Editorial: Decisions must now be made on telemarketing

by Noelle McElhatton, Editor, noelle.mcelhatton@haynet.com, Marketing Direct 02-May-05, 09:59

Once upon a time, we took the growth and success of the UK telemarketing industry for granted. Now we find it at a crossroads. Not only are consumers opting out of receiving calls at a breakneck rate, but over-supply of telemarketing services is leading to significant consolidation.

Our annual survey of telemarketing providers (see page 33) provides an illuminating picture. Asked about the most pressing challenges facing telemarketing today, suppliers focused on the day-to-day issues of downward price pressure and staff recruitment.

Yet while these are relevant issues for suppliers, the fact that the burgeoning Telephone Preference Service - growing by 440,000 consumers a month - did not register as a concern suggests an industry with its head in the sand. Colin Lloyd, chairman of the TPS, calculates that if growth continues at this rate, then 16 million consumers will have registered on the file by the end of 2006 (see Think Tank, page 18).

While we must hope that the TPS arithmetic doesn't prove right, we still need to understand the scale of telemarketing's perception problem and hope that the industry takes notice.

The Direct Marketing Association and the TPS have commissioned soon to be published research into consumer views of the silent call phenomenon and as part of this study John Price, chairman of the DMA's contact centre council, listened into complaint calls at BT's Nuisance Call Bureau. He describes his mortification as a telemarketing supplier hearing consumers say they believed silent calls to be from stalkers or would-be burglars.

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a small step and the DMA research is certainly that. What exactly will be done with the information is not yet clear. Nor is the question of whose job it is to rein in the perpetrators: the DMA referred one supplier, Kitchens Direct, to Ofcom last year for its silent call tally. But the Association cannot police all players, only its own members.

Lloyd calls on the interested bodies to formulate a manifesto "to save what's left of telemarketing". It's a sensible solution. In five years time when we look back at this juncture in telemarketing's history, let's hope it's not with anger but with relief that some painful medicine was administered and useful lessons learned.