In my previous post, I talked about some of the top data privacy and security regulations governing contact centers across industries like banking, insurance, credit cards, healthcare, telecom, etc. Staying on top of frequently changing/evolving regulations and making sure that your compliance programs are up to date is not easy. It requires overcoming the hectic process of sourcing, managing, and updating the federal Do-Not-Call data, portability details, and scouting for all litigators. Here is where Acqueon Technologies comes in. 

Acqueon’s AI-powered omnichannel, conversational engagement software is designed to automatically comply with the TCPA, DNC, GDPR guidelines (built into its product features) and streamline the entire outbound campaign management process for contact centers. 

 Its easy-to-use administration modules simplify the administrative and monitoring overheads by enabling administrators, supervisors, and campaign managers to configure rules and policies in real-time based on compliance checks. Acqueon’s backend processing engine performs these compliance checks without affecting the performance of the contact center. It enables companies to focus more on proactive customer engagement strategies and critical business objectives, without worrying much about statutory regulations and regional-specific regulatory adherence or soft compliance issues, which have an impact on customer satisfaction. 

How does Acqueon simplify compliance? 

Acqueon’s partnership with DNC.com 

Aqueon, through its partnership with DNC.com, combined with data processing modules optimized for large databases, provides easy access to federal Do-Not-Call lists on a very nominal annual subscription basis. Acqueon’s efficient contact processing workflow simplifies the acquisition, processing, segmentation, and verification of their contact list against the federal DNC database. 

In contrast to most dialers and list management systems on the market which require complex customization to validate compliance with multiple data sources (which limit scrubbing activity only when data is uploaded during non-production hours) the Acqueon platform comes with built-in data connectors that automatically refresh all data every day. This enrichment of the contact list prevents non-compliance by proactively scanning all wireless numbers through a known litigator database as well as a master archive. 

Do Not Call Filtering 

The platform provides an option to filter through the DNC list and perform validation checks twice – at the time of contact upload and during each dial attempt. It gives the flexibility to do just-in-time validation before dialing a contact during each attempt, apart from initial screening at the time of uploading. It enables the platform to auto-remove contacts from call lists if they appear on the Do Not Call List. What’s more, it continues to support filtering through corporate and campaign-specific DNC collections. Multiple utilities are provided to manage the DNC list at three levels — Federal, Enterprise, and Campaign levels. The APIs are available to add telephone numbers to the DNC list on an ad hoc basis or in batch mode. Acqueon has the option to block any unique ID at the caller level. 

Time Zone Compliance 

The platform can identify the customer’s time zone, either based on pre-determined business segmentation, zip code or phone number area code, to ensure that contact is reached within a reasonably accepted local time range. 

Compliance features, specific to time zone identification, can map contacts with multiple zip codes and identify a callable window that intersects with any time zone associated with these zip codes. This feature mainly complements two types of campaigns:  

  • Those involving a home mortgage or 
  • Campaigns involving a single call record containing multiple client phone numbers in different modes. In the case of no-answer, these are to be reached sequentially based on a joint account relationship with the company.

 These features are critical when a contact associated with an account resides in different time zones or, in the event of a primary asset being mortgaged, belongs to a time zone other than the person being contacted. These insights can be identified by associating time zones based on the zip code mapped to the asset, the primary account holder, and the secondary/third account holders, respectively, while uploading their contact numbers. 

The system would allow a maximum of two zip codes linked to the record level and one zip code for each contact phone number uploaded to the call level. The system dials these numbers at a mutually intersecting time interval across all mapped zip codes at the record level and the phone number that is being called. It ensures that customers are not distracted at inconvenient times. 

Silent and Abandoned Call handling 

Technically, with the platform, the call is disconnected either without a message being played (silent) or after a message has been played (abandoned). In both cases, the platform labels it as an abandoned call. The platform can be configured based on how to handle an abandoned call, in the event of an agent not being available, either by rescheduling the contacts or by chaining them to a preview campaign, depending on the availability of the agent. 

Soft Compliance 

Soft compliance is a crucial component, as it ensures that customers are not reached too many times during the campaign. It limits the number of attempts to a defined duration while percolating through the contacts in the lists. Acqueon can constrain/restrict the number of attempts over a specified duration; yet, at the same time, it percolates through all contacts in the uploaded lead list with the privacy instructions of the caller by not trying to annoy them with too many attempts. 

Time of Day Misuse 

The platform can configure a permissible callable window, allowing the agents to dial only within the scheduled time limits. It can also manage daylight savings to adjust the callable window. 

Repeated Calling 

The platform can control the number of attempts made to call a number. The dialing restriction can be configured for a single day or several days to ensure that customers are not repeatedly disturbed over a reasonable period.  

Ring Duration 

The length of the ring can be configured by Acqueon. The minimum duration of the ring is 15 seconds, as standardized by OFCOM. The duration of the ring should not be extended for a longer period, as it may upset customers. 

Record Management 

Acqueon maintains a detailed record of calls made by dialer, IVR or abandoned due to the unavailability of agents. It also captures the number of contacts, attempts, and outcomes. Custom reports can be built to comply with OFCOM. 

Misuse for Dishonest Gain and CLI Facility 

The platform can set or change the calling line identification (CLI) while dialing a call. This feature is provided with the good intention of either enabling the recipient to quickly identify the call or route the call to the relevant group if they choose to call back. The platform allows the inclusion of a prefix/postfix on a call number so that the dialer can select the least call routing pattern or spoof CLI through which a customer can easily identify the caller or route the call back to the right agent group. 

The Two-Second Rule 

It is a dialer functionality that is being configured at the dialer level. To improve the connection rate, the answer machine detection (AMD) or post connect analysis can be switched off. In the event of a call drop, the solution ensures that the correct message is played within 2 seconds on call connect to specify on whose behalf the call was made and a brief note on the reason for the call. 

The 24-hour Rule in case of AMD Detection 

For AMD and abandoned calls, Acqueon can set the callback time to 24 and 72 hours respectively. The Chaining feature moves a record from a Predictive Campaign to a Preview Campaign to ensure agent availability/reservation if a business needs to call within 72 hours. If the system uses AMD and detects that a call has been answered by the answering machine and the call is automatically terminated; as a result, the number cannot be retrieved for another 24 hours. Similar to the 72-hour rule, this rule can be ignored if a live operator is guaranteed to be available for further calls within 24 hours. 

Screening TPS Data 

The platform is capable of scheduling data refresh against the TPS/DNC list not only at the time of upload but also at each time. It ensures that TPS data is synchronized with the TPS/DNC data service provider at least once a week. Acqueon also provides the option to configure a specific TPS/DNC campaign list. The API is available to set those preferences for a campaign in real-time. The option of providing a time-bound do-not-call option is also available on the platform to the customers who wish to suspend calls for a specific period for reasons such as being away from their home network, going on vacation and not wanting to be distracted, etc. 

To summarise, Acqueon’s product features and compliance capabilities work hand-in-hand to provide a successful proactive customer engagement strategy for contact centers. Our compliance strategy binds customer trust to data protection in a single effort. Acqueon’s holistic compliance solution automates and simplifies the day-to-day compliance activities of all contact centers, bringing together assurance, analytics, and real-time actionable insights dedicated to compliance.