Attention Mortgage Servicers: Are You Aware of The New TCPA Rules?
Following TRID, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) continues to caution mortgage CxOs. Process, finance, and technology heads felt they already did their bit by investing in loan origination technology to comply with TRID, but TCPA rules are mandating expensive CRM operations. While the penalty for an unsolicited debt-collection call can be as much as $1,500, process and technology changes can save the lenders from new debt-collection rules. Litigation should be avoided as far as possible. According to the new Act, debt-collection calls require prior written or oral consent before consumers receive them on their wireless devices. The calls can be made only to landlines or telephones if the borrower prefers it that way. It severely restricts the ability of debt collection agencies. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has expanded the definition of “Autodialer” and it includes any phone that automatically dials random or sequential numbers from the lender’s end. Every smartphone at the collection agency’s end will be considered an autodialer and require expressed consent from the consumers. More needs to be implemented upon the arrival of TCPA rules: Pre-recorded telemarketing messages must include an automated interactive opt-out mechanism, and it should be available throughout the duration of the call. Thus, consumers should have the option of dropping the call at any stage of the conversation. If consumers invoke the option to unsubscribe, then they should be delegated to the do-not-call list and not called henceforth. The recorded telemarketing messages should include a toll-free number to opt out of marketing calls. The burden of proof of consent falls squarely on debt collectors with the new FCC rules. Mortgage servicers should amend their policies and technologies to mitigate debt-collection calls. There are several means of ensuring consent, like written consent on the 1003 at the loan origination stage or web-based consent when uploading borrower information. Mortgage servicers should be careful in future, especially about how the new TCPA rules apply. Noncompliance can result in litigation and cause a loss of millions, as autodialers might end up reaching thousands of borrowers without consent.
How Being Social Helps Brands In Spite of the Congestion
Today, it’s not merely about providing quality products. It’s more about innovative marketing. Companies are diving deep into creative ways to promote their brands and reaching out to prospects. With 3 million people on the internet and 2.1 billion active on social media, this particular channel is indeed creating quite a buzz. The impact of social media on business performance cannot be ignored. In today’s dynamic environment, for businesses to sustain, relationship building is of paramount importance. Social media provides an incredible opportunity for businesses to build, sustain, and engage with customers 24*7. How do social media help businesses become profitable? By effectively using a mix of social platforms, brands can send across the right messages at the right time to the right group of people, thus creating brand awareness. By building relationships and communities, social media helps in forming loyal customers. Its presence gives brands a human touch. Here, brands behave as humans do and that gives them an opportunity to engage better with customers, that too on a real-time basis, and mostly without manual action. Here we look at some strategies to get the best out of your social media: What is the objective? Companies need to set the goals of social media campaigns. They must identify the variables they seek to achieve—be it advertising, creating brand awareness, brand loyalty, higher conversions, etc. Declare your presence After setting the objective, companies need to start creating awareness. By creating social pages, posting blogs, starting communities, forums and webinars, companies can tap into potential leads, help disseminate information regarding their products, share their thought leadership, and build a network. All these go a long way in creating and maintaining brand awareness. Choosing the best social medium platform Companies need to devote time and effort to researching the best social platforms suited for them. For example, Facebook can be used for reaching out to a large number of people and building a community presence. LinkedIn, with its focus on jobs and industries, becomes useful for business deals. Similarly, Twitter works great for driving conversations. Let’s talk metrics Organizations need to invest in social media analytics to measure metrics such as likes, followers, mentions, traffic, CTR, etc. Today, sentiment analysis is also gaining ground. With the help of analytical tools, organizations can filter out useless data and use important metrics to take business-relevant decisions. The focus should be on creating business value. Have something to say about this blog post? Share it with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.