Operator proves it doesn’t conduct any telemarketing activities that could be judged as distressing for customers
Vodafone has become the first telecommunications company to receive the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) Assured accreditation
The accreditation was awarded after an extensive check on the mobile operator’s outbound call centres by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). This is a UK trade association for the one-to-one marketing industry, providing legal services and best-practice guidelines.
The auditing process includes the examination of outbound marketing operations and analysing call records made by the network.
By being awarded the TPS accreditation, Vodafone has proven to not conduct any telemarketing activities that could be distressing to consumers, from practices such as cold calling to misleading sales techniques.
Vodafone UK director of external affairs Helen Lamprell said: “Telemarketing calls from broadband, phone, TV and telecoms providers feature in the top five most complained about topics to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This is unacceptable.
“We are committed to treating our customers and other consumers with respect, and through our qualification of this accreditation, we are taking action.”
This latest news follows Vodafone’s announcement yesterday of new barring technology to reduce nuisance calls. This aims to reduce nuisance calls by hundreds of thousands, hoping to ensure such calls don’t reach Vodafone customers in the first place.
Vodafone saw a change of CEO with Nick Jeffery replacing Jeroen Hoencamp on September 1. Jeffery faced an uphill task to rebuild the UK operator’s reputation as it lost more than a million customers in the past 18 months [19.4m/18.2m].
The UK operator is also currently the most complained about network to Ofcom.
