Chugging "works" or Chuggers raise a lot for charity
On the face of it, a powerful argument - according to the PFRA, £130 million is raised for charities every year by face to face fundraising. Let's assume that this is accurate; it certainly sounds like a lot of money raised for the good causes. But, lets put it in perspective - the Charity Commission tells us that in 2011, the total income for all England and Wales charities is £55.87 billion. So chugging raises just 0.2% of that.
Some charities don't use chuggers at all yet still manage to raise substantial sums while others get far more than 0.2% of their income from it. Here are some questions to ask:
- How did charity X survive before the invention of chugging in the 1990s?
- Why did charity X choose chugging while others haven't?
There's no need to dodge chuggers or be rude to them. Just say "No thanks"
This would be true if chuggers actually accepted "No thanks" and desisted immediately. In practice they often don't (despite what the rules say) and even if they do, you have to repeat it every dozen yards as you come in range of the next one. You also have to do this every day you choose to enter the chugging zones. The PFRA report recruitment of 238273 donors in 2011/12. We know that each donor recruited entails around 180 chugs so that's nearly 40 million chugs in all. If that was spread out equally among the 62 million UK population, it would be less than two encounters a year. Unfortunately it's much more concentrated than that - typically happening in busy urban areas during weekdays.
No one signs up for a Direct Debit if they don't want to OR "Talk to a chugger - you might learn something"
Similarly, no one ever signed up for timeshare, PPI, life insurance or a new energy supplier! Like chuggers, sales people in these industries are highly trained and incentivised to get sales. They're good at it or they get sacked very quickly. Talking to a chugger is like going into a boxing ring with a very experienced boxing champion.
Chuggers don't get commission
This may be true! BUT, some of them get a "bonus". Typically, there isn't a bonus on every sale but it may be paid on every third or just for exceeding a daily target. Also, if they don't sell enough, they get sacked. So, the real answer is that chuggers often have a direct financial incentive to sign you up. This is not like the unpaid volunteers who get personal satisfaction if you drop a pound in their tin.
Very few formal complaints are made about about chugging
This may be true but is misleading. The first instinct of most people who have an unsatisfactory experience of being chugged is to get away as fast as possible. But, let's suppose you do complain? How do you do it? What you are supposed to do is to demand to see the chugger's ID and have their Team Leader sent for. Did you know that? It's not quite as bad as the old system where if you wanted to complain about the Police, you had to talk to ... The Police.
No comments:
Post a Comment