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Greater Austin’s massive 36% population growth since 2010 made it the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States. To capture this rapidly growing market, businesses must pick call center partners that consistently deliver an outstanding customer experience.
Well-developed systems and protocols allow Austin call center operations to uphold strict quality standards in their services. Call quality monitoring, for instance, ensures agents comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) and follow the appropriate steps to help customers.
This article explores the core concept, critical areas, and best practices for implementing Austin call center compliance standards.
What are compliance standards?
Compliance standards comprise rules or guidelines that help companies operate within acceptable or expected norms. They support adherence to applicable local or international laws or minimum industry standards on service quality, operations, and processes.
Companies with outsourced technical support cannot manage their customer support services. They often face challenges in maintaining control, communication, quality assurance, and alignment with internal goals. These problems often lead to inefficiencies and decrease customer satisfaction.
Even without direct visibility into the outsourced process, client firms can easily follow laws and industry standards by agreeing on standards and compliance measures with their business process outsourcing (BPO) partner.
Business owners and their BPO vendors must thoroughly understand and strictly follow the standards that apply to their outsourced operations. Overlooking them can harm both parties’ public image and business prospects. Furthermore, poorly regulated call center operations invite costly penalties and lawsuits.
Key areas of Austin call center compliance standards
Austin call centers have a list of local and global compliance standards to follow. Below is a quick guide:
| Key area | Example compliance standards |
|---|---|
| Communications laws |
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| Consumer protection |
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| Data privacy laws |
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| Employment and labor laws |
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| Financial regulations |
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| Intellectual property (IP) laws |
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| Quality management standards |
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Note that call centers follow different laws and regulations depending on client industries and needs. For example, all call center firms observe BPO security compliance to protect sensitive data from clients and customers.
However, not all Austin call centers follow HIPAA or Truth in Lending Act (TILA) regulations unless they handle personal health information (PHI) or manage customer credit or lending data for their clients.
How Austin call centers and client companies ensure proper compliance
The Greater Austin area has seen a massive 500% increase in venture capital investment and has supported over 20 unicorn companies since 2016. High-quality customer service can help businesses differentiate themselves in a fast-growing, cutthroat market.
To support their clients, BPO call centers have expanded their offerings. This move has also increased the number of laws, regulations, and standards they must uphold. For instance, leveraging contact center as a service (CCaaS) solutions requires compliance for all channels used.
Austin call centers and client companies adhere to strict compliance standards through the following strategies:
- Understand which regulatory requirements apply to operations. Austin call centers must comply with the TCPA to avoid potential missteps. That means updating call lists with the National DNC Registry and Texas No-Call List.
- Identify key areas to include in internal compliance standards. Setting data access and security guidelines is fundamental to upholding compliance.
- Create comprehensive compliance protocols that align with goals. Established standards like ISO 9001:2015 provide reliable compliance frameworks that companies can adopt.
- Ensure call center agents receive training on compliance protocols. Writing a script for consistency and training agents to handle angry customers help them provide excellent, consistent, and efficient customer service.
- Monitor compliance issues and resolutions to track performance. Checklists, call monitoring, and audits can help detect and correct issues.
- Run a business process outsourcing compliance audit. Annual external audits provide an unbiased overview of key performance indicators (KPIs), such as customer effort score (CES), allowing companies to track progress and identify problem areas.
- Schedule meetings to discuss and process compliance issues identified. The severity of the infraction and its effect on operations dictate the scope and urgency of meetings.
- Resolve issues and hold agents accountable for oversights. Encouraging agents to give feedback can prevent recurring problems and make them more inclined to comply with call center standards.
- Stay updated on changes to laws relevant to call center operations. Hiring or consulting a call center compliance expert can help patch knowledge gaps.
- Review compliance standards periodically to optimize results and benefits. An annual or immediate review after significant changes to the current operation is fundamental to maintaining optimal efficiency and effectiveness.
Open communication is crucial in compliance, especially when beginning a new partnership. It lays the groundwork for discovering and resolving costly mistakes that might occur along the way.
Solving common issues in implementing compliance
Understanding common issues affecting the implementation of standards is critical to achieving total compliance. For instance, general awareness of major vulnerabilities and cyber threats (e.g., phishing emails) makes compliance easier.
According to the FBI Internet Crime Report 2022, Texas ranked fourth in total cybercrime victim losses at $763 million. Since 74% of account takeovers stem from phishing attacks, robust compliance strategies include comprehensive training on identifying phishing attempts.
Grouping common implementation issues into the following four categories can make them easier to address:
| Common issues in implementing compliance standards | |
|---|---|
| Communication and transparency (e.g., disorganized communication, inconsistent issue reporting, and critical information gaps) | Systems and infrastructure (e.g., outdated hardware or software, system integration issues, and data security vulnerabilities) |
| Training and awareness (e.g., lack of adherence to protocols, inadequate compliance training, and outdated training modules) | Data security and confidentiality (e.g., relaxed access control, questionable data integrity, and unclear incident response plan) |
Preemptively addressing complications in the implementation phase is more practical in the long term than taking steps to address oversights as they happen. Here are solutions to these common issues:
- Encourage open and honest communication so parties can immediately fix or prevent potential roadblocks to implementing and maintaining compliance standards.
- Ensure that all necessary systems and infrastructure are available to achieve compliance. For example, create and store backups to prevent service interruptions.
- Conduct regular training sessions to refresh third-party Austin call center agents on current compliance standards. This step is especially vital for acquiring and maintaining certification.
- To protect against leakages, service-level agreements (SLAs) and vendor contracts should include specific and strict confidentiality clauses and NDAs.
The bottom line
Greater Austin’s population of 2.2 million presents many possibilities for local businesses. Hiring an Austin call center to tap this enormous local market is smart, but not all service providers are ideal. Some cannot comply with laws and regulations, quickly halting business momentum.
Implementing and maintaining compliance standards requires the call center and client to work closely to prevent lapses and costly mistakes. It starts with knowing which laws and regulations apply to operations and properly communicating expectations.
Let’s connect and discuss how our Austin call center can help you revitalize marketing, improve efficiency, and boost satisfaction with high-quality customer service.
