FCC Call Center Outsourcing NPRM

If your company relies on call centers to support your customers, you'll want to listen to this podcast.  The Federal Communications Commission just put out a sweeping proposal to require the significant onshoring of non-US based call center operations implementation of new customer service standards, such as language proficiency requirements.  FCC mandates would normally only apply to companies that the FCC historically regulates—telecom carriers, cable providers, and wireless and satellite companies, etc.—but in this recent proposal, there's a shocking twist: the Commission is exploring whether to use a somewhat obscure statutory provision to extend its call center customer service mandates and onshoring requirements to any business that uses a U.S. phone number—retailers, banks, healthcare providers, you name it.    In this 12-minute episode of Staying Connected, Tony Mangino and Andrew Brown discuss the proposed rules, why the FCC thinks it has the authority to mandate customer service standards and call center operations of companies it does not regulate, and what enterprise customers need to do before these rules reshape their costs and vendor relationships. If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our  Communications Regulatory Advice and Advocacy webpage.