From PCI DSS to HIPAA, call centers operate under several laws that help protect sensitive data captured during customer interactions. Call center compliance refers back to the systematic means of abiding by these laws and regulations during each day operations.
Nevertheless, adhering to those laws could be difficult without the correct knowledge and strategy.
In this text, we’ll share five common call center compliance regulations and five smart suggestions to enhance compliance at your center.
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Let’s start.
5 essential call center compliance regulations
The precise laws that govern call center operations vary for various countries.
Primarily, they concern security elements like data theft and rules regarding what call centers can and may’t do when engaging the purchasers.
Following some general practices and security protocols will show you how to stay compliant together with your local laws and run operations safely. For instance, for those who’re within the healthcare industry, complying with HIPAA requirements will show you how to ensure patients’ data security.
Let’s have a look at six common compliance practices that decision center managers should pay attention to:
1. Protect customer data
When engaging with customers, call centers normally collect information that may be sensitive and have to be protected in any respect costs.
Different jurisdictions have laws that regulate and guide businesses on how they need to process customer data.
For instance, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS standards) is an information security standard concerned with protecting bank card details. It applies to any business that gathers, stores, and processes cardholder data.
Businesses the world over follow PCI guidelines to enhance data security.
The PCI standard prohibits corporations from recording bank card information like CVV2 numbers, PINs, and other sensitive customer details by any means (call recording, writing, etc.)
Listed below are some compliance requirements for protected handling of payment information, as specified by PCI DSS:
- Construct and maintain a secure network for storing cardholder data.
- Encrypt cardholder data stored on the corporate’s servers.
- Protect sensitive data from cyber-attacks using anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware programs.
- Restrict access to sensitive customer data to only those that need it.
- Track all agents with access to sensitive information. Assign a novel ID to agents so you possibly can trace any fraud, leak, or data tampering to a selected person with that access ID.
- Run regular checks on the corporate’s network systems to make sure PCI DSS compliance.
- Create a call center information security policy to implement PCI compliance amongst your agents.
Similarly, corporations within the European Union (EU) abide by data protection regulations set by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It applies to any company that stores and processes identifiable personal data of EU residents.
Listed below are some GDPR compliance requirements for call centers:
- Take consent before recording customer calls.
- Store all recorded calls in an encrypted format.
- Appoint a dedicated team to watch and audit GDPR compliance.
- Give customers access to their personal data.
- Make sure that you delete customer data upon request without charging them.
2. Regulate outbound campaigns
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulates outbound calls made for sales and telemarketing purposes within the USA.
It prevents call centers from making intrusive or irrelevant telemarketing calls to the purchasers.
In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission expanded the reach of TCPA by introducing the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act.
Under TRACED, telemarketers violating the regulations can face fines as much as US$ 10,000 for every instance of non-compliance.
To avoid paying the costly penalties, call centers should make provisions for TCPA regulations of their campaign.
Listed below are a number of steps call center managers can take:
- Segregate landline and mobile device contacts because the TCPA has different rules for every.
- Take written consent from the purchasers to make marketing calls using an automatic dialer or send recorded promotional messages.
- Make sure that the pre-recorded messages convey the name of the business/clients.
- Use auto dialer systems to filter customers listed within the DNC registry (Do Not Call registry).
- Don’t call residences before 8 am and after 9 pm (as per local time zone).
- Provide the purchasers an choice to opt out of any telemarketing communication throughout the call.
- Make sure that you don’t use an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) to call any healthcare facility, fire protection, or law enforcement office.
- Record every outbound call in order that it may possibly be used to prove TCPA compliance in case of a dispute.
3. Take call recording consent
Countries have different laws and specifications regarding telephonic conversation recording. Many countries mandate businesses to record all incoming and/or outgoing calls by taking the required consent.
For example, many states within the USA require that decision centers take prior consent from each customer and the agent making the decision (two-party consent) before recording it.
Call centers can either use the IVR (Interactive voice systems) systems to get customers’ consent before recording the decision or ask their agents to do it. Besides, they have to provide customers a likelihood to opt out of the decision before initiating the recording.
Customer support corporations also needs to get written consent from their agents to record the decision.
Whatever the jurisdiction, your call center falls into; it‘s a healthy practice to take consent from customers and agents. It ensures privacy and boosts your brand’s image.
4. Ensure fair debt collection
Call centers that run debt collection campaigns must be mindful of how they engage with defaulting customers.
Countries normally have laws in place that prohibit businesses from using oppressive means to force customers to pay their bills.
Within the USA, section 806 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) states: “A debt collector may not engage in any conduct, the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in reference to the gathering of a debt.”
Listed below are a number of restrictions put forth by the FDCPA that decision centers should pay attention to:
- Debt collectors must only contact customers between 8 am and 9 pm.
- Collectors must issue a written notice (stating all the main points) to the purchasers inside five days of contacting them regarding the debt.
- They need to not engage in behavior intended to harass or intimidate the client (or their family and friends).
- Businesses are forbidden from presenting customers with false information to govern them.
- Call centers may in a roundabout way contact the defaulters knowing that an attorney represents them.
But call center agents are sometimes under pressure to perform and should resort to such means. This affects their performance and will also hurt the business.
Managers should make sure that agents are well trained to have interaction customers using non-intimidating language.
Furthermore, the corporate must have a strict policy on addressing non-compliance in such cases.
5. Safeguard health information
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 to guard a patients’ identifiable information. It applies to US-based businesses offering healthcare services.
The HIPAA privacy rule establishes rules for using and disclosing protected health information (PHI) and other sensitive data of a patient, reminiscent of:
- Social security numbers.
- Facial identity.
- Geographic location.
- Medical record number.
- Details about physical and mental health.
- Account number, etc
Similarly, the HIPAA security rule specifies various technical and non-technical methods to safeguard electronically stored protected health information (ePHI).
To make sure HIPAA compliance, call centers for a healthcare organization should take precautions while gathering, using, storing, or transferring patient information. This includes establishing systems and policies on data security and training your agents on the identical.
Abiding by relevant laws is crucial for protected and secure call center operations. Let’s take a look at how call center leaders and managers can ensure strict adherence to regulatory compliance.
5 smart suggestions to enhance compliance adherence
Listed below are a number of suggestions to spice up your compliance program and minimize non-adherence:
1. Train your agents
Frontline call center agents are the face of your organization as they interact with the purchasers each day. Also they are answerable for gathering and processing customer data.
They need to understand the importance of compliance and receive thorough coaching on the identical. Your agent training program must have a dedicated module on compliance and adherence.
Listed below are a number of tips about constructing a compliant workforce:
- Managers should stay updated on the laws and regulations relevant to their industry to make sure compliance amongst their teams.
- Appoint dedicated mentors with a solid track record to coach recent hires on compliance practices.
- Usher in experts who specialise in compliance monitoring to conduct internal audits.
- Reward employees that show exemplary behavior in ensuring compliance – like stopping a knowledge breach – to motivate your team to be compliant.
- Train managers and agents to remain vigilant and spot compliance red flags of their work surroundings.
Call centers must prioritize ongoing compliance training to maintain agents updated on the newest practices and guidelines.
2. Use technology to spice up compliance
Monitoring every aspect of the decision center manually to make sure compliance shouldn’t be efficient or sustainable.
Furthermore, a manual approach increases the probabilities of non-compliant practices sneaking in once in a while.
Call centers should as an alternative go for technology solutions which can be designed to fulfill compliance requirements. Using technology is more cost-effective than appointing dedicated teams to make sure overall compliance.
Here’s how you possibly can leverage technology to enhance call center compliance:
- Use PCI compliant phone systems that robotically pause the recording or prompt agents to do it manually when the client speaks the bank card details.
- Prioritize using a PCI DSS compliant call center software with safety features like anti-virus, anti-malware, etc.
- Ensure PCI compliance by deploying an efficient firewall to intercept call traffic from potentially harmful sources.
- Use data security technologies like tokenization to remodel sensitive information like bank card data into random tokens and keep them protected from breaches.
- Get TCPA compliant dialing tools for making outbound calls.
- Incorporate advanced speech analytics to scan agent-customer interactions for trigger words and phrases that indicate non-compliant behavior.
- Use two-factor or multi-factor authentication like OTP (one-time passwords), biometrics, smart keys, etc., for each customers and agents.
Improve compliance in your workplace with these top call center monitoring software.
3. Develop a compliance policy
With so many laws and regulations to mind, call center or contact center compliance can often get unmanageable.
To streamline the method, call centers should develop and implement a formal compliance policy. This policy would act as a foundation on your compliance efforts with clearly defined rules, procedures, and accountabilities.
Including a general safety checklist in your policy is a fantastic method to minimize casual compliance-related negligence amongst your staff.
It’s best to also raise awareness amongst your agents by emphasizing the severity of common mistakes, reminiscent of sharing login credentials with colleagues.
4. Use agent scripts
Developing phone scripts is one of the vital effective ways to make sure consistency in your compliance program.
Scripts contain pre-written responses and workflow instructions that guide your agents and help them stay compliant during customer interactions.
For instance, using scripts for debt collection calls will help your agents comply with the legally correct language. Besides, scripts can even show you how to improve customer experiences and boost your brand’s credibility in the long term.
5. Outsource your compliance needs
For those who’re battling your compliance goals because of limited resources, outsourcing the function may very well be the method to go.
You possibly can delegate all compliance-related processes to external services. These services normally have well-trained staff and advanced technology to fulfill demanding compliance needs.
Besides, it’ll be more cost-effective than running an in-house compliance program with a dedicated team. You possibly can as an alternative use the saved resources in your core operations.
For more information, take a look at this comprehensive call center outsourcing guide.
Final thoughts
A call center must have a strong compliance program to reduce the risks of lawsuits and dear penalties.
Above all, you’ll have the option to run protected and secure operations, which might boost your brand’s image, in addition to customer satisfaction in the long term.
Use the data and suggestions shared in this text to reduce compliance risk at your call center.
