What did the Contact Centre & Telemarketing Council do in January?

1) Vanessa Furey and Kate Wellington from Which? attended the meeting. Presentation on their ‘Calling Time on Nuisance Calls & Texts’ campaign launched in 2013. Key point was consumers don’t know who to complain to. Recent publicity and government action means reporting of nuisance calls has gone up, Which? have a tool to help consumers report nuisance calls - http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/nuisance-calls-and-texts

Key outputs from the hour long discussion:

a) Calls to mobiles has gone up. Ofcom developing a process to register mobile phones via text to TPS.
b) Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is revisiting it’s guidance. The Government is working with ICO to give them more power.
c) The Government launched consultation on Caller Line Identification (CLI).
d) Director level accountability for nuisance calls should be law. EU Data Regulation may require large firms to appoint Data Officer who has responsibility.
e) There should be better definition of term ‘nuisance call’.
f) Which? are capturing data on nreporting of nuisance calls, Council asked if that could be analysed and results shared

John Mitchison has been main contact at DMA for Which?, but the Council will nominate a member to continue dialogue.

2) Response for the Ofcom Consultation on persistent misuse statement is due 10 Feb. Their review is based on research they have commissioned.

Key changes include:
• Explicit in defining a silent call. Stating AMD should not be used at all.
• Tightening up on what it means to misuse CLI. No attempts to manipulate CLI is possible. OK to change due to different campaigns. Are able to use a mobile number,but it should remain the same for each campaign.
• Fundamental rules around using a dialler 3%, 15 seconds etc have not changed.
• Are clearer around investigation, they will work closely with ICO and confirm who should deals with each investigation.
• Explicit that any abandoned call is misuse of the network. More than 3 is persistent (across the period they investigate).
• Priority for investigation will be those who breach the guidelines. It appears firms will only avoid prosecution if they are not as bad as others under investigation.

3) Jacqui Crawley and Chris Stransom will step down in March as Chair and Deputy Chair because they have completed their terms. Elections will be held.

4) The consumer side of the Telemarketing & Contact Centre research is done. The marketers survey is still open, please visit https://qeurope.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0JSwNzyWmSUfOMR to have your say. Your opinion is valued.

5) Jacqui Crawley and Elaine Lee attended the DM Foundation meeting and proposed running 7 national workshops on the issue of Vulnerable Consumers. The DM Foundation will fund the development of workshops but asked for sponsorship for running them. Firms interested in sponsoring these highly topical workshops should call Tasha Munn on 020 7291 3300

6) Glenn Hurley (Animos LLP) is working on PCI Council – telephone guidelines for card payments. Arranged for him to attend next council meeting to discuss the guidelines.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next meeting is 13 January 2016. If you work for a DMA member organisation and would be interested in observing a Council meeting, then please get in touch by calling Tasha Munn on 020 7291 3300.

Observers in January: Jonathan Harwell (EMCAS), Glenn Hurley (Compliance3), David Clark (NTT Fundraising), Elaine Lee (ReynoldsBusbyLee).