Research into the effectiveness of the Telephone Preference Service

Ipsos was commissioned by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to carry out research to look at the effectiveness of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). The TPS is a free service which enables consumers to opt-out of receiving unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes, i.e. live marketing / sales calls.

The research, taking place between September 2013 and May 2014, specifically explored whether signing up to the TPS significantly reduces the number of live marketing / sales calls received. Ipsos ran a randomised control trial (RCT).

People not currently signed up to the TPS were recruited by telephone and were asked to complete a diary entry every time they received an unwanted/nuisance call on their home landline phone for a four week period throughout November 2013. In March 2014, the diary exercise was repeated for another four week period with the sample having been allocated into two groups: one group was registered to the TPS, and the other remaining as a control group. This was conducted as a blind trial, which meant that members of the panel did not know whether or not they had been registered with TPS as part of the exercise.

The key finding of the RCT was that TPS registration was effective at reducing the volume of live marketing / sales calls received. It was also effective at reducing the overall volume of nuisance calls received.

• Download the full published report from the Ofcom website