fcc tcpa rule changes

6700 Cote de Liesse - Suite 102 - St Laurent - Québec H4T 2B5 – CANADA

Tel : 188VOCALCOM +1 514 733 6444 / Fax : +1 514 733 7999

October 11, 2013

Thank you again for being a valued Vocalcom customer. We are pleased to provide this letter to

discuss changes in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Telephone Consumer

Protection Act (TCPA) rules and how our complimentary enhancements to the Vocalcom

Hermes.Net v4 system can assist you in your compliance efforts. In addition, we are providing a

complimentary Outbound Calling Compliance Guide that includes a summary of relevant

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Telemarketing Sales Rule requirements, along

with a copy of these Federal laws and regulations.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. You may address any questions to

[email protected]

FCC TCPA Rule Changes

In February 2012, the FCC adopted several changes to its TCPA rules. These changes include:

1. On prerecorded or abandoned telemarketing calls, parties must provide an interactive

mechanism allowing a called party to opt out of future calls. If a caller leaves a

voicemail, the voicemail must include a toll-free number that the called party can call to

opt out. Previously, telemarketers only needed to include a telephone number that

consumers could call to make an entity-specific Do Not Call request.

2. The permissible rate of abandoned calls is now calculated over the course of a calling

campaign or 30 days, whichever is shorter. Previously, the FCC had measured

abandoned calls only over 30 days, with no “per campaign” metric.

3. Parties must obtain “prior express written consent” for autodialed or prerecorded

telemarketing calls to wireless telephone numbers, and for prerecorded telemarketing

calls to residential telephone numbers (subject to certain exemptions). Previously, such

calls were permissible with prior express written or oral consent.

4. Having an “established business relationship” with the called party no longer provides an

exemption to the “prior express consent” requirement for prerecorded telemarketing calls

to residential telephone numbers.

5. Prerecorded calls to residential lines that deliver a health-care message made by a

“covered entity” or its “business associate” as defined by the HIPAA Privacy Rule (45

C.F.R. § 160.103) are now exempt from the “prior express consent” requirement.

Most of these rules are already in effect, and the rest will become effective on October 16, 2013.

mailto:[email protected]


Tel : 188VOCALCOM +1 514 733 6444 / Fax : +1 514 733 7999

Advantages of the Hermes.Net v4 Solution

Vocalcom offers consolidated solutions to help you successfully manage the myriad federal and

state telemarketing and outbound calling requirements. Specifically, Vocalcom offers Contact

Center Solutions (Contact Center Software, Cloud Contact Center Software, Virtual Call Center

Software, Call Center CTI for Salesforce, and Call Center Solution for Avaya); Digital Customer

Service (Web Customer Service, Mobile Customer Care, Social Customer Care, and Retail

Customer Experience); and Dialers & Call Recording (Predictive Dialer Software, Cloud-Based

Call Recording and #1 Hosted Dialer in Salesforce).

As explained in more detail in the attached materials, the Hermes.Net v4 system includes a

number of features to help you comply with federal regulations, including the new interactive,

opt-out mechanism requirements and abandoned call calculation rules; time of day restrictions;

ring count and timing rules; and caller ID provisions, among others.

In addition, as part of the Hermes.Net v4 system, Vocalcom has developed a safety mechanism

that will deactivate predictive dialing and prerecorded message functionality within a specific site

environment. When that functionality is deactivated:

The system will only enable “one-to-one” telephone calls in which a live representative must:

(1) commence each call by selecting the specific telephone number to be dialed, at the

moment it is to be dialed; (2) remain on the line after the call commences, while the call

connects to the called party; and (3) remain on the line during the call, after the call connects

to the called party.

The system cannot “dial ahead” or dial automatically (i.e., without action and intervention by

the live representative).

The system cannot engage in any “predictive dialing” or other dialing approach for which a

call could commence without the live representative affirmatively selecting a specific

telephone number to be called.

There is no delay between when the called party answers the telephone and when the live

representative is available to speak with the called party (e.g., a delay caused by “connecting”

the live representative to the called party).

Calls cannot be “abandoned” whereby the live representative is unable to speak with the

called party.

The system cannot place any prerecorded message calls.

The Hermes.Net v4 system also has no ability to generate, store, produce, or dial random or

sequential numbers. It does not have random or sequential number generation, storage,

production, and dialing as a functioning feature (that feature has not been built into the system),


Tel : 188VOCALCOM +1 514 733 6444 / Fax : +1 514 733 7999

and it cannot function unless the user provides specific telephone numbers and other account or

customer information. In addition, users are prohibited from modifying the system to enable

random or sequential number generation.

Thank you again for your continued business. If you have any questions, please feel free to

contact us.

Regards,

George Seroukas

EVP North America

Vocalcom Corporation, Inc.

6700 Cote de Liesse #102

Montreal, Quebec

H4T2B5

Canada

Copyright © 1998-2013 VOCALCOM All rights reserved. 1/7

TCPA Compliance Solutions Using

Hermes.Net V4


Introduction

Companies are required to comply with an array of federal and state laws and regulations that

govern telemarketing and other outbound communications. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) implements the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

(“TCPA”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) enforces the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”). Both the TCPA and the TSR authorize enforcement by government regulators and private rights of action (including class actions), and there are substantial penalties for

noncompliance.

Vocalcom offers consolidated solutions to manage these myriad requirements successfully. Specifically, Vocalcom offers Contact Center Solutions (Contact Center Software, Cloud Contact Center Software, Virtual Call Center Software, Call Center CTI for Salesforce, and Call

Center Solution for Avaya); Digital Customer Service (Web Customer Service, Mobile Customer Care, Social Customer Care, and Retail Customer Experience); and Dialers & Call

Recording (Predictive Dialer Software, Cloud-Based Call Recording and #1 Hosted Dialer in Salesforce).

This document describes how to configure Hermes.Net to comply with the applicable regulations. The solutions we will detail here apply to:

Abandoned Call Rules

Opt Out Mechanism

Time of Day Restrictions

Ring Count Requirements

Caller ID Requirement

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. You may address any

questions to [email protected]

This document has been developed to assist you in your TCPA and TSR compliance efforts. The

information contained herein is not intended to provide legal advice and should not be relied on in lieu of

a consultation with an attorney. In addition, although this document is focused on TCPA and TSR

requirements, state laws may also apply.

mailto:[email protected]


Abandoned Call Rules

Entities placing autodialed calls must abandon less than 3% of the calls per calling campaign or

per 30 days, whichever is shorter. A call is considered “abandoned” if it is not connected to a

live operator within 2 seconds of the recipient’s greeting. The regulation also requires that, for

abandoned calls, the telemarketer must play a prerecorded message stating only the name

of the entity on whose behalf the call was made, a telephone number for such entity that

allows the recipient to make a Do Not Call request during regular business hours during the

duration of the telemarketing campaign, and that the call was made for “telemarketing

purposes.”

These parameters can be set in your outbound campaign configuration as follows:

Go to Outgoing media > Outbound calls > Campaigns configuration

Select the Dialing tab and make the following changes:

Set the %Retention to 2.

Set the Retention message to point to a .wav file:

o Select the magnifying glass button

o Select the desired .wav file from the WAV folder

Set the Retention time to 2 and select the Save diskette.

Figure 1: Set Retention


Opt Out Mechanism

In addition, for abandoned calls, the telemarketer must provide an interactive opt-out

mechanism during the call, which, when used, automatically records the recipient’s

number to the seller’s Do Not Call list and terminates the call.

This is achieved by constructing an IVR to play the necessary messages and opt out options, as

displayed in the following IVR scenario:

Figure 2: Create IVR for Opt Out and DNCL


Once the IVR is created, assign it to the outbound campaign as follows:



Set the Retention message to point to an IVR:

o Select the Voice script checkbox

o Select the magnifying glass button

o Select the desired IVR from the IVR folder

(Note: you must create and generate your IVR prior to this step)

Select the Save diskette.

Figure 3: Set Retention message to IVR


Time of Day Restrictions

Telemarketing calls are allowed between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. every day (recipient’s local

time), unless the recipient has given prior consent for a different time.

This is achieved by applying time zone rules to your call files after they are uploaded as

follows:

Go to Outgoing media > Outbound calls > Calls files

Select the desired call file, then select the Time Zones button at the bottom right of the

window.

Go to Time zones assignment > Parameters and set the Time interval allowed for

calls to: Calls from 08:00 to 21:00, then select the Next button.

The wizard will update all the records in the call file to respect the time zone regulations,

and will display the result of how many records were updated.

Press the Terminate button to exit the wizard.

Figure 4: Set Time Zones

If you are in doubt as to whether or not you have applied the time zones against your calls

file, you can check by selecting the History of actions done on the callfile button. If you have applied the time zones, it will be noted in the history. The button looks like this:

Figure 5: History button


Ring Count Requirements

An unanswered telemarketing call must not disconnect for at least 4 rings or 15 seconds.

This is achieved as follows:



Set the Max ring number on the dialing campaign to 4 or higher and select the Save

diskette.

Figure 6: Set Max ring number

Caller ID Requirement

Telemarketers must transmit caller ID information.

This is set per campaign, as follows:


Select the General tab and make the following changes:

Set the Display to prospect dropdown to A specific phonenumber, then type the

number in the Phonenumber to display field, then select the Save diskette.

Figure 7: Set Caller ID

fcc tcpa rule changes

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