Success With Sharing Call-Center OutsourcingSuccess With Sharing Call-Center Outsourcing

In a few months, New York's DDM Press will expand the reach of Maxim magazine to Canada. But ClientLogic Corp., its customer-service outsourcer, doesn't have operations there. Rather than find a new outsourcer or create its own call center to serve Canadian customers, DDM Press left the solution to ClientLogic.

ClientLogic created a partnership with AJM Marketing, a call-center provider in Canada, and agreed to share data about DDM Press' operations for the Canadian expansion. DDM Press already outsources customer service, order processing, and fulfillment for its 1.5 million customers to ClientLogic.

ClientLogic's fulfillment center will electronically receive daily batches of Canadian customer subscription and book orders from AJM Marketing. In addition, ClientLogic has created a Web interface that will give AJM Marketing's customer-service representatives access to its proprietary fulfillment and order-processing systems. AJM reps will then be able tell DDM Press' Canadian subscribers the status of their orders.

That flexibility is one reason Steven Kotok, publisher of DDM Press, is glad he decided to outsource customer service and order fulfillment. The small publishing company, he says, isn't set up to handle customer inquiries. Instead, DDM Press wants to concentrate on printing Maxim, along with a series of mail-order books promoted in the magazine.

DDM Press had used another fulfillment house to handle distribution of its products before going with ClientLogic last year, but the process didn't run smoothly. DDM Press handled order processing and customer service, but it couldn't view the other vendor's fulfillment systems to see what was happening with customer orders.

Since outsourcing to ClientLogic, DDM Press has been able to improve its marketing campaigns, packaging, and customer service, Kotok says. For example, people were getting confused by the company's mailings, he recalls. Some customers didn't realize they had to pay for books ordered from magazine ads or direct-mail campaigns. "Before, they either wouldn't pay us, or they would return the book," Kotok says. ClientLogic identified why customers were confused and modified the marketing materials. DDM Press has seen a 20% increase in its paying customers ever since.