In my travels, I usually take the time to speak with publishers and newspaper/magazine directors about industry related news and their business as a whole. Due to my background, we often end up speaking about the future of their call centers. As their call volume decreases and their phone centers turn into greater cost centers, many are wondering what their next move should be – outsourcing or downsizing. In these conversations, I encourage leaders to look at the areas their contact centers are involved in. Are the center agents touching all possible verticals? Is there activity that can be offloaded from commercial sales reps to improve larger advertiser average spend quotients? In most cases, it is discovered that their centers could take their availability and apply it to small business advertising acquisitions.

Small business retailers often remain untouched by outside sales staff because they represent either seasonal advertising dollars or smaller overall revenues. The truth of the matter however, is that these businesses represent the long-tail portion of revenue advertising dollars that publishers leave on the table.

In a recent study performed by AllBusiness.com, it was confirmed that small retailers independently thought that online advertising was out of their reach:

• 20% of small retailers thought Internet marketing was too complex
• 15% thought they did not have the resources to maintain an online campaign
• 25% thought Internet advertising would be too expensive
• 28% of retailers said they would change their mind on Internet advertising if someone took the time to explain the benefits.

Given the results of the survey, it is clear that small business retailers could prove to be a very lucrative part of a publishers business. If newspapers and classified magazines can find interesting ways of coupling print and Web advertising packages for small businesses, they would be directly answering a void existing in the ma and pop business realm. Not to mention that by having contact center agents perform the prospecting and sales process, the cost per acquisition would remain low.

As a publisher, if you are concerned about increased idling time of Contact Center agents try exploring other ways they could add to your bottom line, with addressing the needs of small business advertisers as one of your options.

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: Call Center Optimization, Call Center work, Small Business Acquisition