latest outbound regulations from ofcom - the forum complian… · · 2010-05-08proposal for...
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© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20081
Latest outbound regulationsfrom OFCOM
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20082
Latest outbound regulationsfrom OFCOM.
Are you compliant with OFCOM regulations for
use of automated outbound systems? And are
you still compliant after the latest changes?
Understand the new guidelines and plan for any
changes you want to make in your own outbound
operation
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20085
Who have OFCOM Investigated
Banks
Telecoms
Kitchen Suppliers
Debt Recovery
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20086
Where we were before
Limit abandoned calls to a rate not exceeding three per
cent of all live calls made in any 24 hour period
Playing a brief message giving details about any call
answered before an agent is available
Calling line identification (CLI) information to be provided
so that consumers may return the call
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20087
Where we before cont’d
A 72-hour period before a telephone number receiving
an abandoned call may be called again without the
guaranteed presence of an agent
Unanswered calls must ring for at least 15 seconds
Records are kept for a minimum period of six months
that demonstrate compliance with the procedures
Remember - These are only Mitigating factors
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20088
The Revision
In September 2008 OFCOM issued a revised statementof its misuse policy for consultation the main points ofthis were –
Clarification of which factors in their rules carry mostweight
Targeting use of AMD (Answer Machine Detection) andwhat are known as ‘False positives’
Inclusion of ‘Call Steering’ as persistent misuse
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 20089
What are the changes?
Clarification of the steps to be taken and procedures
that call centres should adopt to minimise the nuisance
caused by silent or abandoned calls, including a fresh
proposal for factoring answer machine detection (AMD)
false positives into the abandoned call rate calculation;
A set of proposals related to the use of automated
messaging;
A clarification that the unscrupulous exploitation of
revenue-sharing numbers represents a form of
persistent misuse.
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200810
The key changes for diallers
the ‘abandoned call’ rate shall be nomore than three per cent of ‘live calls’,
calculated per campaign (i.e. across callcentres) or per call centre (i.e. acrosscampaigns) over any 24 hour period,
and shall include a reasoned estimateof Answer Machine Detection (AMD)
false positives
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200811
The key changes for diallers
in the event of an ‘abandoned call’, avery brief recorded information message
is played no later than two secondsafter the telephone has been picked up,which contains at least the following…..
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200812
Is Answer Machine Detect dead?
No. Ofcom have not banned the use of AnswerMachine Detect, but the guidelines are soarcane that continued AMD use requires verysignificant thought for each call centre andeven each campaign. To quote Ofcom…
"...Ofcom recognises that at present, and untilaccuracy rates improve, it will be very difficultto use AMD technology without breaching thethree per cent guideline."
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200813
Are the AMD rules right?
[Rostrvm Solutions opinion]. We understand andsupport the objective but the simple percentage ruledoesn’t quite address the issue.
Einstein's definition of madness: “continuing to do thesame thing, hoping for a different outcome.”
Diallers are computers and do the same thing overand over again very efficiently!
You should expect that calling a person and getting afalse positive will lead to a false positive next time.The new rules do not address the repeated falsepositive issue.
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200814
Is turning off AMD bad for you?
If you just look at agent productivity then, Yes
If you look at business outcomes then, No
– Any false positives mean lost opportunities to ‘sell’
– consumers can detect the AMD brief delay and mayjust hang up. Another lost sales opportunity
– Listening to answer machine messages can yieldvaluable information, such as alternate contact details.
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200815
What I need to be doing
Assess quality of AMD and makeOperation decisions about it’s continueduse
Understand the clarification around whata campaign is for abandon ratemeasurement
Look at the clarification for how quickly amessage needs to be played when anabandon call is identified
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200816
What do I need to be doing?
Register for OFCOM Updates
Respond to all Consultations
Consult the supplier of your Dialler
platform about compliance
© Professional Planning Forum 2008Best Practice Programme 200817
Next Steps
Know the regulations - be able to demonstrate this
Make people in your company aware of the risk
Decide and document your own policy
Understand your technology and how to use it
Assign responsibility for compliance
Drive efficiency and performance from all areas