South African Code of Conduct

Code of Conduct When Sending to South Africa

WASPA is a South African membership-based industry body, fulfilling a self-regulatory role over its members. WASPA plays an important role in handling consumer complaints lodged against members, and ensuring that WASPA members adhere to the stringent requirements of the WASPA Code of Conduct. If you have a complaint or query involving one of WASPA’s members then you are welcome to lodge it with WASPA.

The current WASPA Code of Conduct can be accessed on the WASPA website at http://waspa.org.za/

What do I need to know before sending bulk SMS messages to my contact list?

Consent: Before sending a bulk SMS message to your contact list, you need to make sure that your recipients have given you consent to send SMS messages to them.

Opt-out's: A recipient has the option of opting out of SMS messages that you send them. After they have opted out, you are prohibited from sending them any further messages. WinSMS has a built in opt-out system, which automatically filters opt-out replies, and stops your account from sending any further messages to them. Responses such as “STOP” or “OPT OUT”, are opt-out keywords which will be picked up by the filter. Other opt-out wording such as “END”, “CANCEL”, “UNSUBSCRIBE” or “QUIT” can also be used as a response. It is very good practice to include “Reply STOP to opt-out” (for example) in your bulk SMS. As per the WASPA code of conduct, a confirmation that the recipient's cellphone number has been added to the opt-out list must be sent via SMS, WinSMS does that for you automatically.

Prohibited times for direct SMS marketing: Unless a consumer has expressly or implicitly requested or agreed otherwise, a member may not engage in any direct marketing directed to a consumer on:

(a) Sundays, public holidays contemplated in the Public Holidays Act, 1994;

(b) Saturdays before 09:00 and after 13:00; and

(c) all other days between the hours of 20:00 and 08:00 the following day.

The above guidelines are the top 3 pointers to adhere to when sending bulk SMS messages to your contact list. For a full descriptive guideline on direct SMS marketing, see Section 16 of the WASPA code of conduct.

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