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

1) Ran through the DMA business plan presentation with Gurinder Singh, DMA Commercial Director.

2) To script or not to script? Heavily scripted conversations can sound unnatural, but giving agents too much freedom means they may go 'off piste' and fail to accurately deliver the message/brand. The Council will analyse telemarketing and call centre scripts and give guidance.

3) Vulnerable Consumers meeting on 26 May to decide next steps on PR and moving the project forward, as well as updating vulnerable guidelines. Invited by Barclays to attend a workshop looking at vulnerable consumers on the 18 June. The Call Centre Management Association is keen to help the hub promote the initiative to a wider audience.

4) Telemarketing and contact centre blogs on the DMA website are doing well, the two recent videos launched by the Council (B2B telemarketing and B2C telemarketing) have an above average dwell time. More videos to come.

5) It was suggested the Council connect with the other council members. Suggested the DMA create a closed LinkedIn group where all members can engage in cross-council dialogue.

6) The Omni-channel hub is keen to host a round table breakfast briefing. DMA to share a list of current members with the hub so they can decide on who to invite.

7) The Council noted the ICO cannot prosecute companies whose servers are located outside of the UK. Grey area of people dialling TPS numbers to get the consumers opt-in (when they shouldn’t be dialling the number in the first place). The ICO are to be invited to the next meeting.

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Next meeting is 10 June 2015. If you work for a DMA member organisation and would be interested in observing a Council meeting, then please get in touch by calling 020 7291 3300 and ask for Charlotte Natter.