What You Need to Know About the National Do Not Call Registry

Before you launch a telemarketing campaign for your business, you need to build a contact list. However, you have to understand how the national do not call registry works. You also need to know how it protects the rights of consumers and the penalties involved in violating those rights.

Due to the fact that more people are becoming attracted to buying goods and services online, businesses use telemarketing to reach out to them. Although it is a suitable outreach method, it may not be easy to implement. It is quite different from when you just need to contact a list of phone numbers.

In telemarketing, the choices and rights of consumers play a huge role. Different federal and state laws have been established to protect those rights. Hence, advertisers need to understand and obey the laws to run a successful telemarketing campaign.

A vital regulatory example is that of the national do not call registry. It allows consumers to choose whether they want to continue receiving telemarketing calls. According to https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/do-not-call-registry, more than two hundred and twenty-one million phone numbers are already on the registry.

What Is the National Do Not Call Registry?

The national do not call registry is a database kept by the US federal government. It contains a list of telephone numbers of families and individuals who do not want to be contacted by telemarketers.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established the registry in 2003. Its importance is to provide telemarketers with a list of consumers who do not want to be contacted or wish to receive a limited number of telemarketing calls.

Furthermore, the creation of the registry was due to the establishment of the Telemarketing Safety Rule (TSR). The requirements of the rule are as follows:

1. The need for telemarketers to make specific disclosures of material information
2. Prohibition of misrepresentation
3. Limitation on the time to call customers
4. Prohibition of calls to customers who have requested not be called again
5. Restriction of payment for the sale of some services and products

Other laws work together with the Telemarketing Safety Rule (TSR) such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

How Can You Check the Do Not Call List?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a record of all numbers on the do not call registry. Before any telemarketing call is made, you need to subscribe to the national registry, pay the required fees, and then scrub your contacts against those on the list.

This implies that your sales personnel will have to check each phone number in the registry before making sales calls. Now, that will not only be inconvenient, but time-consuming and resource-intensive. It is, therefore, better to use do not call list lookup services to run a check on the phone numbers of your prospective and existing customers. Furthermore, relying on do not call list lookup services can significantly streamline your sales process by ensuring compliance with regulations and avoiding potential penalties, especially considering the most searched phone numbers in the US are constantly evolving.

Getting a quality service will help to delete those contacts that have opted out of getting phone calls. A lookup service is constantly checking the registry to ensure that it has updated information. So, you can trust the information that it provides.

How to Ensure Compliance with the National Do Not Call Registry Requirements

If an individual registers their contact on the registry, it does not imply that they will no longer receive calls from telemarketers. Consumers can consent to some organizations they wish to receive communication from. So, to ensure that you are complying with the requirement of the registry, you need to get expressed consent from your customers.

Telemarketers can contact customers who:

1. Write an agreement to receive calls from the seller
2. Give this consent via a conspicuous request
3. Provide the phone number through which they can be reached as part of the agreement

You may want to read more about the national do not call registry here.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how your business can run a safe telemarketing campaign, following the requirement of the national do not call registry. However, to make the process an easy one for your team, you need a lookup service. Ensure you discuss with one before carrying out your next campaign.