Wednesday, May 03, 2006
What is telemarketing?
I appreciate Alec Saunders bringing further attention to my travels on Tuesday. Many people are unaware of how broadly it is defined. The CRTC says that Telemarketing is: Unfortunately, this definition means that when your school PTA, or kids' hockey team, or scout troop calls you to tell you about their upcoming car wash, cookie sales, school play - these are 'telemarketing'. If you want those calls banned, then you are more of a scrooge than Dickens could conjure.
When the seniors' Golden Age club wants to notify their members about an outing to Stratford, that is telemarketing. Same as inviting them to Bingo next Thursday. Go ahead and think that, in your fantasy land, you can change the way that 80-year-olds communicate and you can get them to use viral marketing and Web 2.0 tools. Who is going to buy them their computers, pay for their training or tell them that the world has passed them by? Not me.
I'd like to be a little more practical and let people choose the communications tools they want to use and make sure that the regulatory framework is more permissive.
Let's try to remember that the vast majority of telemarketing calls are positive experiences for three stakeholders: the caller, the recipient and the telecom carriers that provide the facilities and transport for the sector. It is your insurance agent calling you to tell you about new options for your home insurance renewal, your bank, your alumni association, your church, your ski club, your car dealer booking your next oil change. It even includes your kids calling grandma and their aunts and uncles to sponsor them in the school walk-a-thon.
By the way, unless your grade 3 class happens to have a registered tax number, Parliament didn't grant them an exemption from having to first check the national do not call list. And even if they do have such a tax department break, if you read the phone companies submissions, they would have wanted you to first reprogram your home phone line to display 'Riverdale School Walkathon' before your kid started calling for sponsors, or selling gift wrap and chocolates.
With government cutbacks, it is the charitable and non-profit sector that supplements an ever-shrinking social safety net that we, as Canadian, cherish as a defining characteristic of our national moral fabric. Let's not impose restrictions that unreasonably prevent charitable organizations from doing their job.
That is why I went to Ottawa on Tuesday. The transcripts will soon be posted. Let me know your thoughts.
Update: [May 4, 2006]
The transcripts are now available.
[T]he use of telecommunications facilities to make unsolicited calls for the purpose of solicitation where solicitation is defined as the selling or promoting of a product or service, or the soliciting of money or money's worth, whether directly or indirectly and whether on behalf of another party. This includes solicitation of donations by or on behalf of charitable organizations.
When the seniors' Golden Age club wants to notify their members about an outing to Stratford, that is telemarketing. Same as inviting them to Bingo next Thursday. Go ahead and think that, in your fantasy land, you can change the way that 80-year-olds communicate and you can get them to use viral marketing and Web 2.0 tools. Who is going to buy them their computers, pay for their training or tell them that the world has passed them by? Not me.
I'd like to be a little more practical and let people choose the communications tools they want to use and make sure that the regulatory framework is more permissive.
Let's try to remember that the vast majority of telemarketing calls are positive experiences for three stakeholders: the caller, the recipient and the telecom carriers that provide the facilities and transport for the sector. It is your insurance agent calling you to tell you about new options for your home insurance renewal, your bank, your alumni association, your church, your ski club, your car dealer booking your next oil change. It even includes your kids calling grandma and their aunts and uncles to sponsor them in the school walk-a-thon.
By the way, unless your grade 3 class happens to have a registered tax number, Parliament didn't grant them an exemption from having to first check the national do not call list. And even if they do have such a tax department break, if you read the phone companies submissions, they would have wanted you to first reprogram your home phone line to display 'Riverdale School Walkathon' before your kid started calling for sponsors, or selling gift wrap and chocolates.
With government cutbacks, it is the charitable and non-profit sector that supplements an ever-shrinking social safety net that we, as Canadian, cherish as a defining characteristic of our national moral fabric. Let's not impose restrictions that unreasonably prevent charitable organizations from doing their job.
That is why I went to Ottawa on Tuesday. The transcripts will soon be posted. Let me know your thoughts.
Update: [May 4, 2006]
The transcripts are now available.
Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 5/03/2006 12:57:00 AM 
Comments:
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Thanks Mark. I think this points to a definitional problem, as you describe. I don't have any problem with the PTA, the scout troop, or other people from my community wanting to reach me.
What I do not want is the boiler room calls which many organizations are turning to in order to get my dollars. To me, that's an abuse.
Good luck. I applaud the work you're doing.
What I do not want is the boiler room calls which many organizations are turning to in order to get my dollars. To me, that's an abuse.
Good luck. I applaud the work you're doing.
Posted by 
: 9:15 AM, May 03, 2006
: 9:15 AM, May 03, 2006
Anyone I freely give my number too, which is the case in the examples you provided, aren't by definition telemarketing are they? I signed up for an event/organization and expect to be called and notified of new events.
If a charity/organization purchases my number from a direct marketing agency and then through use of professional, automated and organized campaign - contacts me to solicit money, the consumer has not given consent implied or otherwise.
If a charity/organization purchases my number from a direct marketing agency and then through use of professional, automated and organized campaign - contacts me to solicit money, the consumer has not given consent implied or otherwise.
It is very important to distinguish between privacy rules (the sharing of name linked information) and the telemarketing rules.
The CRTC definition (as in the original blog posting) captures all of the charitable and motherhood types of calls I described. Note that there is nothing that speaks of where the number comes from in the first place - that is a privacy issue.
There are two sets of rules being looked at: the upcoming Do Not Call List (and who has to comply); and, when you receive a telemarketing call, what has to happen (calling line ID, time of day for calling, identification of who is calling, etc.).
It is really surprising that there wasn't a greater representation by the public at large, because of the possible impact on schools and other charitable groups.
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The CRTC definition (as in the original blog posting) captures all of the charitable and motherhood types of calls I described. Note that there is nothing that speaks of where the number comes from in the first place - that is a privacy issue.
There are two sets of rules being looked at: the upcoming Do Not Call List (and who has to comply); and, when you receive a telemarketing call, what has to happen (calling line ID, time of day for calling, identification of who is calling, etc.).
It is really surprising that there wasn't a greater representation by the public at large, because of the possible impact on schools and other charitable groups.
Posted by 
Mark Goldberg : 2:06 PM, May 04, 2006
Mark Goldberg : 2:06 PM, May 04, 2006 << Home
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