Industry Standards for Calling Times

Can anyone clarify if there are set regulations by the OFT or OFCOM regarding what times a business can call its customers (whether consumer or business) without it being regarded as a “nuisance”. e.g you can only call customers between 8am and 9pm and 9am – 5pm at weekends. outside of these times you can only receive inbound calls. Does such a regulation exist that is enforceable or from experience is there much resistance to calling outside of these times?

Question asked by Gary

Regs Smegs

You may find more information from the Direct Marketing Association however the following regulations are also applicable.

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (“RIPA”)
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice)(Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000 (“LBP Regulations”)
Data Protection Act 1998
Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999
Human Rights Act 1998

My understanding and it has only ever come from DMA guidelines is 0800-2100.
Reality dictates that the only productive hours for o/b are 1000-1200ish (good) and 1400-1700 (poorer) and 1800-2000 (good). On i/b its 0900-1700.

The DMA is where the yardstick has come from and yes I wouldn’t transgress it for 1. Hassle you get and 2. Its unproductive.

With thanks to Closed

Calling Hours

Hi,

As far as I know calling hours are 8am-9pm Mon-Fri and 9am-5pm Saturdays. Although there is no legally enforceable laws with respect to these.

Does such a regulation exist that is enforceable or from experience is there much resistance to calling outside of these times?

It is frowned on phoning on Sundays and at the same time will do little other than alienate your client / list base.

With the cost of TPS’d data it doesn’t do alot of good burning it with negative results. YPYMYTYC

As soon as I can get a sensible answer back from the DMA/TPS I’ll let you know.

With thanks to Dave

Calling Hours REDUX

I’ve just spoken to the DMA who put me onto

TPS who put me onto..

The Information Commissioners Office.

There is NO legislation in the UK regarding Outbound cold calling
hours on the statute or Civil books. Theoretically you can cold
call at 3am if you want.

We are entirely self regulating within the framework of the DMA/TPS
guidelines.

That’s the best I can do although I would like to state publicly
that I feel calling outside the guidelines (especially Sundays) has
the potential to do alot of damage to an industry that is already
perceived in a bad light. You won’t get sales and it’ll mess things
up for the rest of us.

With thanks to Dave

Appreciation

My appreciation for the swift and informative response. We’ll certainly be upholding our own and the industry standards. We are all consumers at the end of the day. I’ll keep my ear to the ground for any ban on calling times although I know we are all responsible enough to use the core and productive times only.

With thanks to Gary

Set Hours…

From a customer experience, I can clarify that there appear to be no set rules as Docklands Telecoms kept trying to call my girlfriend to upgrade her handset. When she ignored their calls they tried at differing times, right up to 11pm, which for party animals isn’t a problem, although the alcohol fuelled rant has since stopped the calls from them.

With thanks to Simon

Outbound Calling.

Please also note bank holidays are also viewed the same as Sundays by some business. I would personally prefer to be called away from mowing the lawn in the middle of August though.

With thanks to nick

OutBound Calling 5pm – 6pm

Could anybody please give me advice as to the success of calling between 5pm and 6pm Mon-Fri? Closed very helpfully did a breakdown for successful times however 5pm – 6pm is not really covered. We are part of Service Recovery / Retention team and are looking at best contact rates.

Any help would be much appreciated please as we have a resourcing issue we would like to resolve.

With thanks to Jennifer

Late Afternoon

I think Closed may have inadvertently missed the 17:00-18:00 slot.

The one thing to look at would be the overall demographic of your
calling list.

Are the majority working? Do they have families (young children), do they
have families (older children)?

You’ve got to weigh the pros and cons.

If it’s a young family you’ll have a partner finishing work, young
children to feed etc… If it’s older children there’s homework.

Look out for the soaps timings and try to dial around the limits of your data.

In theory you should be able to set up a 3 way list Early, mid and late PM.

With thanks to Dave

The No-go Zone

>>>I think Closed may have inadvertently missed the 17:00-18:00 slot.

No, didn’t miss it out its definitely a bad time for sales (in my general experience) and I’ve always found the o/b contact rate to be low as well – for a variety of reasons – people getting in from work and not wanting to be disturbed, general household/ dinner issues, people still travelling etc etc.

With thanks to Closed

Calling Times

Many thanks to both of your for clarifying that. I do think our internal statistics indicate that 8pm-9pm is a rubbish time considering the low level of incoming calls we get as well. However, the powers that be are happy to keep paying staff to read books and visit the internet!

Although the business insists they are still our customers (and they are) we have to be careful about appearing on the verge of harassment and it does come under selling as we “remind” them of the benefits they may miss out on if they cancel.

Cheers to you both again, that has been most helpful
Jen

With thanks to Jennifer

Outbound Emergency Calls

We’re making emergency outbound calls for UK. Specifically when for accidents and other emergency incidents. Are we allowed to call customers beyond 9pm or in a 24/7 basis since it’s emergency related rather than telemarketing?

With thanks to Gil