Professionalism is a pre-requisite not a desire A recognised accreditation badge will be a great advantage to buyers (client and agencies). This will immediately recognise the professionalism of the organisation. Positive experience for customers Customers, clients and agencies, will also recognise and know the experience of working with ARM companies from both communication and working practices right through to the consumer experience. Confidence from promoters (clients) and agencies Reputable Response Management companies operate from modern office and warehouse complexes, use sophisticated equipment and processes, are far more IT and data orientated that ever before and are profitable and sizable businesses in their own right… and are just as professional as the creative agencies and the promoters (clients) with and for whom they work. Competitive advantage in terms of buyer preference and industry recognition of ARM We are living in an accreditation world, with ISO9001 and 14001 amongst others. Suppliers are increasingly faced with services being bought by procurement departments and how do they judge a service? By quality and accreditations. Protecting consumers and marginalising inexperienced operators with inadequate processes Ultimately Response Management companies are responsible for ensuring the goods/brands of the clients reach their customers (the consumer) in a quality manner. They are the brand ambassadors and protectors. This industry is fraught with inexperienced companies; anyone can open a PO Box, set up a telephone line and stuff a widget in a box. But that is not what Response Management is about and we need to marginalise these operations as much as possible. Change the way in which the industry is rewarded and ultimately valued This industry is a commodity and that is something which is difficult to change, however we should be trying our utmost to pull away from this and a recognised ARM scheme will eventually lead to a higher valued industry which will lead to better rewards. Through accreditation the industry will be able to present both a united lobbying voice and sound arguments as to why promoters will benefit in the long term by ‘buying up to quality, and not down to price’.