Do Not Call

What would life be without phones? Great! Because there would be no tele-callers

selling you credit cards and loans. But there's hope. RBI has made it

mandatory for each bank to have a do-not-call registry up and running. Cellular

service providers too have a do-not-disturb option. Enter your number at the

website of a bank or a cellular service provider, and they will make attempts to

ensure that you do not get calls (or send SMSs) to you. Some cellular providers

also let you send in requests to stop calls from a certain number.

One must confess that all this looks like a half-hearted attempt. From the

Indian Bank Association website, you can link to only eight banks that have set

up their do-not-call forms online. That's too few. RBI's notification also

states that the request has to be through the bank's website, or through a

letter submitted to the bank. That's inadequate. Why can't a toll free

number be set up for this? That will be far more accessible, and more people can

sign up. The 'marketing efforts' for such services are also inadequate. For

instance, at the Bank of Baroda site, I was the 48th visitor for the do-not-call

web page! At the ICICI Bank site, the option is on the home page, but tucked

away at the bottom. And it promises to try and ensure that you will not get

calls. In any case, going to each bank's site and registering is a tedious

process. A new initiative by the Indian Banks Association and India Cards

Council, along with MasterCard, could make it all simpler. They have issued a

Request for Information for setting up a national, common do-not-call registry.

But that plan is still in its infancy. And it just covers banks. What about

insurance companies, car service agencies and a host of others? Your local

milkman may also join the bandwagon soon. One fundamental flaw in the whole plan

is that the beneficiary is being asked to set up the service. If a bank gets

hold of another bank's existing customer database, say of car loan customers,

and then gets its telecallers to make focused pitches by offering better deals,

it gets much higher conversion rates. Why would it implement such plans

whole-heartedly?

Let us not forget that setting up a registry is just the beginning. There are

various issues to be tackled. For instance, once a number goes up, for how long

is it on the do-not-call list? How often should databases be scrubbed against

the registry? And if someone calls up a customer whose number is listed on the

registry, what is the penalty? Is delving into spending data of customers and

then making loan offers not an invasion of privacy?

We can learn from the US government, which set up a national do-not-call

registry in 2003. This applies to “any plan, program, or campaign to sell

goods or services through interstate phone calls”. Calls from political

parties, charities and telephone surveyors are allowed. Once a person gets his

numbers entered into the registry, he cannot receive calls for five years.

Sellers are supposed to check the registry every 31 days and drop the latest

numbers registered from their calling list. Violators can be fined up to $11,000

for every instance.

There is a strong case for such regulation to be a government initiative. It

can be supported by industry self-regulation but the latter alone is unlikely to

be enough. The present attempts at best display intent. At worst they pull wool

over your eyes.

In the meantime, it is sad to see a powerful and efficient marketing

methodology earning a bad name because of gross misuse.