Telemarketing has such a negative stigma, everyone has at some point hung up or got annoyed when a stranger interrupts your day to offer you a carpet clean even though your house is tiled! The annoyance with these calls got voiced so loudly that the government designed the Do Not Call Register to assist people in avoiding such interruptions.
But on the other side of the fence for businesses, trying to gain new business or even maintaining existing clients is now a big challenge especially when complying with the do’s and don’ts of the Do Not Call Register. Keeping track of the rules can bring up a whole lot of grey area, for example when does a past client become a new call and need to be washed, and how does a general business owner know they are over stepping the mark?
Here are 5 simple hints to make sure you are on the right side of the DNC:
- Ring your contacts regularly! By maintaining the regular contact with your existing clientele you are ensuring you not only stay within the DNC guidelines but you are also encouraging return business and referrals.
- Whenever you are talking to a past present or future client don’t forget to let them know you will be calling them again. Add at the end of your phone call ‘I will give you a call in a month to touch base’, and note this in the CRM notes. This is proof of the contact giving you permission to call them again and therefore moving the call from a telemarketing call to client contact.
- If someone wants to be removed from your database and not be contacted, remove that client straight away. No one wants to upset clients by being that unwanted phone call, not only will it annoy people but will also damage your reputation, no one talks louder than someone with an issue.
- Change your approach, if you have an area that you want to target that has a high volume on the DNC look outside the square to gain the contacts you are after, and once you have them keep the contact regular to allow you to avoid the DNC trap. Open homes for real estate agents are a great way to target owners in a suburb. Or a trade show, expo, garden/home show would be a goldmine for gaining names and numbers for other industries. Just make sure people are aware that you are going to be contacting them when they give you their details, add a simple note on the form they are filling out to cover the initial contact.
- If in doubt check the number, it’s always best to air on the side of caution. And you never know they might not even be on there, in which case you can call away!
So you now have your database up to date, you have a pile of contacts from the local tradeshow and are left with the ongoing job of maintaining this contact in a non-invasive but productive manor, umm if only you knew of a VPA company that specialises in assisting with this task?