Speaking at the event on emerging and current trends and issues in the UK telemarketing industry, Mike Havard, managing director of customer management consultancy CM Insight, warned that the TPS would have reached saturation point by this date at the current registration rate.
While the DMA has reported that registrations to the TPS fell in October by 50 per cent, new registrations coming via the high-profile BT Privacy campaign have now reached 1.3 million.
"BT Privacy is saying 'we're the consumer champion' and, very cleverly, also stopping competitors from calling its customer base," said Havard.
"It's tapping into the consumer psyche and giving itself a competitive edge."
Havard urged firms using telemarketing not to despair but to look at the commercial opportunity that rising TPS registrations afford. "It is not the death of outbound but the death of cold calling. Do outbound sensitively, using best practice and understand what you are really there to do, which is to manage customer conversations."
The offshore outsourcing debate also came under scrutiny in the presentation.
Havard indicated that the future of outsourcing would be about gaining access to skills that are lacking in the UK, rather than to solve staff shortages or cut costs. Companies should be considering the impact of outsourcing on their brand, as well as their customers.
"Few organisations understand the value implications of going offshore, particularly concerning their brand," he said.
"Consider your product when you are running a call centre. Your frontline agent is the most important weapon in terms of shifting customer behaviour to where you want it."
The forum kicked off with an opening address by Jeff Smith, chairman and CEO of MM Teleperformance, followed by a presentation by Jean-Francois Guillot, a member of the executive committee of MM Teleperformance parent company SR Teleperformance.
Guillot spoke on the firm's experience, gained over 25 years of operation, and global trends and predictions.
See feature, page 47.
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