As many of you know, the American Teleservices Association is creating the first self-regulatory organization for our industry that will incorporate audits and certification. The ATA represents the call centers, trainers, consultants, and equipment suppliers that initiate, facilitate, and generate telephone, Internet, and email sales, service, and support.
Call centers offer traditional and interactive services that support the e-commerce revolution, provide specialized customer service for Fortune 500 companies, and generate annual sales of more than $500 billion. From our original work on the concept of an SRO (Self-Regulatory Organization), we have been focused on creating a long term partnership with the bodies that regulate our industry. In particular, we want to become part of the overall solution for remediation in appropriate cases for the FTC, FCC, and ultimately the States. For this reason, we involved the FTC and the FCC very early in the SRO design process to make certain we were in line with their thinking as well as that of our members.
After meeting with these agencies three years ago, it became clear that the ATA-SRO will only be credible and effective if it meets the following goals:
* It must be independent, both in perception and reality, from the entities it purports to regulate. For this reason, we have gathered feedback from our members as well as created a steering committee for the design of the tools and standards. Separately, we have begun the process to train and certify third party auditors to do the actual audit work.
* It should enforce standards that are meaningful and accepted. The ATA has primarily focused on federal and state law as the source for, the standards. This may seem straightforward. Unfortunately, many of the regulations are not clear, and we have had to scour the public record and the best interpretations of…