“I need to start scrubbing cells now," says Jim Haltmzman, Operations Manager at Head Start Security, Newport RI, a home security provider*. “Our IT guy spends a few hours each weekend downloading the National and State DNC lists. It works pretty well except when we forget one, or a registration renewal slips through our fingers. And it can be tough to archive purchased leads because they just bounce back. If we get sued? Ahh, I'm not quite sure what would happen then... Should we consider just outsourcing everything? Are there additional compliance protections there?”
The 3 Keys to DNC TCPA Compliance - Click Video
This video is for informational purposes. Be sure to consult your own attorney for questions specific to your business.
Jim is not alone. He’s spent a lot of time and money putting together an on-site Do Not Call TCPA compliance program over the years.
The problem is, Jim and many compliance experts like him have worked their way into a corner with these procedures. To rely on an IT officer, or any in-house data expert, to put together a squeaky clean get-out-of-jail-card on Do Not Call and TCPA compliance is a big ask. Your data expert should be doing what he does best: data marketing and manipulation. Not wrestling with call prohibition lists, registrations, and regulations. How bad it is? Check out Bloomburg's TCPA update here.
Adding a Cell Scrub may be a good time to outsource all compliance procedures.
Any mobile phone scrubbing program from a certified Do Not Call Law Provider will come with other filters too. Through a simple dashboard, you can turn on your National DNC Filter updated every morning, State lists, and In-house do not call list. You can categorize purchased leads to survive legal scrutiny. It's an opportunity to have all compliance protections easily accessible in one place. And it's generally included in the price. So you longer have to download, archive and update files yourself. And records will be available in the format and timeframe required by authorities if needed - automatically.
Advantages of Outsourcing Compliance:
Free Up your Bandwidth and your time.
IT officer’s systems are being brought to their knees downloading all these lists. Bandwidth that could be used for marketing, sales and creative customer engagement. Your IT officer is not a legal expert. Don’t ask him or her to go toe to toe with professional TCPA litigants and attorneys. Chances are, it won’t go well.
Know what State DNC Algorithms outrank National.
When you download all National and State lists yourself – you don’t know which constantly changing law takes precedent over the other. In California for example, you have 90 days, according to the National Rule, to call someone back. But lo and behold the State passed a law that limits your callbacks to 30 days!
Know when Call In’s and Web Leads Expire.
Ourtsourced DNC Law compliance companies have Existing Business Relationship or “Permissions” filters. Allowing you to archive and date each lead for your records. When you get an inbound lead, without a permissions filter, you have no way of registering it for your protection. Is it an express written consent for marketing? An express consent for informational calls? Does it need to go into your general premissions filter until they opt-out?
6 Questions to ask when Outsourcing your DNC and TCPA Compliance Procedures.
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Wireless Block Cell Scrub: Make sure you’re able to separately identify at least 3 categories to help determine your method of cell calls: Mobile numbers overall, mobile numbers that are on the National DNC and State Lists, Mobile numbers NOT on any list. You should be able to add the Neustar wireless portability list if you’d like with the click of a switch.
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Existing Business Relationships: Make sure you can date and archive lead lists in a format that will survive legal challenges. Without an EBR filter, National and State lists you scrub against will simply kick out dated leads. Further, you should be able to store your leads according to: Permission Based Calls, Express Written Consents, Express Consents and more. This will be valuable in determining the type of dialing equipment when making marketing vs informational calls.
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Verify you don't have to download lists anymore.
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Ask who's the biggest baddest DNC service provider around! Your goal here is to have predatory attorneys see you’re dealing with a top Compliance Service Provider and walk away. With the FCC’s latest Declaratory Rulings leaving compliance details to play out in the courts, the best way to engage today is - not to engage at all!
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Ask about easy access to other lists like Litigator Scrub – 85,000 previous TCPA and related litigant numbers 40% of whom have sued more than once. You don’t want to call these pros. The list increases at about 1200 per month. See our blog, Litigator List Critical to TCPA Compliance after FCC Declaratory Ruling VoIP should also be a possibility on some programs.
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Get your General Council involved with these questions. He or she knows the value of archived compliance procedures by a third party DNC specialist in one central data repository, should he or she ever go to court on your behalf. These records won’t be constantly questioned as they would be with home-grown compliance attempts.
So should I outsource to a single DNC TCPA compliance service provider?
TCPA case filings by vexatious litigators and professional consumer litigants have increased hundreds of percent in the last four years. TCPA suits are the fastest growing area of call challenges, especially cells. The latest FCC ruling on June 10th, 2015 gives consumers even more rights while making the laws less clear. And the first thing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will ask for during an audit is your cell scrubbing records, followed by complete calling procedures.
Outsourcing compliance will take the heavy lifting chores off your IT officer’s plate. No more arguing with marketing saying “yes” to innovative outreach programs, and legal saying “no”. Compliance will determine what you can and cannot do, and help keep you safe. And at the end of the day, outsourcing DNC and TCPA protections is more cost-effective than doing it in-house. Especially with the higher propensity for challenges and litigations to home-grown efforts vs. the perfect track record of a top compliance service provider.
For more information on Do Not Call and TCPA Compliance issues, including Cell Scrubbing, just call me direct on my personal line at 561-317-3001 - Bob
*Company Names were changed for protection.
Related Articles:
Cell Phone Scrubbing Guide for DNC TCPA Compliance
The 7 Most Frequently Asked DNC and TCPA List Scrubbing Questions
