Direct Marketing Association launches new guidelines on telemarketing

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has launched new guidelines to address the problem of “silent calls” from telesales companies, after research showed such calls made 22% of people anxious.

Industry regulator Ofcom found that “silent calls” are often made by machines in call centres. The machines cold call customers and when a number connects it is routed to an operator. If no operator is available the connection is terminated, leading to the “silent call”.

The DMA surveyed 1,000 people and 37% said the calls were an “unacceptable inconvenience”. Phone owners received 5.7 nuisance calls a month on average, although this increased to 7.3 a month for the over-65 age group, possibly because they spend more time at home.

The DMA’s new guidelines require telemarketers to give the person being called a phone number, which they can ring free of charge and the name of the organization calling.

Members of the trade association have three months to comply with the rules.

The DMA is also establishing a database listing the free call-back numbers and the names of the companies using them.

Members of the marketing and communications industry trade association must also implement procedures to honour “do not call” requests from consumers.

Cold calls have prompted over eight million people to sign up with the Telephone Preference Service, which screens all sales and marketing calls.

Ofcom, the industry regulator, has welcomed the DMA’s research, and joint initiatives will be developed to address the problem.