| How Telemarketing Calling Systems Work And How To Stop Telemarketing Calls |
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| Approximately 80% of all telemarketing calls are dialed by automated systems. The remainder of the calls are placed by manual dialing. No matter how the calls are dialed, the telemarketer relies on a list, or database, of telephone numbers of potential customers. In order to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive, your goal is to get your telephone number removed from these lists. To accomplish this goal, it is helpful to understand the technology of telemarketing. Automated Dialing Systems There are two types of systems currently employed by telemarketing companies. The simplest of these, called an “automatic dialer” or “auto dialer,” is a device into which a database of telephone numbers is loaded. When the telemarketer is ready to make the next call he or she indicates this readiness to the device and the machine dials the next number. The second type of system, called a “predictive dialer,” also automatically dials the next number but is programmed by the operator to track the average time a telemarketer spends on a call. It uses that average to predict when a marketer is going to be available, and automatically places the call and connects the marketer when the call is answered. The purpose of this device is to increase the talk time per hour of the telemarketer. It is very efficient and has increased telemarketing talk time from 30 minutes or so per hour to about an average of 54 minutes per hour. A predictive dialer can call as many as 500,000 numbers per day. That comes out to about 6 calls per second, 24 hours a day. How can that be? The answer is that the industry employs several hundred thousand individuals and call centers may have a hundred or more marketers working on a shift. Call Progress Detection Both the auto dialer and the predictive dialer have call progress logging ability. That means the devices are programmed to detect what is happening with each call and log that activity. The devices detect whether a call was answered by a live person or an answering machine, if there was no answer, or if the call was placed to a disconnected number. What the machine detects determines what happens next. If it detects a live person the call is connected to a telemarketer. If there is no answer or an answering machine is detected the number is recycled and marked for recall. If the line was detected as a disconnected number the number is automatically removed from the database. Manufacturers of telemarketing equipment prefer to keep secret exactly how their equipment achieves call progress detection. However, the U.S. Patent Office does maintain information on patents that is available to the public. The following paragraphs summarize the material describing how call progress detection works. |
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The telemarketing automation systems are programmed with speech recognition ability. The machine will detect the rate of speech, the amplitude of syllables and wait time. Some have what is known as the "hello" chip, meaning it is programmed to detect the word hello and the wait time between repetitions of the word. Most of us answer the phone saying, “hello.” If after a second or two the word “hello” is repeated the machine designates the call as having been answered by a live person and transfers the call to a telemarketer. Answering machine detection Older tape answering machines are detected by the presence of tape hiss, which has a predictable signature. Newer digital answering devices require the detection of speech rate, energy and empty space. Unlike a live human who will normally answer with a simple “hello” and wait for a response, answering machine greeting messages are continuous speech for between 10 to 20 seconds. The dialing device is capable of recognizing this continuous speech and designates the call as having encountered an answering device. The number is then recycled and marked for recall. Disconnected number detection When you dial a disconnected number you will hear 3 tones just before the message saying the number is no longer in service. These 3 tones are called “special information tones”, or SIT tones. The SIT tones have a specific frequency and duration. Telemarketing dialing devices are programmed to recognize these tones and will immediately disconnect the line and automatically remove the number from the database. Some devices are programmed to react to the first tone of the series, others require all three. |
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| Defeating Automated Telemarketing Systems It is clear from an analysis of the operation of the telemarketing dialing devices that the only way to defeat the machine is to fool it into designating your number as disconnected, which will cause it to remove your number from it’s database. Otherwise, your number not only remains in the database, but is probably marked for recall, guaranteeing that you will receive additional future calls from the same telemarketer. Using SIT tones to defeat telemarketers is very effective, but it will only work with automatic or predictive dialers. There is no effect on manually dialed calls. For manually dialed calls the only thing you can do is tell the telemarketer to remove you from their call list. Since the introduction of commercial devices such as the TeleZapper, which originally used only the first tone, telemarketing companies have been busy programming their dialers to require all three. There are some reports of call centers disabling SIT tone recognition. This is unlikely to be widespread because it diminishes the efficiency with which the automated systems work by increasing the likelihood that any given call will be an invalid number. Also, some devices are now being programmed to call a number which plays SIT tones 2 or 3 times before it deletes the number from the database. |
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| Phantom Calls and Empty Messages You probably have experienced phone calls with nobody on the other end after you answer. You may also have experienced hang up or "empty" messages on your answering machine or voice messaging system. Of course some of these may be wrong number calls but the majority are caused by predictive dialers from a telemarketing center. Predictive dialers are programmed to call more numbers than the call center can handle. This keeps the marketer talking and is very efficient and profitable for the company. When you get one of these empty calls the cause is likely to be that the dialer is waiting for a telemarketer to become available. In 2001 California passed a law prohibiting the over programming of predictive dialers in the hope of eliminating empty calls. This was done because many people thought they were being stalked and were frightened. Unless you have other reasons to believe you are being stalked it is more likely the call is from a predictive dialer. |
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