You must be registered with the National Do Not Call Registry (www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov) before making any solicitation calls in the United States to any consumer or “residence” pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 or you will be violating national do not call law and could possibly face hefty federal fines. In other words, if you desire to solicit or sell any product or service to a consumer via the telephone, you must carefully and consistently follow Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).

If you are planning to sell or attempt to sell any type of product or service at any point to the consumer, even if you are not asking for the consumer to “sign on the dotted line” during the initial call, then yes, it is a sales call. If you plan on selling your product or service to the consumer at any point or time during or after your call to them, then yes, it is still considered a sales call.

Per the Federal Trade Commission, there are exemptions to this rule however for the following organization types:

• calls from organizations with which you have an established business relationship;
• calls for which you have given prior written permission;
• calls which are not commercial or do not include unsolicited advertisements;
• calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations.

So unless you currently do business or have done business with the consumer within the past 18 months, have received written permission from the consumer, are calling a business or are calling from or on behalf of a tax-exempt organization like a charity, you must “scrub”, filter your lead list against the National Do Not Call Registry before picking up the phone to make any calls; and must only call those leads that are not on the National Do Not Call List or you are breaking the law.

Also, if a customer has asked to be placed on your “company specific” or “Internal Do Not Call List” then again, you are not allowed to call them ever; unless they have written to you and asked that their phone number be removed from your company’s “internal Do Not Call List”.

Although it can be a little overwhelming and in some cases a little costly, in the end, it is must more cost effective to just follow the National Do Not Call Law.

Sources:

FTC.gov. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/

Federal Trade Commission. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt129.shtm

And if that’s not confusing enough, depending on the type of equipment you are using to make your calls, the federal government may require you to perform do not call scrub operations to compare your call lists against additional databases. Between the state do not call lists, the national do not call list, the unique registration processes and requirements for each, and the required regular updates and maintenance you’re expected to uphold, it’s easy to become frustrated to the point of tears.

Fortunately, our total do not call compliance solution goes well beyond simple do not call software and do not call scrubbing. We offer total state and national do not call rules management, established business relationship management, Do Not Call Policy creation, Company Do Not Call List Management, Cell Phone Scrub capability and a stellar do not call compliance training and education. With our do not call scrubbing and total management services we will ensure that your company will become and remain compliant and that it is tucked firmly under the Federal Trade Commission’s TCPA Safe Harbor Protection Act. This will shield your company from the thousands of dollars of potential liability in the case of a do not call violation.

Ensuring do not call compliance best practices as they relate to your outbound calling campaign and similar arenas actually can be quite simple with the right call compliance management company by your side. It can also be quite affordable to achieve and maintain do not call compliance with the efficient and secure list scrubbing and compliance management services that we offer. Our easy-to-use do call list scrubbing system takes the headache out of call compliance and maintaining a do not call compliance.