Cold calling isn't dead, it's just changed. Robocalls killed it, intentional leads and WhatsApp are reviving it

Will generative AI make it possible to improve and personalise remote customer service and personalised reception in shops? Can it already do this? Are telephone canvassing and telemarketing, which are celebrating their 67th anniversary, obsolete because consumers are fed up and prospects are less and less contactable?

Malpaso-RCM, publisher of the well-known magazine En-Contact, the independent magazine for CRM and customer experience, will be bringing out two useful books before the end of 2024 for professionals in charge of digital, acquisition and customer experience.

Telemarketing is 67 years old, but does it have a future, in which countries and at what cost?
The headline of the respected newspaper The Atlantic in 2019 read: ‘The reasons why no one picks up the phone any more’, describing with precision a phenomenon that has largely compromised the economic efficiency of telephone canvassing and telesales: prospects, too solicited, harassed they say, no longer pick up the phone, and GenZ even less so. If we add to this worldwide phenomenon the numerous regulations governing telemarketing, the do-not-call list, Bloctel and the Naegelen law, it is easy to understand the concern of acquisition specialists: the number of contacts made per hour and per agent has fallen by 45% in two years. As a result, the cost of acquiring a customer by telephone has risen sharply. Yet this is the channel that continues to dominate in terms of volume in the energy, fibre and energy renovation sectors.

After more than four years' work and research in the USA, France, French-speaking Switzerland and Morocco, Manuel Jacquinet, a recognised specialist in this sector, is publishing the first illustrated history of telephone canvassing, with the support of one of the leading companies in the field: Manifone. The French telecoms operator has built part of its growth on designing services and innovations that improve the performance of prospecting and telesales campaigns.

Out late November 2024, price incl. VAT: 30 euros. You can pre-order the book here.

The Directory of Customer Service and Experience, 5th edition, by En-Contact 
(Bottin En-Contact du service et de l'expérience client. 5th edition.)
In December, the same publisher (who also publishes En-Contact) will be publishing the 5th edition of the Bottin du service et de l'expérience client. A sort of Michelin Guide to 900 French service providers, publishers and consultants specialising in everything that improves customer service, reception and hospitality, with or without AI. Klark, for example, what does it do and what is it worth in terms of responding to your customers, since the AFRC did not include this ‘best generative AI tool for optimising your customer service’ in its start-ups of the year?

Qualtrics, which a few years ago was found to be complicit in election fraud, is used by Fnac-Darty for its satisfaction questionnaires. Does Qualimétrie have any serious competitors when it comes to delegating mystery shoppers? Armonia, Florence Doré, Maristel'O... who delegates hostesses to the most demanding tournaments and stadiums?

At the same time, Le Bottin will be proposing an attempt to select the 24 personalities and researchers who are driving forward the subject of customer experience and its digitalisation. As far as the new categories are concerned, RCS specialists have obviously been approached, since we believe that this replacement for SMS will change the game. And speech analytics publishers, such as Callity, the French company that is leading the way in this category in terms of effectiveness, according to its customers. Is Feedae, launched in the autumn by the founders of Callofsuccess, capable of becoming a serious alternative? Le Bottin, ask for the directory :).

Out in December, with issue 134 of En-Contact. Bottin En Contact can be ordered separately.