By Glen Taylor
Over the past several years, many customers who could benefit from agent-based dialing have been unwilling to consider it because of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA statute makes calls or texts to mobile numbers illegal without consent if the call was placed by an Automated Telephone Dialing System (ATDS) – a “dialer.” Although the law provided a definition of an ATDS, the FCC and subsequent court decisions have expanded and muddied the definition to include most systems that can initiate calls automatically. To avoid the potential liability of calling people using an ATDS, various methods have been introduced to involve agents in “dialing” the calls. Although Avaya introduced a “manual dial” feature into the Avaya Proactive Outreach Manager (POM) specifically to address the issue, customers have still been reluctant to consider using it.
Things have changed
On April 1, 2021, the US Supreme Court in a unanimous 9-0 decision (the case of Facebook v. Duguid) upheld a literal reading of the TCPA statute and held that the ATDS definition ONLY pertains to dialing systems with the capacity to dial random or sequential numbers, something that was a common problem when the law was passed in December of 1991 but that is rarely a feature of modern dialers.
While other aspects of the TCPA remain and other regulations still pertain (the DNC list must still be considered, and various other state and local regulations must be observed), the shenanigans suggested to insert agents into the dialing process to avoid being an ATDS are gone.
Are you ready for the benefits of outbound?
If you or your company have avoided seriously considering outbound due to the legal aspects involved, it’s a good time to re-visit that decision.
INI’s complete outbound practice is the result of years of experience designing and implementing outbound solutions on a variety of platforms, notably the powerful Avaya POM engine for Avaya Experience Portal (AEP). Since POM only dials or texts phone numbers contained in contact records supplied by an external system, POM is NOT an ATDS!
INI’s POM practice includes all of the professional services required for a successful POM deployment: software installation, design, configuration, and training. This includes implementation of automated self-service outbound campaigns with SMS and email channels, as well as agent-based predictive/preview campaigns with outbound pacing and multi-directional call blending.
No matter what the use case, outbound communication offers a productive and meaningful customer experience, resulting in increased satisfaction and brand loyalty. Operationally, the demand on agents is minimized, improving contact center effectiveness and protecting revenue streams. Just a few examples of the most common types of proactive outbound campaigns are:
- Appointment Reminders
- Bill Payment Reminders
- Pre- and Post-op Instructions
- Emergency and Crisis Notifications
- Customer Experience Surveys
- Policy Changes and Renewal
Contact INI today to discuss how we can help you deliver outbound solutions.