“Telemarketing in the UK will die on St.Valentine’s Day 2007”

Tim Beadle, CEO of Marketing Improvement said: "In 2000 just over 1 million homes were on TPS, by the end of 2003 that had grown to 5 million, today it is 10 million. When it reaches 21 million – or 75% of all homes, telemarketing will cease to be economically viable and that happens, according to our analysis on 14th February 2007."

The research indicates that if the current trend continues then all homes in the UK will have signed up to TPS by the Autumn of 2007.

The rapid increase in registrations is being driven, according to MI, by three factors. The first is the off-shoring of telemarketing: "poor call quality infuriates people", says Beadle. The second is the problem of silent calls. Some big telemarketing operations are generating upwards of 30,000 silent calls a day. Across the industry it is estimated that there are 164,000 outbound agents (Source: DTI) who make, on average, 50 outbound calls per day. That’s over 7Bn per annum which means a staggering 394 million silent calls, based on the 5% silent calls permitted by OffComm. Silent calls are caused when a "predictive dialler" autodials a phone number and, when the recipient answers the phone, an agent isn’t available to handle the call. "as more people sign up for TPS, the people in smaller pool that’s left get more calls, and more of those calls are silent, so the more they sign up for TPS" say Beadle. "The third reason is the "networking effect". "With 9 million now signed up every third adult in the UK knows how to sign up to TPS – and they’re recommending it to everyone they know."

The recent action by the DMA to recommend a recorded advisory message to be played when there is no agent available will not help the situation says MI. "while it is welcome because it provides peace of mind for the consumer, it does still remain an unwelcome intrusion for no purpose." observes Beadle. "Fundamentally the industry MUST act now to address the problem. It must a) set predictive diallers to a zero silent call threshold – which is entirely feasible, b) ensure that outbound calls are of high quality – both line quality and agent quality and c) start being far more targeted with its calling."

The industry, says MI, must act now if it is not to "dig its own grave" over the next 18 months.

Marketing Improvement
MI is a leading UK marketing performance consultancy. Companies that have used its services include BT, Lloyds TSB, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Microsoft, Imperial War Museum and Cisco Systems. Its aim is to reduce the wastage within most marketing activity by applying better methodologies to campaigns. For more information contact Tim Beadle, CEO on +44(0)1344 392647, email tim.beadle@marketingimprovement,com, www.marketingimprovement.com