Version One’s telemarketing team, which has access to a database of over 200,000 contacts, has found that telephone numbers for entire companies (including switchboard numbers) have been registered with the CTPS, often without appropriate consent.
The current regulations (25 June 2004), which make it illegal to cold call businesses that have registered their telephone number/s with the CTPS, are responsible for 850,000 blocked numbers in the UK. “In theory, the regulations are a great way for businesses to protect themselves from unwanted cold calls”, says Catherine Murphy, Marketing Manager at document management and imaging company, Version One.
“The big problem is that of the 200,000 telephone numbers on our database,
there’s a quantity which have been registered with the preference service without the necessary internal consent. For instance, some hospitals have registered all their telephone numbers with the CTPS, including the main switchboard number, preventing telemarketing calls to all staff at the hospital. Are we to believe that every member of staff at every one of these hospitals has agreed to having their number blocked? Experience has proven that this just isn’t the case!” Murphy continues, “Currently there is a telephone number ‘free-for-all’ in which any person can register any number.
Although the CTPS states that people who register a number need to have the authority to do so, who is policing this? We have proof that some business people are missing-out on opportunities, which they are genuinely interested in, because their numbers have been blocked without their prior consent. Similarly, some people are agreeing to register their number with the CTPS without being informed of the real implications of doing so!”
“If the situation continues as it is, before too long all UK corporate telephone numbers could be unwittingly signed-up to the preference service, and then where will this leave companies who rely on telemarketing to generate business? And how will businesses ever find out what’s new in the
marketplace? It may sound extreme but it’s the way things are going!”
Kaynak : 