"Despite the issues with cold calling, we shouldn’t need to ban it, instead we need to get to a point where cold calling is simply not something legitimate firms ever need to do."
This week, it emerged that the UK government is set to announce a ban on all cold calls selling financial products as part of a crackdown on scams.
There is already a ban on cold calls about pension products; this latest move will go further and cover all financial products, including insurance and cryptocurrency schemes.
Speaking about the proposals, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that in order to clamp down on financial scams, fraudsters must be prevented from ‘infiltrating their way into people’s lives in the first place’.
And cold calling is definitely a big issue. Last year, we launched our report, Data Control Matters, where we surveyed 5,000 consumers about their cold calling experiences and discovered that 73% of people had been victim of at least one negative cold calling experience in the past 12 months, while a quarter (24%) admitted they had been cold called more than ten times.
On average, Brits had received five unsolicited calls over the past year, which across the UK amounts to 193 million calls.
Our research also revealed that receiving a cold call makes people feel concerned about their personal data, with more than half admitting they had no idea how the caller had got their number, and that despite telling the caller they were not interested, they were subsequently called again - either by that same company or different one selling the same product or service.
There is also a real issue with people sharing their data online to get a quote and getting unwanted calls instead. Data Control Matters discovered that one in four (24%) people who tried to get an online quote for a financial product said it was unclear they’d have to submit personal details to receive one, the same number said they’d expected to receive an online quote but were called instead and 29% were contacted by a company different from the one they submitted their details to.
As a result, just 9% of people are ‘very confident’ they know who has access to their personal data when they get an online quote, and many are unaware that when they fill in their details online, they are then being sold on as a lead.
However, despite the issues with cold calling, we shouldn’t need to ban it, instead we need to get to a point where cold calling is simply not something legitimate firms ever need to do. That way, any ‘cold call’ will be easily identified as fraud. To achieve that, sales, lead generation and marketing within the sector needs to get smarter.
We have the technology and the data to be better at this. Businesses should be utilising the information they have to identify people who are actually interested in their products and actively want more information to create a valuable customer journey. Not only will this put firms in touch with genuine customers, but will help weed out the bad apples, including scammers and fraudsters.
At Contact State we work with financial firms to create a transparent customer journey, with clear, documented consent from the customer that they want a call, shifting ‘how did you get my number’ to ‘I’m glad you called’.
