Should CreditSafeUK be asked not to contact new me...

I joined 4N yesterday and today I have had a cold call from CreditSafeUK trying to sell me a contract to use their business database. I asked how they got my mobile phone number and they said through 4N.

For me, this approach by CreditSafe flies in the face of the 4N ethos around socialisation and friendliness. It was a very unwelcome call and an attempt at hard sell through telesales.

Simon.......   your mobile number is on your profile????  Anyone who has seen a post or clicked on your profile would see it as its the number you have given to be contacted on?

Would a call from someone who has read your profile and wanted to buy your services have been so unwelcome???  

I agree personally that I don't like cold calls...... but at least if you WERE interested then you can check them out via 4N??  And personally I'd rather receive a cold call from 4N as opposed to any random company?

So annoying when they do this - they shouldnt be farming details from sites like this but they do.

In the end they are deselecting themselves, just tell them to bog off

Fair point Paul, and yes onbiously I would appreciate the call if it was from someone who wanted to buy my services.

Perhaps it's the timing within 24 hours that I find off-putting and because it is so unexpected given the friendliness and socialability of the rest of my experience of 4N and its members and I thought I read a few things that said 4N was not about hard sell - but I can't argue your point.

It's a shame CreditSafe are getting a reputation for this, I use their product and it is good, but their tactics leave something to be desired

They used to have people using the forums rather than abusing the website - if they have someone who has the time to trawl th enew members why not spend some time posting as well

4N doesn't tell anyone how to run their business, if this is how CreditSafe want to go on then that is up to them. People will judge for themselves whether they appreciate their business tactics.

There are many many better ways they could use 4N. imho.

Well said Stef,

I wouldnt knock Creditsafe for their products as IMO they are as good as anything else out there - However the scoring systems from the big four (D&B, Experian, Equifax and CS) are often different hence sometimes you'll see different limits & scores for the same business.

I personally love their tactics!! - It helps me win business as my approach is entirely different when I speak to potential customers for my C2C credit reports (D&B). Aggresive selling not needed as I have found the best way to win business is to (as you rightly advise) help business people by sharing my experience and knowledge in credit management and associated tools and how they can help avoid risk of loss.

Keep it up CS as your helping my business but stop hassling my 4N mates

PS: Been off the scene for a while with the day job but expect to see more from me in 2012 when Check2Cheque will become more of a priority!

 All the makings and tactics of a Mickey Mouse outfit

Kev

See that's my point. If I were CreditSafe, I'd be listening to the feedback from 4N members here and adopting my approach.

As other people have said, the product is good and in the past, CreditSafe used to use 4N really sensibly and have people on the ground.

Personally, I tend to agree with Paul Green.  Any business publishing its phone number anywhere can expect potential suppliers to use it as well as potential customers. Likewise for email addresses.

I got a call from CreditSafe a few weeks ago, someone called Ben - friendly enough, he gave me a demo, told me the prices, I told him I didn't need the service at present but I'd bear them in mind. End of story.   Nothing like as bad for the blood pressure as someone reading a script with bad english (foreign or regional) who won't shut up when you ask them to.

Simon, I can see your worry about getting a call like that so soon after joining and wondering if you'd opened the flood gates.  In my experience it's fairly rare.

Ben - sorry if I've just got you sacked for not being pushy enough.

Morning Steve, I couldn't argue with Paul's overall point either and I'm big and ugly enough to eal with a cold telesales call, but it was just a surprise given everything I had read about 4N being taking the plunge.

Interestingly though, I have had a follow-up call this morning telling me they have a special Christmas deal on the prices quoted yesterday, and that is despite my warning yesterday about follow up calls tending to turn me off a product. Yes he was nice about it and apologetic when I more clearly stated my position in respect of the call, so hopefully like you I will hear nothing further.

As I have said on that other recent thread - I personally would rather use an inferior product than respond to anoying tactics like they are curently using.

They are aware that members here tend to buy services from other members who they know and trust so why not get stuck in and help members and get a reputation for being freindly?

Hello there, I used to work for Creditsafe and can totally empathise with you.

I was part of the marketing team and back then (3-4 years ago) social media was growing thick and fast.  So it was my role to join and connect with forums, networking, Twitter, attend exhibitions etc, and just generally meet businesses and talk about how Creditsafe may be able to assist, and vice versa.

The only problem was, when our team became, what they would call, chatty (networking), say via twitter, or helped other members (referrals, advice) it was seen as wasting time and not “ringing the bell” or creating revenue, so we were advised to only communicate when there was a potential sale or buying signal **.  Also we were told to scour different networking organisations for numbers/contacts, such as the OP experienced. This totally takes “networking” out of it, it’s just your bog standard telesales, always will be.

It even got to a point where when we wanted to reply to a tweet, we’d have to get it passed by the directors, by the time they came back to say “yes you can post it” (even a harmless a message as “hope you’re having a good day”) it would be weeks later and not worth tweeting back.  I believe sales/networking is reactive and should be dealt asap, its rude not to.

In answer to the original question “Should CreditSafeUK be asked not to contact new 4N members” the answer is, even if they were, it wouldn’t stop them. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and if there’s a phone number, it will be called regardless what website it originated from.

What you can do to prevent cold callers (not just Creditsafe) is register your mobile, landline, fax number and mailing address to the TPS (telephone preference service), and if they contact you 4 weeks after you’ve registered, you can complain and they will be fined up to £10k.  Creditsafe have a direct link to TPS which gets updated, so telesales can see if a number is TPS and they aren’t allowed to call it.

Or, you can just say the letters “TPS” when you get cold calls and hope that they will eventually go away.

This forum post and the others mentioning CreditSafe have proved to be very helpful to me.  I have been called by CreditSafe today - by a persistent but still charming person.  He seemed determined to 'get my business' and I did explain that my business needs aren't really at the dizzy levels of your average CreditSafe customer just yet.  I was even offered the 'bottom line' deal by his superior, who had listened into my umming and aaaaaing.  I'm going to have a good read of the T&C's before I do anything and I'm still certain that most of my clients can be found through other more friendly face to face methods - such as 4N breakfasts!

Thanks 4N for such an open and honest Forum - it certainly helped me. 

I have also been contacted by Creditsafe and, likewise, this discussion has been very helpful for me. Creditsafe captured my interest with the access to its marketing lists. However, I was emailed a sample list of twenty businesses and when checking them, I could not verify the contact names. Can anyone vouch for the efficacy of Creditsafe's marketing data?

Many thanks for your help.