"Great performances in telemarketing" staged at RMH telemarketing

Telemarketing & Call Center Solutions, May 1996

If all the world's a stage, then RMH Telemarketing as a company -- a company of actors and actresses, that is -- has become a recognized player in the "theater" of telemarketing. From choosing the site of its headquarters to the Oscar-replica statues it awards to its telemarketing sales reps (TSRs) as incentives, RMH follows a theater-centered theme it dubs "Great Performances in Telemarketing." With its tailored approach to hiring, training and motivating TSRs, RMH has developed an employee relations program that it credits, in part, for the company's growth, now at 50 to 75 percent per year.

Setting Up Shop

RMH, a service agency established in 1983 by cofounders MarySue Lucci and Ray Hansell, specializes in servicing high-volume Fortune 500 direct marketers in the insurance, financial, retail, credit card, telecommunications and publishing fields. Lucci, president of RMH, has years of experience running telemarketing programs for companies including Colonial Penn and others of similar size. She pairs her operations background with the marketing experience Hansell, her husband and chairman of RMH, brings to the company. And just before founding RMH, Lucci and Hansell were consultants. collaborating to enhance telemarketing operations for companies like Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida, Lukens Steel, Arco Chemical and many others.

From this consulting business, which began with business-to-business programs and then migrated to business-to-consumer, Lucci noted, "We received many insights and perspectives we wouldn't have otherwise seen. I always worked for large companies and saw telemarketing from one point of view. When we started consulting, it was interesting to see how every different kind of industry used telemarketing. That prepared us well

for founding RMH

." These insights, along with the fact that RMH invested heavily in automation technology in the late 1980s -- one of the early adopters among service agencies --established a firm foundation for RMH's continued growth.

The movie and theater theme running through the company was an idea of Hansell's, who is also a former actor. To him, the theme of actors and actresses reading a script applies well to the telemarketing environment. After all, RMH's TSRs read a script for each telemarketing campaign they work on, the delivery of which Lucci and Hansell encourage TSRs to make lively and fun while not deviating from the text.

Step 1: Producing The Show

The first step for RMH in setting up one of its locations -- it now has eight -- is to choose, in the words of Ray Hansell, "the stages where our actors and actresses will perform." To pick its call center locations, RMH utilizes a site-selection company that takes into consideration such things as the quality, quantity and availability of the labor pool, areas known for fair labor practices, proximity to public transportation, and the safety and security of the neighborhoods.

RMH's corporate headquarters, a federal style building in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, is located in the heart of Philadelphia's Main Line. In addition to the benefits of the building itself, such as round-the-clock security and fire-detection systems, and vaults in which to store and safeguard magnetic tapes, it is a comfortable, well-maintained property, located next to the Bryn Mawr train station and only a short distance from some of the nation's finest colleges, universities and cultural institutions.

Step 2: Casting The Parts

The next step in RMH's process of setting up a call center is to choose the "performers" who will fill the theater. According to Hansell, "Our customers look for structure and process, particularly in the recruiting, selecting, managing and training of our employees. What brings them to us is not personality dependent." Because this structure and process is so important to the company and its clients, RMH has developed a comprehensive recruitment/selection process. It solicits potential employees through direct mail campaigns, local and regional newspaper ads, flyers, referrals, job fairs and campus recruitment. To attract the most desirable candidates, RMH offers a wage rate that it estimates to be 10 to 15 percent higher than other telemarketing opportunities. This wage rate is also higher than the average rate of pay in industries that employ similar labor, such as retail, customer service and market research, among others.

Once a candidate has been selected for evaluation, he or she enters RMH's three-step selection process, which begins with a structured telephone interview. While discussing the candidate's experience, the interviewer also asks the prospective employee to do a practice reading to enable the interviewer to evaluate articulation, enunciation and general voice enthusiasm. Only those who receive high scores on the telephone screening are eligible for the second step of the process, an in-person interview. Here again the candidate is asked to read from a script so his or her demeanor and voice presence can be evaluated.