Hot Topics in Compliance: The Difficulty in Defining an ATDS
One of the six central provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, has to do with the use of automatic telephone dialing systems, or ATDS. Essentially, if you are using one of these to place calls to customers, there are many restrictions you need to be aware of, such as the inability to make non-marketing autodialed calls without express consent and restrictions on calls and texts that might charge the person without their express written consent. The TCPA also grants a private right of action to people who suspect violations of this provision, which is why the potentially [...]
Call Centers Are Returning to North America. Here’s Why
Everyone in the call center industry knows that historically, offshore call centers have been incredibly popular. They offer the opportunity to maintain a 24/7 call center at a lower cost than keeping the call center in-house, plus limit or eliminate the problem of agent retention and high turnover. But in recent years, experts have begun to see businesses reshoring their call centers, or bringing them back to the US, Canada, and Mexico. Here, we’re highlighting some of the reasons for this new trend. Work From Home is Here to Stay We’re far enough removed from the COVID-19 pandemic that [...]
AI and the Future of Telephone Answering Services
We in the call center and telephone answering service industry have been using technology for years. Preset menus or interactive voice responders (IVRs) are often the first thing a customer interacts with when calling your call center or customer service line. What’s more, many companies also use instant messaging chatbots that customers can communicate with online to get answers to their more basic questions. But AI has, and will continue to, take these communications one step further. Here, we’re discussing the potential and the implications of AI and its use in telephone answering services. The Benefits of AI Answering [...]
How Home Services Can Benefit from Call Centers and Call Center Software
There are many different types of businesses and industries that can benefit from working with a call center or using one to handle incoming and outgoing calls for your business. One such industry is home services and home improvement. These are often small businesses, run by one or two primary contractors who are constantly on the go and busy managing a team of professional tradesmen, all the while trying to schedule future projects, manage ongoing ones, and communicate with prospective customers. That is a lot of responsibilities that these home service professionals have to juggle, but a call center—and [...]
Unlocking Compliance: Exploring the Essential Features of DNC’s Compliance Guide
In today’s rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, staying compliant with Federal and State communication laws is paramount for businesses. Contact Center Compliance a Premier CallShaper Partner(DNC.com) and a leading compliance solutions provider now offers a comprehensive online Compliance Guide packed with essential features to help businesses navigate and adhere to these regulations seamlessly. Understanding Compliance Challenges Before delving into the features of DNC's Compliance Guide, it's crucial to understand the challenges businesses face regarding compliance. With stringent regulations such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), businesses must tread carefully to avoid costly fines and maintain a positive reputation with [...]
Hot Topics in Compliance: Consent
Consent, and whether or not the customer has given it, plays a huge role in whether or not your call center is in compliance with federal and state telemarketing regulations. Here, we are covering all the basics you need to know about consent in this context. Understanding Express Consent The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) mandates that every business has to receive express consent from individuals to receive communications from the business. Express consent is defined as explicit agreement from the customer and it must be very clear what the customer is agreeing to. One type of express consent [...]
4 More Businesses That Would Benefit from a Telephone Answering Service
Telephone answering services are useful to many more businesses than you might imagine. Last year, we wrote a blog touching on four businesses that use telephone answering services: healthcare, veterinarian, small businesses, and essential home services. Today, we’re discussing four more businesses who can benefit from using a telephone answering service. Real Estate Real estate agents conduct so much of their business over the phone. Whether it’s communicating with clients to coordinate schedules and discuss properties, speaking with other real estate agents to schedule showings for their own clients or fielding calls from other agents about their own listings, [...]
Do You Need a 24/7 Call Center?
In today’s economy, when many customers are looking for near instant results when it comes to customer service, plenty of businesses run call centers that have agents available to assist customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While this is not yet expected of every single company, it is becoming more and more commonplace. Here are some of the questions to consider about your business when trying to determine if you need a 24/7 call center. Where are your customers? Where your customers are located will play a big role in whether or not you need [...]
How to Correct Agents’ Missteps
The hope of all call center managers is that when agents put on the headset they are totally prepared to answer any questions and solve any problems that customers throw their way. However, even the most well-trained and diligent call center agents are going to slip up every now and then, providing an incorrect answer to a question or mixing up the order of the next steps that the customer needs to take. And if handled incorrectly, this can create a chain reaction that results in customer dissatisfaction at best and losing their business entirely at worst. That’s why [...]
FCC’s New Rules on Revoking Consent and Do-Not-Call Requests
On February 15, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced new rules that significantly impact how consumers can revoke their prior express consent (PEC) to receive calls and texts under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), as well as the period in which telemarketers must honor a consumer's Do-Not-Call (DNC) request. Prior express consent (PEC) is required for marketing calls and texts to cellular numbers and numbers listed on the National DNC Registry, unless an exemption applies. The FCC's new rules clarify that consumers have the right to revoke PEC for autodialed or prerecorded calls and autodialed texts in [...]
4 Ways Analytics Can Make Your Call Center More Efficient
Here at CallShaper, we’re all about efficiency in 2024. Fortunately, many of the tools included in our cloud-based call center platform were built to maximize efficiency in the first place. One such swath of tools: Our quality assurance and analytics mechanisms, which offer real-time insights into agent performance and customer data. Here are four ways that taking advantage of these analytics tools can help make your call center more efficient. You’ll Notice Trends Faster First, let’s talk about the customers. While there will be customers calling your inbound call center with very specific, personal issues, there will be [...]
4 Call Center Trends to Look Out For in 2024
The call center industry is always evolving and changing. Especially with the new technologies introduced in recent years, the focus is on improving efficiency, customer experience and agent satisfaction. To that end, here are four trends in call centers that we are keeping an eye on in 2024. Increased Use of AI AI was certainly a hot topic in 2023 and we don’t expect that to change in 2024. In fact, we expect call centers to continue to explore how using AI can both improve the customer experience and make agents’ jobs easier. Many businesses are already using [...]
Why Your Telephone Answering Service Should be Cloud-Based
If you’re wondering why your small business is not growing at the speed it should be, or why your marketing efforts aren’t paying off, or simply why you don’t feel as organized as you should be, the answer may be that you don’t have a telephone answering service. A telephone answering service, or TAS, is a system in which you have friendly, professional people answering phone calls, taking messages, and offering telephone support to customers when you are unable or unavailable to do so. Having a reliable TAS could be the difference between winning and losing new customers, the [...]
How New Technology Can Increase the Value of Your Business
Sure, there are plenty of people who grumble and complain when their smartphone or their computer undergoes an update and there are new features that they need to learn or apps and commands that now live in a different place. But after a few days, the grumbling always stops. Why? Those same people realize that, in the majority of cases, those changes were made for a reason. And most often, that reason is that it improves their experience of the product in some way. This is why, in a nutshell, utilizing new technology is so important in every industry, [...]
Why Older Technology Slows Down Call Centers
If we’re being honest, some days it feels impossible to keep up with all the latest technology. It often seems like just when we’re starting to get comfortable with a product, app, or software, a newer version comes out that claims to be better, faster, and more efficient. That’s when the common internal debate commences: I want to be better, faster, and more efficient, but do I really need this new technology? Is it worth the cost, the time, and the learning curve? When it comes to the technology used in call centers, the answer is yes, it is [...]