Charities offered free “Anti-phugging software”
CHARITIES OFFERED FREE “ANTI-PHUGGING SOFTWARE”
- Three month trial to help Third Sector weed out pressure-selling over the phone by so-called Phuggers at Christmas
- Pressure to meet fundraising targets and tightening of household budgets create unparalleled risk of use of inappropriate phone-selling techniques this Christmas
- As Christmas approaches competition amongst charities to secure donations is mounting and call centre operations are under increased pressure to meet funding targets.
Charities, already criticised for their use of so-called “chuggers” - agents who attempt to secure donations from shoppers on the High Street - are now accused of using telephone fundraisers, or “phuggers”, who put undue pressure on prospective donors.
Hundreds of millions of pounds are raised by charities over the phone each year.
To help charities monitor the quality of calls made by phuggers, call recording software company Veritape is offering third sector organisations a free three-month trial of its recording software. The software enables charity management to check call records and assess whether pressure selling techniques are being used by call centres staff, including third party providers.
The software automatically identifies hundreds of phrases, such as “I’m not interested”, “please don’t call me again” and “I feel harassed”, alerting charities to the potential use of pressure-selling techniques.
As Christmas approaches and pressure mounts for funding and fundraising in many community organisations, Veritape’s software provides a simple answer for organisations concerned about call quality.
Cameron Ross, managing director of Veritape, said: “Concerns have been mounting in the charitable sector about the quality of the calls made to potential donors. There’s no doubt that more calls will be made as the season of goodwill approaches, and organisations will want to be mindful of the increased pressures that households are under to make ends meet. Our software provides a useful safeguard to ensure that professional call centre staff don’t get too zealous in their attempts to secure donations.”
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About Veritape
Veritape provides software-based call recording services to businesses and not-for-profit organisations through a low-risk rental model, offering a cost-effective, flexible alternative to traditionally expensive fixed hardware solutions.
As well as recording millions of calls each day, Veritape software collects and interrogates data from the conversations within them, acting as a powerful telephone search engine.
Veritape’s software is trusted every day to improve the operations of:
- four of the world’s five largest car manufacturers.
- major UK travel companies.
- finance and insurance companies of all sizes.
- local and regional government, including Regional Trading Standards.
- pharmaceuticals businesses and major suppliers to the NHS.
- outsourced call centres, including the UK’s market leader.
Veritape clients regularly realise a range of concrete business gains, such as up to 30% reduction in staff costs, between 30 to 40% increases in productivity for sales managers, up to 90% reduction in disputed transactions, and significant increases in lead conversions.