The problem of cold callers is becoming more of an inconvenience for householders all over the country. For some it’s even become quite a distressing experience because of it happening so often. Fortunately there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Government has announced that it is going to clamp down on the companies that are responsible for cold calls and nuisance texts. Some of them could be receiving a fine of up to £500,000. So what has been stopping them from facing such penalties before?

Damage & Distress

The Information Commissioner had to prove that the calls or texts were causing “substantial damage or substantial distress”. However, companies such as Tetrus Telecoms appealed against a fine and won. The problem is proving the cold callers have reached that threshold of “substantial damage or distress”. However, that threshold has now been removed and the Information Commissioner will be making the sole decision on when a serious contravention has occurred.

That’s great news for all those people that have been sat at home, watching repeats of Bullseye on Challenge, only to have it ruined by repeated cold calls. But it’s not just those in their living rooms getting these nuisance calls. It can also happen to businesses.

Train of Thought

Hardly a day goes by here at Fresh Air Studios without us getting bugged by computers and cold callers calling us. We get silent calls, calls that are just beeps, calls with pre-recorded voices and calls from human beings (who seem to think we’re a home and not a business number). For us they’re not stressful, they’re just annoying.

One of us will have to stop concentrating on what we’re doing in order to answer the call, deal with it, get rid of them and hang up. Then when we return to what we were doing, our train of thought has been broken and it takes a few minutes to get back into the swing of things. When this happens every half hour or so, you can imagine how annoying it is! So we came up with a plan.

Beat It

We spend so much of our time selling, writing and producing quality on-hold and IVR systems for companies all over the world, we realised it was about time we treated ourselves to one! This way, when a silent call, beeping call or pre-recorded voice tries to call us, they won’t get through as they won’t be able to get past the initial IVR message. The human cold callers will realise we’re a business and not a house and hopefully won’t proceed any further.

We spend a lot of time telling you about the various benefits of a decent IVR and on-hold system: sound professional, sound bigger, upsell your business and products, give your clients better quality on-hold time, etc. But this is the one benefit we only recently discovered: get a hot IVR to beat those cold callers!

The problem of cold callers is becoming more of an inconvenience for householders all over the country. For some it’s even become quite a distressing experience because of it happening so often. Fortunately there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Government has announced that it is going to clamp down on the companies that are responsible for cold calls and nuisance texts. Some of them could be receiving a fine of up to £500,000. So what has been stopping them from facing such penalties before?

Damage & Distress

Train of Thought

Beat It

For more information on how Fresh Air Studios can supply your on-hold or IVR package, visit www.freshonhold.com.