Bob's Do-Not-Call Protection Blog

While the federal government prohibits making cell phone calls using automatic dialers, five states do not allow telemarketing calls to cell phone numbers at all - even with manual dialing. And this list of mobile no call states will probably expand as more and more consumers express annoyance with receiving marketing calls on their cell phones.

As an independent agent calling consumers and/or businesses, your challenge is how to identify and avoid calling cell phone numbers in these states. After all, they might not be on any Do Not Call list at all.

The worst nightmare a Call Center Manager has is of a rogue or runaway cold calling associate—a bit short, a bit curt, a bit out of line when calling consumers. Fed-up with rejection all day long. Gone to the rest room to never return. Can’t remember when the last time a consumer actually told them the truth!

As you may know, the Healthcare Financial Management Association and ACA International have released new medical collection guidelines to their members. This has spurred a myriad of credit bureaus, consumer protection agencies, healthcare organizations and others to try to cooperate with each other, build relationships and protect their bottom lines. Their ultimate goal, of course, is to contact consumers with medical debt without causing problems with HIPAA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

You’re real excited to bring this new business to your call center. But the whole Do-Not-Call TCPA regulations liability exposure thing is new to you. You’re selling Energy, or Satellite TV, or Granite & Glass table tops and you need to contact consumers. But this company, on whose behalf you’ll be calling, wants you to somehow certify you have complied with the DNC & TCPA Laws - without cell scrubbing, or a subscription authorization number, or express written consents to help protect you from compliance statutes.

You’re right to be concerned. There is generally a good (and expensive) reason companies will insist an outsourced vendor, marketer, or fulfillment house handle the Do Not Call Law registrations and compliance chores for them.

Call Centers everywhere are trying to keep up with the Do Not Call and TCPA Laws. And yet we keep hearing about more fines, more precedent setting class actions, more CFPB record setting audits for financial institutions, and now debt collectors. How often does a phone jockey need to go over this stuff anyway? Here are some hints you may have chinks in the armor that could come back to haunt you - and what to do about it.

Some call centers have quality assurance and performance metrics down - to the point where they never get complaints. It could be worth thousands of dollars to professional telemarketers, debt collectors and sales pros to find out why. It could even keep you from going out of business today. What secrets do these phone jockey Gods know that we don't? We think it's worth a look.

As an individual agent needing to call consumers, whether you’re in real estate, financial services, insurance or other professional endeavor, you'll need to identify or "scrub" numbers on Do Not Call Federal and State lists. You’re not alone in wondering, “How do I protect myself against these call laws easily and safely―and what if a consumer complains? And are there different rules for calling cell phones?”

You may have read about the recent Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling highlighting that calls made to a residential line using an autodialer can violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) if the residential line service charges for incoming calls. The calls to that number were made using an automated telephone dialing system (ATDS), a violation of the FCC's TCPA Compliance Laws. As you know, the statute prohibits “Making any call….using any ATDS or artificial or prerecorded voice… to any service for which the called party is charged for the call.”

Because the VoIP service charged for the calls, the TCPA definition was met, and a violations penalty of the act was triggered. Up to this point, statute violations have only been set off by cell phone calling procedures. What to do? -

Dialers, hosted dialers, and fulfillment houses have come a long way since the early days of Do-Not-Call Compliance. Rarely do you hear anymore, “Compliance? We’ve never had a problem before. Don’t worry about it. It’s a free Country, call where you want!” – like in the early days.

Still, dialer DNC / TCPA solutions vary wildly. From completely home grown internal solutions– to certified integration with a top DNC Compliance service provider.

Terrified to call cell phones? You’re not alone. Lots of companies have just stopped altogether. Scared to death of going out of business from fines. And rightfully so. But now there’s a way to safely voice broadcast. Most companies don’t know about it. That’s a good thing. Because if everyone used it, it might not be so wildly productive. It's called Ringless Voicemail.