Telemarketing Resource Center

Teleservices Fact Sheet

A NATIONAL DO-NOT-CALL LIST HAS EXISTED SINCE 1985 - Because The DMA supports a consumer's right to choose by which channel he or she would prefer to shop, the Association has maintained a national Telephone Preference Service (TPS) since 1985.

• Consumers can choose to add their phone numbers to a national do-not-call list for free by sending a signed letter or postcard with their name, address and phone number to The DMA at:

  DMA Telephone Preference Service
  PO Box 1559
  Carmel, NY 10512

• Consumers also can register with the TPS by clicking to www.dmaconsumers.org.
  • This site also provides existing consumer protection information on Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Telephone Sales Rule (TSR) Consumers can expect to see a decrease in telephone marketing within 60 to 90 days.
• The DMA estimates that registering with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) list eliminates approximately 80 percent of national telephone marketing calls.
• Telephone numbers are maintained on TPS for five years.
• To date, approximately 4.5 million individuals are registered with TPS.
• All of the 4,700 DMA member companies that market with U.S. consumers are required to "scrub" their consumer telephone marketing lists against the TPS file to ensure that they respect consumers'
• TPS is also available to and used by non-DMA member firms - sometimes directly, most often through service bureaus that use TPS - thereby further extending the reach of TPS.

NOT APPROPRIATE TO SPEND FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS - The private sector has been running a national list and will continue to do so.

• The DMA continues to support a national do-not-call registry operated by the private sector.
• Marketers do not want to spend time and money marketing to consumers who prefer not to shop by phone.
  • This saves time and money and maintains goodwill for marketers who offer other shopping channels, e.g., traditional retail, catalog, Web sites, etc.

PEOPLE ARE BUYING - Sales made via telephone topped a whopping $660 billion in 2001.

• This is almost six percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• In 2001, nearly 185 million consumers spent nearly $270 billion on purchases that originated with calls from marketers. That is a record.
• Telephone marketing is the number-one direct marketing sales medium, followed by direct mail, newspapers, television, magazines and the Web. .
• Consumers are increasingly relying on telephone sales calls for a variety of purchases that often depend on 1:1 conversation with the marketer.
  • For example, long-distance telecommunications, credit cards, insurance and other financial services, and magazine and newspaper subscriptions are popular products that frequently are marketed to consumers by telephone.
  • Some of these industries are experiencing deregulation. In these markets, the one-to-one consumer education that comes from telemarketing is vital to competition (i.e., consumers getting the best deals).

BUSINESS IS BUYING - Telephone marketing is a hidden power in the business-to-business marketplace as well.

• Businesses rely on telephone marketing to both sell and purchase products and services.
• In 2001, according to a DMA-commissioned study conducted by The WEFA Group, telephone marketing generated $390 billion in sales to businesses.

JOBS ARE AT STAKE - The teleservices industry is a significant source of jobs.

• In 2001, nearly six million people were employed in jobs relating to telephone marketing.
• Since call centers can be located anywhere in the country with an available labor pool, teleservices has helped boost employment in many rural and low-income areas. In the most recent study, 25 percent of all call centers were located in rural towns and small cities - and 46 percent in large cities.
• Because of their flexible schedules, many teleservices jobs are held by students, minorities, working mothers, people with disabilities and part-time workers. Reduction or elimination of these positions creates a disproportionate hardship for these populations.

CONSUMERS ARE ALREADY PROTECTED WHEN SHOPPING BY TELEPHONE.

• National marketers - commercial and nonprofit - maintain their own in-house do-not-call service for their customers. By law, all commercial marketers must respond to a consumer's request not to be called again at home. Marketers must honor a consumer's request for up to 10 years' time. (FCC's Telephone Consumer Protection Act.)
• The DMA has ethical guidelines for marketers that seek to protect consumers from random or sequentially dialed calls, and to ensure marketers handle consumer information in a manner that earns consumer trust.
• The Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which is enforced by the FTC, requires commercial telemarketers to:
  • Identify the call as a sales call.
  • Provide the identity of the seller.
  • Provide the identity of the nature of the goods being sold.
  • If a prize promotion is involved, a caller must note that no purchase or payment is necessary to win.
  • Nonprofit groups and lawmakers are exempt from the TSR, but by virtue of their membership in The DMA's Nonprofit Federation, most national charities follow this guidance.
• The DMA supports the vigorous enforcement of existing laws governing teleservices, especially these aimed at reducing fraud.

PREDICTIVE DIALERS DRAMATICALLY INCREASES CALL CENTER EFFICIENCY:

• Predictive dialers allow outbound call centers to adjust the number of calls dialed so that the number of answered or "connected" calls closely approximates the number of agents available.
• However, sometimes overdialing does occur and a person will answer the phone but no agent will be available. This 'dead air' phenomenon is undesirable and needs - and is receiving - significant industry attention.
• Predictive dialing improves the efficiency of telemarketing centers. Before the predictive dialer, the time an agent spent actually talking to customers typically ranged from an average of 15 to 20 minutes per hour. Predictive dialers have increased this time to as much as 45 to 55 minutes per hour.

A BAN ON PREDICTIVE DIALERS WOULD MAKE MANY TELEMARKETING CAMPAIGNS INFEASIBLE AND JOBS WOULD BE LOST:

• Predictive dialing systems are used in a majority of outbound telemarketing centers in the United States and Canada for sales, debt collection, political and charitable fund raising or market research. They are credited with dramatically increasing the productivity of these call centers.
• In January 1999, The DMA approved guidelines for both manufacturers and users of predictive dialing equipment, The DMA Guidelines for Predictive Auto Dialing Equipment. Key provisions of the guidelines include:
  • Keeping abandoned calls as close to zero as possible. In no case should they exceed five percent of answered calls per day in any teleservice campaign.
  • Abandoning the call and releasing the line after not more than two seconds if a live operator is unavailable to take a call generated by the dialer.
  • Not abandoning the same telephone number more than twice within a 48-hour period and not more than twice during a 30-day period of a campaign.
  • Not knowingly calling anyone with an unlisted or unpublished telephone number (unless calling an existing customer)
  • Using The DMA's Telephone Preference Service name-removal list.
• The DMA's Teleservices Ethics Operating Committee enforces compliance with The DMA Guidelines for Predictive Auto Dialing Equipment.

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