Cold calling is a real problem in the UK – our report Data Control Matters discovered on average, Brits received five unsolicited calls every year.
Not only are these unsolicited calls a nuisance, but they make people feel concerned about their personal data, with more than half (53%) admitting they had no idea how the caller had got their number.
Furthermore, despite telling the caller they were not interested, 31% were subsequently called again by that same company and a further 24% by different one.
There is also a real issue with people getting unwanted calls when they thought they were getting an online quote for a financial product or service – one in four (24%) of our respondents entered their details online to receive an online quote but were called instead, with 29% saying they were called by a company different from the one they submitted their details to.
However, we shouldn’t need to ban cold calling within financial services, 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’.
Alain Desmier is managing director of Contact State
