At Akorbi, we know that having call centers placed in different countries comes with a unique set of challenges. It’s not just about making sure that your call center teams and your clients speak the same language. You also need to make sure that you’re complying with potentially different regulations from location to location.
Understanding the potential limitations of your call centers is more than important — it’s vital. You need to make sure that your agency or business, and your whole call center team, understand the rules, and sometimes even the culture of where your call center is based. In this blog, Akorbi explores the importance of knowing the call center regulations of different countries.
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Requirements in the United States
In the US, call centers are primarily under the regulation of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The main purpose of the regulation and compliance rules that both the FCC and FTC apply to call centers is to protect consumers. Most of these regulations have developed from certain call centers using less-than-savory practices to manipulate or even outright scam people.
A few examples of how these regulations are applied include call agents having to identify themselves if they are calling customers or clients, offering certain safeguards for financial information, and giving clear options for opting-out of being called. Even if your call center only receives incoming calls unrelated to sales, it’s important to know these regulations.
Requirements in Europe
In European countries, the regulations on call centers are applied by the European Union (EU). The EU generally takes a stricter look at call centers, especially in how companies or agencies store and treat personal data of their clients or customers. For example, if a client or customer requests that the information an agency or call center holds about them is destroyed, the request must be honored.
In many cases, data is restricted to “single use”, which means the data requested of clients can only be used once for the specified purpose. If you’re outsourcing your call center services or operations to a European country, Akorbi strongly recommends familiarizing yourself with EU regulations.
What Else You Need to Know
These are just a couple of examples provided by the team at Akorbi. The important thing to remember here is that, while the purpose of many of these regulations is the same, the fine print and practice is often different. Whatever the purpose of your call center, whether it’s sales, customer service, translation services or anything else, it’s important to familiarize yourself with laws and regulations.
Even if they don’t directly apply to your particular call center locations, you don’t want to risk breaking laws you aren’t aware of. This is especially true when it comes to having call centers based in other countries.
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Find More Guidance and Advice from Akorbi
Hopefully, this blog gives you a better understanding of how the rules for call centers can vary depending on where in the world your call center is based. When it comes to finding multilingual staffing solutions, Akorbi can help you to reach the next level in your company’s global relationships. Whatever your needs, we can tailor our services to suit them. Take a look at our full selection of translation and interpretation services, or contact a certified translator.
