FCC seeks public comments on bringing call centres back to US

<p>Washington, Mar 27 (PTI): The Federal Communications Commission has mooted proposals to encourage businesses to bring call centre jobs back to the US and require call-takers to be proficient in American Standard English.</p><p>In a statement here, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that over the past few decades many corporations shifted their customer service and call centre operations from America to a range of foreign countries – with nearly 70 per cent of US companies outsourcing at least one department.</p><p>“American consumers deserve call centres that speak proficient English, provide clear answers, and are based here at home—not halfway around the world,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement.</p><p>The Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), adopted by the FCC on Thursday, has sought comments from the public on ways to encourage and facilitate the onshoring of call centres; steps that can be taken to improve customer service and data security and ways to combat illegal robocall scams that originate inside foreign call centres.</p><p>“I welcome today’s NPRM to address risks to Americans that originate from call centres located overseas,” Commissioner Olivia Trusty said in a statement on Thursday.</p><p>The FCC has sought comments from the public about ideas such as empowering consumers to transfer calls to a US-based location and requiring that calls involving certain types of sensitive information be handled domestically.</p><p>It also sought views on requiring covered providers to disclose the location of the call centre during the customer interaction; requiring disclosure to consumers of the extent of a provider’s use of US call centres; and requiring workers at call centres to be proficient in American Standard English and otherwise be trained appropriately for resolving issues with US customers.</p><p>“Specifically, we are identifying ways to address illegal robocall scams that originate inside foreign call centres, such as ways we can take the profit out of those operations,” Carr said.</p><p> Last year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Keep Call Centres in America Act to discourage companies from moving customer service operations offshore or replacing live agents with AI.</p><p>From a cost perspective, onshore call centres in the United States face significantly higher operating expenses, primarily wages, compliance, and real estate.</p><p>According to industry benchmarks, US customer service agents earn three to five times more than their offshore counterparts. These higher costs inevitably flow through to the consumer.</p><p>The Philippines, India, Colombia, South Africa are the leading countries that US businesses outsource their customer service call centre jobs to. PTI SKU PRK</p><p><i>(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)</i></p>

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