With an estimated $9.5B lost annually to consumers and a growing body of new robocall scams designed to, at worst, victimize and, at best, annoy all of us in new ways every single day, it’s clear the industry needs to come together to collaborate on a solution to solve this ever increasing problem.
From a legislative perspective, tightening restrictions for outbound calling entities and increasing enforcement for offending individuals and organizations found to be making illegal robocalls sound like good ways to protect consumers from the threat of fraud. However, one point remains: these practices designed to put the smack down on illegal robocallers have caused a slew of negative consequences for businesses who are delivering legal, wanted calls to consumers compliantly.
Part of the problem comes from trying to establish a standard definition of the term “robocall” itself.
Focus tends to skew to the illegal use of robocall technology while completely omitting the legal. The same autodialer technology used for orchestrating illegal robocall scams is used across the healthcare, utility, emergency service, financial, and more industries to share warnings and communicate vital information to consumers. This includes the welcome call to onboard you to your new insurance provider, the reminder call that your reward points are about to expire at a favorite retail outlet, the warning call that some unusual activity has been detected on your card, or the life-saving call about an emergency event in your neighborhood. These are all calls you’re within your rights to be receiving and the organizations originating these calls are legally permitted to be delivering.
The gauntlet has been thrown down. If we don’t come together as an industry to protect the viability of the voice channel by including the enterprise as an active participant in decisions affecting the calling ecosystem, the convenience and preference of conducting business over the phone may be lost forever.
As the thought leaders shaping the deployment and implementation of industry-wide measures to solve the problem of illegal robocalls, it’s our duty to consider each unique perspective in the complex calling ecosystem in order to arrive at an outcome that will bring all of us forward without leaving some behind. To share your experience, get in touch.
