Hi just opened a call center for outbound only sales.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the legalities of just picking a mobile number and then dialing 10,0000 numbers off it hoping for an answer to try and sell too ?

Are the any legal reasons this would not be ok - any adivce about other pitfalls legally with doing this kind of thing or outboud sales in general?

Its only mobiles

James,

So you are just picking a random mobile number, then dialling a select number of mobile numbers that slightly differ from the original one chosen?

However you do it, you will need to check any nubmers you dial to make sure they are not registered on the telephone preference service. It is illegal to make any unsolicited sales or marketing calls to numbers registered on the list.

Go here for more details: http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

Obviously, this applies if you are in the UK. If you are anywhere else, then I am unable to help :)

You should also comply with the European Directive on Distance Selling.

...I don't think that random or sequential dialling is legal.

In my opinion, it's a very messy way to do things anyway. Do you not think you'd have more success if you purchased carefully targetted lists and therefore made the minimum number of calls possible?

Regards,
Darryl

>>>>Its only mobiles
Mobiles are notoriously more complex and dangerous to call than landlines.

Firstly there is caller ID
Secondly there is always voicemail
Thirdly there is the safety issue. Any responsible company will always check that the respondee is safe to answer the call and not driving or in any other hazardous situation with the potential to endanger themselves or others. Failing to do that may make you liable should any injuries or negligence occur.
Fourthly the personal nature of mobiles means as unwanted callers you are subject to much more abuse and disregard, given the much higher propensity for disturbing the mobile owner when he/she is in the middle of something else.


Given all of this 10,0000 calls (sic) is likely to triple or quadruple. This brings in the need for a predictive dialler.

In the US the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 prohibits the use of random or sequential dialling. Its also banned in Canada. In the UK the DMA code of practice also bans them.

I'm with Darryl there are far more efficient and productive ways to do this.

frankly, I'm amazed that you would have set up an operation without checking in to this kind of stuff!

If the calling you are doing is inhouse, how does random calling fit your market, your objectives etc

And if you are hoping to attract outsource work, good luck securing clients with this approach and business plan!

Zoe

I would think this falls under number scanning, something that is frowned upon by regulators. Whether it is law or not I am not totally sure, however if it isn't defined in law now, I would suspect regulation to cover this very shortly. I understand complaints have been made to legislators surrounding the increase of split second calls made to mobiles through the evening.

I think this is a short term gain, long term this type of calling will fuel TPS registrations and therefore decrease the size of the market you can legitamately contact.

Thanks for the help - i think you would be surprised at the number of people doing this.

With regard to targer market etc - yes databases would be better but its a temporary idea hence the questions about legality.

TPS was a good point - have that being sorted seems very straightforward.

What is a predictive dialer and where do i get one ?

Was not unwlecoming Zoe this information is usefull to me however we havent started calling yet this was just some advice from other people within this sector that are doing outbout sales. I am more concerned with running it legally etc

I should imagine that there will be some kind a legal implications in the near future . . . .

Yeah in reply ZOE only a moron would think he would secure outsourced work doing this - this is inhouse and just an extension to how we sell out product normally

Its always interesting to look at all avenues . .

MIke I find it surprising that you could be liable for calling someone while they were driving are there any real world examples where someone in the uk has been brought up for doing this ?

You may find the link on this thread useful for info about diallers:

THREAD LINK

Basically you programme it with your numbers, and it calls them in batches predicting how many people it will get through to and checking how many agents availble to connect an answered call through to.

Z

I wouldn't be surprised by the amount of people operating this way. Being involved in the sale of this type of technology raises this question commonly, especially in the mobile phone upgrade arena. I am surprised at the lack of foresight (not in your case) in taking this approach. One bad experience for a consumer can convince them to register with TPS meaning that no-one can contact them in the future as TPS is currently a service which registers you for life.

If you weren't going to use a predictive dialler to manage this campaign how would this have been performed, manually ?

Managed through a very simple piece of software the picks the next number in a list and then allows the operator to dial it. If there is no answer they choose this from a list of options and move on if not they go through a sales pitch and hopefully create a sale . .

Would you recommend the predicitive dialer as being a better method - what are the main advantages there.

We use an Avaya ip office system for the phones - i would love to konw if anyone is aware of way to integrate it with a JAVA application (JTAPI driver some kind of Avaua API) so far I have had no joy in my searchs for finding an API.

Thanks again everyone really helpfull.

Predictive Diallers are designed for this type of application.
Diallers provide benefit by automating the outbound calling process to achieve maximum talk time whilst also improving call quality through scripting and quality management tools where appropriate.

Generally diallers make calls and filter un-productive contacts (answering machines, busy lines, wrong numbers etc) and disposition them accordingly. Once dispositioned, these contacts are rescheduled to the most appropriate time* or removed.
* eg You would reschedule an answering machine response for a time of day that would increase the chance of a connect next time. Busy responses would probably be scheduled for 5 mins as you know the person is potentially available. Wrong numbers would be flagged as bad and disposed of.

They dial queried data and predict how many calls the system should generate based on when the agent will be available. Complex algorithms look at historical information to decide when to launch calls and how many to launch to maximise productivity. A very simple example would be if 50% of calls successfully connect to a prospect then you would place two calls per agent at the appropriate time to ensure when the agent comes off the phone the connection is made to the next prospect.

Typical claims from companies like ours who can provide dialler solutions would typically state the average talk time per agent in a manual environment of 15 to 20 minutes per hour. Predictive diallers usually double this at the very least.

Even the best diallers can only operate optimally when using good data, that said some companies depend on diallers because their data is so bad that the telesales function is not viable without one.

It is important to state that there is regulation surrounding the use of this technology. To get an idea of the regulation see Darryl’s suggestions in his ‘voluntary code of practice’.

Avaya do provide a software development kit, I do not know whether you could achieve the JTAPI functionality you mention. Diallers can also hook up to IP Office systems where applicable, though sometimes the sheer throughput of calls can become a problem.

>>>MIke I find it surprising that you could be liable for calling someone while they were driving are there any real world examples where someone in the uk has been brought up for doing this ?>>>

Not yet, the legislation for using your mobile phone whilst is very new.
There is of course the resulting bad publicity if an agent wrong or fail to make the right judgement.

Still think this campaign has all the subtlety of a bloke on a night out approaching every lass asking if she fancies a sh*g on the off chance one will.....

However those of you familiar with the Bigg Market and South Parade may not actually see this as a barrier ; )

Z

(Still think this campaign has all the subtlety of a bloke on a night out approaching every lass asking if she fancies a sh*g on the off chance one will.....)

I like it, excellent analogy :-)

Ps, the wedding went very well and I am currently trying to sort out a viewable format for a few pictures.

Jason

This is a common application for which we have a practical and technical solution. We might be able to offer some ethical advice. Please contact us if we can help.

Since when was being subtle a prerequisite of going out on the beer in the Bigg Market Zoe :o)

I agree with the analogy though. There is also the risk that Ofcom will class this as number scanning, something they are looking closely at as they believe it is a causal factor in silent calling.