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Gorilla Accounting- spam?

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    Gorilla Accounting- spam?

    Hi all. Long time lurker, first time poster, so go easy on me!

    The other day, I received a letter in the post from Gorilla Accounting trying to get me to switch to them and offering me a money off deal to move. I'm more than happy with my current accountants, so was going to ignore it. However, the thing that concerns me is that they seem to know I use Freeagent. They say 'We have gathered information via Companies House with the aim to proactively get in touch with Limited Company Contractors and Freelancers who are using Freeagent'. However, I have checked on Companies House, and nothing on my account there shows that I am using Freeagent- so how do they know?

    Has anyone else had the same thing? It might not seem like a big thing, but I'm not sure I like the idea of being targeted, especially when I don't know where or how they have obtained their 'intel' on me!

    TIA

    #2
    Maybe they can make an assumption from your current accountant name whether you are likely to be using FreeAgent or not.

    So when they used to spam me when I was with InTouch, they would tell me how much cheaper and better they were because they knew that I used InTouch from the company filings. I'd guess that now they might have a better spamgorithm that if the current accountant is (eg) Dynamo then they will make the assumption that you are using FA as well.
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      #3
      But then, how do they know which accountant I am with? I know that it is stated in the accounts, but surely they can't actually going through every single company on Companies House, and checking their accounts in the hope their accountant is one on their Freeagent 'hit list'? That would make them either incredibly desperate or have an extremely large amount of time on their hands!

      Comment


        #4
        Any data that we use in our direct mail letters is obtained from publicly available sources. There has been no breach of data from your current accountant (that we know of), and likewise we have never purchased or used leaked data from any third parties. We are licensed by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO Licence Number ZA091838) as a Data Processor and take our responsibilities very seriously in relation to this.

        In the case of the letters that I assume you are referring to, our marketing team have used FreeAgent’s published list of accountants (here: https://www.freeagent.com/find-an-accountant/), together with Companies House data (who publish the name of the accountant) to obtain a list of target clients.

        Our letter is simply to make you aware of our brand and the service that we can offer, this strategy has proven to be successful in the past, with a high number of contractors now benefitting from a higher quality service at a lower cost than their previous providers. If you do not wish to receive any further marketing from us, please contact us and we will remove you from our mailing list.

        Craig

        Comment


          #5
          Depends on your view of things. In reality Gorilla are just using up to date techniques used in many other industries to cleverly segment their potential target markets and advertise to them accordingly.

          To the accountants in question, it seems poor taste. Gorilla are specifically targeting our clients (as well as many other firms in the same marketplace), and saying to them "please leave Maslins and come to us". Obviously we hope the majority of our clients receiving these are happy with our service and will just bin the letters, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth with me. Especially as I sat opposite a couple of Gorilla staff a year or two ago at a FreeAgent gathering and we had a great chat.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Maslins View Post
            Depends on your view of things. In reality Gorilla are just using up to date techniques used in many other industries to cleverly segment their potential target markets and advertise to them accordingly.

            To the accountants in question, it seems poor taste. Gorilla are specifically targeting our clients (as well as many other firms in the same marketplace), and saying to them "please leave Maslins and come to us". Obviously we hope the majority of our clients receiving these are happy with our service and will just bin the letters, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth with me. Especially as I sat opposite a couple of Gorilla staff a year or two ago at a FreeAgent gathering and we had a great chat.
            Gorilla must be opposite Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe if they are on Churchgate.

            It's like asking people on Carrs Pasties to move their preferred pastie-supplier, just not cricket.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by stek View Post
              Gorilla must be opposite Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe if they are on Churchgate.

              It's like asking people on Carrs Pasties to move their preferred pastie-supplier, just not cricket.
              Nah, they've moved now.
              'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Craig at Gorilla View Post
                Any data that we use in our direct mail letters is obtained from publicly available sources. There has been no breach of data from your current accountant (that we know of), and likewise we have never purchased or used leaked data from any third parties. We are licensed by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO Licence Number ZA091838) as a Data Processor and take our responsibilities very seriously in relation to this.

                In the case of the letters that I assume you are referring to, our marketing team have used FreeAgent’s published list of accountants (here: https://www.freeagent.com/find-an-accountant/), together with Companies House data (who publish the name of the accountant) to obtain a list of target clients.

                Our letter is simply to make you aware of our brand and the service that we can offer, this strategy has proven to be successful in the past, with a high number of contractors now benefitting from a higher quality service at a lower cost than their previous providers. If you do not wish to receive any further marketing from us, please contact us and we will remove you from our mailing list.

                Craig
                Oh, lovely. That makes it alright then.

                To be quite clear, here's one person who wouldn't go near your business even if it was free of charge. HTH, BIDIVM.
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                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Maslins View Post
                  Depends on your view of things. In reality Gorilla are just using up to date techniques used in many other industries to cleverly segment their potential target markets and advertise to them accordingly.

                  To the accountants in question, it seems poor taste. Gorilla are specifically targeting our clients (as well as many other firms in the same marketplace), and saying to them "please leave Maslins and come to us". Obviously we hope the majority of our clients receiving these are happy with our service and will just bin the letters, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth with me. Especially as I sat opposite a couple of Gorilla staff a year or two ago at a FreeAgent gathering and we had a great chat.
                  I refer Maslins to my other reply a few minutes ago. I feel you at Maslins have just about zero to fear from such a bad "marketing" strategy.
                  Public Service Posting by the BBC - Bloggs Bulls**t Corp.
                  Officially CUK certified - Thick as f**k.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post
                    Maybe they can make an assumption from your current accountant name whether you are likely to be using FreeAgent or not.

                    So when they used to spam me when I was with InTouch, they would tell me how much cheaper and better they were because they knew that I used InTouch from the company filings. I'd guess that now they might have a better spamgorithm that if the current accountant is (eg) Dynamo then they will make the assumption that you are using FA as well.
                    But how would they know who my accountant is? I understand that their name is listed in the accounts filed with CH, but surely they're not sitting there going through all of the companies on CH and checking their individual accounts for accountants that are on their Freeagent hitlist? Or is there really a technology that would go into thousands of individual pdfs (such as accounts on CH) and weed out certain accountants? If there is, mind=blown

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