Ofcom in Action Again

Earlier this week Ofcom, the UK's telco and broadcast regulator, named and shamed another call centre operator for making silent calls. This time it has gone for Barclaycard, a not insignificant brand, owned by Barclays, an even less insignificant brand. The details have yet to be made public but it adds to the major-league brands nailed by Ofcom (the others being Abbey and Carphone Warehouse).

I think three things are interesting here:

Firstly, despite all the publicity in the general media and specialist press, these large organisations still failed to take compliance seriously. We all know that implementing change in these big businesses can be like executing a 3 point turn in an oil tanker, but one would have thought that compliance in a financial services organisation might be able to pull some levers and make change happen faster.

Secondly, Ofcom are still investigating alleged misuse from 18 months ago - the period they've named Barclaycard for starts just six months after the first statement to regulate diallers was published on 1st March 2006. There may well be more to come.

Thirdly, the brief report on the Ofcom site says that "Ofcom has extended this programme of monitoring and enforcement for a further six months". It's not over yet guys!

While we await with baited breath the results of the latest consultation (now expected in early July) where issues such as Answer Machine Detection and automated calling (i.e. calling with a recorded message with no live person to speak to) are expected to be handled, it is still as important as ever to comply with the existing rules.

That's not just so you don't get caught, that's because it's the right thing to do - for fair treatment of consumers and for the long-term viability of the call centre.

Night Out in Town

I was with some business partners and customers at the Covent Garden Hotel last night for the official launch of a new joint venture with The Exchange for an integrated contact centre, CRM and Workflow product for financial services organisations. We, of course, provide the contact centre bit and The Exchange provide OfficeWeb, the CRM and Workflow stuff.

It was a great evening, helped along by the champagne, and as usually it really good up with some customers, including the wonderful Click Finance who bravely allowed film cameras into their contact centre for a case study of the joint solution.

It was also and a good chance to spend a bit of time with the Financial Services guys to find out how their industry is feeling the impact of regulation, the economy etc etc.

Not unsurprisingly, their industry being the most highly regulated in the land, compliance is a big deal. As a consumer who only understood about one word in 10 of the financespeak, I'm pretty glad the regulation is there and so - it seems - are the industry practitioners. Compliance gives everybody a level playing field on which to operate, and framework in which customers can feel confident.

It was, I thought, a good lesson for the outbound industry whose attitude to regulation and compliance is often one of "how do I get round this" - good regulation really can be a leveller that gives our customers confidence and creates sustainability for our industry. Well, aren't I feeling half-full today!