Since our comments in Issue 12, Bill AB870, restricting the use of predictive dialers in California, has been signed into law by the Governor. This happened on October 10th, and seems to have been met with a deafening silence in the marketplace.
To refresh your memory, this bill will limit the level of abandoned calls generated by predictive dialers in California. The level will be set by the California Public Utilities Commission sometime before July 1, 2002.
As predicted by us in our analysis in Issue 12, the playing of pre-recorded messages has been taken out of the bill. But there are still a couple of holes in it, which the legislators will need to come back and address in the future if their actions are to be effective. Let's hope that they talk to the US DMA and learn from their Predictive Dialing Guidelines.
But that's not really the point. AB870 marks a watershed in the outbound industry, sending a clear message that the days of bad dialing practices are numbered, and that legislators will act to curb them.
Well, that's what we think! If you don't agree, or want to comment on this momentous but overlooked event, let us have your views.
