What is the Do Not Call List?
From the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission: Under the Telecommunications Act, the CRTC is responsible for regulating the practice of unsolicited telecommunications activities, such as cold calling. This is when a business calls a phone number hoping to solicit business.
The Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules are designed to protect the privacy of Canadians and prevent unsolicited calls while still allowing the legitimate use of such activities. They consist of various sections, with three key parts:
- National Do Not Call List Rules
- Telemarketing Rules
- Automatic Dialing–Announcing Device Rules
The National DNCL filters out consumers who do not want to receive telemarketing calls. This helps ensure that the households you do contact are more likely to be receptive - streamlining your calling process and potentially improving overall response rates.
What is Telelisting?
Telelisting is a cloud-based lead generation and management platform primarily designed for real estate brokers, insurance agents, and call centers in Canada. It serves as a digital phonebook integrated with compliance tools to help professionals find and contact potential clients.
As a Real agent licensed in Canada, you have free access to Telelisting's Do Not Call List scrubbing tool, as well as several other features offered by Telelisting. *Please note: this is not currently available in Saskatchewan but will be provided at a later date.
How do I gain access to Telelisting?
To get started, you will receive an email from Telelisting that contains the link to access and your associated user and password information. Once you are in Telelisting, you are able to use it for a variety of things, including:
- Scrubbing individual phone numbers against the DNCL before reaching out
- Importing your contact list to understand who is eligible for outreach and who is not
- Prospecting for leads based on search criteria you enter and their associated status with the DNCL
How do I use Telelisting?
There are a few ways you can utilize Telelisting, depending on what you're looking to do. As mentioned above, you can:
- Scrub phone numbers
- Import your contact list
- Search for leads
The steps in which to do all three of these actions are listed below. When you first log into Telelisting, you'll see areas for these three actions. Click into the action you're wanting to do and read the next sections to learn more.
How do I scrub a phone number?
When you are getting ready to place an outbound call, simply enter the phone number(s) you wish to call in the left box, one per line. Then, click the Validate Button:
The number(s) in the green box are available to call, while the number(s) in the red box are on the Do Not Call List and must not be called.
How do I import my existing contacts?
This feature will allow you to import your leads to check against the DNCL list. From the homepage, click "Import your contact". From here, you can download the sample CSV given or create your own with the above details:
- Phone
- FirstName
- LastName
- Address
- City
- State
-
ZipCode
Please note that the sample CSV file indicates State and Zip Code. This can and should be substituted for Province and Postal Code. If creating your own spreadsheet, please ensure you are following this exact formatting so the upload goes through seamlessly.
Next, fill out the spreadsheet with all of the contact details you'd like to bring over. When ready, upload to Telelisting by selecting “Choose File” and “Upload and Continue”.
What does accessing the phonebook mean?
This feature in Telelisting will allow you to search by phone number, search on a map for potential leads, or search by street, city, etc. for prospecting.
How can I find leads through the Field Search option in Telelisting?
If you're interested in searching through the use of Fields, click "Field Search" and enter at least one of the following fields: Phone, First Name, Last Name, House Number, Street Name, City, Postal Code, Province:
If you are interesting in filtering the list to only see contacts you are able to call, you can select the check box next to “Hide DNCL Listings?”.
Once you have your list compiled, you can export this list from Telelisting to upload to a dialer, a CRM, an Excel spreadsheet, or simply a printed copy.
How can I find leads through the Map Search option in Telelisting?
You are also able to initiate a search through the "Map Search" option as well. This tab will allow you to search via an address, city, province, postal code as well, but it will also allow you to narrow it down to a specific area on the map, and save a specific selection for future.
Similar to the Field Search options:
- Any contacts in red cannot be called.
- You may further filter your search criteria to only contacts that are available by selecting the check box next to “Hide DNCL Listings?”
- You can click the “Actions” button and download the list.
How can I log notes of what happened on my phone calls through Telelisting?
If you click on a number available to call, you can:
- Take notes on any conversation you had with the individual
- Set a status for that number
- Add a task
- Set a category
How can I keep track of my leads through Telelisting?
Any leads you note along the way, or import manually, will show up in your "My Leads" tab. They will also show up as yellow in any searches you perform on any other tab.
What rules do I need to be aware of regarding phone calls?
Who You Can Call & When
-
Any numbers in red cannot be called.
- Real Broker subscribes to the Do Not Call List and it is integrated into Telelisting to assist you in adhering to the regulatory guidelines surrounding cold calling and telemarketing.
- As an agent, if you are making any cold calls, you must, at minimum, scrub the number via Telelisting’s “Scrub your phone number” function
- You may call clients you’ve worked with in the last 18 months or people who contacted you in the last 6 months, even if they are on the DNCL. However, you must still follow all other telemarketing rules such as proper disclosure and calling hours.
- Calls are only allowed between 9am and 9:30pm (weekdays) and 10am - 6pm (weekends)
Internal Do Not Call List
- If a contact you call is not on the Do Not Call List, but requests not to be called again, you must submit their number for our internal Do Not Call List.
- Submit the number here to keep us compliant
- You must submit the number to the above form within 14 days of the contact requesting it
Liability
- Penalties can reach $1,500 per violation for individuals (agents) and $15,000 per violation for the brokerage.
Additional Videos and Training
Telelisting English Phonebook Video