Put Compliance on your New Year's Resolution List

Jeff Stroum

It’s that time of year again: the holidays are behind us, and if you are like me, you are making New Year’s resolutions for 2013: things to stop doing, things to start doing, and resolutions you know you will never keep. Most of us spend hours contemplating the past year, taking stock of our successes and missteps, and putting together our list of goals for the new year.  Just as “get back to the gym” might make the top of many resolution lists, compliance should always be on top of the list for contact centers.

In a recent blog post, Tim Segall, SoundBite’s Chief Technology Officer, referenced that, “Compliance knowledge is not a burden, it’s a mandate.” Fortunately for contact center leaders, advanced compliance suites give the gift of compliance year-round, striking the perfect balance between compliance costs, operating efficiency, and positive customer interactions.  Just as you know eating well and going to the gym are important to stay fit, contact center managers must provide technology with a level of flexibility and control concerning compliance to keep their operations healthy.  Not having an advanced compliance suite that can properly report on, define, automate and complete your dialer audit processes is like having a resolution you know you won’t keep!

When contact centers start working on their compliance resolution, they should look at the cutting edge tools available to make compliance easy and achievable.  Dialer technology, for example, must be adaptable in the face of the ever-changing regulatory landscape.  Here is what’s at the top of a contact center leader’s list in 2013:

• Managing consumer opt-in for your mobile strategy. As companies across many industries identify and contact mobile devices, they must evolve with the regulations. Consumer permission records must be tracked to honor opt-ins (and outs) and maintain TCPA compliance.  Garnering opt-ins is critical to increase list penetration and drive contacts on your daily dialer campaigns.

• Keeping up with carrier deactivation. Every day more than 400,000 wireless numbers get temporarily suspended, deactivated, or transferred to another network.  If you’re not receiving this type of information, then you increase the risk of using data that is out-of-date, and as a result, managing your opt-in database becomes nearly impossible.

• Ensuring secure data transmission to the agent interface. While all data requires protection, many industries carry an additional layer of privacy requirements.  Healthcare businesses that face HIPAA compliance can take advantage of agent scripting tools that allow for PHI data to be encrypted on the platform and viewable to their agents. Financial organizations can use this same functionality to mask personal and financial data, ensuring proper risk mitigation.

As you work on your compliance list, seek partners with their fingers on the pulse of your industry and engage in dialogue. Ensure they understand your challenges and have a track record of building year-round compliance tools that can evolve with you and the ever-changing regulations.  Happy New Year, and make 2013 the year you keep your resolutions!

As a Senior Solutions Consultant in SoundBite’s Contact Center Business Unit, Jeff works directly with our clients to develop and implement communications strategies and solutions. Jeff stresses the importance of delivering solutions that are not just functional, but streamline processes that are directly correlated to client initiatives, business acumen and strategic vision. He plays an active role in the product, sales and marketing strategy as well as long-term positioning of the Hosted Dialer product.  Jeff has over a decade of experience in the Collections and Telco industries, most recently as a Director of Telecommunications and Quality Assurance. Jeff can be reached at jstroum@soundbite.com.