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President Bush launched a national do-not-call list this morning to stop unwanted telemarketing. “Unwanted marketing calls are intrusive, they are annoying, and they’re all too common,” Bush said at a White House ceremony.
People began registering for the list just after midnight. As of this morning, Bush said 108 people were adding their phone numbers to the list every second.
Consumers can register for the free government service by visiting the do-not-call Web site.
A flood of interest from consumers apparently was affecting the Web site’s performance early today. It took an MSNBC.com reporter four times to log onto the Web site early Friday and a confirmation email needed to complete the registration process, which the site said would arrive within minutes, still had not appeared more than an hour later.
Telephone registration using a toll-free number — 1-888-382-1222 — is available in states west of the Mississippi River, including Minnesota and Louisiana, starting Friday, and nationwide by July 7, the Federal Trade Commission said.
“When Americans are sitting down to dinner or a parent is reading to his or her child, the last thing that they need is a call from a stranger with a sales pitch,” Bush said. “So we’re taking practical action to address this problem.”
So, what does this mean for landscape professionals?
The green industry is not heavily driven by telephone sales. In fact, according to a Lawn & Landscape Online poll, nearly 71 percent of those polled said they have never used telemarketing to secure new accounts. However, some lawn care companies do rely on telemarketing to grow their customer base. Almost 22 percent of those polled said they had, at some point, resorted to telemarketing methods for new sales – and half of that group said they still use the telephone technique to seek sales.
Telephone registration is being done in stages to ensure the system can handle the volume of calls expected, the FTC said. The commission expects up to 60 million phone numbers to be registered in the first year.
People who sign up this summer should see a decrease in telemarketing calls after the FTC begins enforcing the do-not-call list on Oct. 1. Registrations will have to be renewed every five years.
Source: Associated Press (with industry-specifice additions by Ali Anderson, Assistant Editor-Internet, Lawn & Landscape magazine)