BPA Featured Article

Most people dislike so-called robocalls. That’s not exactly a news flash, I know.

That led U.S. lawmakers and regulators to implement the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Do-Not-Call List years ago.

Nonetheless, unwanted call complaints to government agencies like the FCC (News - Alert) and the FTC are on the rise. And fines and settlements for TCPA violations have been significant. They can run between $500 and $1,500 per violation.

Last year, a court ordered Dish Network to pay $280 million for a Do-Not-Call violation. And Navient recently agreed to pay a $17.5 million settlement.

Many contact centers are painfully aware of this kind of thing. But complying with these regulations can be difficult. That’s particularly true when automated dialing solutions are at play.

However, Mckay Bird, CMO of TCN, has some tips on how contact centers can do that. He suggests using cell phone scrubbing, considering manual dialing, implementing predictive dialing, and recording calls and storing those recordings in a central database.

Cell phone scrubbing, he explains, is the practice of removing non-consenting cell phone numbers from call lists. And newer TCPA rules ban businesses from calling cell phone numbers without their users’ consent.

Bird adds that using manual dialing in addition to automatic dialing can also help with TCPA compliance. It may be slower, he says, but it could potentially result in huge savings due to avoidance of TCPA non-compliance fines.

As for predictive dialing, Bird has this to say: “This advanced technology can record how many calls a particular number receives to verify the automatic dialer does not exceed call limits, as well as filter out do-not-call numbers from a list and automatically hang up if an answering machine is reached to avoid leaving unapproved voicemails.”

He adds that: “Call recording can help ensure process compliance and dispute resolution as well as promote agent coaching and training.”