How do i collect clients phone numbers?

1. Purchase of a phone numbers base

2. Consistent ways to collect phone numbers base

3. Consent to processing of personal data

4. How to make your work with database effective

5. Conclusion

This method is used by a large number of amateur businessmen. Nevertheless, it is not a good idea and here are some reasons for this:

It is more expensive than other channels of promotion.

When you buy someone else’s database, you also get expenses for analyzing and segmentation of unknown customers, you waste your budget for making useless scripts and managers’ salaries which will be working with uninterested clients.

With a 99% probability, you will receive a low-quality base.

Using such a base you will be able to call 1-2 contacts out of 10 at the most.

This base contains phone numbers but does not cantain the relevant information about customers.

It will be much more difficult to make an effective dialogue and a successful sale without basic information about a client such as gender, age, region, and so on.

Most people dislike "cold" calls.

If you send your offer to interested clients without permission, you risk ruining your company’s reputation and losing potential customers.

You will probably violate the law on data processing.

When you buy a database from someone else, you do not receive consent to make mailings and calls to contacts from that base.

A purchased base will not make you a profit, but will only add unnecessary problems. It will be safer and cheaper to collect your own database to make bulk calls. It is not that difficult as someone may think – we will tell you how to do it easily and fast.

There are simple and accessible ways to collect clients’ numbers – with some of them you could have probably come across already. For getting customers’ data, you can:

The robot follows a simple algorithm: it recognizes a keyword or a phrase when a customer is speaking and relates it with a corresponding dialogue’s script branch.

Add to a contract for the provision of services.

This method is often used by organizations that provide services under a contract - for example, banks or microfinance services. The form for a phone number is usually included in the contract section with the customer's contact details. For further work, a number should be verified due to clients can make mistakes or enter an invalid number.

Ask to save a phone number during a conversation on phone, if a client calls himself.

Customers often call stores and service centers' hotlines with questions about a product or service and feedback. During a dialogue, operators can get the client's consent to use his phone number for notifications. Conversations on such lines are usually recorded and such permission could be considered valid.

Create a bonus program for regular customers.

Clothing stores usually offer loyalty cards for their regulars. A customer should specify his phone number to complete the form to activate such a card. Shops often offer discounts and gifts for birthdays or seasonal holidays to convince clients to get a loyalty program membership.

Offer a gift or a discount in exchange for subscribing to newsletters.

Online stores suggest specifying a phone number and subscribing for news and announcements when a customer is placing an order. A client could get a discount, free delivery service, or a gift to choose from in exchange.
You can implement the same in offline stores: offer your client to fill the form and give him a nice bonus in return.

Make a pop-up window.

This picture shows an example of a pop-up window from the fitness club’s website. It contains an offer to leave a phone number for a manager's call back. Such pop-ups often appear on websites when a client does a certain action - for example, open a page, a section, or go to a shopping cart. You can offer customers a free consultation, a gift, or helpful content and news to convince them to leave a phone number.

Collect data on social networks.

Digital promotion becomes popular: many companies have corporate pages on Facebook or Instagram. You can send messages with useful information and a form for collecting subscribers’ numbers.
Use a chatbot for this task: make it communicate with the client in messengers and answer their questions. Such a bot can also offer a form to leave a phone number if a client needs to contact the company’s specialists.

Often, when connecting Wi-Fi in cafes or airports, you are asked to confirm the number - this is required by the legislation in the field of communications.

You can use this method as a marketing tool: many people use the opportunity to connect to the free Internet from their phones. This solution is suitable for service companies - shops, cafes, restaurants.

We have listed several popular and working methods. However, you can always invent your own way to collect numbers or see how others do it.

Yet collecting numbers is not all you have to do before sending bulk calls. You need to obtain consent from clients to process data as permission to send any information to them.

If you want bulk calls to the database you collected to bring real results, you need to remember some rules:

Delete a customer number if such was requested.

The person who subscribes to your newsletter has the right to unsubscribe from it at any time - this will be tantamount to a ban on the processing of personal data.

Do not forget to update your database.

Any database requires updating and adding new information about customers, excluding inactive numbers, and the like. This will help optimize your advertising campaigns - reduce the cost of sending out to uninterested customers and increase the value of the offer for existing buyers.

Control the quality and the number of your offers.

Make sure that the calls are not annoying and contain only useful information - this way you will retain the loyalty of your audience and attract new ones.

Instead of buying someone else's database of numbers, use simple methods of obtaining numbers - communicate with customers, add a question about the phone to profiles, exchange information for gifts or services - and collect a high-quality database of interested customers with which you can achieve maximum results.