Unsolicited telephone sales calls can be illegal. So this means you can’t simply start calling names and companies at random from a list. And you certainly can’t do what some companies used to do in the 80’s which was to call numbers out of the Yellow Pages to make sales calls.
Make sure your telesales activity stays the right side of the law
As long ago as December 2003, the government introduced legislation which made it unlawful to make unsolicited calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls. Both consumers and businesses can register their unwillingness to receive telephone (TPS) and fax (FPS) communications on a central register.
Over 15 million consumers and businesses have already registered their numbers which means these businesses and consumers must not be contacted unless permission has been explicitly granted to the calling company. There is a potential fine of up to £5,000 for each breach of the legislation. So this means you must ensure your in-house list must be checked periodically, and any lists you buy in should already be TPS checked. Any reputable list supplier will do this as a matter of course.
Incidentally there is a shelf life of 3 months on these checks meaning that any list that has not been checked for 3 months should be checked again. There are many companies that will provide a service to check your numbers for you, such as www.numbercheck.co.uk.
We find that this is a much more serious issue if you operate and sell in consumer markets and phone people at home. Most companies don’t register their office numbers thank goodness as the whole economy would grind to a halt, but many householders do.
This is brought to you as part of To Market’s public service! If you want further information or advice on this subject, we suggest you have a look at the telephone preference service’s website http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/ctps/what/ for all the official information.
