Are you risking a fine?

Two in five senior contact centre professionals don’t know whether they are currently Ofcom compliant.

A survey of contact centre professionals by Aspect Software has discovered that almost two in five senior contact centre professionals in the UK admit that they are not, or they don’t know whether they are currently Ofcom compliant.

The study also found that just over a quarter (28%) of those surveyed claim to perform a thorough review of regulation compliance (including industry-specific regulators such as the FCA) at least once a quarter. This is despite the fact that at least 60% are required to comply with more than one set of industry regulations.

Other key results from the survey include:

• The majority (63%) of contact centres run by the professionals surveyed have fewer than 150 seats, and only one contact centre within the UK (54 per cent)
• A quarter (25%) of contact centre professionals admitted that they do not share industry best practice with other contact centres
• Almost a third (31%) of those surveyed said that Ofcom compliance meant making changes to the way they ran their contact centre
• 15% of respondents did not know whether they needed to be compliant with industry regulatory bodies other than Ofcom

“It’s important to take a look at the contact centre regularly, to ensure optimal performance, and to prevent the public fallout that can occur when legacy systems inevitably backfire. Yet almost half of UK contact centres take a full review less than once a year,” said Dave Ogden, Ofcom regulations expert and Account Executive at Aspect. “Admin failures can often be traced back to inefficient and outdated software, but legacy systems can often escape appropriate scrutiny, as long-standing managers might be reluctant to question their original investment. This leaves it open for possible technical and service problems in the future.”

“There are some critical questions that need to be asked each year, of each piece of software, application, or hardware,” he continued. “Is it still performing its major function effectively? Is it costing us more to keep than it returns? Can we improve its use for better performance? Is it still compliant? This is not about overhauling current systems, but instead, placing an emphasis on cutting costs and improving efficiency.”