Satellite television provider Dish Network is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission because of over 20,000 complaints concerning calls made to people who are registered on the federal Do Not Call list:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10204888-38.html
According to a federal law passed several years back, it is illegal for organizations to call people who have self-registered on the Do Not Call list. There are however some exemptions, such as the one politicians put in for campaign contribution cold calls that they are allowed to continue to make.
This lawsuit and others could have been avoided of course by integrating Do Not Call checking functionality into the outbound process. A simple XML Web service call can traverse all of the necessary rules, including federal and state Do Not Call registries, and mobile telephone rules. The end result can be interpreted as a simple "yes you can call" or "no you can't" response. It might be a good idea to adhere to it, that is if you don't want to get sued.
StrikeIron's solution that is an easy-to-integrate SOAP and REST XML Web service "out in the cloud" is here: http://www.strikeiron.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=470
It can be integrated into CRM systems, call center applications, internal applications, or even used interactively. Since it is an over-the-Web XML call, no ongoing management of data, no database software licenses, and no additional hardware is necessary. You simply plug in.
An invocation of the Web service prior to a call (or tagging lists of phone numbers in batch) could not be easier.
Happy not calling!
Comments