Marsha Kent – the Call Centre’s role in DRTV Marketing

Marsha Kent, the pioneer in DRTV marketing talks profoundly about the importance of a good Call Centre in the DRTV ensemble. A responsive Call Centre, using a wide range of sophisticated software, answers inbound, or places outbound telephone calls. To handle the high volumes of inbound calls, and place outbound calls, the call centre should be suitably equipped. Ideally, a good, hi-tech Call Centre should have the following facilities: • Customized entry system for placing orders with web accessrn• Scalable answering and call routingrn• Caller identification with pop-up order screenrn• Automation of call distribution environmentrn• Call recording facilitiesrn• Call Centre reporting facility.rnAccording to Marsha Kent , making use of the services of the Call Centre will take a big load off the marketer. Apart from the basic services that they offer, Call Centers are also equipped with other skills: • Skills-based routingrn• Upsellingrn• Save-the-salern• Save-the-continuityrn• Well-trained call centre staffrn• Multi-lingual customer service.rnMarsha Kent advocates some detailed research before choosing the right customer centre. She says that a call centre can be suitably customized and adapted to your specific needs. Moreover, you will need to invest some time in training your representatives in understanding your product thoroughly, before answering calls of consumers. A well-laid out, detailed script is also of prime importance. This will have to be given to the call centre staff for interacting with customers who call up with their queries. According to Marsha Kent, computer scripting is also important in facilitating any last-minute changes in strategy.rnAfter garnering years of experience in product marketing, advertising and sales, Marsha Kent started Kent Television Marketing in the late 80’s. This was a time when the direct response television industry was in its infancy, and had just begun to make its presence felt. Thus began her foray into the world of infomercials, with her launching the Miracle Blade I Infomercial going on air in 1990. The program which was all about a set of multi-purpose knives, took the country by storm, raking in sales of $1 million in just 3 weeks of its being aired on television. The Miracle Blade is now running its 4th version on the Infomercial, and according to market reports, over 12 million knives have been sold since 1989, proving how adept Marsha Kent was in her judgment of the direct response markets. Marsha Kent feels that it is important to reinforce key selling messages at regular intervals. When producing the Infomercial, it is also necessary to involve well-known people like celebrities, who can endorse the product. Marsha Kent has always made the use of people who can vouch for the products that are being marketed. This leads to a sub-conscious mind buy for the consumer. “When you use a well-known actor or a sportsperson, you have already made inroads into the consumer’s mind.” Marsha Kent says. “It becomes that much easier to get your point across. There is a sense of security in the mind of the consumer. An endorsement by the celebrity works in full favor of an appeal getting built up for the product”, says Marsha Kent.