More to the Floor
Increased prospecting for franchises and tests for new services offered by company-owned stores are among the teleservices expansions being gradually rolled out by Stanley Steemer International Inc.
The nationwide carpet cleaning service is preparing to increase its present outbound volume of 100,000 calls per month, as more franchises start participating in corporate-run teleservices programs, managed in-house at a 24-station phone center in Dublin, OH, where the company is based.
Annual sales for Stanley Steemer – including $60 million in corporate store and $240 million in franchise store sales – exceeded $300 million last year, a sharp increase from the $183 million reported in 1997. Stanley Steemer maintains a 15% to 20% market penetration among households that hire professional carpet cleaning services. Sales are growing 25% annually in tandem with a 20% to 30% growth in outbound telemarketing, says Jim Reed, director of the national customer services center.
Since Stanley Steemer first began making outbound calls for company-owned stores in 1992, the number supported by teleservices has grown from 19 to all 40 of its corporately held locations. An outbound calling program to generate customer orders for 10 franchise stores began last year; eventually it’s hoped all 350 franchises will participate.
Recently, a teleservices test promoting new air duct and upholstery cleaning services began for company stores. The company’s ongoing teleservices programs for both company-owned outlets and franchises include new-resident lead-generation efforts, quality assurance follow-up calls, promotions to generate repeat business from existing customers and calls to reschedule recently canceled customer orders. Generally outbound calls follow up direct mail promotions.
Reed notes that when prospecting, the company tests such expected segments as presence of children and pets, dual household income and home value, as well as some unexpected variables, such as musical preferences.
Quality assurance calls are made within 72 hours after carpets are cleaned to ask customers if they are satisfied and do whatever is necessary to satisfy the 5% who have complaints, including cleaning the carpets a second time.
Stanley Steemer uses its database to phone 250,000 company-store customers annually to generate repeat business. Scripts remind customers of how long it has been since the last carpet cleaning and the benefits of the service, such as extended life of the carpet and alleviated allergies for owners. A separate outbound program for rescheduling canceled appointments recaptures 40% of otherwise lost business.
A proposal from Scottsdale, AZ-based TeleDirect International Inc. to install new telemarketing hardware and software capable of running a relational database and handling online script changes is under review by Stanley Steemer. The company currently uses less-sophisticated predictive dialers to route calls and manage data.
An inbound teleservices program with a toll-free phone number may be also become part of the marketing mix.
“I’d like to see us do a nationwide advertising campaign with a 1-800 number so our reps can field inbound and outbound calls,” Reed says.
Although the company already has a computer system capable of running an inbound program, the new system under consideration would make it easier to launch a broad inbound telesales effort. Right now, only about 500 inbound calls – from consumers inquiring about store locations – are handled per month.
