Once upon a time, tele-marketing used to be reputable (well, almost reputable)… if you told someone not to call you again, they generally didn’t. Nowadays it seems to be the scurge of the marketing world… silent calls, mysterious foreign call centres, pre-recorded ‘are you in debt?’ messages and calls at all times of day or night. In fact sometimes it’s actually a surprise to receive a call from someone you know, rather than from someone trying to flog something you don’t want.

And that’s kind of the point… whilst there some a valid argument for tele-sales, we feel that this is one form of marketing that the world could do without. The reason is simple… it’s an interruption to your already busy and stress filled day (why is it these calls tend to happen when you are in the shower for example?).

To reduce annoyance calls, you could of course subscribe to the Telephone Preference Service and that certainly seems to help, but many unscrupulous companies are circumnavigating the rules, by basing their call centres abroad.

We particularly hate those pre-recorded messages, asking us if we would like to “save money” on our utilities. We also loathe it when the patronising voice informs us that “this is a free call” (yes we know… you called us remember!). But what do you do in this instance? Do you listen to the message and get put on hold (to find out who is calling and tell them to stop)? Or do  you simply hang up, knowing darn well they will be calling you again in a few days?

One free solution is a service called ‘Whocallsme‘. Providing you can establish the callers number (by dialling 1471) you can do a search to find out who it was calling. Admittedly, some nuisance calls use a withheld number, but we’ve been surprised by how many that actually don’t (maybe they’re hoping you will see their number as a missed call, and actually call them back!).

If enough people complain to the company that originated the call… then the message actually might get through, and if it’s a UK based company, they may have a legal obligation to comply (see the TPS site for further details).

The best solution of all though, is something called ‘Truecall’ which screens calls for you (a bit like having your own full time PA!). We won’t explain the device in detail here, suffice to say it’s a great piece of kit (if a little pricey at £97.50). Head over to the Truecall website for an introductory video.

So in summary, if you’re serious about marketing, and you’re still making unsolicited calls, then maybe it’s time to ask your customers what they think about them? The reality is that it’s probably far more effective to communicate with them in another way.