We are celebrating our 30^th birthday. To mark the occasion, we’ve taken a look back to when the business began in 1990 as a 20-seat boutique agency based in Steyning, West Sussex. Whilst our commitment to delivering high quality services and real value to our clients, and the benefits of the telemarketing channel itself have been constant, other things have moved along a little…
An infographic from the Science and Technologies Digital Council gives a useful backdrop when looking back to the early 90s when TTMC was formed. It tells us that in 1990 only 0.05% of people were using the internet - no great surprise considering commercial dial up internet didn’t arrive until two years later. Some of us may remember the high pitched screech and the sluggish speed that put the landline out of action so no calls could be made.
The digital revolution that followed has impacted every aspect of our lives and transformed the sales and marketing environment in terms of technologies and channels through which businesses interact with customers and the volume of data they have at their disposal.

Digital gave marketers low cost channels as an alternative to traditional channels such as telemarketing and this, combined with the advent of cheap overseas call centres, led to a rocky patch for our industry, which many businesses did not survive.
The sector has also been dogged by negative associations generated by less reputable agencies scamming consumers and sending high volume calls using autodial technologies. Sadly, a small segment of the industry flouting best practice and failing to adhere to data protection regulations gave ‘cold calling’ a bad name, which the industry has struggled to throw off.
The new ‘omni channel’ world required us to adapt and integrate our services with the plethora of new channels used by our clients. The advent of marketing automation and ‘big data’ created high demand for clean profiled databases to feed automated programmes and robust lead management and lead qualification to deal with high volumes of low level leads and lead backlogs created by the new technologies. Offering agility and targeted resource to clients struggling to keep pace with technological transformation and grappling with gaps in their digital processes has enabled us to continue to offer value, particularly to our large enterprise customer base.
By remaining agile and focusing on the quality of our service, recruiting high calibre callers and adopting the best systems and processes, we have weathered the storms and continued to thrive. With our own team of developers, our calling and reporting platforms are built on the very best technologies with powerful functionality and flexibility to interface and align seamlessly with clients’ own digital tools, systems and processes. As a result, the depth of campaign analytics we can offer today is light years away from where we started 30 years ago.

1990
Performance Management Excel Worksheet
 
 
 
2020
Performance Management
TTMC Connect Online Client Portal

The future looks bright both for our business and for voice as a channel. Today, consumers are more sophisticated and businesses understand the danger of an overreliance on digital channels and the potentially negative impact on consumers. Thankfully, GDPR data protection and FCA regulations have been tightened so consumers are better protected from poor practices. Businesses now understand the need for a balanced approach and the importance of incorporating human interaction into the customer experience.  The rate of technological transformation is accelerating but as a consequence buyers value human interaction more than ever. We will continue to support our clients, helping them incorporate human-to-human experiences within their sales and marketing approach and creating an exceptional experience for their customers.