Telemarketing Services

With the existing telemarketing service environment being what it is, every company that makes outbound calls should be compliant with state and federal telemarketing laws. 

Consumers who look unfavorably upon telemarketing service provider calls may trigger requests from State Attorney Generals, The Federal Trade Commission, or The Federal Communications Commission regarding the activities of your company and the outbound telemarketing service strategies being utilized.

The request can be a Federal Civil Investigation Demand from the government or a simple one number request from a State Bureau of Consumer Protection Administrative Office.

The Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry has been accepting registration from consumers since June of 2003. The registry, as of December 4,   2007, had over 151 million telephone numbers listed on it. 

Because of this, telemarketing services companies have to be aware that some consumers are sensitive to any type of sales call or any call in general that they perceive to be a sales call. 

The government has done a good job of explaining to consumers that the Federal Do Not Call Registry will stop some but not all calls.

There are exemptions to the National Do Not Call Registry Provisions and they are as follows:

1.       Based on the consumer’s purchase, rental, or lease of the seller’s goods or services, or a financial transaction between the consumer and seller, within 18 months preceding a telemarketing call. This period runs from the date of the last payment, transaction, or shipment between the consumer and the seller.

2.       Based on a consumer’s inquiry or application regarding a seller’s goods or services which exists for three months starting from the date the consumer makes the inquiry or application. This enables sellers to return calls to interested prospects even if their number is on the National Registry.

Sellers and telemarketers may call a consumer with whom a seller has an established business relationship, provided the consumer has not asked to be on the seller’s entity-specific Do Not Call list.

Telemarketing service companies must also be aware that state rules have to be followed and they may not have an existing business relation exemption. The exemption may be only one year, 6 months or none at all.

The following are some tips that can help you judge what level of compliance you are at:

1. Make sure your telemarketing services company has a compliance manual. This manual should show how list scrubs are done, including all federal, state and ported telephone numbers. Check when they are done, who checked to make sure the person that does the scrubs, indeed did them, the exemption that was used on every call that was ever made and when it expired, etc.

2. The manual needs to include "The Telemarketing Sales Rule" and "The Telephone Consumer Protection Act." Also, the manual must include the process that is used to accept a Do Not Call request from a consumer who received your number on their caller ID. The manual should have all scripts that were ever used at your company and it must include all state registration, documentations and surety bonds for all the states you are required to register in along with the dates they have to be renewed. It is critical that the manual specifically detail every aspect of your compliance. * Some compliance manuals contain several thousand pages and this is just a brief overview of what should be included in it.

3. Conduct audits several times a year to address any weakness in your telemarketing service compliance. There are several ways that this can be done. Have a staff member randomly pick ten telephone numbers that were launched in the last month to see what exemptions were used to make sure that these telephone numbers was dialed legally and within the parameters of the FTC and the FCC (News - Alert) guidelines.

4.  Audit your internal dialer records to make sure that your telemarketing company abandons no more then 3 percent of calls-- these percentages vary by state. Kansas, Oklahoma and California have their own unique abandonment requirements. When a call is abandoned and answered by a person they must receive a prerecorded identification message. The message must include a telephone number that a consumer can call to make a Do Not Call request.

5. Make sure that your telemarketing service company is transmitting its number to caller IDs. Customers that were contacted must be able to call back and request to be put on your Do Not Call list. Randomly double check that those Do Not Call requests were indeed added to your internal Do Not call list.

6.  Check to make sure you are following all state rules. Can you produce all the numbers that were launched in the last two years for any type of audit from a federal or state agency?

7. Telephone agents have to keep up to date with changes that occur in our industry. Do Not Call training should be done company-wide on a continuous basis with written tests a minimum of two times a year. Information about compliance can be included in monthly company newsletters or new compliance materials can be placed on the start up screens of agent’s computers.

In conclusion, your telemarketing services company should have a full-time person dedicated to ensuring all rules are followed and implemented in a timely and consistent basis. 

This is just a brief outline of compliance procedures and issues that your company should be aware of. In the current telemarketing services environment, having someone spend only a few hours a week to do this is setting your telemarketing services organization up for compliance failure.