 Since posting the news article on Silent Calls last month, I have had the pleasure of making contact with David Hickson as well as seeing him on a recent BBC news article relating to silent calls. David is a consumer who, single-handedly, has taken on the issue of silent calls. For this reason some people within the call centre industry may consider him a thorn in the telemarketing industry's side.
The truth is, however, that David has done nothing more than acted as a catalyst and bought this issue to a head quickly. The real thorns are those who do not consider consumers and continue to make silent calls, therefore bringing the reputation of telemarketing into even more disrepute.
Over the past couple of days, there has been an update on the situation regarding silent calls.
It has now been confirmed that it is not illegal to transmit an Informative Message (giving only the name of the caller and the reason for the call, (no marketing) informing the receiver that there is No Agent Available to deal with an answered call made by a predictive dialler.
The Direct Marketing Association yesterday issued a press release indicating that it will be changing its Code of Conduct to stop Silent Calls altogether following its recognition of the law.
With the focus on silent calls that the press and media have provided over the past few months and an increase in government body reaction to this, the industry once felt that dialling within the DMA guidelines kept them safe, and now we wait to find out if this is really the case.
The DMA code has been in place for a while and aims to prevent a large number of silent calls from being made. However, an alternative code now exists, that focuses on industry intelligence.
The Voluntary Code
Darryl Beckford Ltd.(DB), who specialise in offering guidance and advice for call & contact centres, has put together a Voluntary Code of Conduct. Currently in it's first draft, it requires acceptance and adoption to prove effective. Even then, it will be a while before silent calls become enough of an exception that OFCOM can pursue any organisation which is making them.
The main point about this code is that it's not just for marketing organisations, and it's not just for predictive diallers. It's for any call centre that makes an outbound call.
DB are requesting call centre mangers and professionals to review this code and get in touch with comments or support. If, however, you'd like to adopt the code in your call centre please let DB know and they will provide you with further information to make implementation easier.
http://www.darrylbeckford.co.uk/documents/DiallingCodeDraft102.pdf
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