PlusOne – Marketing Musings

A survey in the United States shows that a high proportion of Americans have signed up with a Do Not Call registry. While the total number of people surveyed (1,961 U.S. adults aged 18 or over surveyed online between December 8 and 14, 2005) is a small sample, as far as polls and results go it does give a small pointer to public opinion.

Other findings of the poll include:

* Approximately three-quarters of all U.S. adults (76%) say that they have signed up for the registry; a significant increase from January 2004 when 57 percent reported that they had registered.
* The proportion of all adults who have seen, read or heard about the registry has increased slightly from 91 percent in September 2004 to the current 94 percent.
* The proportion of all adults who claim to have signed up for the registry has increased from 32 percent in September 2003, to 57 percent by January 2004, to the current 76 percent.
* Over nine in 10 (92%) of those who have registered report receiving fewer telemarketing calls, including the 18 percent who say they have received none, 61 percent who have received some but far less than before, and 12 percent who have received some, but a little less than before.
* 18% say they have either received no telemarketing calls since registering or less

So does this mean that people are not wanting to receive telemarketing calls at all, that calls are being made at inopportune times, that the products being marketed are not targeted to the recipient or that the style of calling has put people off?

Unfortunately this survey does not go into this depth.

However, according to Ari Galper, Founder of Unlock The Game, it is more about the style of telemarketers. I know I hate getting telemarketing calls, normally because of the aggressive nature of many of the callers and often because of the sheer volume of calls from the same company (like at least one call every week from Optus). Ari’s approach is to make more use of relationship building, rather than making a sale – which of course is hard in statistically-based call centre approaches.

So is telemarketing dead? I think given the total lack of skills exhibited by people who call me and the fact that we are all leading increasingly busy lives means there are significant challenges ahead. We just don’t have the time to be interrupted at home at dinner time, putting the kids to bed time or during the brief relax time before bed time.

So telemarketing needs to evolve – to have a value-add for the person receiving the call, otherwise we will continue to just hang up.

Read the full survey report at Harris Interactive | The Harris Poll – National Do-Not-Call Registry: Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Registered

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