A year after the do-not-call list went into effect amid predictions of layoffs, firms are doing well.
By Associated Press
Published October 14, 2004
OMAHA, Neb. - In the months before the national do-not-call list went into effect, Stuart Discount laid off more than 150 of his workers at his telemarketing company. Now, however, the company is back to full strength.
"We've done a good job of rehiring," said Discount, president of Tele-Response Center Inc., which employs more than 500 people at its Philadelphia headquarters and two call centers in West Virginia.
The telemarketing industry appears to have similarly weathered the creation of the list, for which more than 63-million Americans have signed up. A year after it went into effect, fears of massive layoffs and failures among telemarketing companies haven't been borne out.
And the list seems to be here to stay. The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to consider the American Teleservices Association's challenge of the law. The association had argued that the list violated the right to free speech.
Many consumers appreciate the list. Once their phone numbers are on it, telemarketers in most instances are barred from calling them.
"I'm on the list and I love it," said Ann Perl of Omaha. "I signed up in March or April and my calls went down in three weeks."
Businesses that break the law face fines of up to $11,000 for each violation. The Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the registry, has received more than 500,000 complaints against companies and is seeking legal action against four.
However, people can receive calls from nonprofit groups, politicians and companies with which they recently have done business.
Discount said his company has adjusted to the do-not-call list by shifting toward fundraising for nonprofit groups and business-to-business sales pitches. Tele-Response has found enough new work since its 2003 layoffs that it is back to its former staffing levels, he said.
But some industry executives say telemarketers still face hard times. Tim Searcy, the ATA's chief executive, said he's standing by his prediction that 2-million of the industry's 6.5-million jobs would be lost because of the federal do-not-call legislation, including managers and other support personnel of laid-off telemarketers.
"We're still seeing the shakeout of all this," Searcy said.
However, a recent study by London market analysis firm Datamonitor estimates the do-not-call list will play a relatively small role in telemarketing layoffs when compared with technology advances and the outsourcing of jobs to countries like India that have lower labor costs.
"I don't think that's a very accurate figure," Datamonitor's Mark Best said of the ATA's estimate. "We think that's inflated."
Estimating that there are about 4.3-million telemarketing jobs in 50,600 call centers of 10 workers or more, Datamonitor concluded 7,500 to 15,000 jobs could be lost by 2008 because of the do-not-call list. About 200,000 jobs could be lost by 2008, Best said.
Firms like Discount's are more heavily emphasizing different kinds of telemarketing, for example, taking on more customer service work, in which the call centers receive calls instead of making them. Telemarketers are also carefully targeting outbound calls to recent customers of companies, Best said.
" "Do not call' has definitely had an effect," Best said, but said it was "less of an effect than the industry had forecasted."
Some companies have fared better than others, said Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., one of eight representatives who voted against the legislation in September 2003.
In opposing the legislation, Terry said, he worried about the big players and massive job cuts - Omaha is home to about 40 telemarketing businesses that employ 39,000. In the months since the legislation, Terry said he has heard from people who worked in smaller businesses who have been laid off because of do-not-call.
Terry said he could not remember any one company that has been directly hurt. But the legislation applies even to pizza shops and other neighborhood businesses that might simply want to announce their presence with the help of a few telephone calls, he said.
"What you're doing is destroying the small business section of the industry," he said.
Telemarketing firm Influent Inc., which employs about 1,500 in seven domestic offices and one in the Philippines, said it hasn't had to lay off any employees because of the list, but do-not-call has given the company another layer of regulations with which to deal.
"We're in the customer contact business," spokesman Ted Bernard said. "It certainly has affected our business."
TO REGISTER
Still haven't registered for the do-not-call list? You can do so or file complaints at www.donotcall.gov or toll-free 1-888-382-1222.
