Telemarketing is different from other types of marketing for it often involves phone interaction with people you haven’t contacted before. And this kind of shooting in the dark carries the risk of you ending up with a heavy volume of complaints from your recipients.
The truth is 95% of people will not complain during the conversation but could take subsequent action if they are unhappy with the call they have received. They could either complain to the authorities, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), or the TPS (Telephone Preference Service), if their number have already been added to the TPS register.
Avoid fines by the ICO
The ICO is one sound argument in favour of taking customer complaints seriously, the severe monetary penalties the authority issues regularly are staggering for any business. Several marketing agencies have been fined between £50,000 and £150,000 since the beginning of the year for making nuisance calls to people that have opted out of receiving marketing calls.
The ICO are uncompromising, so it is recommended that you stay under their radar. Interestingly, many companies dismiss the ICO warnings at first, not acting upon the customer complaints they receive. Unfortunately, the consequences of this take the form of a 5 or 6 figure fine.
And let’s face it, unsolicited sales and marketing calls could be distressing to members of your target audience. You can’t know what situation they are in at the time of your call, and you don’t know who is going to pick up the phone, either. You could get hold of an elderly or sick person, your unexpected call causing real concern for them. Such experiences frustrate people and they could retaliate by reporting you to the authorities.
Research revealed that 70% of customers are dissatisfied with a business because they feel you don’t care about them
What is to be done?
There are a couple of things you could do to prevent receiving too many customer complaints. You can perform a check against the TPS and CTPS registers to find out whether there are registered numbers on your lists. Those you need to remove and never call again.
Another opportunity before your business is to sign up for a phone unsubscribe management service. Data Soap can give you a dedicated number people can call and automatically remove themselves from your lists for free.
Why should it to be done?
The figures hint at the importance of treating your complainants with care and professionalism. You need to show them that you are responsible and respect their decision to part ways with you. Just an extra touch of consideration for your leads could even help your business reputation, in spite of losing a sales opportunity.
Allowing your customers to unsubscribe from your service saves you time and energy, too. You don’t have to engage in long and gruelling conversation with someone who isn’t staying on board. Instead of going through this weary procedure, just let them call your dedicated unsubscribe number and they will be deleted from your databases without any further trouble.
