A surge in sign-ups for the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) has led to the creation of a new scheme by Experian, designed to help sales and marketing teams stay up-to-date.
During the period January to May of this year, 353,397 new firms registered with Corporate TPS – 57% more than the whole of 2011. Meanwhile 558,008 new consumers (including sole traders and partnerships) registered with TPS during the same period – a 47% increase on the same period last year.
Firms have up to 28 days after a prospect has registered with the TPS or CTPS to remove them from prospect lists in order to remains compliant. Many businesses assign specific time and resource every 28 days to cross check their lists with TPS or enlist a third party to do the job. This is potentially a significant, time consumer and costly task for organisations of all sizes, says Experian.
The company’s scheme screens millions of records on a daily basis to alert organisations that have purchased prospect data from Experian when a contact registers with the TPS or the CTPS. It removes the requirement many organisations have to review and cross check new registrations each month, helping them to stay compliant and avoid fines of up to £500,000.
Experian Business Information Services UK managing director Max Firth said: “Many businesses are not aware of this growing risk, nor are they aware of the increased attention from the industry that this issue has drawn recently. There are calls for action against firms that do not screen their prospects lists.
“With 70,679 businesses registering with CTPS every month and 111,604 consumers, sole traders and partnerships registering with TPS, the likelihood of breaching the law and potentially being caught out is now a real danger. Our new service combats this by enabling businesses to easily and cost effectively stay on top of any changes.”
