The FTC and CFPB use complaints as guides for their next Telephone Consumer Protection Act victims. An easy way to cut down on unhappy prospects? - Start listening to people and honoring their requests. Particularly requests not to be called.
“Would you have some time to talk about our services for your business?”
“I’m under mandatory evacuation for a hurricane, and I have to get out of here now!”
“So let me tell you about our services,” - Doesn't make it.
The 3 Biggest Causes of Call Complaints (Video)
Thanks for reporting a problem. We'll attach technical data about this session to help us figure out the issue. Which of these best describes the problem?
Any other details or context?
Recently I requested to be put on a B2B company's internal DNC list four times. Didn’t make any difference. They acted shocked I had the gall to speak up. I threatened to alert the FTC and CFPB as well as the State AG if they didn’t stop.
B2B Marketers tend to ignore company compliance requests. Or worse, abruptly hang up, thinking they're exempt from everything. Would you turn and walk away from a customer in a face to face selling situation without notice? Of course not.
Make sure your associates are familiar with the policies and procedures for customer complaints.
Many a heated customer argument gets buried by frustrated associates. Afraid to look bad. Scared to try and solve the problem. If they just don't talk about it - the conversation never happened, right? So have a path to resolve these issues. Quickly and efficiently.
Make sure associates can add requests to your company specific internal do not call list. If you don’t know what that is, call me immediately at 561-317-3001 by the way.
Your sales people know how to act when leads do buy. But what about when they don’t.
Don't make your prospect the enemy just because they didn't participate today. That’s the most important time to be extra nice. To help with whatever you can before signing off. Leave them loving you. Make it so they just can’t stand all your heartfelt help, and have to call you back!
And most importantly – so they won’t file a complaint!!!
Instruct your associates when to stop broadcasting their pitch and listen to the customer.
Did your prospect try to interrupt you? Did you ignore them? People want to be heard. Ask questions to force prospect engagement. That’s why we’re starting to get complaints from Avatars now - Because you can’t stop the darn things once they’re off and running on a presentation. (Avatar’s use of prerecorded sentence snippets are activated by a sales associate, generally offshore.)
B2B's: You’re not exempt from the TCPA anymore. So start acting like it.
After October 16'th 2013, it no longer matters if a cell phone is a consumer or business line. B2B calls using any kind of auto-assistance to cells are no longer exempt from the TCPA. Worse, call lists are now littered with problematic wireless phone numbers from LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook previously unavailable from data companies.
And stop soliciting the TCPA Pro Consumers and Prosecutors.
It's easy to get rid of these guys. The people that are going to sue you no matter what you do! A sloppy area for B2B’s. They were exempt from compliance for so long - If a call recipient seemed semi-knowledgeable about the TCPA and threatened to retaliate, B2B’s loved setting them straight. “You don’t understand. I’m business to business. I’m just loaning money. Plus I’m exempt from all those call laws. That’s why they call it the Telephone Consumer Protection Act."
Getting it together: Listen to your General Council when he or she says you need to scrub cells, sign up for the National DNC Registry and not call former TCPA Litigators. Because once you get caught in a cookie cutter lawsuit, it's too late. You'll need to defend it, win or lose. You'll still spend $50,000 on court fees either way.
It starts with the simple things. Like not torturing the companies you're calling.
Sooner or later, sloppy compliance initiatives will catch up with you.
B2B call compliance is incredibly easy today. Without much number fallout. Just call me to catch up on my personal line at 561-317-3001 or email me here - Bob
The B2B Compliance Secret: Hire the biggest baddest Do Not Call TCPA Compliance Partner you can find. A TCPA Service Provider with a perfect track record. A company the FTC, FCC, CFPB and Predatory Attorneys know - Because we want pre-litigation and call prohibition claimants to walk away. We don't want to engage with them. Why?Because we don't know exactly what TCPA Judges are going to do today!
