Call center compliance

What is call center compliance?

Call center compliance is the strict adherence of the rules set by a regulatory body or an organization itself. Laws for call center compliance can be different for different countries and failure to follow them can lead to large fines and affect a company’s reputation.

What are some compliance practices contact centers follow?

1. PCI DSS
   Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) prohibits contact centers from recording sensitive payment details like CVV2 numbers, full magnetic stripe data, or PINs. Contact centers usually use redaction software that automatically identifies and deletes any sensitive information during the interaction.
   
   
2. Consent
   Recording calls is an important practice for organizations to improve on their services. It also assists in call center compliance training. But in most of the states in the USA, it’s legally mandated for both parties to be aware of call recording. Hence it’s critical for agents to ask for consent before recording.
   
   
3. Tracking agents
   A necessary call center compliance standard is assigning unique IDs to all agents in case of a leak or information tampering, to easily track down responsible employee/s.
   
   
4. Regular training
   Agents in a contact center must be annually trained on compliance to ensure the requirements aren’t neglected over time. This is a great practice to updates agents on the frequently changing compliance standards as well.
   
   
5. No threats
   Every contact center with a debt collection campaign must have proper guidelines for agents that deal with non-paying customers. An agent lacks authority to threaten a customer for bill payment.
   
   
6. Health information
   One of the many crucial compliance standards comes from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that safeguards the security and privacy of patient health information.
   
   
7. TCPA regulations
   The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) restricts solicitations through phones and the use of automated phone equipment. There are several crucial TCPA compliance guidelines that agents must follow to avoid legal troubles for the organization.

Advancements in contact center technology have automated a significant number of compliance tasks. For instance, call center compliance automation software can simply pause recording or auto-redact information in transcriptions when customers are providing credit card details.

While the above list is limited, it offers an understanding around different kinds of compliance regulations at contact centers.