With a focus on mid-size ISPs, Watts Communications provides helpdesk services tailored specifically to the needs of each ISP customer.

by Jeff Goldman [October 15, 2003]

Watts Communications was founded in 1965 as CPM Research, the first telemarketing company in Canada. Colin Taylor, the company's President and CEO, joined Watts in 1985 and took over as President in 1994. At that point, Watts Communications exited the "outbound" business and began focusing exclusively on inbound technical support and customer service.

The decision to shift away from outbound sales, Taylor says, was a direct result of the advent of predictive dialers. "This dramatically undermined the value of effective sales skills and listening skills, by basically applying an algorithm to everything," he says. "If you read the same message to enough people, a certain percentage will say yes. That eroded the business basis in terms of rates and margins."

Watts Communications Voice: (800) 314-5566 sales@wattsgroup.com

The use of predictive dialers, he adds, proved to be a culture killer within organizations, and opened the business up to more regulation. "The Do-Not-Call legislation in the U.S. is certainly evidence of the regulation aspect of it, and I think the incredibly high turnover rates in outbound shops is evidence of the culture killer component," Taylor says.

The company's call centers are based in smaller towns, each of which has a college within the community. Taylor says that this allows Watts to tap into the skills of the local workforce: Many people graduate from college with technical skills, but aren't willing to leave the area to look for high-tech jobs. "We opened up one of our facilities and we were hiring certified network engineers away from McDonald's," he says.

The centers are located in Summerside and Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, and in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. "We're quite honestly able to get better skilled, better educated staff than you will often find in contact centers operating in major urban markets," Taylor says. "That's led to lower turnover, and it's allowed us to develop a much stronger team that would otherwise have been possible."

Tailored to fit
Watts Communications works with mid-size ISPs, as well as with a few larger players: Taylor says the company generally looks for a minimum subscriber base of about 10,000. Pricing for the services can be structured per-subscriber, per-call, per-minute, or per-hour, depending on the ISP's requirements. "It really depends on how the client wants to look at the pricing information," Taylor says.

A number of standard reports are provided, with customized reporting available as well. Watts can either connect directly to the ISP's own back end system and allow them to generate their own activity reports-or the company can build a customized application using PeopleSoft. "We've worked with PeopleSoft for the past seven years, and we have about 50 applications we've developed under our belt," Taylor says.

All aspects of the client relationship are customized for each ISP. "Every client program is different, every application is different, and every structure and operating methodology is going to be somewhat different," Taylor says. "We partner with our clients to build a long term relationship to help them meet their business needs, and we customize our services to ensure that we do that."

The purpose of outsourcing, Taylor says, should be twofold: to save money, and to find ways of improving your overall operations. "A service provider should not only be able to provide a tangible dollar cost advantage over an internal operation at the same or better quality, they should also be proactive in terms of driving positive change that shows up on the balance sheet at the end of the year," he says.

Choosing a partner
When looking for provider of call center services, Taylor says it's crucial to make sure that they'll do more than just answer the phone. "You've got to look at what organizations the vendor is providing service for, and talk to those references about how involved they get in driving efficiencies and reducing costs," he says. "There are a lot of folks out there who will just take your money and answer your phone calls."

And don't just take the company's word for it. "You've really got to look for a vendor who has a track record of delivering on those types of relationships," Taylor says. "It's easy to say, 'Yes, we provide value add,' but you've got to research and validate that. You don't want to get yourself caught up in a web of great expectations and little delivery."

Patrick Bennett is Executive Vice President and General Manager of Covad Broadband Solutions. The company began working with Watts Communications two years ago after evaluating eight different vendors. They selected Watts, Bennett says, based on four essential factors: its technology, its employees, its references, and its pricing.

One of the key benefits of working with Watts, Bennett says, is the collaborative nature of the relationship. "They have a very talented staff of people that are constantly evaluating the metrics of the business, and making adjustments to their plan to ensure that those metrics are achieved," he says. "They're very collaborative; it's very much like a partnership as opposed to a supplier relationship."

The best evidence of that partnership comes from the attitude of Watts' employees who answer the phones for Covad. "I think if you spoke to most of the people that work on our account, they would tell you they work for Covad," Bennett says. "Even though their paycheck comes from Watts, they're very engaged and committed to us, and they see themselves as a critical part of our organization."

— End

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	[Aug. 13, 2003]	Outsourced Customer Support Directory: On-Line Support
	[April 24, 2002]	Covad Puts Teeth in its SLAs

Online resources:
	Outsourced Customer Support Directory
	Quick Reference Chart