For the past few weeks BizComms has been following with interest how the 118800 story has panned out in the press, ultimately noting (objectively, of course) a complete lack of crisis planning.  118800 allows people to contact the mobile numbers of people they don’t already have – 118800 contacts the target on their behalf  for a price (£1) asking permission for the requester to call them direct, but not actually giving out the mobile number.

The comms strategy (nay, the entire business concept) was fated to struggle 18 months ago when the mobile operators refused to provide lists of mobile numbers, despite the threat of legal action from 118800. Ignoring this fairly strong signal that the service might (just a thought) be received badly 118800 continued with plans to launch the service which, impressively, seems to fill absolutely no gaps in the market (apart from that of aggravating human rights campaigners).  Telesales companies surely can’t afford the £1 per contact that is unlikely to convert into a phone call, let alone a sell.  On a personal level, if it is an angry ex or the freak from school who thought arson was fun, you’re hardly likely to accept a call from them are you? And, let’s face it; it’s not going to be the guy you fantasised about at school who has been trying in vain to contact you ever since – Facebook and twitter would have done that already.

To make matters worse for the 118800 comms team, on top of having to manage responses to backlash from press, rights campaigners and mobile operators about the privacy implications, the entire service crashed at its launch and 118800 was (allegedly) unavailable from comment apart from a canned statement.

What is interesting here is that the mobile operators appear to take privacy rights of its customers seriously and, that despite a proliferation of forms of instant online communication, people tend to treat personal mobile numbers as just that – a very personal means of contact that we choose to give out to the lucky few, not the highest bidder.