Review by Rosalyn Fry, arts marketing consultant and trainer
(Arts Marketing Association, 2001, ISBN 1903315042 2001 £10 [£12.50 incl p&p*])
Over 200,000 people are employed in call centres in the UK, - more than the coal, steel and car industries combined. Arts organisations have had them for years but we called them box offices! While everyone else from Pot Noodles to the Highway Maintenance folk were busy setting up hot lines and help lines, we in the arts were old hands at keeping out of work actors busy answering the phones and slaving over terminals. Yet, as David Dixon points out in his pithy new publication for the Arts Marketing Association, box offices are mostly ?inbound call centres? whose staff passively wait to receive calls rather than ?outbound call centres? whose staff ?are assertive enough to steer the conversation towards a predetermined outcome?. In the arts we?re being a bit slow about telemarketing so David Dixon, sets out to show us how and why we could use it to generate ticket sales and fundraise. It is, oh joy oh joy, a short book, easy to understand and generous in its shared experience and ideas. There are also plenty of examples, including a very funny section about how to run a bad telemarketing campaign? ?I don?t care if you do hate opera, these tickets are ridiculously cheap.?
Published: 19-11-2001