7 Leading Developers of Contact Center Solutions Weigh-In on Issues Raised By the Revised FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule

Seven of the most influential developers of contact center solutions that incorporate outbound calling technologies joined in an online debate recently to discuss what they believed were the biggest challenges faced by telemarketers resulting from the revised Federal Trade Commissions Sales Rule.

PARK RIDGE, NJ (PRWEB) June 7, 2003 - Seven of the most influential developers of contact center solutions that incorporate outbound calling technologies joined in an online debate recently to discuss what they believed were the biggest challenges faced by telemarketers resulting from the revised Federal Trade Commissions Sales Rule.

Participating in the debate - hosted by CRMXchange, a leading web-site focused on the information needs of the CRM and contact center industry - were Amcat, Calltrol Corporation, Concerto Software, Inc., Digisoft Computers, Inc., SER Solutions, Inc., Stratasoft, Inc., and TeleDirect International, Inc.

The vendors were joined by William M. Heberer, partner in the law firm of Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein & Wood LLP and legal columnist for CRMXchange.

During the one-hour live session, attended by more than 200 industry executives, the developers addressed a wide range of issues surrounding the overall fairness and impact of the amended rule, including the Do-Not-Call list, First Amendment rights, and the cost to upgrade systems to meet the new regulations.

The provision that ultimately may prove most burdensome is the prohibition on abandoned calls - the safe harbor calling for a 3% abandonment rate - and the playing of a recorded message whenever an operator is unavailable within two seconds, attorney William Herberer said. He added that many of his clients have indicated that compliance with this provision would be the most difficult aspect of the new rule."

Dean Brown, vice president of sales and marketing at TeleDirect, saw the rule as failing to eliminate the most unwanted calls as a key issue. He said that the Do-Not-Call registry would not stop the most annoying calls that consumers have voiced concern over, such as those from political campaigns, charities, and long-distance providers. Therefore, the most bothersome calls are still going to take place," he added.

Initial FTC estimates associated with implementing and maintaining a Do-Not-Call program have escalated from $3M to nearly $18M, leaving industry leaders holding the bag, said Mark Kelly, account executive-compliance officer at Stratasoft. The government, and those chosen to maintain these massive lists, should absorb this enormous excess in cost, he added.

Robert Garber, executive vice president of Digisoft, focused on the difficulty in complying with multiple sets of regulations. The federal government needs to preempt state regulations into one set of regulations to which the industry can reasonably comply without unnecessary expense," he said.

Stressing what he believed was a positive aspect of the new regulations, David Friedman, vice president of marketing and sales at Calltrol, noted that the national Do-Not-Call list would, in fact, increase the quality of the prospects and eliminate the toll charges to those who were unlikely to buy.

Dudley Larus, vice president marketing of Amcat, questioned what role the FTC will play in removing numbers from Do-Not-Call lists once they are no longer assigned to an individual, and recycling good numbers when someone moves and is no longer using that number. Will companies have to pay a fee via Do-Not-Call cleansing companies to make sure that they do not call certain numbers on the list as well as recycle good numbers so that they can be used again?"

The most challenging aspect of the rule is the timeframe, Lynne Levy, senior product manager at Concerto said. The legislation, she said, requires a contact center to change many of their processes as well as potentially change technology as well. This takes time, and having a revised law with a minimal deployment timeframe could potentially hurt the overall industry since contact centers may not be able to change these items as quickly as needed."

Steve Chase, product manager at SER, said that the FTCs recent mandates - specifically related to transmission of caller ID, abandon call restrictions, and a national Do-Not-Call registry - could have a significant negative impact on responsible teleservice businesses and greatly exceed any positive impact.
In addition," he said, we feel there could be far-reaching, unintended economic consequences to the overall national economy."

A complete transcript of the debate is available on the CRMXchange web site at www.crmxchange.com. As a service to the CRM-contact center industry, CRMXchange is making the full transcript of the debate available to Timothy J. Muris, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.

About CRMXchange
Founded in 1995,http://www.crmxchange.com CRMXchange offers a wide variety of resources for the CRM professional including access to information on products and services; white papers and case studies; job postings; an on-line meeting place for suppliers and potential distributors; and a section for companies interested in mergers and acquisitions. The web site sponsors multi-vendor Great Debates" as well as regular on-line sessions hosted by individual vendors.