Consumer confidence in the telephone as a marketing medium has been tarnished in recent years by aggressive sales tactics, mis-selling and scams employed by some companies based in the UK and overseas.
Alarmingly, there is growing evidence that some of these companies are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to 'permission-based' calling to overcome existing legislation.
For instance, Ofcom has imposed an abandoned calls limit of 3% on telemarketing companies which has had a significant impact on a number of small-scale organisations, making predictive dialling largely uneconomic. That said large call centre operations have remained relatively unaffected by this.
In 2005 the greatest concern that consumers reported was the high level of silent calls, especially among young women and the elderly. Although overall anxiety has reduced in recent years, there remains a marked concentration of calls to a specific group of customers i.e. just 10% of consumers receive around 60% of all silent calls [source: MORI 2008]
This has led to some criticism of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Ofcom - who own TPS. TPS sells its data list to sales organisations for fees up to £11,250 and the suggestion is that a number of unethical companies who buy these lists isolate and target the 10% of consumers who have received the fewest telemarketing calls.
Although Ofcom is legally entitled to take action against these companies, there are no instances to date when it has done so which has called into question the credibility of the telecommunications industry ombudsman.
Alarmingly, there is growing evidence that some of these companies are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to 'permission-based' calling to overcome existing legislation.
For instance, Ofcom has imposed an abandoned calls limit of 3% on telemarketing companies which has had a significant impact on a number of small-scale organisations, making predictive dialling largely uneconomic. That said large call centre operations have remained relatively unaffected by this.
In 2005 the greatest concern that consumers reported was the high level of silent calls, especially among young women and the elderly. Although overall anxiety has reduced in recent years, there remains a marked concentration of calls to a specific group of customers i.e. just 10% of consumers receive around 60% of all silent calls [source: MORI 2008]
This has led to some criticism of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Ofcom - who own TPS. TPS sells its data list to sales organisations for fees up to £11,250 and the suggestion is that a number of unethical companies who buy these lists isolate and target the 10% of consumers who have received the fewest telemarketing calls.
Although Ofcom is legally entitled to take action against these companies, there are no instances to date when it has done so which has called into question the credibility of the telecommunications industry ombudsman.
