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ETS Celebrates 25 Years of Business

EBSCO TeleServices customer service representative

EBSCO TeleServices (ETS) marked a milestone in the telephone marketing industry last year when they celebrated 25 years in the telemarketing business.

ETS is a third-party telephone marketing company that generates leads and renewal business for consumer publishers, requalifies subscriptions in the business-to-business market, cleans up databases and sells directories. The goal of the company has always been to provide excellent customer service in outbound calling, order verification, invoicing and order fulfillment while growing circulation and fulfilling marketing goals for the companies they serve.

In an industry that is constantly under scrutiny and continually adapting to change, the success of ETS is significant because longevity is hard to achieve in the telemarketing business. According to Bob Prosise, ETS general manager, rising above the competition is much more than just selling a product. “We certainly try to stand out from the competition. We’ve really tried to base our business on extremely responsive customer service.” That quality, in addition to maintaining the ability to change and grow with the demands of the industry, has been very important in facilitating great relationships with clients and customers.

When the late Bob Cortellino founded the division in 1980 and served as general manager, ETS employed 30 people out of a small New Jersey office where most of the work was outsourced to independent telemarketing contractors.

Within five years, ETS purchased an office in Kent, Ohio, and brought all operations in-house. Today, it is a 320-person operation based in Canton, Ohio, with three other call centers throughout the state. They continue to grow and profit every year. “In the teleservices industry, that’s a long time to be in business and to be profitable, frankly,” said Prosise. “There have certainly been a lot of changes, and it’s been a very interesting time to be in this business. We survived. A lot of businesses don’t.” Prosise has worked with the company since its inception in 1980 and officially came on board in 1985 after the acquisition of D&B Tel-Sales. Coming to the office today is a much different scene than it was 25 years ago, he said. “I would get tens of thousands of individual calling records on index cards, many times getting 10-15 50 lb boxes which we had to carry up to our second-floor office once per week.” The most significant change in business operations has been going from an entirely manual operation to a computerized process. In the past, everything was done on paper. Records for calling were manually separated by time zone and magazine. Eight people would sit around a punch-button phone with six different lines and spend more time dialing out then they did actually speaking with customers. Today, sophisticated technology has automated the dialing, processing, input and output and increased the productivity of employees as well as profits. “There is no doubt that what we’re doing is a profitable source of marketing for both ETS and our clients,” Prosise said. Recent changes such as the 2003 inception of the government “do not call” list have affected the company very little because they are exempt in most markets they serve. While the state and federal governments continue to change laws related to the telemarketing industry, ETS plans on growing and profiting. “We’ll be around for a long time because we’re profitable to our clients. However, we will also remain committed to adapting and complying with any new regulations that could affect our business.”

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