A prospect has the right to object to any new telemarketing operation directed at them. Not responding could mean risking one of them becoming a potential complainant. However, such a request is a real opportunity to make the consumer a key player in qualifying your commercial prospecting databases!
This company has become the bane of its prospects due to telemarketing
A fictitious and somewhat exaggerated example is sometimes worth more than long explanations.
” – Hello, this is the Sauerkraut company. I’m Loic, from France.
- Hello, I represent the Sauerkraut company. I’m Alphonse, from Algeria. Are you interested in our products?
- Hello! Congratulations! You have won the right to participate in the great competition organized by the Sauerkraut company! I’m Jules, from Abidjan.
- Hello, do you want to unsubscribe from our prospecting lists? It’s done. I’m Michèle, from France.
- Hello, did you receive a commercial email even though you no longer wish to receive them? We will delete all your data from our databases. I’m Laura, from France.
- Hello, do you want to speak to the director to express dissatisfaction? Hold on; I’ll transfer you to Fabrice, an employee of our subcontractor’s subsidiary in Tunisia.
- Hello, this is the Sauerkraut company. Do you still want our products? I’m Marcel, from India.
- Hello, you have won the right to participate in the great competition of the Sauerkraut company!”
Let’s take this example. The Sauerkraut company has launched telemarketing campaigns for advertising and promotional purposes. These campaigns are managed:
internally by its marketing department,
externally, by outsourcing some campaigns to offshore service providers.
Several entities have therefore called the dissatisfied consumer on behalf of the same brand.
Feeling attacked as the subject of these calls, they complain to the customer relations department. An internal department handles their request, and then another subcontractor.
And yet, they continue to be called… In other words, the coordination could be better between the departments and even more so with subcontractors.
How to take into account a prospect’s telephone opt-out?
It is optional to ask each prospect for their consent to call them and submit commercial offers. In return, the company must end solicitation campaigns if the prospect requests it. This involves several steps to prevent the opposition prospect from being called again.
Take care of your consumer’s opt-out requests and complaints
Telemarketing is not subject to the prior consent of the prospect. To constitute a prospecting database, all that is needed is the following:
their phone number is collected to conduct prospecting campaigns;
their consent is obtained for this type of commercial purpose.
This is an opportunity to involve your consumers in the qualification of your databases. They are not interested in your products/services or do not want to be called. This improves the relevance of your databases and campaigns. Handling complaints is essential.
The point is that in 2019, the management of complaints related to personal data (including requests to opt out of commercial prospecting operations) was part of the CNIL’s priority subjects for its control program. Increasing complaints against your company with the regulator invites it to visit your premises!
Centralize opt-outs and replicate them to all your commercial prospecting databases.
Effectively processing an opt-out request ensures that the author cannot be solicited.
Of course, if only one department uses a single database for prospecting, it is straightforward. However, this can be more complex in the case of a group that distributes its campaigns among various departments and subcontractors.
In any case, you must:
- Identify the departments responsible for commercial prospecting campaigns, and map the databases used for calls.
- Identify subcontractors to whom solicitation campaigns have been outsourced.
- Identify the channels through which prospects are likely to send you opt-out requests, such as direct communication channels with your company (e.g., customer relations service, contact details of the data protection officer, after-sales service, etc.) or subcontractors’ communication channels (call center, satisfaction survey provider, email solution provider, etc.).
- Establish a record indicating the prohibition of commercial calls (opt-out).
- Once an opt-out has been received and stored centrally, replicate it to internal and external commercial prospecting databases so that the concerned consumer is no longer called.
- Formalize and describe these steps as well as additional documents relating to the approach to be applied to databases storing the personal data of prospects.
As you can see, effectively processing complaints leads you to rethink how prospecting campaigns are managed, even if that means simplifying them.
