Down-home dealings, Southwestern Bell promises no dinner time telemarketing

Consider it a return to the family telecom hour: no ripoffs, no celebrity pitchmen and no dinner time telemarketing calls. Southwestern Bell is making these and other pledges as it readies itself for competition and launches the largest ad campaign in its history.

The telco has steeped its employees in 12 pledges designed to relieve end users' frustration and confusion about telecom pricing and advertising. The message is going out to customers through a multimillion-dollar ad campaign titled "Friendly Neighborhood Global," appearing on billboards, TV and newspaper ads and other media. Southwestern Bell serves Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

"It's a recognition that customers have been inundated by an awful lot of noise," said Cliff Eason, president and chief executive officer of Southwestern Bell Telephone. "It's a clear way to tell customers what we're about and to give them a benchmark of the behavior they can expect from us.

Eason ought to know his customers. A native of Ashdown, Ark., he got his start at Southwestern Bell at age 14 by mowing the lawn at the local telco office. After college, Eason returned with an engineering degree and worked his way through the ranks.

Further evidence of the marketing concept comes from a survey that Southwestern Bell commissioned that revealed that people are fed up with gimmicks, rates du jour, fine print and disclaimers in telecom ads. People want to be treated fairly and with respect, and they want quality service and excellent value, the survey results showed.

Even though Southwestern Bell still awaits competition from competitive local exchange carriers, the timing is right, Eason said. "It's time we really stand up and make a pledge to our customers - this is the kind of company we've always been and that we will remain," he said. The telco has signed 94 interconnection agreements and expects competition for local residential customers to start soon in Tulsa, Okla., and Springfield, Mo.

AT&T and MCI took swipes at the strategy, but AT&T said it is also targeting sales pitches at shoppers.

"What is dinner time?" asked an MCI spokesman. "We're not all one race, we're not all one color, and we certainly don't all eat at the same time. What about the tens of thousands of people who work nights? It seems to be looking at society in a homogeneous way," the spokesman said.

Southwestern Bell considers dinnertime between 5 and 7 p.m., but it will honor requests not to call at other times, a spokesman said.

An AT&T spokesman alleged that the ad campaign makes it seem as though Southwestern Bell is competing in long-distance, when the telco has appealed state regulatory decisions in Texas and Missouri that would have furthered competition.

If anyone tells an AT&T telemarketer that he doesn't want to be bothered, the request is honored. "We try to be as courteous and understanding as we can," the AT&T spokesman said.

AT&T has signed marketing agreements with Shaklee Corp., a direct marketing company that uses independent distributors; HFS Inc., the parent company of Century 21 and Coldwell Banker; and ADT, a national electronic security services company. The alliances let AT&T offer its residential long-distance service to people who already are in a buying frame of mind, the AT&T spokesman said.

Customers should prepare to see more image-boosting advertising from the Bell regional holding companies, one analyst said. "They are very aware that people are going to do business with companies that they like," said Jeff Grill, senior vice president/senior partner at N.W. Ayer & Partners, New York. The RHCs' long-time reputations as monopolies certainly hasn't helped their image.

"This is only the beginning of a trend," Grill said.