Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule

On January 29, 2003, The Federal Trade Commission published the final amended Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) in the Federal Register. This rule became effective on March 31, 2003 and has important implications for users of predictive dialers, telemarketing software, and telemarketing/call center operations. DialResults is ready to help you meet these new regulations today.

What is the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR)?
The original TSR was the outgrowth of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 1994 that went into effect on December 31, 1995. The law required the rule to be reviewed after 5 years. While that law was being reviewed, the USA Patriot Act of 2001 was passed. This has had a significant impact on the call center operations and regulations.

The parts of the amended TSR that impact users of predictive dialers, telemarketing software and call center services are:

Call Abandonment - A "safe harbor" standard has been set stating that no one will be charged under this regulation if they can document that three conditions are met:

1. Dropped Calls - No more than 3% of the calls can be abandoned. (Measured per day and per campaign)

2. Ring Time - Calls must be allowed to ring four times (or 15 seconds) before they can be dropped as no answer.

3. Marketer Connect Time - If a call is answered, an agent must be available within two seconds after the receiver of the call finishes his greeting or a recorded message must be left giving the caller's name and phone number.

CAN YOU AFFORD TO BE NON-COMPLIANT
Failure to be non-compliant can lead to fines of up to $11,000 per incident per day.