Nuisance Calls? Act now to banish them forever!

How many hours of your week are wasted by having to handle nuisance calls? 6 Simple Actions to reduce nuisance calls. We all know that one of the most irritating aspects of running a business is having to field nuisance calls from persistent callers who will not take no for an answer. We also know its time consuming having to explain time and time again, that you really do not want to advertise in a magazine or on a web directory you have never heard of, and has no relevance to your business. You are probably exasperated telling the chap who claims to be calling from your “local energy supplier” that you are not comfortable participating in his obvious scam. No doubt you have all been subjected to that horrifying moment when you are told that “We understand that you were recently in an accident…..” and you reply “Was I? Am I alright? Was I injured? Am I OK now?” In all seriousness, there are actually some simple and practical steps you can take to minimize these type of calls, allowing you to get back to the serious task of running your business. Step 1: Register with TPS Register your phone numbers with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service). It’s Free and only takes a few minutes to register each number. It is the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so. The TPS can also accept the registration of mobile telephone numbers, however it is important to note that this will prevent the receipt of marketing voice calls but not SMS (text) messages. If you wish to stop receiving SMS marketing messages, please send an ‘opt-out’ request to the company involved. You can register to have your numbers included in the TPS database by following the link to the Telephone Preference Service. Step 2: Be careful filling out forms When filling out forms on Leaflets or Websites, some marketeers will seek your permission to contact you in the future or to pass your details onto other people to contact you. Be careful which boxes you tick, because sometimes when you fill in a form they have a box for you to tick and sometimes you may need to untick a box. They will ask if it is ok for companies to get in touch with you. Read things through carefully before you tick the box. Step 3: Report Nuisance Calls If you receive a call from a company that you consider to be a nuisance, avoid giving out personal or business information and politely ask the company not to call you again. If the nuisance calls persist you can call the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to complain about most calls you do not want from companies on 0303 123 1113. You can make a complaint report on the ICO website to Report a Nuisance Caller. Step 4: Use a Call Blocker Consider a call blocker. These are devices which you can attach to your phone, or which may already be part of a phone. These can be used to block different types of call. Some ask the caller to give their name before the call is put through to you. For more information on call blocking devices you may wish to look at advice by Which? Different Hardware or Software based Call Blocking aids. Callsure has no affiliation with Which? and the provision of this link should not be taken as an endorsement of its findings. Before you decide on, activate or install these products, carefully read the instructions to make sure they won’t block calls you want to receive. Step 5: Talk to your existing Telephone Service Provider Your existing Telephone Service Provider may have a service that allows you to block calls from certain numbers, an example of this is BT’s Choose to Refuse only lets you block 10 specific numbers, while its Anonymous Call Rejection just stops calls from people who have withheld their number, not calls with international or unavailable numbers. And both are expensive – Choose to Refuse costs £4.75 a month (or £57 a year) while Anonymous Call Rejection costs £5.80 a month (or £69.60 a year). Step 6: Buy a Multi User VoIP Service from Callsure By signing up for a new Telephone Service or Porting your existing Telephone Number to us, you will have access to our comprehensive Nuisance Call Blocking service as part of our CLI based routing feature. This feature allows you to: Reject nuisance calls based on their Phone Number Route nuisance calls to Voicemail based on their Phone Number Reject Anonymous Calls Send Anonymous calls to a Voicemail that instructs them to call back without withholding their number or leave a message Route certain number ranges to Voicemail or Reject based on Part of their phone number, for example 0843* Route Specific Customers to different teams within your organisation based on their incoming CLI Give certain customers VIP status and route their calls differently to others Add phone numbers that generate nuisance calls to an online directory. Call us on 01753 624121 to discuss how we can help you reduce nuisance calls.