In this blogpost:
Bas Potjes, owner and general manager of Roscom Promotion, looks back on a special year, just like everyone else. ‘In March 2020, most of our activities were lost and with that 90% of our income. The first weeks were dominated by consolidation, especially in terms of personnel. But within a month we had already come up with some things that were corona-proof, together with our clients who also wanted to keep in touch with their customers as much as possible. We then kick-started the plan to further expand our small telemarketing department. We can say with success.’
From stand worker to field marketing
In 2006, Potjes and his father had a number of successful telecom shops. ‘My father thought it would be fun to sell @Home’s internet offerings on the market. He rented a booth, filled it with @Home boxes with a modem and decoder and set to work as a real stand worker.
I thought he was crazy but it immediately became a great success. All summer we were very successful at all kinds of markets and later that year we were asked to be present on location with a kind of mobile shop. In 2007 we closed the stores and focused entirely on field marketing, especially for telecom and internet providers. We grew from four employees at the start to about 200 Roscommers in 2020.’
Roscom Promotion has traditionally worked a lot with Ziggo, CZ, Caiway and Delta, and before that also @Home, UPC, Essent, Eneco, Greenchoice and various governments.
‘When my father died at the age of 60, one of our regular clients called to offer his condolences. And he said: ‘You’ll make it, you have the approach of ‘However!’ And that indeed expresses our mentality of always looking for possibilities.’
That attitude has come in handy over the past year. ‘The great thing about long-term collaboration with clients is the desire to work together in order to keep one’s head above water. We were already doing a bit of telemarketing, in Steam connect, to complement certain field marketing campaigns with a 10-person department, and of course we wanted to keep all of our people working as much as possible. Our clients had the wish to at least continue to speak to and retain their existing customers. It started with an order from Ziggo to tackle inbound and outbound campaigns, which quickly led to more projects.
This combination of factors made us bring forward the plan to position Roscall telemarketing in addition to Roscom. In June, we philosophized about the risks of the possible second wave and decided to invest. We searched and found suitable business premises, based on growth. In September we opened in a much too large building that was equipped for 80 employees, coronaproof. A month later it was packed, much to our surprise.’
Fall and rise
Starting a new business activity is a learning process, through trial and error. ‘When we started our first job in telemarketing in 2016, we naively thought that we would make it with an Excel sheet and a few Nokias with headsets. We came back from that within two days and started looking for a real solution. We soon found it in Steam-connect.
In the first conversations we clicked immediately, our demand and the offer of Steam-connect matched exactly and it was arranged and installed in no time. With Steam-connect we were able to get started right away, but there was also room for possible further growth. This was also apparent at the time of scaling up last year. But the first inbound job was big and we really had to learn it by doing. By bringing in quality in the short term, in particular experienced team leads, we now have everything in order.’
Agreements
‘There appear to be many interfaces between telemarketing and field marketing. In the end, it’s all about the people and the conversation. Everyone here receives the same training with our own Academy where we pay a lot of attention to conversation technique, EQ and body language. Quality is important – if it is good, the assignments will follow automatically. We are often stricter on ourselves than our clients because we see all kinds of opportunities to do even better.’
The current rapid growth is of course great, but Potjes also sees pitfalls. “We want to preserve the DNA of our family business. That is in the quality of service, but also in the care for the employees. They must have the opportunity to grow, both hierarchically in the organization and as people. That means a safe working environment and optimal working climate where there is room for questions, feedback, attention and compliments. An independent agency regularly measures employee satisfaction and we also measure this monthly with the Happy Meter app. Attention for each other, for details and for yourself – that’s how we make the difference.’
Plan
It is a great advantage to always have plans and alternatives, that has become even more clear in the past year. Roscom has plenty of them. ‘Our mission is and remains to create value by unburdening and inspiring, and we want to become a trendsetter in distinctive customer contact. Now most of our work consists of telemarketing, but soon it will be balanced again with field marketing. In addition, we are engaged in providing training through the Roscom Academy, because why not share our knowledge? We also have plans for secondment. It contributes to a positive working climate if we can also place colleagues at other companies, and these clients benefit from experienced and well-trained staff. And we would like to expand our services even further for clients in the energy sector and the government, for example. We see great opportunities there for even better customer service and customer retention.’
Text: GDP Media | Photography: Pure Image
