Companies STILL conducting unethical opt-in subscriptions

It's been some months since I last posted to this blog. Okay, I lie - it's been over a year - but with my weekly/fortnightly postings on the Vertical Leap Search Marketing Blog I don't have as much time or available left-over subject matter as I'd like! However I noticed something last weekend that I felt I should share with you which was more appropriate to the blog accompanying MoonKlash than VL.

I recently purchased a new car (well, a ten year old MG ZS, so not exactly 'new' but I like it just the same. It's shiny and has a spoiler and a sunroof, so I'm happy). As my last car was sadly written off in a five car pile-up, my insurance was looking to be quite expensive so I did a little shopping around. Eventually I found my way to Admiral via Money Supermarket. The quote was straightforward however it wasn't possible to complete the payment process online - there was no form, so instead I had to call them.

The conversation didn't last long - about five minutes - however the line was very crackly (possibly a problem with our handset rather than theirs). The thing that surprised me was that after five minutes of confirming each and every detail I'd entered into the price comparison website, I was asked: "Is it okay for us to contact you?"

After five minutes of Yes/No/Yes/No I very nearly said 'Yes' just to get it all over and done with, especially as I'd had difficulty hearing half the questions I'd been asked. However this question just seamed stupid. 'Is it okay for us to contact you?' Well what's that meant to mean? Do you want to call up for a chat? If I say No, would that mean you couldn't call me if there was a problem with my insurance? So I asked: "What do you mean? Contact me why?" The answer, of course, was predictable and exactly what I knew it would be: "Can we email you special offers?"

Now, I may be being a little fussy here, but "Is it okay for us to contact you" and "May we subscribe you to our mailing list, after which we'll spam you to hell and back" are two very different things, and I'm surprised that companies like Admiral Insurance still continue to follow unethical subscription practices. Possibly the telephone operator was inexperienced or didn't ask the questions how he was trained, but that simply goes to re-enforce my believe that email opt-in's should never be handled over the phone unless it's a number you call especially with that intention.

When I worked at smartFOCUS on Email Reaction / smartMARKETER eChannel, we always ensured our clients followed ethical subscription problems. We had to, otherwise recipients would make spam complaints about the mailings they received, deliverability would suffer and emails would get blocked. Anyone found not behaving would be 'encouraged' to clean up their act or we'd no longer be able to support them.

To me, Admiral's approach is wrong on two important counts. Firstly the phrasing: 'Can we contact you.' There's no explanation as to what this means, it's just a cheap trick to get you registered. Secondly the subscription mechanism - phone. At smartFOCUS, if we received spam complaints it was common practise for us to ask our clients how and from where this address had been obtained, and in some circumstances ask for proof that the recipient had opted in. So do Admiral really record all conversations as proof of an opt in? The technology is available but I doubt they do! Does this mean that Admiral register people to their mailing lists without proof of an opt-in? Probably. Does this mean they'll get sued? Possibly not. There used to be a rule that meant you could email someone with whom you have a business relationship, so that's probably their get out clause. However, whilst this may limit the risk of legal action, they are still almost certainly going to find a lot of their emails get blocked when people make spam complaints. Emails to people that do want to receive them won't get delivered because Admiral choose to spam those that don't want them using a very dubious registration process.


Good Luck smartFOCUS
In other news, and on the note of smartFOCUS, Email Vision have acquired smartFOCUS. You can read the official story here, however the blog post by Pete Austin, one of the founders, is far more interesting. To all my former colleagues I wish you well, and hope everything goes smoothly - smartFOCUS had one of the most hard working, dedicated and professional teams I've worked with and I hope the changeover goes well for everyone involved.