What does relationship mean to most companies? Very simple. Inundating the customer with unsolicited calls. Customers are an unhappy lot. The number of customer complaints have increased tremendously because of unsolicited calls.

Let me narrate here the plight of all of us. You are in an important meeting and guess what rings? Your cell phone. Like all of us, you think that the call is important and you take it. Who do you think is calling? You can take your pick. It's a telemarketing executive trying to sell you a credit card, a mobile phone connection, a club membership or someone trying to palm you off a loan that you don't need. I don't know about you but I get angry and frustrated. Sometimes I return missed call and guess who I find at the other end? A telemarketing executive trying to sell me something or the other.

All of us as customers are just fed up with telemarketing executives of companies invading our privacy. Unsolicited marketing calls are becoming a serious problem. Customers are complaining but no respite seems to be in sight.

It has been estimated that 1.5 billion unsolicited calls are being made in Britain alone. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, over 10 billion unsolicited telemarketing calls are made in India every year giving employment to nearly 22.5 lakh people.

Why do telephone companies do not want to stop unsolicited calls? The answer is simple. Money. With over 10 billion unsolicited telemarketing calls being made in India, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure where the interest of telephone companies lie.

Indiscriminate unsolicited calls bad for business

Businesses are being really stupid in not using technology properly to control unsolicited calls. They are digging their own graves by calling customers indiscriminately. Why? Let me explain.

First, by making unsolicited calls businesses are creating conditions for government to intervene through regulations which is the last thing that businesses want. Second, calling customers again and again is actually not good for business. You not only increase your costs but you also turn off potential customers. Lastly, unsolicited calls are stressful and adversely affect the employee productivity and moral.

Banning unsolicited calls is not the answer

However, completely stopping unsolicited calls, SMSs and emails is not the answer to the problem. First, if telemarketing is banned, thousands will lose their livelihood. Second, it is also not in the interest of businesses or consumers to stop telemarketing as it is an effective and a very cost effective advertising medium.

The Win-Win Solution

Actually, there should be no need for the government to intervene. Common sense suggests that businesses should be courteous to their customers and respect their privacy. With millions of mobile users it is certainly tempting to try to tap the potential of this large market. However, we all know that anything in excess or beyond reasonable limits will boomerang and that is what is happening today. Businesses have not been able to control their excitement about the use of such cost effective advertising medium to target such a huge audience. It is the unbearable level of invasion of privacy and intrusion that has resulted in the high level of customer dissatisfaction and hate towards businesses because of unsolicited calls. With the customers expecting no respite, they are simply switching off or fighting it aggressively by complaining to everyone they can think of.

Now I would not blame the businesses for the way they are using this low cost mediums to communicate cost effectively with their potential customers if a better method was not available. However, technology is available to ensure that unsolicited calls are used for the mutual benefit of the customers and businesses. The solution lies in the CRM technology itself.

I just cannot seem to understand why businesses do what they are doing because CRM technologies can assist them in cost effectively maintaining contact with customers without stalking them. Now technology allows you to make available all the information and interactions with a particular customer to everybody in the organization. So when a CSR calls me and I disconnect the phone after getting to know who's calling or tell the CSR that I am not interested in their products and services, a simple code can be inserted in the software system suggesting that no calls should be made to that particular number or that even if we have to call, we should call only after a specified period, say after 6 months. So any CSR who is getting ready to call me will be warned not to call me or the system can be programmed in such a way that my number only shows up after 6 months. Now this will stop businesses from not only irritating the customer but also in saving them money which they waste calling people again and again. You will be surprised to note that I can do this on my contact management software which I have been using for over 15 years and I am sure that it can be done with the CRM software also. By the way, the contact management software just cost me Rs. 5,000 (about $110).

If businesses used the CRM technologies properly with the objective to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction and retention as discussed above, a win-win situation will result in which the customer will not be carpet bombed with unsolicited calls, SMSs and emails and the businesses will be able to maintain an one-on-one contact with their customers. Calls to uninterested customers will be reduced drastically and the industry will not only save money but will also enhance its image. Businesses will spend their resources more efficiently by focusing on interested and new potential customers. Last but not the least, customer complaints will decline.