Do Not Call disaster?

It’s an issue that divides Australia’s small business community – should Australia’s Do Not Call Register be extended to cover businesses?

In one corner are small and home-based business owners, sick of being harassed by telemarketers trying to flog them phone plans, office equipment and recruitment services.

In the other corner are direct marketing experts, who argue telemarketing and prospecting by phone are essential tools for many companies. They argue that extending the Do Not Call Register to protect businesses would costs thousands of jobs in the telemarketing sector and stymie business-to-business transactions.

The Rudd Government makes no bones about which side of the argument it is backing. In last month’s Federal budget, the Government announced $4 million of funding to extend the Register to cover business numbers, fax numbers and emergency service numbers.

Telecommunications Minster Stephen Conroy has promised a period of further industry consultation before introducing legislation later this year.

It appears the marketing and telecommunications industries will get one last chance to state their case and get these laws watered down.

How big is the problem?

One of the big problems with the debate about the inclusion of business numbers on the Do Not Call Register is a lack of hard data about the size of the problem.

In its discussion paper examining the eligibility requirements for the Do Not Call Register, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy released no numbers and said only that “small business representatives have raised concerns about the losses in productivity caused by responding to unsolicited telemarketing calls”.

In its submission addressing the Department’s discussion paper, the Australian Direct Marketing Association says the body charged with monitoring the Do Not Call Register, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, has received just 850 requests from Australia’s 1.2 million small businesses to have their number placed on the register.

What’s behind the Government’s move

Every small business owner will know the feeling. The work is stacking up, you’re understaffed and have no time for even a short lunch break, let alone a lengthy call with a marketer selling something you don’t even need.

Several businesses say they understand telemarketers are just doing their job, but they need to do it somewhere else and stop calling. As far as they’re concerned, the day they can put their business’s number on the Do Not Call Register can’t come fast enough.

Chris Connolly, director of consultancy firm Galexia, welcomes the Government’s proposed amendments and argues that the telemarketing industry “has been its own worst enemy”.

He says that these calls detract from the time businesses can spend on crucial issues that are essential for surviving the downturn.

“Obviously there are a lot of calls made to SMEs taking up unwanted time when they are trying to get their work done. I don’t think there are as many calls in Australia as there are overseas, but the nature of the calls is that they are in exactly the wrong point of the day.”

Bob Wilie, partner at Nelson Bay Electronics, says he is regularly distracted from earning revenue by several unsolicited calls.

“I’m the only income earner for the business and if I spend three hours on the phone each day telling them go jump in the lake, that’s three hours I’m not earning money.”

“Things are hard enough as it is. Depending on the number of calls I get, I can spend two or three hours a day just answering these surveys. I’ve got other things I can do rather than answering questions for surveys that don’t even concern me and mean nothing to my business.”

The WA-based Small Business Development Cooperation said in its submission to the Federal Government that it also supports businesses being included on the Do Not Call Register.

“Providing small businesses with an opportunity to opt out of receiving calls from telemarketers would allow small business operators to concentrate these limited resources solely on the core daily needs of the business.”

These businesses also say that unsolicited faxes are a waste of resources. Connolly says that the addition of fax numbers to the list would be a welcomed move, as businesses suffer “a big cost” for printing out faxes and using toner.

Anthony Waterhouse, director of electronics and communications consultancy firm Pacific Research, says that unsolicited faxes “presume a lot”.

“The fact that it presumes that the recipient can have access to resources which the recipient pays for, I think is unacceptable,” he says.

“About 80% of our fax traffic is marketing. It’s a blight, really. Most companies use email now, but obviously there’s some residual benefit because some jurisdictions require faxes rather than emails and so forth. To have that resource used up by people promoting holidays and other completely irrelevant things is a great nuisance.”

Dangers for business

Opponents against the inclusion of businesses on the Do Not Call list form around two points: that it will damage the direct marketing industry and it will make it extremely difficult for businesses to use the traditional strategy of telephone prospecting.

Rob Edwards, chief executive of the Australian Direct Marketing Association, leads the former group. He is outraged by the decision to extend the Register for businesses and says it will undoubtedly lead to job losses in the call centre industry.