I was under the impression that when you telemarketed to a residence you had to let the phone ring for a certain amount of time before you hung up... equivalent to about 5 rings. If you are using a 3 line dialer, such as mojo, and 1 person answers the other 2 lines are dropped. Even if nobody has answered on the other 2 yet aren't you still in violation because they didn't ring for the required amount of time? Or am I completely clueless here?
What you're talking about is a drop rate. A rate of 3% is the max, meaning that if 100 people pick up the phone, 97 of them have to be answered within 2 seconds or it's a violation. The phones are supposed to ring for at least ~18 seconds. Yes, that means that if one person is dialing on 3 lines they are probably having a drop rate way over the allowed 3%, probably closer to 25%+. In order to be truly effective a campaign should have at least 7 telemarketers to take advantage of the predictive model.
It is virtually impossible to use a multi-line dialer as a single individual and keep in full compliance. For a true predictive dialer (which mojo is not, its a power dialer), you probably need at least 5 agents taking calls, maybe more, to even come close.
That said, I doubt its enforced on small guys much, as long as they are compliant with the do not call registry. I don't recommend ignoring it, just have never heard of a case involving a single person and drop rate or ring time prosecution. It may happen a lot.....
So....do you guys that use mojo just not get caught, or is there somthing I'm missing that keeps you on the right side ofhehe law.
No your not missing a thing! The agents practicing this abusive activity of the public dont give a damn about breaking laws or hanging up on people or anything else. Lets all face it that a high percentage of our fellow insurance agents are creepy people and there is just no sugar coating it. This story gets even worse further down the road as inevitably the public and the FCC and the dept of insurance will finally get so fed up with this BS that they ban those auto dialers altogether which still will not stop these low lifes and then finally massive telemarketing restrictions will be placed on us all. The "do not call list" and many telemarketing rules that came out in the last 5 to 10 years were brought on by a hand full of big telemarketing companies who were beating the public like dogs 16 hours a day 6 days a week with non stop calls from those auto dialers. But yeah, these dumb self centered S.O.B.s and their auto dialers are going to kill the golden goose(telemarketing) for all of us.
No your not missing a thing! The agents practicing this abusive activity of the public dont give a damn about breaking laws or hanging up on people or anything else. Lets all face it that a high percentage of our fellow insurance agents are creepy people and there is just no sugar coating it. This story gets even worse further down the road as inevitably the public and the FCC and the dept of insurance will finally get so fed up with this BS that they ban those auto dialers altogether which still will not stop these low lifes and then finally massive telemarketing restrictions will be placed on us all. The "do not call list" and many telemarketing rules that came out in the last 5 to 10 years were brought on by a hand full of big telemarketing companies who were beating the public like dogs 16 hours a day 6 days a week with non stop calls from those auto dialers. But yeah, these dumb self centered S.O.B.s and their auto dialers are going to kill the golden goose(telemarketing) for all of us.
It's nice to see that the telemarketing industry is something you also don't know anything about. These restrictions weren't the result of "a handful of big telemarketing companies", it was quite a few telemarketing companies. As far as agents go, most of them don't telemarket for more than a week or two before they give up, there are plenty of other industries that are far more aggressive than ours. I'd go on, but I'll just sum it up by saying what I said at the beginning, you don't really have much of an understanding of what you're talking about.
What you're talking about is a drop rate. A rate of 3% is the max, meaning that if 100 people pick up the phone, 97 of them have to be answered within 2 seconds or it's a violation. The phones are supposed to ring for at least ~18 seconds. Yes, that means that if one person is dialing on 3 lines they are probably having a drop rate way over the allowed 3%, probably closer to 25%+. In order to be truly effective a campaign should have at least 7 telemarketers to take advantage of the predictive model.
This is true, but there are dialers that are highly configurable with their Call Policies that allow you to "remain" in compliance as best as possible as a single agent.
The tool I use provides many options for a calling campaign, but these three are the primary ones that help me stay in compliance:
Call Ring Timeout: Amount of time that has passed without an answer to terminate the call. My value is set to 25 seconds.
Maximum Pacing Ratio: Number of concurrent dialed numbers. My value is set to two. I know, the word "Ratio" does not properly describe the actual function, but I did not write the software program.
Abandonment limit: Maximum percentage of calls that can be dropped before setting the pacing ratio to 1 (one call at a time). Configured value is restored when the percentage of abandoned calls is below this Abandonment limit value. My value is set to 2%, below the 3% threshold.
I have had days where within the first few minutes of dialing, the dialer had set the maximum number of concurrent dials to one, as I had a dropped call early in the calling for the day.
Keep in mind that one can still be in violation if:
They have several dropped calls relatively soon after they started calling for the day, but as more calls go through with the system I use, the number of concurrent calls will remain at one until it drops below the legally allowed threshold.
If the Call Policy settings will make it very difficult for the dialer to get back into compliance.
My two cents.
Last edited by maleman2045 : 02-10-2010 at 08:46 PM.
I'd bet a shiny nickel you're using a vici based dialer? Undoubtedly there are ways for callers to remain compliant, but if a solo agent is using mojo or anything else with 3 lines dialing out then it probably isn't. I wonder if it even tracks those numbers. An inconvenient truth is that most agents are better off dialing one line at a time if they were concerned with staying compliant. The other problem with using more than one line is you end up having prospects answer the phone that get a dead line from the callerID you're calling with and know it's a telemarketer when you recycle your list.
What you're talking about is a drop rate. A rate of 3% is the max, meaning that if 100 people pick up the phone, 97 of them have to be answered within 2 seconds or it's a violation. The phones are supposed to ring for at least ~18 seconds. Yes, that means that if one person is dialing on 3 lines they are probably having a drop rate way over the allowed 3%, probably closer to 25%+. In order to be truly effective a campaign should have at least 7 telemarketers to take advantage of the predictive model.
I've been a telemarketer before but now I've learned about these violation.Thanks for elaborating.
So....do you guys that use mojo just not get caught, or is there somthing I'm missing that keeps you on the right side ofhehe law.
That's why I use the Cheetah... it's a single line autodialer that dials one prospect at a time, waits for me to finish before dialing the next in line. I even interrupt it between calls to allow myself time to record notes I didn't enter or finish when online with the previous prospect and time to get my thoughts together for the next call.
No worry about 3% compliance... mine is 0%.
------------------------------------ To err is human, but it takes a computer to really screw things up.
That's why I use the Cheetah... it's a single line autodialer that dials one prospect at a time, waits for me to finish before dialing the next in line. I even interrupt it between calls to allow myself time to record notes I didn't enter or finish when online with the previous prospect and time to get my thoughts together for the next call.
No worry about 3% compliance... mine is 0%.
That's not a bad solution. I usually have my predictive set at 1 line going out until we have gone through the list a few times OR I have at least 5 telemarketers on it.
Seriously? Who cares about the 3%? NOBODY is going to complain that didn't let their phone ring long enough. Hope you all aren't losing sleep over that one...
Seriously? Who cares about the 3%? NOBODY is going to complain that didn't let their phone ring long enough. Hope you all aren't losing sleep over that one...
I don't think you know how the regs work. If you use a predictive dialer, big brother has the right to examine your records, and you are required to have evidence of compliance. Doesn't have to have a complaint filed....
I don't think you know how the regs work. If you use a predictive dialer, big brother has the right to examine your records, and you are required to have evidence of compliance. Doesn't have to have a complaint filed....
Exactly. If they ask you have to have these records. You have to prove you are innocent. What are the odds they'll ask? Not much, but if they do and you're not compliant the fines are hefty!
You guys are missing the point. Do you own the dialer? Are you the one placing the calls? No...you're just answering the phone. There is a liability firewall between you and the dialer company. Their butt is on the line, not yours. You are innocent regardless whether anyone "complains" or not. What's the point of a one line dialer? If you're going to us a dialer you just throw caution to the wind and go for it. If you're too nervous about all the rules and regs and having the phone police shut you down...you'd better get your Nike's on and go back to knocking doors for a living.
If you're going to us a dialer you just throw caution to the wind and go for it. .
I just can not say strongly enough how sick it makes me to see agents like you and others in this thread with your criminal minds and degenerate attitudes towards the rights of your fellow citizens. People like you and Robliano and Jodi are the #1 reason the public opinion of insurance agents runs about one notch higher then a used car salesman. You people are embarrassing the living hell out of our profession and you couldnt give a tinkers damn about it. What the hell is wrong with obeying the laws and treating your fellow members of society with respect and decency? You are not insurance agents you are scam artists did I say that yet?
You guys are missing the point. Do you own the dialer? Are you the one placing the calls? No...you're just answering the phone. There is a liability firewall between you and the dialer company. Their butt is on the line, not yours. You are innocent regardless whether anyone "complains" or not. What's the point of a one line dialer? If you're going to us a dialer you just throw caution to the wind and go for it. If you're too nervous about all the rules and regs and having the phone police shut you down...you'd better get your Nike's on and go back to knocking doors for a living.
I do actually have my own dialer. Even if I was renting one the liability would still be on me. If you rent a gun and go shoot someone you can't blame the company that rented you the gun because you were the one breaking the law.
Not to get off topic, but using a dialer to call one line at a time can still help an agent dial over 500 numbers in a day and track the results easily.
I do actually have my own dialer. Even if I was renting one the liability would still be on me. If you rent a gun and go shoot someone you can't blame the company that rented you the gun because you were the one breaking the law.
Not to get off topic, but using a dialer to call one line at a time can still help an agent dial over 500 numbers in a day and track the results easily.
Exactly... and EVS (the company that makes the Cheetah dialer) has a strongly worded legal disclaimer about liability. They also provide some good tips on remaining compliant for the end-user.
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