"Can't Find What
You're Looking For? Search this Site with..."
Google Search
|
|
"Your Resource for Call Center News...
... Tips and Tricks"
Today's Telemarketing and
Call Center Information Articles
Supreme Court Do Not Call List
Ruling A
Blessing in Disguise
Compliance technology for the ‘do not call’
registry can
lead to better customer service
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 7, -- The U.S. Supreme
Court Monday ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th
Circuit upholding the constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission's
national Do Not Call Registry, has even non-telemarketing businesses worried
about how to avoid potential problems and prosecution.
According to Eric Brackett, CEO for BTI Communications
Group, Limited, most businesses don’t realize that many states have
had consumer protection legislation in place for some time, but until
this federal ‘do not call’ legislation, most businesses weren’t
severely affected.
“Now, all businesses are affected,” says Brackett.
Without proper documentation on follow up requests, which most businesses
find difficult to maintain, that business could be held in violation of
the upheld ‘do not call’ legislation.
“With the right compliance technology, such as a compliancy-enabled
outbound progressive dialer in place, businesses can actually improve
customer relations by targeting clients that are interested in their services
or products,” says Brackett.
“Most organizations do not have a documentation process
in place that will protect them -- and they need that,” says Brackett.
“There are compliance technology options that can provide management
with improved productivity, control over the quality of follow-up, automated
call documentation through Customer Relationship Management software,
and immediate legal proof and practical compliance with the call list
legislation.”
Sea Breeze Financial Services, one of Southern California’s
largest retail-based mortgage companies implemented ‘do not call’
compliance technology in their call center in 2003. The automated dialing
system has the capability to speed up outbound calls and allow coordination
with Sea Breeze Financial’s database of clients and prospects.
“I really like the abilities of the Armstrong Dialer,”
says Calvin Powell, Vice President of Information Technology for Sea Breeze
Financial. “It ensures that all of our outbound campaigns are compliant
with the ‘do not call’ list regulations. It’s just one
headache we don’t have to worry about.”
Benefits include automatic or manual campaign importing;
automatic callback handling; ‘do not call’ list management and
campaign ‘cleaning; user-configurable call outcomes and programmable
wrap-up times which allows a supervisor to switch consultants between
campaigns without stopping the server or logging the consultant out.
Through use of modern compliance technology, businesses
can have increased efficiency and be protected from the ‘do not call’
list legislation through documentation of inbound and outbound calls.
About BTI Communications Group
BTI Communications Group Ltd., an exclusive business partner with Inter-Tel,
Inc. (NASDAQ: INTL), offers complete business communications solutions
that
generate higher profits, lower costs and increase productivity through
high
quality services and cutting-edge technology. For more information, visit
www.btigroup.com or call Speleos Dravillas on 1-800-HELP-BTI.
Telemarketers, List Brokers, and Sales Teams Adapt to
Do Not Call List, Offshore Call Centres, Outsourcing, and Voice-Over-IP
era.
Changes in the business environment and rapid technological
developments have inspired innovation and adaptation in the telemarketing,
list brokering, and sales industry. But the new landscape has proven to
be treacherous enough to put many small telemarketing and data brokers
out of business altogether, and has reinforced the existing market-driven
trend towards greater reliance on ‘offshore’ call centers.
(PRWEB) July 20, 2004 -- To trick a phrase, it turns out
that reports of the death of telemarketing at the hands of federal and
state “Do Not Call” (DNC) lists have been greatly exaggerated.
As in other highly competitive industries, changes in the business environment
and rapid technological developments have inspired innovation and adaptation.
SalesLeads.tv, a Florida based lead list broker, is one niche player in
this industry that has responded quickly to the new legal and market challenges
facing its clients and partners. The “Do Not Call list” and
“surveyed lead” solutions it is now offering its customers demonstrate
the kind of agility that has enabled some companies to ride out the turbulence
shaking up the industry.
The 2003 roll out of the National Do Not Call Registry,
overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, broadsided many telemarketing
firms, despite the great deal of public interest, controversy and lobbying
by business and consumer groups that attended its creation. The DNC list
has been extremely popular, and already the database contains the names
of over 62 million Americans. There have been numerous spectacular fines
levied against both large and small companies in several states, and the
FTC has likewise signaled its intent to prosecute violations of the Registry
system to the hilt. Fears of punishing fees and legal costs have rippled
through the telemarketing industry, even as the American Teleservices
Association and other advocacy groups have attempted, unsuccessfully thus
far, to contest the DNC legislation. According to SalesLeads.tv’s
principal John Fischer, these fears are well-founded: “If you’re
not in compliance with DNC, which means for starters having a SAN number
and working from scrubbed lists, then you are running a huge risk of being
fined into the ground, and at the very least you’re wasting your
time with deadbeat leads.”
The new landscape has proven to be treacherous enough to
put many small telemarketing and data brokers out of business altogether,
and has reinforced the existing market-driven trend towards greater reliance
on ‘offshore’ call centers. SalesLeads.tv works with many call
centers based overseas, and Fischer reports that a high percentage of
these companies initially have problems understanding and navigating the
FTC regulations: “A lot of these outfits are strong on the logistics
end of marketing and other teleservices, but they can benefit immensely
from experienced consulting and updates on the list management side.”
Another strategy that SalesLeads.tv has developed in order
to stay competitive in the current high tech market is, ironically enough,
a renewed focus on pre-qualifying leads through their “survey room”
the old fashioned way: by calling ahead and getting permission for the
first sales contact. SalesLeads.tv’s lists are generated through
data selects based on customized demographic and industry criteria, the
individual leads are then approved by a compliance officer, and finally
the prospects are called and screened. In the case of qualified investor
leads, for example, the original list is created using Dun & Bradstreet
data, the leads are reviewed for compliance, and then a consultant calls
and introduces the product and reads a 'risk disclosure' agreement.
This method is applied by SalesLeads.tv to both DNC purged
lists, and “CAN SPAM” compliant leads. The goal of course is
to “opt out” prospects before they reach the telemarketing center
or sales team, thereby eliminating a potentially costly inefficiency.
So far, the results have been promising, and Fischer sees cause for optimism:
“It was definitely hairy at the end of 2003, but we’ve managed
to recover nicely by listening to what the market and the lawyers have
been telling us, and we’ve been able to pass our knowledge along
to our clients, explain to them how the game has changed, and at the same
time prove to them that the opportunities for doing business in this field
are still tremendous.”
|
|
Telemarketing
Call Center Info.com - Call Center Info News