Tami Thompson has no qualms about hanging up on telemarketers. Despite having registered each of her telephone numbers about a year ago on the national Do Not Call Registry, the at-home business owner still gets annoying credit card solicitations — or worse yet, empty air as a call waits to connect.

Brian Burgett has a different perspective. The co-founder of an Ankeny-based telemarketing company, he views the registry as “garbage” that’s hurting legitimate telemarketers while doing nothing to stop fraudulent operators.

Since the Federal Trade Commission began accepting registrations for the Do Not Call Registry in June 2003, Iowans have put more than 950,000 telephone numbers on the list, which as of earlier this month contained 85.8 million numbers in all. The FTC doesn’t break out how many of those are home lines versus cell phones, but to put Iowa’s numbers in perspective, there are only an estimated 1.2 million phone residential phone lines in the state.

Telemarketers are required by law to purchase registration lists for the area codes they want to call and “scrub” their lists to remove any registered numbers or face possible fines.

Last month, the FTC announced its first settlement with a telemarketing company it prosecuted for violating the Do Not Call rules. Two New Jersey-based time-share sellers and their telemarketer were ordered to pay more than $500,000 for unlawfully calling hundreds of thousands of people whose numbers were registered, as well as not paying the registry access fee for some of the area codes they called. The first five area codes are free, after which telemarketers pay the FTC $40 per area code to access the registry, up to a maximum of $11,000 to access the entire list.

Fewer cold calls

Some telemarketers, including charities, political organizations and those conducting public opinion surveys, are exempt from the law, as are insurance companies or any company that has a business relationship with the person it’s calling through a purchase, payment or delivery made within the past 18 months.

“There’s still an awful lot of telemarketing business that’s still going on, as permitted by prior customer relationships,” said Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney general’s office. “But there’s far less of the cold-call solicitation, and we think that’s what consumers wanted. We hope that people in the business have other roles they fill in legitimate and useful telemarketing. And even if you have a business relationship with them, you can ask them not to call.”

Thompson estimates the number of telemarketing calls she receives on her business line has been cut in half since she registered her number, “but I still get calls,” she said, primarily from her credit card companies with offers, and from fund-raisers.

The registry is a double-edged sword for Thompson, whose business, Home Sweet Advantage Inc., specializes in referring homeowners to home improvement contractors. At some point, Thompson figures, she may want to conduct a direct-mail campaign and follow up on those contacts with phone calls.

“That is a huge concern for me,” she said. “That’s something that I will work with my lawyer on to know that they are ones that I can follow up on without getting into trouble.”

Burgett, who eight years ago launched Creative Innovations with David Avery, says his Ankeny-based company has had to cut its workforce in half since the FTC began enforcing the calling restrictions in October 2003. In addition to slashing its staff, the company has also tried to cut costs by branching out to call centers in Osceola and Creston to take advantage of lower small-town wages.

“I know there are companies out there that aren’t following the law, and they’re doing better than I am,” said Burgett, who estimates the registry has eliminated 40 percent of the numbers from his calling lists. “So it’s only hurting the legitimate businesses.”

Cutting staff

Creative Innovations, which now employs about 80 people at its three call centers, specializes in marketing discount shopping cards in about 250 small towns in an 18-state area. The company arranges coupon deals with local retailers and then sells the cards to residents through telemarketing calls.

In addition to cutting its telemarketing staff since the registry law was enacted, Creative Innovations has also eliminated its outside sales representatives who used to travel to its towns to sell the program to retailers, instead selling the service by phone, Burgett said.

At the same time, Burgett claims that hundreds of people who are on the Do Not Call list have contacted him to do business after hearing about his service by word of mouth.

From the beginning, the Iowa attorney general’s office has promoted the federal registry as a consumer-friendly tool.

“I think it’s dramatically reduced calls,” Brammer said. “It seems like everyone says they get far fewer calls.”

Brammer said that while most businesses and legitimate telemarketing companies seem to be complying with the law, many con artists, particularly Canada-based schemes requesting money or bank account numbers, aren’t. People who call the AG’s Consumer Protection Division with complaints about unwanted calls are referred to the FTC, which administers and enforces the federal law.

Last year, Iowans filed nearly 4,500 complaints with the FTC regarding calls they received after registering their numbers on the Do Not Call list. Nationally, 548,230 complaints about non-compliance were filed in 2004.

Michael Wagner, a consultant whose company, White Rabbit Group, advises Central Iowa businesses on their marketing strategies, said organizations need to find ways to fine-tune their approaches, rather than using a shotgun technique.

“A lot of what I do is help my clients find non-traditional ways of finding markets without calls,” Wagner said. For instance, a company that publishes an online newsletter that provides exceptional value will find potential clients contacting them.

“I think the other thing you’re going to see is more branded content,” he said. “You hold a speaking event and then you follow up with people about hearing more.”

Wagner, an avid reader who readily admits to distilling the best practices of experts into his own methodologies, said he favors the “permission marketing” model advocated by Seth Godin, author of “Permission Marketing,” and targeted marketing to key decision makers within an industry, as put forth in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point.”

A home-based business owner, Wagner said he exclusively uses his cell phone to conduct business, which so far has allowed him to avoid getting any unwanted telemarketing calls. He hasn’t put his cell number on the do-not-call list yet.

“If it became a problem, sure, I would,” he said.