Hi,

We have an issue with sending our text to voice SMS.

The issue has arisen due to the recent OFCOM regulations on silent calls.

We are of course re-aligning the business to meet the new regulations on leaving CLI, 3% dropped calls etc.

The issue has arisen because we are currently sending out x amount of SMS per day to both mobile and landlines. The problem has been identified because we think this may be construed as breaking OFCOM regulations (possibly section 5.5?). It's basically saying you can't connect a call to a customer without having a live operator there. Now currently we are sending 1000 sms a day through our SMS provider, via the BT messaging sms service.

The message left is personal to the customer, and is a non-marketing call (collections): "Can Mr J Bloggs please call Collections Company on 0870100000 quoting reference ZZ.0010 regarding an urgent business matter".

We will soon be using our dialler provider for our text to voice, so these messages will in effect be left directly by ourselves. I've been in discussions with the general manager regarding this grey area and he is very keen to obtain some clarification because the last thing we want is bad press.

Now is this contravening the regulation because we have connected a call to a customer that is not a live operator? Is there anything else we need to be aware of with our set-up?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

Steve,

Just so I've got this straight:

You're sending SMS's to your customers via the BT service?

Therefore, you're sending a text message, and BT are in turn rining the customer and playing them the message with voice synthesys?

Yes,

At present thats whats happening - it's an initiative with the purpose to generate additional inbound calls.

Although its only being trialled at present.

I'll have a think and get back to you.

Relating to the above question, we are more geared towards finding out if "Text 2 Speech" is completely legal, or a grey area. By Text-2-Speech I am (now) referring to an option that our dialler provider has offered us. They say that they have bolt-on that rather than having an agent leaving a voice message on an answer machine, a simulated voice can leave the message using mail-merge type methods so the message is specific to that customer. They claim that it has 97% accuracy, which is more than a live agent. Obviously this option appeals to us as it would take a huge amount of the mundane work away from our agents, generate more inbound calls (most are currently recycled rather than the agents leaving a message) and improve relations with the customers (by getting their name right!).

Like I said at the start of this reply, we are not sure where we stand - can anyone shed any light? Can a robot leave an answering machine message? Our dialler provider has said that there are a few companies already using this with a high success.

Or if anybody is using this or a similar feature I would really appreciate your comments.

Many thanks,
Steve

I know that another company who do debt collection use a dialer and automate a standard message. This I understand is perfectly legal as long as you dont break the DPA.

I dont understand why you would need to tweek the system to the point of personalising it!

Surely a standard message would suffice.

Jason

Hi,

Can I just ask what type of dialler you use, we have implamented a very similair solution to what you are looking for.

So I may be able to answer any questions you have.

Regards

John

Hi John,

We are operating an Amcat dialler at present. Are you using this yourself?


Steve