As contact centres set a steady course following the choppy pandemic waters and look to navigate the impacts of current turbulence it seems that politicians just can’t resist a bit of interference in contact centre regulation.
The UK government has announced plans to reform the UK Data Protection Act. The plans are another step in divergence from the EU GDPR and contains proposals to simplify data protection processes – particularly for smaller businesses. A plus point is the idea of reducing those irritating cookie pop-ups as you navigate the web. But is introducing more changes to data protection a useful activity right now?
At the same time the Bill proposes stricter penalties for outbound contact centres, increasing the fines for nuisance contacts to be in line with current UK GDPR penalties; up to £17.5 million, or 4 per cent of global turnover, whichever is greater. Outbound contact centres must focus on strategies and precision to make sure that they don’t fall foul of the planned changes.
Meanwhile the Spanish government is bringing forward a customer service bill. Proposals include obliging companies to offer live agent customer service if requested by a caller; providers of basic services, such as utilities, will be required to offer 24-hour customer service. The bill also aims force to answer calls in 3 minutes or less.
These ideas may be superficially popular with consumers but will present real challenges for planners. Whilst contact centres look to optimise costs through Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language and bots, politicians think otherwise. Given that fines-for-failure are proposed perhaps it’s time to brush up on your Erlang models.