The Dos and Don’ts of Telemarketing

Telemarketing can be an effective way of selling alarm services to new customers and marketing new or additional services to existing subscribers.

BUT – there are rules and regulations that restrict who you can call and how you can call them. In fact, both federal law and state laws restrict telemarketing and impose heavy fines for each and every call found in violation of those laws. Depending on the number of calls, that could be hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars in fines or damages in a lawsuit (telemarketing lawsuits are one of the most frequent consumer suits too).

The rules can be confusing and it’s easy to make a costly mistake. To help you take advantage of telemarketing safely and effectively, we’ve put together this series of blog posts on The Dos and Don’ts of Telemarketing.

In this first of three blogs, we address the basic question, “What is telemarketing?” and give you some of the basic rules.

Basically, any phone call to a residential landline or mobile phone during which the caller markets or tries to sell a product or service is telemarketing. A call counts as telemarketing even if its main purpose is customer service, informational or even collections. Text messages count as calls for telemarketing purposes too!

Some dealers use people to make the calls, while others use automated telephone dialing systems (autodialers), artificial voice and pre-recorded messages, or both. And some businesses use their own employees, while others hire telemarketing companies.  Any way you telemarket, you still have to follow the rules – and anyone who works for you does too, since you will be held responsible for their actions.

Who, What, When, and How

Under a federal law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) makes rules for telemarketing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also has rules governing telemarketing – called the Telemarketing Sales Rule or TSR. While they are basically the same, the FCC’s rules cover anyone making telemarketing calls, while the FTC’s rules have some exclusions, including telemarketing within the same state.

Callers making telephone solicitations must provide their name, the name of the company they’re calling for, and a telephone number or address that the company can be reached at. Calls can only be made after 8 a.m. or before 9 p.m. Telemarketers must comply with any “do not call” request the recipient makes, and “robocalls” – calls using an automated voice or pre-recorded message – must include an automated, interactive way for the recipient to immediately tell the telemarketer to stop calling. This opt-out mechanism must automatically add the consumer’s number to the seller’s do-not-call list (more on those below) and immediately disconnect the call. Prerecorded messages left on voicemail must include a toll-free number that the consumer can use to connect directly to an automated opt-out mechanism (no sales pitches first!). Recently, the FCC also changed the rules about the number of abandoned or “dead air” calls  (autodialed telemarketing calls that are not connected to a live representative within two seconds after being answered by a live person) you can have. The new rule allows no more than 3 percent over a 30-day period per telemarketing campaign (the old rule was no more than 3 percent of all telemarketing calls over a 30-day period).

Want to know more about the Dos and Don’ts of Telemarketing? In our second blog post in the series, we’ll help you comply with federal and state Do-Not-Call laws. In the meantime, both the FCC and the FTC have resources to help businesses telemarket.