FCC seeks public comments on bringing call centres back to US

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 Englis.

FCC seeks public comments on bringing call centres back to US

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

From a cost perspective, onshore call centres in the United States face significantly higher operating expenses, primarily wages, compliance, and real estate.

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.

The Philippines, India, Colombia, South Africa are the leading countries that US businesses outsource their customer service call centre jobs to. PTI SKU PRK

(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.)