Telecommunication Authority of India (TRAI) has been quite aggressive in the recent past towards saving telecom subscribers from telemarketers.

A few weeks ago the department had mandated operators to provide a special tone when an international roaming customer is called. Objective is, the trained executive should refrain from engaging in the call when he hears the tone. I have posted a note on this subject, if interested please click here.

A couple of days ago another plan was brought to the table, something that will lead telemarketers fly a big kite. A web portal is going to be launched soon where subscribers (You and I) can opt-in for country-level DO NOT DISTURB list. Once registered, leading contact-centers will be sent updated lists at a regular frequency to ensure DND subscribers do not get eaten up by a few directionless marketers. In my opinion, very good move by the governing body.

I would assume there will be some initial teething issue with such a model, but will surely mature and bring a sea change to the way how tele-marketing is done.

Receiving anonymous calls from telemarketers is like getting unsolicited spam mails in our inbox. Issue is, an ‘absolutely useless’ mail to me may not necessarily mean the same to you.  In telecom, I will be thrilled to receive a call from Blackberry or Hutchison calling offering a buyback plan. However, they should ensure not to call me when I amidst a presentation, which I will hate to the core.

The move by the governing department is happening at the right time. Many leading marketers (read organizations, not contact-centers) have started deploying mechanisms to avoid customer irritation. Customer Governance is one of the buzz words in Direct Marketing. I am pretty sure TRAI knows the  nuances of this measure, and I hope the initiative’s objective is not to kill telemarketing.

So, let’s wait for another .nic.in portal where one can choose from a list of products/categories and time to be SMSed. And hope card telemarketers get a break and make their long-pending-honeymoon-dream come true.