Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/155925
before ringing up a big sale. "I've been in the call center business 20 years, so I've always been familiar with the consumer side of it," Parton said. "You have to be very careful." MIND THE 'DO NOT CALL' LIST Mark Parton of Call for Wine emphasizes the importance of data collection and relationship-building for wine telemarketers. about wine, even with telemarketers, more call centers may throw their hats into the ring. But it's not as simple as having a lovely chat There are state laws regulating telemarketing and there are federal laws. Wine telemarketers need to be familiar with all such regulations, especially if they are calling wine club members in other states and time zones. But most important is to adhere to the national Do Not Call (DNC) registry (www.donotcall. gov). Calls to consumers who have placed their phone numbers, including cell phone numbers, on the registry can result in fines of up to $16,000 – per call. Telemarketers are required by law to access the DNC and to search it at least once every 31 days to ensure that their numbers are still allowed. After setting up a profile, a business can download numbers in specific area codes. There's TIPS FOR TELEMARKETERS Ryan Thurman doesn't see regulators targeting wine telemarketers as much as others. "People who are interested in wine are much more savvy customers, and a lot of them are probably lawyers themselves," he said, "so it's a little different." Thurman offered the following tips for avoiding legal trouble: + Stay clean on the data side. That is, make sure current numbers are accurate, that they're not on the DNC, and that written consent is in place. Also, make sure that the time frame for an EBR is still good, especially when calling cell phones. + Keep track of new rules and state laws. For example, some states ban all telemarketing calls to wireless devices, with an auto dialer or not. Parton, from Call for Wine, offered a few best-practice tips for wine telemarketers: + Keep building your contact list and make it easy at the winery for customers to provide their information -- especially their phone numbers. + Call your entire list of customers several times a year. + Have the same sales rep call the same customers in order to build a relationship. -S.G.H. w w w. v w m media.com no fee to subscribe to five or fewer area codes. For more than five, the annual rate is $58 per area code. Wine telemarketers target customers of a client winery who have made recent purchases and/or have joined the winery's wine club. It's a matter of collecting phone numbers provided at the time of the sale or club signup. Within a certain time frame – 18 months according to federal law – what's called an Existing Business Relationship (EBR) can supersede the DNC list, although even a current winery customer can request no more calls. But as of Oct. 16, 2013, there's a catch to the EBR rule if the telemarketer uses auto dialers with prerecorded calls. In that case, prior written and signed consent must be obtained. This new FCC rule also requires written and signed consent for all autodialed calls to cell phones, and text messages. SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATIONS Wineries that prefer to reach out to their customers via social media have to take precautions as well, said Emily Gant, a lawyer with the Ogden Murphy Wallace firm in Seattle, Wash. Gant, who writes the firm's "Sip & Nosh" blog about the food and alcohol industries, recently posted about the new social media rules issued by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). In a nutshell, TTB regards social media pages, and even tweets, as advertisements, with specific rules for identifying the advertiser. (To see the full set of TTB rules, visit www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/ archives/2013/13-01.html). "Some people are up in arms about it," Gant said. "But this is TTB trying to keep up with things as they change." The rules require that mandatory statements, basically the identification and address of the advertiser, must be visible on website home pages or fan pages (such as on Facebook) and profile pages (for Twitter and YouTube). An exception is allowed for mobile apps, for which S e p t - O c t 2 0 13 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 79