What You Need To Know About Call Compliance 

Call compliance is making sure that the act of recording a phone call is allowed locally, nationally and globally according to the specific laws and regulations.

The act of recording phone calls can be useful to many, but one must consider the rules and regulations in different countries. In some countries it is considered illegal hence might get you in trouble with the authorities.

In others, it is legal but only under specifically stated circumstances. Here is more information on call compliance among other things.

How is it upheld?

• Global and national Compliance laws

There are very few laws and regulations that can be applied globally. They mostly require United States to have the consent with the other party. Whereby they also vary from one party to another whether they want it or not.

• State and local compliance laws

Among the residents residing in the United States, the laws and regulations vary from state to state. The laws used in California may not look alike with the ones in Florida which shows why it is important to know the different rules and regulations by state. While they do vary the penalties for disobeying these laws mostly when data is leaked can cause a huge financial damage to any company.

Notifications of all recording

The federal communications commission (FCC) requests the notification of call recording and has a definition of the acceptable means of notifications. The first one is a verbal or written consent made by both sides before the conversation. The second one is verbal communication prior to the recording. The third is a regular audible beep during the call.

Some of the states that require consent from both parties involved in the call are; Maryland, Florida, California, New Hampton, Pennsylvania, Connecticut which only happens when the 3^rd  person not involved in the call, records the conversation.

Hawaii which involves the two-party consent when the recording person stays in a separate or private location. Illinois allows it as long as it does not involve any form of electronic communications.

Massachusetts has a ban on secretive recording. Montana requires the notification so long as it is not spoken consent, Washington grants permission when any party announces in a reasonable way. See this link to know what are some of the roles of compliance in a call center https://searchcustomerexperience.techtarget.com/answer/What-is-the-role-of-contact-center-compliance

How important is call compliance

One cannot make false or harassing statements towards the other party. Compliance is the ability to follow some rules which may be external to a company and set by a regulatory body

These are the areas where contact centers need to be compliant:

• When protecting card data
• When protecting hearing loss
• When you do not want to generate nuisance calls
• When protecting customer data

Payment industry data security is the law that regulates the protection of sensitive data (PCI DSS) which is also internationally known by the PCI security standards council which acknowledges the data protection act of 1998.

Regulations that managers need to know in a contact center compliance

1. Call centers cannot record the CCV2 number on credit cards.

This is according to the payment card industry data security standards (PCI DSS) whereby recording CCV2 numbers is illegal together with other sensitive data for example the pin numbers.

• Call centers need to get consent from both agents and customers to record their conversations. Most states in America normally require the consent of the two people for you to make a recording between them.

• All the involved agents in the call centers with access to sensitive information should be tracked. All the agents working there should be given a unique ID so that if by any chance there is leaked, stolen or corrupted information, it can be easily traced.

•  All agents should be trained regularly to remain compliant. Just like anyone, agents can also forget and fail to retain everything.

• Agents can threaten customers to pay their bills. The centers should make sure that their agents know how to speak calmly and use non-violent language when speaking to the callers on the other end.

• Call centers should assume they are under GDPR regulations. The general data protection regulation (GDPR). If call centers record personalized data, customers should have access to it with no charge suppose they request for it. Call centers must give valid reasons as to why they record calls which can range from legal requirements to contract fulfillment. They must have consent from the involved parties before receiving a call.

• Call centers can’t share customers’ health information. It ensures that the following information is protected and must be reasonably safeguarded.

How can call centers stay compliant with the most important regulation which is the TCPA. It refers to the telephone consumer protection act 47. It eliminates repetitive, irrelevant or excessively intrusive calling practices.

Its requirements are:

• You should not call anyone listed in the National do not call registry.
• Residents should not be called before 8am and after 9pm in the residence time zone.
• One should not deliver artificial voice calls or recordings to residences with no prior written consent to express yourself.
• Do not use stimulated voice or auto-dialers calls whereby the receiver pays for the call herself/himself.
• It is illegal to make calls using an automatic telephone dialing system.

TCPA applies to any person within the United States or any person outside the US if the recipient is within the United States. Click here for more insights about call compliance.

Conclusion

Call compliance is a very important concept that protects both parties involved. There are stipulated rules and regulations that must be followed to ensure compliance. For example, before recording the conversation there should be notification and mutual consent between the sides involved.