Is your telephone marketing data TPS compliant?
If you make telemarketing calls for your business you need to make sure you are TPS compliant.
Call us now on 01743 249992 to learn more about B2B telemarketing or read on for details of TPS compliance...
Q: What is TPS?
A: TPS stands for Telephone Preference Service. The Telephone Preference Service is a database of telephone numbers registered by either members of the public or businesses to prevent unsolicited telesales and telemarketing calls. If you break the rules by telemarketing to one of the numbers on its database you could find yourself being fined up to £5,000.
The TPS website states “The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service. It is the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so”.
This is not something that can be ignored. Far too often companies will say that their telesales team, sales reps or telemarketing department go through the Yellow Pages or search Google to find companies to call. The problem with this is that unless you have a TPS call screening system you do not know if the number you are calling is TPS registered and therefore this is not legal. Not to mention most directories have rules against scraping or stealing their data for telemarketing purposes.
Although this mainly affects the business-to-consumer market business-to-business and corporate TPS is just as serious. Your marketing data should be screened every 30 days to ensure that you are compliant or you should use a TPS screening system that checks the phone number you are calling before the call goes through.
It does take 28 days for numbers to become fully registered but if you do call a company or individual that has recently registered with the TPS the best option is to make your apologises and remove them from your database.
To ensure compliance you need to ask yourself the below questions:
· Is my data screened via the TPS registered when purchased?
· Is my marketing data screened every 30 days for TPS compliance?
· Where are my sales reps, telesales & telemarketing department getting their data?
· Do I use a TPS filter system?
· Would it be more cost effective to consider using an outside telemarketing company to ensure compliance?
If you run a telemarketing department, call centre or have sales reps that make telephone-marketing calls for your business you need to ensure you are covered, it is not something that can be ignored and it is a legal requirement.
