The call center industry often gets
lumped with used car sales as a business with no scruples. These days, that’s both untrue and unfair. The better companies in the field do subscribe to a solid
code of ethics and toe the line on industry-approved standards.
A call center with high standards will do a
better job selling itself and, more importantly,
selling its clients. It goes beyond simply being
polite when dialing — today’s call centers
must deal with credit card numbers and
other personal data.
“As with any business, a teleservices company must find the best way to be profitable
while also being a good corporate citizen and
respecting the effects of its decisions on consumers, clients, employees and the community in general,” says Steve Brubaker, the senior vice president of corporate affairs at
InfoCision Management Corp.
Smart Business spoke with Brubaker
about the new standards of business ethics,
where to look for ethical guidance and how
to conduct ethical teleservices.
How are business ethics important to the
teleservices industry?
There is a link between firms that practice
ethical behavior and firms that are successful. According to a piece in the May 15, 2007
Harvard Business Review by Lynn Sharp
Paine, research shows that avoiding misconduct and practicing good corporate citizenship contributes to a positive reputation, and
that firms convicted of wrongdoing often
experience lower returns in succeeding
years. In addition, Paine states that a company’s ethics have important implications for its
functioning as an organization, its ability to
manage risk, its reputation in the marketplace and its standing in the community.
Ethics are also important to the teleservices
industry because companies deal with sensitive consumer information, as they can generate tens of thousands of transactions on a
daily basis. At a time when we hear horror
stories about identity theft and security
breaches, how you collect, store and transmit consumer information is of the highest
importance. A single breach can severely
hurt a teleservices company’s reputation and
the reputation of the client on whose behalf it
is taking or making calls and incur strict
action from the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC).
What organizations help define ethical standards for teleservices companies?
The American Teleservices Association
(ATA) Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO)
was formed in 2006 with the goal of vetting
practical standards to create positive interactions between teleservices providers and
consumers. The SRO interprets all of the
complex laws and regulations at both the
state and federal levels. However, the SRO
goes beyond current legislation, in that it
attempts to find the practices we can use to
eliminate negative factors for consumers
while also protecting our legitimate business
interests and those of our clients.
The SRO has published standards that
cover areas of interest, such as privacy, call
monitoring, calls from charities, compliance,
state registration requirements, and a host of
other topics that affect teleservices companies, their clients and consumers. The standards address these issues as they stand currently and leave open the door for further dialogue in the future.
What is considered when forming an ethical
standard?
The SRO examines duties, rights, best practices and commitments to determine the
proper course of action in given circumstances. What are the moral obligations of
teleservices companies? What kinds of conduct are desirable, even if not required? What
behaviors are other entities, including clients,
consumers and suppliers, entitled to expect?
What behaviors fulfill our own vision of our
industry and our individual companies as one
that is highly ethical? What will be the effect
of a given decision on each stakeholder
involved, and are we maximizing benefits
and minimizing negatives for all? These are
the questions we ask when formulating ethical standards for the teleservices industry.
How do you ensure that your company and
employees follow these ethical standards?
This is critical. Clients expect you to operate in an ethical manner at all times. Build
ethical and legal behavior into your IT infrastructure to take ethical decisions out of
employee hands and make sure those decisions are being made at the senior management level. This way, the employee does not
have to be responsible for checking do-not-call lists or following specific calling regulations, which can vary from state to state.
Audit these IT processes regularly to make
sure that the systems work as they should.
A dedication to corporate ethics, in any
company, must come from the top down, and
management should provide employees with
a solid example of how to utilize the ethical
standards the company has adopted. Ethical
behavior must be stressed to new employees
as part of their training programs, built into
employees’ daily routines, and be rewarded
at bonus and review times.
STEVE BRUBAKER is senior vice president of corporate affairs at InfoCision Management Corp., Akron, Ohio. In business for more
than 25 years, InfoCision Management Corporation is the second-largest privately held teleservices company and a leading provider of
customer care services, commercial sales and marketing for a variety of Fortune 100 companies and smaller businesses. InfoCision is
also a leader of inbound and outbound marketing for nonprofit, religious and political organizations. InfoCision operates 32 call centers
at 13 locations throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. For more information, visit www.infocision.com.
