What is TPS? - Are UK call centres the best way forward? -Mobile Phone Salesmen a bad reflection? - Corporate TPS not as bad as we'd thought

Corporate TPS not as bad as we'd thought

When the news came out in July of 2004 that the Telephone Preference Services was launching the Corporate TPS I think we all, in the telemarketing industry, let our hearts stop for a second.

So was it such a bad thing? And now a few years on are we suffering as an industry?

Well to answer both questions, no. When it was first launched in July 2004 giving businesses the choice of opting out of receiving telemarketing calls there was an influx of companies signing up. To the point that industry sceptics were predicting the downfall of telemarketing as we know it, in fact at the time over 700,000 numbers were registered. But what wasn't reported by the main stream press was that these equate to only 50,000 companies a mere 2.2% of British Businesses.

Add to this the fact that businesses have to re-register every year, something that often doesn't happen even the most pessimistic industry critic can see that this thorn in our side is more of a splinter and, as I have discussed before, the TPS is actually helping us clean data as anyone who registers with it is more than likely not the type of person to buy something over the phone anyway.

So we welcome the TPS and any service that protects the vulnerable but allows us to still do our jobs.

By Samuel O'Prey

CEO The Guild of Telemarketing Professionals