Telemarketing Identity Inflates

What makes a telemarketing agent or company? Someone or some firm that sells products/services through the telephone – is what you might say. That definition is about to change. If you listen to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of USA or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), they are including advisors and advertisers as telemarketers. Call center agents cannot call registered numbers on the Do Not Call (DNC) list because they call themselves advisors or advertisers. Financial advisors, as all other sectors of counseling, will come under the telemarketing services act. In the same vein, violations of the DNC list will land the responsible BPO agents in a lot of soup.

The decisions of both the bodies stem from their commitment to protect the privacy of the citizens from telemarketing calls. Despite their best efforts, they are not able to cut the flow of call center agents tapping into the market, ignoring the DNC list completely. The CRTC admitted that financial and insurance agents have the right to communicate to their customers, but there was no such thing that they have to use the telephone. Moreover, such a right doesn’t allow them access to the customers at hours when the DNC forbids BPO agents to call. The CRTC wants the call centers to respect the request of the customers when they don’t want the telemarketing services that they have to offer.