New laws expected to come into force this month will make all telemarketing companies display their phone number when they make a call, after many complaints from the public about nuisance phone calls.
However, Managing Director of Spirus Marketing, Tania Verdonk, explains this won’t hurt the unscrupulous companies but will unfairly target those already working responsibly.
Now she is launching her own “Ten rules to live by” for ethical marketing companies and is hoping everyone in the telemarketing business will sign up in a bid to clean up the industry and show the right way to work over the phone.
Tania said: “SMEs who don’t have their own marketing team, work with companies like ours that offer them a marketing service. These local firms will be the ones to suffer when we have to display our phone number. Their customers will be confused when they see the call doesn’t come from within the small business and it will lose the customers’ trust.
“We will also have hundreds of people calling us back saying they have missed a call and we won’t know for which business we made that call. To ensure this doesn’t happen we may have to invest in expensive technology that will show the number of the company we represent, rather than our own. This cost would have to be passed on.
"The new law is aiming to clean up the telemarketing industry, but it won’t weed out the main troublemakers. Those companies who call from abroad are not covered by the law if they don’t represent UK companies, nor are auto diallers that create silent calls or ruthless operators who harangue you to sign up to a service. These will all easily get around the new rules."
The Ethical Telemarketers’ Charter being launched by Spirus today is aimed at tackling the real problems that customers have with marketing calls. Customers have a bad experience when they are called repeatedly about services they don’t want, treated rudely and badgered to hand over money.
Tania said: “Our own telemarketers understand that we have an obligation to the people we call to treat them with respect. They use our charter and stick by the rules. We never call anyone signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, which is a free service for people who never want to be contacted by marketers.
“Getting other companies onside is our next aim, but we’re leading the initiative and we believe that all telemarketers should have a responsibility to the public to work ethically.
“If companies stopped bombarding people with unwanted calls and instead targeted only those customers most likely to want their service, then people would be happy to be contacted instead of annoyed.
“Companies should also have quality control over who they choose to work with. If you are a charity, you must realise how important it is to be represented by a company that respects people and doesn’t intimidate them. Charities should check whether telemarketing companies are representing them in the best way. When they outsource their calls, it is the charity that will receive the bad press if the telemarketing company doesn’t behave responsibly. To protect their own reputation, these charities should sack irresponsible telemarketing companies.
“We also have to take responsibility for our own industry and by signing up to this charter, telemarketers will ensure they are abiding by best practice and keeping their customers happy at the same time.
“A quality call is more expensive but will lead to happier outcomes for all because people buy from people they like and trust. You can’t create a genuine relationship if you are just autodialling thousands of people and then reading out a script to the poor person who answers.”
The voluntary charter is available to print off for free from Spirus Marketing’s website http://spirusmarketing.com/telemarketing-charter