Welcome to the Research Assistant Weekly Newsletter - a subscriber-only resource for insight into emerging compliance challenges, details on peer calls, and links to new Research Assistant reports, documents, tools, and more.
|
Sponsored by TCN
|
Please complete our Research Assistant Survey: Help Us, Help You!
Using an outbound IVR can be beneficial, but it can pose risks if not deployed with compliance controls. What is an IVR you ask? It stands for Interactive Voice Response. It is an automated system that many businesses use to interact with and gather information from consumers.
Most of us are more familiar with inbound IVRs used for directing calls and taking payments when a consumer calls your organization. An outbound IVR is a contact solution used to proactively and systemically reach out to consumers. Though outbound IVRs have been around in the collection industry for quite a while, they’re typically used more by first-party agencies and creditors than by third-party collection agencies. This could be because of the increased regulatory risk found in the third-party setting.
Outbound IVRs use the contact information you have in your system to contact consumers using an automated system to request callbacks, payments, update location information, etc. Some of the technology groups that provide outbound IVR services can use their system to text and email consumers in addition to calling.
While this sounds like a great tool, there are risks involved.
Outbound IVR attempts/contacts should be counted as attempts to communicate when calculating your call frequency. Consumer consent to receive an automated call using an artificial voice would either need to be passed down by the client or the agency would need to obtain direct consent before adding the consumer’s contact information into the outbound IVRs dialing/emailing platform to ensure TCPA compliance.
Other considerations should be made for ease of use and the consumer experience. If your outbound IVR creates multiple steps that ultimately frustrate a consumer then your process may be creating additional issues rather than solving an operational problem. Testing the ease of use and monitoring your complaint trends will help you adjust your processes and workflow to avoid these risks. Opt-out options must be made readily available to the consumer. Policies and procedures that document the outbound IVR process need to be written and your staff needs to be trained. And last but not least, an audit of the entire outbound IVR process needs to be conducted on a regular basis.
Technology is an important part of collecting effectively and efficiently, but only if you do your vendor due diligence, document the process, train, and audit. Even machines make mistakes from time to time.
Top Reads:
Upcoming Webinars/ Other Announcements:
|