Do Not Call Register

The newspaper today published an article in regards to the legislation introduced to the parliament on the "Do Not Call" register. This means that any one who do want to receive certain unsolicited telemarketing calls can register their Australian fixed or mobile phones on the Do Not Call register for up to 3 years. Companies that breach the register provisions may be fined.

This legislation will be interesting and a challenge to many businesses(whether in the utilities industry or telecommunications) out there who depend on telemarketing for a large portion of their sales.

The utilities industry specifically the retailers depend on telemarketing sales quite heavily especially for the residential market. If a large portion of residentials sign up to the Do Not Call register, retailers may have to come up with different and innovative sales and marketing strategies that excludes cold calling. That would also mean less businesses for outsourced call centers and channels.

Of course, the other way to get around the Do Not Call register is if an individual call up the retailer instead. In order to do that, the retailer would have to creating awareness of its products through advertising, word-of-mouth (a very strong and important method of advertising that is often over-looked), door knocking, direct marketing and even cross selling with other products. This may actually create a whole new stream of utilities retail marketing strategies which can be difficult for a product (gas and electricity) that is essential but has no differentiation between competitors.

For more information, click here
For media press, click here