'Do Not Call' Lists Growing in Popularity

If telemarketing is a primary part of your company's marketing strategy, then you may be concerned about the increasing popularity of so-called "Do Not Call" lists, which legally bar for-profit companies from telemarketing to any of the individuals who have their name placed on such a list.

The state of Texas recently created such a list, making it the 19th state to do so. Texas started accepting names for its list on Jan. 1, and within the first week more than 88,000 Texans paid a $2.25 fee to sign up, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News.

Since the state ultimately expects "several hundred thousand people on the list by the end of the year," according to Terry Hadley, a spokesperson for the state Public Utility Commission, one might think this is a disturbing trend for those green industry firms that reach new customers via the phone. But, according to one successful lawn care company that relies very heavily on telemarketing, these lists are a good thing.

"To me, these lists are great because they increase the amount of people who take our estimate," explained Jim Campanella, president, The Lawn Dawg, Nashua, N.H. "Those people who get on these lists wouldn't have taken our estimates. They would have just yelled at us or hung up on us, so the state is doing our work for us by filtering these people out."

Since his company has an office in New York, Campanella witnessed the popularity of these lists first hand last year when that state created its list. "New York announced it was forming a list in November 2000, they had 500,000 people signed up by April 1, 2001," he recalled.

Companies doing business in Texas will reportedly be required to purchase the state's "do not call" list, along with quarterly updates, for $45 each. Other telemarketing lists bought from private companies should be cross-referenced with the "do not call" list, Campanella advised, reducing the probability that businesses will accidentally call people who don't wish to be contacted.

"The presence of a 'Do Not Call' list doesn't make telemarketing harder because the companies you get the phone numbers from have the responsibility to suppress this information, so they take responsibility if something falls through the cracks," noted Campanella, who added that anyone who telemarkets should still check their own state laws because they may need to maintain an additional list of their own. "We have to maintain our own Do Not Call list because if a prospect says not to call them then you can't tell them to get themselves on a list," he related. "You can't call them for at least a year after that."

The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.