brm report final

8/13/2019 Brm Report Final

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BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

"CONSUMERS BEHAVIOR TOWARDS TELEMARKETING "


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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The present day society can be rightly called as the mobile information society. Thespurt in mobile technology, the boom in mobile sale and the multiplicity of application


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areas has indeed been unprecedented. The mobile telephony has brought a revolution ofits kind in the field of communication. The Indian Mobile subscriber base has increased insize by a factor of more than one hundred since 2001 when the number of subscribers inthe country was approximately 5 million to 729.57 Million by November 2010, according tothe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. This number was 429.73 million in March 2009and 76 million in December 2005. Rural teledensity increased from 9.46% (March 2008) to15.11% (March 2009) and the urban teledensity increased from 66.39% to 88.84% duringthe same period. The marketers have taken a lead in utilizing this growth incommunication technology to their advantage by resorting to direct marketing to getinto regular touch with their customers/potential customers. The mobile phone owners aregiven a call (either, recorded or manual or sms) to inform about the companysproduct/service and promotion schemes there upon.

Telemarketing has created a low cost solution to direct marketing whereas to the customerit may bring different responses. They may be happy to receive such calls or may beannoyed, inconvenienced, or even psychologically harmed by numerous hang-up callsduring the day. Thereon it becomes interesting to find out that which are the products andservices that are frequently marketed and which products and services are readilyaccepted by customers through this medium. It is important to know the perception andattitude of the customers toward telemarketing for its success.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Telecom Subscription Data as on31st December 2012 is as follows:

The number of telephone subscriptions increased from 846.32 million to 951.34 million,registering a growth of 12.41 %.

The wireless subscriber base increased by 107.58 million The wireline subscriber base recorded a decline of 2.56 million. The wireless segment continued to dominate with a total base of 919.17 million

connections. The overall teledensity in the country increased to 78.66 from 70.89. The rural teledensity increased to 39.22 from 33.79.

The urban teledensity increased to 169.55 from 157.32.


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The current revenue distribution is in favor of mobile operators who capture anywherebetween 60-80%. Technology enablers get anywhere between 10-20% and contentaggregators get 10-15% of the revenue. The content owner gets 5-10%. Operators citeinfrastructure development, cost of acquiring subscribers, and marketing costs as thereasons for the higher revenue share on their side. Thus, operators have the highestbargaining power. Since there is only handful of operators with market share in doubledigits, it is not business sense to ignore any of these. Once the number of operatorsincreases, the revenue share of operators is expected to dilute.

"The objective of this research is to understand the perception of customers fortelemarketing as a marketing tool and their overall attitude towards telemarketing. "


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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

TELEMARKETING: DEFINITION AND DIMENSIONS


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In simplest of the words, Telephone marketing is the planned and controlled use of thetelephone for sales and marketing purposes .It has been also defined as "a new marketingdiscipline that utilizes telecommunications technology as part of a well planned, organized,and managed marketing program that prominently features the use of personal selling, usingnon face-to-face contacts" But Kotler elaborates telemarketing definition with specifying fewpurposes of this approach; according to him telemarketing is the use of telephone operatorsto attract new customers, to contact existing customers to ascertain satisfaction levels or totake orders .In his definition Kotler tries to describe in specific what kind of uses of telephonea marketer can make as medium to reach customers. But still this definition lacks thebroadness and depth of describing the tel emarketings benefits. For these benefits, we lookinto more recent definition of telemarketing which has come out after long time sincetelemarketing was introduced in last century and by now almost every positive elementabout telemarketing has been explored. This definition by Mehrotra and Agarwal states thatTelemarketing is an interactive process between a company and its customers that uses acomprehensive system of media and methods to elicit a response. It is the art and science ofgetting the right offer, to the right people, at the right time, and recording and fulfilling theirreq uest for products or services.. They added a sense of dependency between company andcustomers into previous definitions, where not only company but also customers playimportant role in the final outcome of telemarketing effort. Its a new kind of technology -driven business tool that has changed the current business scenario as it provides flexibility tocontact customers and meet their needs at lower costs than previou sly. Telemarketing is asystematic and continuous program of communicating with customers and prospects viatelephone and/or other person-to- person electronic media.As the cost -effectivetelemarketing technology was being developed and enhanced, the costs related to personalselling were increasing considerably. For instance, a direct sales call can cost 30 times morethan a telemarketing call .

There are two main forms of Telemarketing, inbound and outbound.

Inbound telemarketing is explained as when a customer uses telephone to contact thecompany for purpose of making complaints, obtaining information, placing orders and so on.In this case customer takes initiative to call the company and plays active role by managingthe conversation. Therefore inbound telemarketing relays for success on mass mediaadvertising, direct mail and other promotional techniques to encourage calls from customersand prospects.

Outbound telemarketing is when a company tries to contact a customer for selling a product,to conduct market research and other things. Another definition is presented by Johnson and


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Meiners: Outbound telemarketing is the other major approach used. This involvescontacting customers through a direct-mail appeal or an outbound telephone call. Manysuccessful direct marketers have combined the two forms of communication. A direct mailpiece sent prior to a telephone call increases the customers receptivity to a follow -up phonecall and provides a f rame of reference for the call.

Telemarketing has become a key direct marketing instrument which is responsible for billionsof dollars of worth sales to customers .A usual household receives 19 telemarketing calls in ayear and itself makes 16 calls to companies to place orders. Different from other directmarketing media, such as personal mail, the use of telephone allows instant two-waycommunication. 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 ofinterest it holds among its target audience and other possible variables, on continuous basis.

Telemarketing can be more effective if proper telemarketers are chosen, then they aretrained well and provided with proper performance incentives. It also requires high qualitycustomer data, clustering capabilities and explainable outcomes that provide action items forstrategy and testing. The key factors which could enhance telemarketing efforts include thepleasantness in the voice of telemarketer, his enthusiasm and quality of improvisation.(Kotler, 2001)

History of Telemarketing:Even though that telephone has been used as an instrument to achieve sales for about acentury, the term telemarketing was first used by AT&T in beginning of 1980s to describe thelong-distance phone based selling efforts. The emergence of telemarketing industry can betraced back to the early part of the 20th century, in those times the financial services industryused the telephone as a medium of marketing. Stock brokers have also been using telephoneas a tool for their own tasks for quite a while. It was in 1930s and 1940s that telemarketingunits which are commonly known as inside sales operations started to appear in thewholesale distribution organizations. They were called inside sales operations due to the factthat the sales representatives remained inside the office. This idea got more prominenceduring the World War II, due to reason that most of the sales people in US were put intoservice and there were travel restrictions.

In 1940s and 1950s, magazine publishers avail the telemarketing tool to get new subscribersand get back former subscribers. A key telemarketing success tale begin in 1955, whenReuben H. Donnelley started a phone based sales campaign to sell advertising to smallbusinesses in the yellow pages.

In 1957 a pure telephone sales company was established named as Dial America MarketingInc. Then in 1960s with the introduction of Wide Area Telephone Services (WATS) lines,came a boost in use of telephone for business purposes. This breakthrough paved the way for


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increased outbound calling at low rates, which further helped in the establishment of largecost-effective regional or national call centres. Dial America Inc added more telemarketingprograms to their list in 1976. They started to work with companies like Bank of America,America Online, CompuServe and General Electric.

American Telemarketing Association (ATA) was formed in 1983 to cater this increasing newmode of marketing by many companies. According to ATA, the spending on telemarketingactivities increased from $1 billion to $60 billion between 1981 and 1991. By the mid-1990s,telemarketing accounted for more than $450 billion in annual sales.Today, ATA represents atotal of 4,000 contact centres which have over 1.8 million professionals attached to themworldwide. These contact centres provide various services and bring annual sales of morethan $900 billion.

In United Kingdom first telemarketing agency was founded in late 1970s.The decade afterthat saw a tremendous increase in the number of agencies and the companies who werespending on in-house telephone marketing activities. As mentioned in researchcommissioned by the Colorgraphic Group published in 1990, the UK agency sector grew by435 % between 1985 and 1989 , when it was valued at 75m. But in all Western Europe, thegrowth in telemarketing hadnt had been the same. For example Germany was in leadingposition with the most telemarketing an agency working there and then comes France at 2ndplace, followed by UK. But in case of total revenue Germany came 4th after France, the UKand Holland. (In case of Scandinavian countries, the harsh winters make travelling difficult and the chancesof face-to-face meetings become narrow, so various forms of telemarketing has been givenkey importance in business in these countries. This is could be the reason behind the fact thatthe value of telemarketing agency sector per capita of population in Sweden exceeds that ofthe UK by around 40% and similar situation exists in Finland.

Company value through telemarketing:

The customers have been burdened with a huge number of choices and substitutes; and theyseem to have less time to spend on decision making to buy a certain marketers product in arigorous market setting. It is a market scenario in which not only the local companies areselling, but also the international firms have the same level of reach. In these conditions,one of the most valuable avenues for marketers today is direct marketing, especially

telemarketing, which provides easy access and communication with consumers, allowingcompani es to reach customers whenever they want and wherever they want .There numberof reasons behind why companies are opting out for this form of direct marketing more thanothers. The advantages described by Michael Stevens (1991) include


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1) It is targeted: When a telemarketer makes a call to a potential customer, he can be certainof whether or not he has reached the right customer, so this marketing message is alwaysdelivered to the right person. In a business-to-business scenario, when a call is made withoutknowing the contact name, the telephone can be used to acquire the name of the rightdecision-maker or to find other potentially useful information about that particular company.

2) It is personal: The telephone as tool is most personal mean of communication after face-to-face contact. Each telemarketing call is specifically targeted, so that the message it isintended to deliver is personalized for that particular contact by containing the informationwhich is directly relevant to him and his needs. By developing a two-way communicationenvironment, it brings the opportunity to answer questions, tackle objections, respond tobuying signals or various interest levels and even take into account the individual personalityof the contact. Every conversation gathers more information about the contact which can beuseful in high personalizing of the following efforts with the person.

3) It is immediate: Each call gets an instant result in some form, it can be unobtainable orincorrect number may be a person who wants to be called back later, or negative or positiveresponse. Each of these responses can be used to decide that what should be the next stepthat can maximise the value of each individual. Due to this immediate response feature, theresults of a telemarketing effort can be constantly monitored; measured and analysed whichcould be useful in further enhancing this effort. This feature of immediacy also attracts thecustomers and prospects.

4) It is interactive: As the telephone communication is a two way link, the telemarketer candirect each conversation to facilitate the required information gathering or a particularresponse generation. Each contact thats made gathers some useful information, even if theanswer is in negative as we are already using product from another supplier. There is noother medium like telemarketing that lets the marketer to extract and record personalimprovised responses, except face-to-face contact which is the most expensive way.As the calls are particularly targeted, individual replays can be noted and added to thedatabase to be available for later use in planning and organizing other sales and marketingactivities. For example a company who is working with another supplier can be contactedagain when a special offer is being made. In case of business-to-business calls, even if theanticipated contact is not reached, still some useful information can be taken from theswitchboard operator.

5) It is high quality: The personalized information that can be gathered from a telephonediscussion let the telemarketer better understand each contact for different purposes, as tofind out that if they use the products that are supplied by the company and then to rate thecontacts potential value accordingly. Th e subsequent action can then be better organized ,


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10) It is cost-effective: When all the above mentioned advantages are summed into thisparticular medium of marketing, it becomes highly cost- effective way of reaching thecustomers.

The three calling attributes that made a difference were: the company calling has a goodreputation; the sales person will be courteous and professional; and the consumer has aninterest in the product or service

Problems and challenges of telemarketing calls:

One of the biggest problems regarding telemarketing is that it is considered by customers ascold calls. From the perspective of customers, telemarketing, especially outbound

telemarketing represents an invasion of privacy which leads to irritation and anger. Also, J.Kobs mentions that a too much insistent approach to the customers, this will lead to an ill-will relationship. From the perspective of companies that are conducting telemarketing isthat: there are certain regulations of the Federal Trade Commission regarding the waytelemarketers can conduct their operations; also it is expensive; telemarketing operationscan encounter such obstacles as difference of hours to reach their customers, othercustomers can reject the calls due to technological advances.

What are customers expectations from telemarketing services?

In a relationship with a service provider, customers look for the following benefits: Confidence reduces anxiety, faith in the service provider, and feeling of trustworthinessof the service provider. Companies that are pursuing a relationship marketing strategy havethe objective to make the customers feel secure regarding their choice of purchase.

Social benefits personal recognition by employees, customer being familiar withemployees, the development of friendship with employees.

Special treatment extra services, special prices, higher priority than other customers.If we analyze the relationship between customers and telemarketers, we realize thatcustomers need to have confidence, trust and security of the transaction by phone.

Telemarketers can increase their confidence by adopting the relationship marketing towardscustomers. Regarding social benefits, it is important that telemarketers develop an one-on-one telling in such a way, that customers become accustomed with the employees. Specialtreatment in telemarketing is connected with the change of the message of advice ofcustomers regarding a solution to their needs. A personal approach to customers, is alwaysbeneficial in qualitative standards for both customers and service company.


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According to Burgers et al (2000) mentioned by Kolar (2006), there are the followingdimensions of the customers expectations towards telemarketing calls:

Adaptiveness - customers have the expectation that telemarketers will provide the basedpersonalized solution for his/her wants and in this way the behaviour will be adjustedaccording to customers profile.

Assurance - represents an expectation for customers that their personal information willnot be disposed or divulged without agreement. In this way, customers are in charge forcontrol of their decisions. Also, customers expect that company will explain withtransparency and honestly how their private information is utilized.

Empathy -represent an expectation that customers talk not with a robot, but also withhuman being and that their problems are important and listened by telemarketers. Thispsychological aspect of humans is very important to be taken in account by telemarketers inorder to avoid the so called cold calls term.

Authority - represent an expectation that telemarketer is an experienced person that hasabilities and skills that are so necessary to solve customers demand.(Kolar,2006)Additionally, it is important that telemarketers have a database of existent customers and ofpotential customers, in such a way, that the search for new customers does not affect thequality of existent services. As a Direct Marketing Association official note: we want totarget people who want to be targeted. Kotler & Armstrong argue that: Most consumersappreciate many of the offers that they receive by telephone. Properly designed and targetedtelemarketing provides many benefits, including purchasing convenience and increasedproduct and service information.

Consumer behaviour towards telemarketing

From the behalf of companies, telemarketing tool represent an efficient, flexible and cheaperway to reach customers. However, as consumers are responsible for the act of accepting orrejecting the calls, telemarketers should keep in mind some issues that can affect their


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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. Understandingthe target customers and their unique characteristics is the key to any businesss survival,growth and eventual glory in contemporary markets. This is why to implement themarketing concept, organizations must understand their customers and stay close to them toprovide products and services that customers will purchase and use appropriately.P Druckerstated that companys main task is to create customers. Nowadays, on the market there is a wide selection of products and services. The intriguing question is how customers selecttheir choices and on what basis? For marketers it is important to understand the psychologyof consumer buying behaviour. Usually the perceptions of the value of product or service arebased 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 whatis given and what is received.

No two customers are the same, thus organisations need to find commonalities between

customers so that they can group them

The concept of consumer behaviour therefore is of a colossal importance for marketingefforts of a company, including the telemarketing services. Consumer behaviour is defined bythe American Marketing Association as the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition,behaviour and the environment by which human being conduct the exchange aspects of theirlives. In simple words, it includes the way of thinking and feelings people go through and thethings they do in consumption processes, under the influence all the environmental elementsaround them at that time.

Companies divide or separate customers into various groups on basis of these outer broadenvironment elements as well as certain inner commonalities. This sub-division orsegmentation into groups (as it is referred in marketing literature) can be in terms ofpsychographics and/or demographics. Psychographics refer to a cons umers individuallifestyle and personality. Whereas the demographics involves division on base of populationcharacteristics like age, gender, family structure, race and ethnicity, geography, income,occupation, education and etc The idea behind the psychographic or demographicsegmentation is that consumer behaviour under different groups will be same for everyone inthat group.

Organisations need to understand how this behaviour varies between different groups of

customers in order to ascertain the w ays in which markets can be segmented

Same is the case if we take people from a certain geographical location; they will be uniformin a number of ways. Customers in a country have a certain pattern of responding to


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in their receiving important calls, cause disturbance in their ability to process informationcognitively and in their performance of certain tasks. As a result, users may feel that theyhave lost the freedom to be engaged in particular behaviours and/or may feel that they havelost control of their own behaviours.Freedom and control of their actions, represent general aspects of the consumers in theirpurchasing behaviour. For this, telemarketers should be very attentive in their effort toapproach customers, to not make them feel that they are just used for commercial purposesand to not be too much insistent with the calls and messages.

Information orientation and perceived usefulness In the context of telema rketing, theperceived usefulness of calls will be defined as the degree to which a customer perceivedthat the company has made proper and efficient use of their personal information to targetthe right customer with the right product or service, making purchasing easier and moreconvenient for them. For positive reaction to telemarketing calls, it is necessary that thecompanies making such calls make consumers aware of the value they are providing to themin terms of giving them personalized information about products and in making available onlythose products and services that will definitely be of use .It is very important to create adialogue with customers and to be transparent in your intentions with their personalinformation. In case when telemarketers are informing and announcing how they will handleinformation, customers will have an increased degree of trust and confidence that they willnot be victims of different types of scams. Also, in order to make customers accept thetelemarketing calls, it is important that telemarketers accentuate the value that they mightreceive 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 physical outlet, trust in thepersonalized approach of their needs.Multinational companies selling products/services in various regions or countries across theglobe therefore usually prefer to adapt a geographical segmentation to better understandand cater the customers of a particular country grouping them together and design theirmarketing policies accordingly.

It is apparent that consumers want to be treated in different ways. That is, not only in termsof the offer itself, but how it is presented. But there havent been much effort put up bycompanies or researchers to understand the consumers from various countries on the basisof their unique demographic and psychographic characteristics which helps build theirresponses towards telemarketing services provided by company. In fact, it is hard to findempirical analysis of telephone interaction from a customers perspective even in terms ofbasic marketing concepts such as perceived value, quality and satisfaction. There have beenvirtually no attempts to investigate how consumers define and evaluate telephone


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interaction in terms of these concepts and their corresponding dimensions. Wymanin hisstudy regarding consumers acceptance of proactive telemarketing or outboundtelemarketing stated that the difference between acceptors and rejecters of telemarketingcalls 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 goodreputation; the sales person will be courteous and professional; and the consumer has aninterest in the product or service

The importance of customer Database:

In order for telemarketers to be successful in outbound telemarketing, they need to developa database of customers. A database includes data regarding customers includinggeographic, demographic, psychographic, and buying behaviour data. The database can be

used to locate good potential customers, tailor products and services to the special needs oftargeted consumers, and maintain long- tem customer relationships.Usually, a database includes: Prefix, name and address of the customer Titles (busin ess) and family relationships (consumer) Phone (day and evening), fax, e -mail Original purchase Purchase history (what, how much and when) Credit risk history

Customer service history For consumers: lifestyle information Detaining detailed information about customers will help direct marketers to save time,money and effort in approaching customers. Due to databases, direct marketers canformulate the specific messages that are meant to be approached to various group targets. Ifthey for mulate personalized messages that are matching to consumers demands, there willbe less financial burn, disappointments from a large number of rejecters and an increase ofsuccessful flow of business life.

How to conduct a successful telemarketing campaign:

Companies that are conducting their services through telemarketers have to rely first of all ontheir sales personnel. Usually a good sales person is one that is energetic, has enthusiasm, isobjective, has self confidence and is job committed. The company has to recruit and select

sales people with the help of tests that can outline the sales aptitude, personality and


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analytical traits of the potential employee. Also it is important that companies train the salespersonnel according to their market objectives and provide incentives for their performance.After the training period, it is important that the sales personnel be supervised by directionand supervision of their tasks. There are several advices for how to conduct a successfulconversation with th eir customers. Kotler et al (2001) advice that telemarketers should havepleasant voices and project enthusiasm. Women are more effective than men for manyproducts. The telemarketers should initially train with a script and eventually move towardmore improvisation. The opening lines are critical: they should be brief and lead with a goodquestion that catches the listeners interest. The telemarketer needs to know how to end theconversation if the prospect seems to be a poor one.

Chapter Summary

As we are writing about consumers behaviour towards telemarketing, we wanted to focuson specific areas of interests for our project.We proceeded with telemarketing definitions and history, as telemarketing represents ourarea of interests in our project. Further, we wanted to present that there are such benefitsthat companies can take advantage from using telemarketing services: It is targeted to a


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specific target market, It is personal for the specific customers needs, It is imme diate boththe call and the result, It is interactive as operators can communicate directly with theconsumers and provide specific information, It is high quality as information gathered fromconsumers can lead to a better screening and to the creating of customer database withprecious data and other demographic indicators, It is cost-effective as telemarketing callsrepresent a cheaper method for approaching customers if compared to other directmarketing forms.Also we presented the positive side of using telemarketing, it is our duty to present problemsand challenges while approaching customers over telephone. Usually, the encounteredproblems are related to the customers perception that telemarketing calls are cold, tendto intimidate personal space through persistence and annoyance. As a result, the appearanceof Do not call list of companies, often rejection of their proposed services by final customers,make telemarketing services in a bad shade that can damage customers trust and confidenceof the quality. There are such factors that are damaging the weight of telemarketing calls.Perceived ad intrusiveness by customers leads most of the time to the rejection oftelemarketing calls.

Psychological resistance represents an aspect of consumer behaviour that telemarketersshould remember. Freedom and control of their actions, represent general aspects of theconsumers in their purchasing behaviour. For this, telemarketers should be very attentive intheir effort to approach customers, to not make them feel that they are just used forcommercial purposes and to not be too much insistent with the calls and messages.Information orientation represent a factor that actually can win customers trust andconfidence. As telemarketers are sincere and open in the regarding contract conditions, or ifthey communicate to customers how their personal information will be dealt, in this waycustomers may be more eager for the maintain of the dialog and further services. Weconsider that customer behaviour represents an important and intriguing aspect in marketingand in dealing telemarketing calls.We also presented benefits, problems and challenges, we wanted to present some advices orapproaches for reaching the target market. Such qualities as pleasant voice and creativity andfast response for diverse situation that are not included in the usual script, representcompetitive positioning of the telemarketers and gaining more customers. In addition,telemarketers should define his or hers target market and the objective for approachingthese customers.

CHAPTER 3


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METHODOLOGY

Research plays a crucial role in our life. If we analyze research at the individual level, we seethat our everyday activities imply dozens of choices. In order to make the best choice amongso many proposed alternatives, we have to research. Research implies that we get properinformation from different sources as: family, society, media, and reference group. As J Hair

et al (2007) propose that Research is a discerning pursuit of the truth. Those who doresearch are looking for answers. In our everyday li ves, we all play the role of researcher


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At company level, research is also important, as in this way, companies are in search foranswering to vital questions as How do I find the answers to improve my performance andmake life better for customers, employees and owners J. Hair et al (2007) argue forexplaining that business research: seeks to predict and explain phenomena that takentogether comprise the ever-changing business environment. Thus, business research is atruth-seeking function that gathers, analyses, interprets and reports information so thatbusiness decision makers become more effective .B. Blumberg et al (2007) propose thefollowing definition for business research: A systematic inquiry whose objective is to providethe information that will allow managerial problems to be solved .

From these definitions we understand that access to data and the possibility to handleinformation in free error mode, can make the companies to succeed in the exploration andexploitation of various opportunities in the business environment. As business environmenthas become more complex, there is a higher need for business researchers to detain a largerknowledge base when making decisions. Such factors as: Need for more and better information as deci sions become more complex

The availability of improved techniques and tools to meet this need

The resulting information overload if discipline is not employed in the processhas outlined the importance for business research related to different business or socialphenomena.

In order to create a good Business research we need to structure and plan our activities step bystep, in such a way as to accomplish our purpose for our business research.

Further, we present graphically our structured business research that we authors have thoughtupon it. We also want to provide our research process in a way that is understandable and

comprehensible for the readers.


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Research philosophies:Research represents correlation between theory and data or information. In order tounderstand how one affects each other, there have been developed research philosophiesas:

Positivism philosophies Interpetivism philosophies

In order to understand what these philosophies stand for, we will present theircharacteristics and then present our chosen philosophy and the reason for its selection.B.Blumberg et el(2007) state that: positivism is a research philosophy adopted from thenatural sciences. Its three basic principles are:1. The social world exists externally and is viewed objectively2. Research is value-free

3. The researcher is independent, taking the role of an objective analyst.

On the other hand, interpretivism philosophies have a different approach to the social andbusiness phenomena. B.Blumberg et el(2007) state that The basic principles ofinterpretivism are:1. The social world is constructed and is given meaning subjectively by people2. The researcher is part of what is observed3. Research is driven by interests (Blumberg, Cooper, & Schindler, 2007, p 19)

Our research analysis is based on positivism philosophies due to the mentionedcharacteristics and to other aspects. First of all, we authors, are taking an objective side inthe analysis of our research problem and research questions. Our aim is to observe howtelemarketing services are perceived by consumers and to analyze the factors of influencetowards its acceptance or rejection. Secondly, we understand that we cannot influencetowards the phenomena that we are studying, that is why the research is value free.

Deductive v/s Inductive approach of the phenomena:

Research activity requires use of theory, observations, different scientific approaches anddata collection and observation. For this, researchers are using two approaches: Deductive approach Inductive approach

According to Saunders & el (2007): d eductive approach, in which you develop a theory andhypothesis (or hypotheses) and design a research strategy to test the hypothesis .In thistype of research approach, researches first of all use theory and propose hypothesis;secondly they collect data, analyze it in order to justify the hypothesis or reject them.

Ghauri & Gronhaug propose definition of inductive approach :Through induction we drawgeneral conclusions from our empirical observations. In this type of research the process


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goes from observations, findings, theory building, as findings are incorporated back intoexisting knowledge to improve theories .

Research process:

J. Hair et al (2007) propose a definition of the business research process: Business researchprocess provides a roa dmap with directions for conducting a business research project.They state that research process contains 3 phases: Formulation phase, Execution phase andAnalytical phase.

These phases and functions make us more aware of how to write our research methodchapter and make clearer our path in our business research. In the Formulation phase, weauthors, have proposed our research problems and the research area and started to gathertheoretical part from various books and articles and other sources. In the Execution phase,

we started to gather quantitative sources through the form of questionnaires. In theAnalytical phase, due to data entry, we could observe the trends, analyze them and relatethem to the proposed hypothesis.

Research problem :Research problem represent a more narrowed down research topic. It represents acognitive process through which, we authors, have been thinking of such questions as:What is the problem? As our research topic was focused namely on consumers and servicebusiness, we narrowed it down. It was a laborious work as we need to make use of conceptmaps or to see the cause and effect for these aspects. The result was to reach a commonagreement towards what constitutes our research problem, and namely: the behavior ofconsumers towards telemarketing services.

Literature review plays a crucial role in defining the research problem and also in providingconcepts that are mandatory to include in the theoretical part of the work. The role ofliterature review is overwhelming as it helps the reader to understand the previous researchand concepts and it can provide with variables for empirical research. In case that the

literature concepts do not cover some areas of interest, it is a novel opportunity for theresearcher to develop new ideas, hypothesis, and research questions. (Hair, Money, Page, &Samouel)

Below we present the steps that we have been taken in order to reach to a commonagreement for the research topic.


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Research Design:

Bryman & Bell (2007) state that: A research design provides a framework for the collectionand analysis of data. A choice of research design reflects decisions about the priority beinggiven to a range of dimensions of the research process. These include the importanceattached to: Generalizing to larger groups of individuals than those actually forming part of theinvestigation;

Understanding behaviour and the meaning of that behaviour in its specific social context


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In this way, research design represents how we, authors, will relate the stated researchproblem with the empirical aspect of our findings. Research design gives us the frameworkfor how to approach the research problem.

There are 3 main important research designs: Exploratory studies; Descriptive studies; Explanatory studies. (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007)

In our research design we are using explanatory research as this imply more thandescription of the facts that we are analyzing. We are stating the facts that consumers willbe less eager to use telemarketing services. Explanatory research is also used in the cause-effect phenomena. We proposed hypothesis and with the help of the data and analyzing it,

we have the task to demonstrate or reject them. This is the case that explanatory study isproviding for us the course of our actions.

Data :

Data collection is important for business research, as the results will help to analyze thestated hypothesis. Usually, there are used two types of data: Quantitative data Qualitative data

Quantitative data deal with numbers and figures, while Qualitative data use words,sentences and take a subjective approach to the collected data.In our project, we are collecting quantitative data, as we are conducting questionnairesfrom different population. There are features of the quantitative data that will help us-authors, to better understand and evaluate the results from our analysis. Quantitativedata's that we collect will help us to understand the attitude and behaviour of customerstowards telemarketing. We want to be objective and to test the proposed hypothesis. The

data and with the help of measurement and further analysis, we will generalize the socialbehaviour from our sampling.

Data sources:

Secondary data are useful not only to find information to solve our research problem, butalso to better understand and explain our research problem. In most research we need tobegin with a literature review: earlier studies on and around our topic of research. Theyinclude books, journal articles, online data sources such as webpage of firms, governments,semi-government organizations and catalogues.


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For our research process, we have been using the information gathered from books, articles,online websites and other information found on the available databases. It is worth noting,that information gathered from secondary sources need to be collected, analyzed, observedand analyzed according to the research problem in such a way, as the qualitative studies

derive from the existent information base. Our task is also to contribute and enrich the flowof continuous course of information. This has to be done carefully and in a constructive way,as this represent an imperative contribution to the research process. Information that wecollect from secondary data help us to construct and propose hypothesis related to ourresearch questions.

Data collection:For the data collection we have used questionnaires. Questionnaires represent thecollection of data that are further supposed to analyze the research problem. Hair et al

(2007) state that: A questionnaire is a prepared set of questions used by respondents orinterviewers to record answer (data). That is, questionnaires are a structured frameworkconsisting of a set of questio ns and scales designed to generate primary data. .

As we are using explanatory research design for our research problem, questionnairesrepresent the best way to approach the selected sample and to address specified questionsfor our further analysis. In this way, explanatory research design will help us to analyzerelationships between variables, especially between cause-effects variables. .

We will use self-administered questionnaires that will be delivered to respondents throughthe help of internet. The importance of designing the questionnaires is crucial, as weauthors can approach the respondents only once and we have to be aware of how toconstruct questions in such a way as the answers to provide us with information for furtheranalysis and conclusions.We have designed questions for several types of variables that belong to the proposedhypothesis. Respondent had to choose from selecting an answer or several, or to mark theirposition on a Likert scale from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

We have decided to go for questionnaires as we have a restricted time segment forcompletion of our paper, we have also a restricted amount of resources as financial andavailability of respondents eager to present their answers. In addition, the data entry alsorequires time and effort for analyzing them.These aspects have been evaluated and analyzed by we authors in order to meet thedeadline and continue further with analysis. Questionnaires will help us to approach asignificant number from the interested countries, to gather quantitative data and togeneralize it for a proper conclusion.


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Sample:

For the accuracy of data analysis, it is crucial to select the group of persons that aresupposed to be interviewed. This process is called sampling in the empirical research.

For the choice of our sample, we will choose probability sample as it implies randomselection of persons from Chennai. We consider that conducting a probability sample willhelp us to gather data from different population units and in this way to remain objectivefor an ethical approach to the project. Due to such resource limitation as budget and time,we consider that by conducting survey will help us to collect the necessary data fromrandom unit population. We need to collect data in a time frame for analysis and fordelivering the results in the established deadline. In order to conduct the study ofcustomers behaviour towards telemarketing, we conducted this study with the help ofsurvey. We send them survey forms via email and they passed it on to people there. But toreceive back the forms and to make sure they are reliable, we wanted the person who filledthe form to send us back form directly from his/her email. We also took prints of survey andgot it fulfilled personally at various locations .

We included such demographic data as: age, gender, occupation, level of education. As wefound in article by Wyman that conducted a survey upon consumers acceptance oftelemarketing, author states that: Age plays an important role in understanding thedifferences between acceptors and non acceptors of proactive telemarketing. There is muchgreater acceptance of proactive telemarketing by consumers who are younger. Education isalso important in determining acceptance of proactive telemarketing. The of proactivetelemarketing are less educated than the nonacceptors. .This however contradict ourconsideration that education can make a difference in selecting or rejecting telemarketingservices. Further, we will present our demographic data. For age we have selected 5 groups:from 18 till 25 years old; from 26-40 years old; from 41-55 years old and from 56 and moreyears old. We also want to target both female and male participants in order to see if thereis a difference in behavior due to gender.

Also we consider that occupation and level of education plays an important role in shapingthe behavior towards telemarketing services. For occupation we proposed the followingbands: service to government, service to private firms, service to industry, retired, studentand a free option to be completed by the respondent in case we missed in our formulation.For the educational level we proposed the following bands: primary education, secondaryeducation, undergraduate and postgraduate. We consider that these demographic datahave an important role in shaping consumers behavi or towards telemarketing services,however, as human nature is composed of antagonism in its selection, decision and action,we are aware that the results can deviate from our initial judgment.


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CHAPTER 4

Data and findings


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In the chapter 4, we will present and analyze the data that has been collected related to ourresearch questions and hypothesis. As described earlier, our research is focused onunderstanding the customers perception towards telemarketing calls.To conduct the research, we chose survey questionnaire method. Our survey contained 22

questions related to our hypothesis varying from close ended to open-ended answers. Wedistributed 36 surveys and were distributed to random population with only age above 18years as a requirement for responding to survey, but still most respondents were studentsdue to our proximity to them. We used both printed copy as well as online emaildistribution to reach potential respondents. We wanted to include in our study respondentsfrom different demographic background as: gender, age, occupation and education

Fig 4.1

Fig 4.2

From fig 4.1 , we can see that we have a quite unequal distribution of gender: 25 males and11 females.

25

11Number of Males

Number of Females

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

18-25 26-40 41-55 56+

N o O f R e s p o n

d a n t s

Age

AGE GROUP


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From Fig 4.2 regarding age path, we can see that we have an evident unequal distribution.This can be explained by the fact that our research was mostly confined to campus of CBS.From path age 18-25, we gathered 26 replies, from path age 26-40, we gathered 7 replies,from path age 41-55, there are 3 replies, from age path 56+ there are registered 0 replies.

Fig 4.3

From Fig 4.3 we can see that most of respondents were graduate (under or Post). We cansee that 97% of our respondents were graduates and remaining 3 % was comprised ofpeople who have completed just their secondary education

0%

3%

19%

78%

Educational QualificationPrimary Education Secondary Education Post Graduate Under Graduate


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Fig 4.4

Fig 4.4 provides us with the insight what is the occupation of our respondents. As most of

the research was confined to the campus of CBS almost 78% of the respondents arestudents. The remaining were accounted as follows Service to Private Firm(14%), Service toindustry(5%), Others(3%) respectively.

For the question do you think that telemarketing is a convincing way to contact you as apotential customer in your country?, from the Fig 4.5 we can see that 25% agreed, 69%respondents denied, while 6% dont know the answer. This explains once again that most ofthe customers dont use telemarketing services, so they dont think that telemarketing is aconvincing way to contact them as a potential customer. However the number of indecisiverespondents proves that they are not aware regarding telemarketing, or that there is littleinformation, advertisement and promotion. They represent a potential market target fortelemarketers if they know how to use a successful campaign.

0%

14%

5%0%

78%

3%

EmploymentService to Government Service to Private Firm Service to Industry

Retired Student others


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Fig 4.5

Fig 4.4 provides us with the insight what is the occupation of our respondents. As most ofthe research was confined to the campus of CBS almost 78% of the respondents arestudents. The remaining were accounted as follows Service to Private Firm(14%), Service toindustry(5%), Others(3%) respectively.

Fig 4.6

25%

69%

6%

Telemarketing Call EffectivenessYes No Don't Know

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

0 1-2 times 3-5 Times >5 Times

N o O

f R e s p o n

d a n t s

No of Telemarketing Calls

Telemarketing Calls Range


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Fig 4.8

Fig 4.8 clearly shows that most of the respondents don't remember the reason for whatthey were called. From the research data's we can see that 53% of respondents basicallyhad no clue about the call. Also 25% of respondents remembered the call but not the reasonwhile surprisingly 22% the respondents remembered the reason as well for what they were

contacted

Fig 4.9

22%

25%

53%

How much People rememberedVery well, both the call and the reason

I remember the call but not the reason of the contact

Don't remember it at all

8%

92%

Purchased Any productYes No


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Fig 4.9 as expected shows that most of the respondents did not purchase any goods /servicebased on the telemarketing calls

Fig 4.10

The graph(Fig 4.10) basically explains the feelings/experiences you may have experiencedon receiving telemarketing calls. The respondents were asked to express anywhere fromStrongly Agree(5) to Strongly Disagree(1) to each of these experiences.

Reasons Actual Mean Values Benchmarked ValuesIrritating 4.22 3

Boring 3.97 3Informative 2.69 3Politeness 3.36 3

Improper Time 3.75 3Annoying 3.81 3Arrogant 3.22 3

Frustrating 3.83 3Reliable 2.61 3

Communication 3.11 3

Satisfying2.31

3

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.50

M e a n V a l u e s

Consumer Feelings

Consumer Feelings


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From the table above we can see that The respondents are Highly irritated with the telemarketing calls with the highest

mean of 4.22 The respondents are highly bored (3.97) to the calls. They also expressed their

experience with telemarketing calls to be highly Annoying(3.81) ,Frustrating(3.83)and the calls from the telemarketers were highly ill timed(3.75)

Also the respondents were indifferent towards the Communication skills(3.11) of thetelemarketers. Also the nature of communication amongst the telemarketers variedfrom being arrogant(3.22) to polite(3.36).

And from the values we can see that most of the calls from telemarketers weredissatisfying(2.31) and the information shared by them were not that effective(2.69)

Fig 4.11

From the Fig 4.11 regarding customers thinking if telemarketing will be a popular way ofpurchasing products and service, we can see that 28% of respondents agreed, 19% wereindifferent, 53% respondents disagreed. These data show that the number of people thatdont believe in future of telemarketing services is much higher and this is threatening theconsumers behavior towards telemarketing and the future in general of telemarketingservices.

28%

53%

19%

Future of Telemarketing CallsYes No Don't Know


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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

&RECOMMENDATIONS


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Conclusion:-

From the above analysis we can conclude that "consumers develop a negative attitudetowards telemarketing."At the beginning we consider the important things fortelemarketing services: as technology, equipment and such psychological aspects as: trust,reliability, confidence and familiarity and another aspects that can motivate consumers touse telemarketing with more safety: legal system: laws, rules that protect customers frompossible telemarketing scams or other legal issues. We believe that consumers are morevulnerable due to a lack of strong legal system, are less aware of what benefitstelemarketing services can present to them and are more suspicious to the new type ofconducting businesses.

Our expectations that consumers are not using often telemarketing services have beenconfirmed by our data analysis. Also we were able to find consumers most of them dontuse telemarketing services, and dont believe that telemarketing will be a future popularway of purchasing products. This poses serious threats to the companies that areconducting their operations through telemarketing. Increased number of rejected calls,rather than accepting shows a definite problem. As we discussed in our literature review

that telemarketers make a big mistake while calling potential consumers during his/herwork time. In this way the level of irritation and rejecting the offers are increasingconstantly.Also, our findings has shown that either younger or elder age path(as we used 18-25, 26-40,41-55, 56+) do not have a favourable attitude towards telemarketing services. Too muchoverload information and advertising materials are approaching potential consumers by allmeans. In the same time, the usual consumer is also charged with job tasks, has morechallenges and issues to solve. Time that he can spend by exercising his job duties orspending with family can be disturbed by telemarketers that are delivering a new

commercial messages. From job stress to lack of time spending with family can create anegative attitude accompanied by irritation, annoyance and anger and to feeling of losingcontrol over his real needs. We live in a busy world, where everyone tries to move fast inorder to cope with dynamic tempo of our reality. Is telemarketing condemned fordisappearance? Probably with not, but telemarketers have a really great task to changeconsumer s negative attitude towards their services.


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Recommendations:-

As we have concluded that consumers behaviour towards telemarketing is negative

depending upon several factors in their demographic and physiographic environment, wethink its appropr iate to conduct further study in relation to find out how this behaviour canbe changed to positive or how can companies reduce this negativity to certain acceptablelevel. As many telemarketing companies are spending a huge amount of money and effortsto lure their customers through telemarketing, they need find ways to decrease thisrejection of telemarketing services by customers. Otherwise, the prospect for current andfuture telemarketing enterprises that tend to reach their customers through medium oftelephone will be not bright. They need to begin recovery efforts before its too late.

We consider that telemarketers should focus on such factors as: trust, confidence,

reliability, familiarity, legal system, information availability and education that we havediscussed in our findings part. Approaching the right consumer with the right messages,taking into account the time schedule and being polite and giving a prompt reply can make adifference.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://socyberty.com/work/telemarketing-the-downfall-of-the-salesman/http://www.enotes.com/biz-encyclopedia/telemarketinghttp://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Str-The/Telemarketing.htmlhttp://www.answers.com/topic/telemarketing.htmlhttp://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/telemarketing.aspxhttp://www.ataconnect.org/public/aboutata/index.phphttp://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=8ac1d114-0289-4210-a3de-9df442f0dcaa%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3

d#db=buh&AN=44974338Https://www.google.comhttps://www.wikipideia.com

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