 46% 10% Politeness Punctuality Transparency Creativity Prompt reply In the above diagram regarding customers expectations of telemarketing services of Telesales, Banglalink, we can see that 46% of the respondents have chosen transparency, which means that they are concerned of fairness and contract transparency that will not hide any post contract surprises. 18% of the respondents opted for telemarketer s politeness when they are approached on the phone. As a psychological trait, we try to listen and be more friendly to people that show to us respect and in our needs. 14% of the respondents replied for prompt reply which can be explained by the fact as we live nowadays in a more dynamic world, where we are confronted with various needs and time lose for solutions, a prompt and personalized reply from the part of telemarketers represent a bonus in the customer s eye. 19

20 Reasons for rejecting calls 6% Annoying 4% 18% 38% 34% Improper time Arrogance Lack of transparency From the above diagram regarding the possible reasons for rejecting telemarketing calls, 38% of the respondents have chosen improper time and 36% have chosen annoyance. This proves my theoretical part regarding customers need for freedom of selection and the need for control of their actions. Telemarketing services has been criticized for being annoying by calling during busy time schedule and interrupting consumers from their own tasks and duties. This explains the increased number of rejecters for telemarketing services. Trust in quality 10% 38% 32% 20% Strongly disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree From the above diagram, on a likert scale from 1 to 5, we can see how customers regard in the quality of Telesales telemarketing services: 5 replied strongly disagree, 10 for disagree, 16 are indifferent, 19 agree that they have trust in quality of telemarketing services of Telesales, Banglalink. Telemarketing services are reliable 6% 12% 32% 22% Strongly disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree 28% Strongly agree 20

21 The above diagram regarding the reliability of telemarketing services, 6 respondents replied strongly disagree, 11 respondents replied disagree, 14 were indifferent, 16 agreed and 3 respondents replied strongly agree. However the number of people that consider telemarketing service as reliable is quite lower than the number of people that do not have reliability in telemarketing. Telemarketing service are convenient 8% 40% 6% 18% 28% Strongly disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree Strongly agree In the above diagram regarding convenience of telemarketing services 3 respondents replied strongly disagree, 9 respondents disagreed, 14 were indifferent, 20 agreed and 4 strongly agreed. However the number of people that do not consider telemarketing as convenient is much lower than the number of people that consider convenient telemarketing services. Information availability 4% 12% Strongly disagree 18% Disagree Uncertain 28% 38% Agree Strongly agree From the above diagram regarding information availability and its influence on telemarketing usage, we can see that 4% of the respondents replied strongly disagree, 12% of the respondents disagreed, 28% were indifferent, 38% agreed, 18% strongly agree. This means a larger information availability regarding telemarketing service of Telesales, Banglalink will make customers more aware of telemarketing and other positive outcomes for telemarketers as customer s familiarity, confidence and trust. 21

22 We can summarize from the analyzed data as following: Most of the respondents are from path age and This means 70% of the customers are in these age paths. Most of the customers are businessman and service holders that are around 70% of the respondents. At present, a large number of customers (38%) are Grameenphone subscribers. Quality of the product (46%) and lower price (40%) are the main reason for purchasing Banglalink SIM. Majority of the respondents (78%) are aware of telemarketing services. Customers are frequently influenced by their friends (21%) to buy the product. Maximum respondents (80%) think television media makes them known to a brand. Many respondents (46%) opted for home delivery service to buy SIM from their home/office and thinks that it is an easier way for them to buy (56%). Around 62% of the respondents think telemarketing is a convincing way to contact to them as a potential customer. Most of the customers prefer to buy golden (44%) and duplicate dial (36%) numbers. Duplicate dial (42%) and more attractive offers (40%) often lead the customers to switch their SIM or buy another SIM. Most of the respondents (46%) are concerned of fairness and contract transparency of the services offered. Many respondents (38%) have chosen improper time as a reason for rejecting telemarketing calls. Many respondents think telemarketing services are reliable (32%) and convenient (40%). Around 38% of the respondents think that availability of information will make more customers aware of the Telesales services. 12. Recommendations Consumers attitude towards telemarketing is still described as lacking trust in the quality and reliability of the services of Telesales which leads to not so favourable consumer behaviour towards telemarketing. This can be considered as challenges that Telesales have to improve their services. 22

23 An improved system of telemarketing information and promotion can increase customers awareness and curiosity regarding Telesales services. If Telesales can improve their strategies for approaching customers by advertising their services on more media means, they can be observed by consumers; therefore I believe that the rate for accepting the calls might be higher than rejecting calls. There are many successful campaigns for approaching customers which includes by being polite, having mild voices, proposing a personalized solution and being fast. However customers are afraid of different scams and specially scams conducted by telephone and this represent a sensible area that Telemarketers have to work upon, that is to assure consumers that they are conducting a fair business activity. Last but not least, if Banglalink put up some attention to their network system and their call rates, I think they can get further customers. 13. Conclusion Telesales is becoming a modern technique of marketing. It is an effective medium of customer contact. The current study exposed us towards a new dimension of sales. Telesales is effective for both the contact centre and the whole organization. It is contributing to the overall revenue of Banglalink. Apart from making sales, Telesales is making sure that subscribers know about all the products and services, thus, becoming a new marketing strategy to reach mass number of customers. From the analysis I can conclude that consumers develop quite a positive attitude towards the telemarketing services of Telesales, Banglalink. However Telesales should continue focusing on factors such as trust, reliability, and information availability. As Banglalink is spending huge amount of money and efforts to lure their customers through telemarketing, they need to find ways to decrease the rejection of the telemarketing services by customers. Otherwise, the prospect of Telesales to reach their customers through medium of telephone will not be bright. Lastly, I took in consideration only one side of telemarketing which is outbound telemarketing. A research is needed to find out the behaviour of customers towards inbound calls and will finally help complete the whole picture of consumers behaviour towards both side of telemarketing. 23

24 14. Bibliography Evans, M., Patterson, M., & O'Malley, L. (2001). The direct marketing-direct consumer gap: qualitative insights. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 4 Issue 1, p17-24, 8p. 4 (1), Iyer, R. T., & Hill, J. s. (1996). International direct marketing strategies: a Us-European comparison. European Journal of Marketing, 30 (3), Johnson, E. M., & Meiners, W. J. (1987). Telemarketing: Trends, Issues and Opportunities. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 7 (3), Kotler, P. (2001). A framework for marketing management (2 ed.). Prentice Hall. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., & Wong, V. (2001). Principles of Marketing (3 European ed.). London: Prentice Hall. Mallin, M. L., & Finkle, T. A. (2007). Social entrepreneurship and direcet marketing. Direct Marketing: An international journal, 1 (2), Mehrotra, A., & Agarwal, R. (2009). Classifying customers on the basis of their attitudes towards telemarketing. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and analysis for Marketing, 17 (3), Peter, P. J., & Olson, J. C. (1999). Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy (fifth ed.). Mc Graw Hill Companies. Solomon, M. R. (2011). Consumer Behavior (ninth ed.). Pearson. Stevens, M. (1991). The handbook of telemarketing: Strategies for implementation and Management. London: Kogan Page Wyman, J. (1990). Survey of Consumers' acceptance of proactive telemarketing. Journal of Direct Marketing, 4 (2),

25 15. Appendix Research Questionnaire 1. Gender: a. Male b. Female 2. Age: a b c d Occupation: a. Businessman b. Student c. Service d. Housewife 4. Present SIM connection: a. Grameen Phone b. Robi c. Airtel d. Teletalk 5. Which type of SIM connection are you using now or prefer to use? a. Prepaid b. Postpaid c. Corporate 6. What is (are) the reason (s) for purchasing the brand? a. Quality Product b. Low Price c. Brand image d. Pattern of product e. Company image f. Others 7. Are you aware of telemarketing services in your country? a. Yes b. No 8. By whom you are influenced to buy the product? (If any) a. Relatives b. Friends c. Colleagues d. Callers e. Others 25

26 9. Which advertisement media helps you to know about the brand? a. Television ad b. Radio ad c. Print media d. Billboard ad e. Others 10. From where do you like to purchase the SIM? a. Banglalink service point b. Banglalink office c. Home d. Shopping mall e. Corporate agreement 11. What do you think about the home delivery service? a. Easy to buy b. Effective process c. Hamper privacy d. Difficult to trust 12. Do you think that telemarketing is a convincing way to contact you as a potential customer in your country? a. Yes b. No 13. What kind of number you prefer most? a. Dial duplicate b. Silver c. Golden 14. Why you want to switch your present SIM? a. Dial duplicate offer b. Low price c. More attractive offers d. Tele-caller forces 15. What are your expectations from telemarketing service? Multiple answers can be chosen a. Politeness b. Punctuality c. Transparency d. Creativity e. Prompt reply 16. What would be your possible reasons for rejecting telemarketing services? Multiple answers can be chosen a. Annoying b. Improper time c. Arrogance 26

27 d. Lack of transparency e. Bitter previous bad experience f. Influence from friends and family g. Other Following are some items that ask your opinions about the provided telemarketing service of Telesales, Banglalink. Please circle one number per statement using the following scale: 1= Strongly disagree 2= Disagree 3= Uncertain 4=Agree 5= Strongly Agree 1. Do you trust in quality of telemarketing services that are offered to you? Do you think telemarketing services are reliable? Do you think telemarketing services are convenient to you? If you hear that your friends or family have been contacted by telemarketing services, will you trust telemarketing services more? If the company provides clear information regarding the rules and obligations of a telemarketing contract, will you be more eager to go for their services?