- Big changes are in store for telcos if the FCC follows through on proposals to bring call centers back to the U.S.
- One proposal calls for call takers to speak proficient American Standard English
- Labor union CWA says the whole thing falls short and fails to address the one big thing that’s taking jobs away
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to bring call center jobs back to the U.S. – and ensure that call center staff who are overseas speak the kind of English that U.S. consumers can understand.
Too often, foreign call centers have led to confusing customer service, delayed support and even security risks, said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during Thursday’s open commission meeting.
It’s time for this offshoring to end, he said. “American consumers deserve call centers that speak proficient English, provide clear answers and are based here at home – not halfway around the world,” he said.
What the FCC is doing
Notably, the FCC is not proposing an outright ban on foreign call centers but it is proposing to limit the percentage of customer service calls that service providers are allowed to take at foreign call centers.
Under the FCC’s reasoning, such a cap could address some of the agency’s concerns without imposing undue costs on service providers, which started heavily relying on foreign call centers particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s to cut costs.
Here are eight things the FCC is proposing:
- Require agents at overseas call centers to be proficient in both written and spoken American English
- Cap the percentage of customer service calls handled outside the U.S.
- Mandate disclosure at the beginning of each call when a call is being handled outside of the United States
- Require providers to transfer calls to a call center based in the U.S. upon customer request
- Restrict certain types of consumer transactions to domestic call centers only
- Prohibit providers from using call centers or customer service representatives located in “foreign adversary” nations
- Add transparency requirements such as disclosure on broadband labels of the percentage of calls handled by foreign call centers
- Require providers to file compliance reports with the FCC
Thursday’s unanimous vote by the commission to move forward with these proposals kicks off a formal public comment cycle. Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the currently three-member commission, said she looks forward to hearing feedback from consumers on the proposals as well as from the service providers that will be required to comply with potentially extensive new regulations.
Carr noted that Charter Communications recently said it will be onshoring the call center jobs of Cox Communications. The FCC approved the $34.5 billion merger of the cable companies last month.
Call centers and AI
While wide ranging, the FCC’s proposals don’t do enough to bring call center jobs back to the U.S., according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), one of the largest labor unions in the U.S.
That’s because there’s another big reason jobs in this sector are tanking: AI.
“Today, quality customer service and call center jobs are threatened not just by offshoring, but also by corporate cost-cutting through the use of AI agents,” CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said in a statement earlier this month. “A modern policy response must include the right for customers to request a human representative who can resolve their concerns with human intelligence, common sense and empathy.”
Increasingly, mobile operators in the U.S. are pushing apps to do a lot of the things customer service agents traditionally did. As of last year, T-Mobile’s T-Life started enabling consumers to buy their phone service and get devices via the app.
But Roger Entner, analyst and founder of Recon Analytics, said AI isn’t the only problem.
Historically, customer service jobs have an extremely high turnover rate. The reason? “People can’t stand being yelled at and it doesn’t pay that well,” he said.
That said, consumers in general – not just in telecom – don’t have a high regard for AI chatbots. In a survey of more than 75,000 respondents, Recon Analytics found the consumer satisfaction results associated with AI chatbots were “atrocious,” Entner said.
“Consumers hate it,” he said. On the other hand, another survey showed 71% of enterprise decision makers reported better outcomes thanks to service providers' use of AI.
As much as consumers dislike it, businesses embrace it. “It’s not going to go away," Entner said. "At the same time, it’s going to get better.”