The American Teleservices Association is proposing self-regulatory standards for so-called contact centers, designed to incorporate federal and state laws and regulations, clarify the gray areas in current rules, anticipate additional issues, and incorporate future trends.
The announcement was made at the 2007 ATA Washington Summit. The ATA is a trade association representing more than 43,000 inbound and outbound contact centers; users of teleservices; trainers; and consultants and equipment suppliers who initiate, facilitate, and generate telephone, Internet, and e-mail sales, service, and support.
The 89-page document provides guidance and best practices for outbound and inbound calls, state registration requirements, call monitoring, compliance, calls by charities, and privacy standards. It includes a “Teleservices Bill of Rights” that requires ATA members to be law-abiding, fair, responsible, honest, and polite with consumers, and to communicate in a clear and understandable manner. The bill of rights also says members will avoid unfair, deceptive, or abusive tactics; respect consumer privacy; securely protect information; and provide prompt, high-quality customer service. Other standards seek the centralization of FTC, FCC, and state oversight into one set of coherent standards and concepts. New concepts include specific protocols for consumer override of in-house DNC requests, which allows sellers to contact consumers if permission is given. Others involve answering machine rules and the “press-zero option,” a practice by which companies making calls press zero in an attempt to bypass voice recognition systems.
The ATA is requesting comments by June 22, 2007. The ATA’s Self-Regulatory Organization committee will release the finalized standards a month later, to go into effect six months hence. The ATA also must decide how the standards will be implemented, plan training and certification for the standards, and devise a communication plan about the standards.
At a luncheon after a presentation by ATA CEO Tim Searcy, attendees discussed the standards. In general, most said the standards are the right path for the industry, and the majority said they were comfortable with managing compliance under the new standards in their companies. Most also indicated that they were already doing many of the things that were being called for. However, some attendees said they feared there may be some financial impact and were also concerned that the FTC and FCC may not have a positive reaction to the standards, since only ATA members — not the whole industry — must follow them. Others worried about what might happen if the suppliers or vendors — to whom they outsource contact-center work — do not comply and what that will mean to their companies.
Significance: Like the food industry, the ATA is looking to supplant the need for the government to regulate the teleservices industry by taking matters into its own hands. Although the reaction of the industry is generally positive, whether the government will act to centralize regulatory oversight is an open question. Certainly, it won’t happen anytime soon. We will keep our readers apprised of the reactions of the FTC and FCC to this initiative.