here - Rotterdam School of Management

FEATURE BUSINESS NEWS IN TRANSITION FROM RSM
ALEX GASCHARD CEO EUROPEAN DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE
(MBA AND MBI - 1997)
Tell us about your business
Ours is a telephone directory assistance service.
Although we operate only in Belgium at the
moment, short code numbers are in place for
us to provide services in the Netherlands and
the Republic of Ireland. We’re also planning to
set up in Bulgaria soon.
In Belgium, people can ring us on 12-12
(Flemish) or 13-13 (French). Our revenues come
from the amount paid by the caller when they
use our services. The second line of business
we’re in is internet yellow pages. This has a low
profile at the moment and is used to attract
customers to our voice services.
Is the current economic and financial climate
impacting on your business?
Yes and no is the answer. We raised venture
capital funds about a year ago, so in that respect
we’re safe. However, on the economic side, the
crisis has had an impact; the number of telephone
enquiries we receive is going down.
There are two reasons for this: the increased
usage of the internet to find telephone numbers
is one reason, although this is nothing new. It is
the rate at which they now do this that causes
some concern.
The second reason is that in the current
climate customers are more concerned about
costs. Normally, people don’t mind that much
about the cost of directory assistance calls, as
long as they think it is reasonable.
As part of cost-cutting measures companies
are restricting or stopping access to telephone
services such as ours via the office and through
mobile phones.
How will you steer your business through these
tough times?
We outsource just about everything and will look
to make cost savings here. Call centres handle
our enquiries; basically, we pay them by the
minute. By improving the time it takes agents to
handle enquiries we can improve margins.
If we can also get the same call volume over the
next 12 months then this will make a difference
to our revenue stream.
Even the directory databases we use are
outsourced, but our plan is to look at bringing
them in-house. Whilst this will incur high
development costs, the return on investment
will be through cost savings. It will also give us
control of the data we depend on.
The amount of money we spend on external
consultants is another area in which cost
reductions can be made.
It’s not just about reducing costs though. It
is crucial that those answering enquiries know
how to handle them efficiently; ongoing training
is essential. Call processing efficiency is only part
of the experience for customers though - courtesy
and politeness is just as important.
The business rule about it being more
expensive to find new customers than it is to
keep existing ones very much applies. We’ve put
a hold on investments until after the summer
and won’t undertake any significant marketing
activity until we’re confident that markets have
settled. We’re a very flexible company and can
adapt very quickly.
Will your business survive the year?
If too many companies prevent their staff from
calling us it could get very tough. It’s very difficult
at this stage to say that won’t happen; it’s very
difficult to know what is going to happen in the
next 12 months. We are optimistic, but have to
be realists at the same time.
Website
www.european-da.com or
www.loocle.eu
RSM OUTLOOK SUMMER 2009 25