CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited The Ofcom Consultation on changing the rules relating to the use of dialling equipment CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Introduction & Objectives Rufus Grig CTO of Azzurri Communications Founder of Callmedia Member of the DMAs contact centre council Paul Cox Solutions Consultant, Callmedia TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Agenda A brief history of outbound regulation.The current consultation process.The proposed changes to the statement of policy.Callmedias consultation response.Questions and next actions. TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited A brief history of outbound dialling regulation. Pre 2005 the bad old days 2005 & 2006 the information message 2007 & 2008 Answer Machine Detection 2010 Interactive Voice Response, the 24 hour rule and 2 million quid 2013 AMD Research 2014 Nuisance calls panel and the Which Nuisance Calls campaign 2015 & 2016 the current consultation And all the while PECR, ICO & MoJ TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited The current process. Consultation document issued 2 nd December 2015 Extended deadline for responses is now 24 th February 2016 Typical delay between consultation and revised policy is several months TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Summary of proposed changes the existential problem. TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Summary of proposed changes the existential problem continued. In discussions with Ofcom, they dont consider that the position has changed. Current statement TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited The challenges here: Previous belief of industry was that obeying the guidelines gave compliance. Current wording of statement is explicit that any abandoned calls are misuse, and that three or more is persistent misuse the guidelines are about mitigating the risk of investigation and penalty Many organisations wishing to be 100% compliant will struggle with this definition, and may feel they ought to stop predictive dialling So what are we doing? Working with the DMA to understand if this is intentional and if not can it be clarified / removed We will provide feedback after the meeting on 2 nd February This will determine nature of consultation responses TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited The rest of the proposed changes. Definitions: Definition of abandoned call Definition of silent call Abandoned call definition A fully compliant call (PECR, TPS, CLI, 2 second rule, information message etc) Also possibly defined as an IVM call where there is a long queue time. Long is undefined. Tortuous section on order of hang-up i.e. it is compliant even if there is no message, as long as it was the recipient who hung up. Silent call definition No live agent when the call is answered, no message, whether the line is held up or disconnected. This is irrespective of how the call is generated i.e. bad dialler, AMD, agent hanging up etc TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Silent calls and Answer Machine Detection (AMD). Callmedia has always advocated that AMD not be used based on the quality of existing technology: Generates some silent calls due to false positives Poor experience for customers Ofcom are now explicitly setting out that AMD cannot be used until it is 100% accurate. This effectively ends the dispensation to include a reasoned estimate of false positives in the 3% abandoned call rate. Also effectively ends the 24 hour rule TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Use of CLI Ofcom introduced the requirement for a CLI in the 2006 policy: CLI must cost no more than national rate to reply to Call must be answered that identifies the caller and provides an option to unsubscribe Now Ofcom have introduced a whole section about not misusing CLIs. Misuse is widely discussed, and includes a ban on: Spoofing CLIs to pass off as somebody else Rotating CLIs to try to increase connect rate by disguising identity of the caller Using CLIs likely to encourage increased connect rates by mimicking geographic or mobile users Using CLIs that are premium rate or international Ofcom will prioritise misusers of CLI for enforcement action, and may regard it as an aggravating factor. A separate DCMS consultation on requiring all telemarketers to publish a CLI is currently in progress. It has always been a DMA requirement. TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Abandoned Call Rate TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Abandoned call rate in summary. ACR now simply abandoned as a function of all live i.e. no false positives or silent calls. Ofcom are proposing to consider high volume generators as well as those who breach 3%. 3% defined as in breach (i.e. you should be sub-3%) When investigating a breach, all abandoned calls will be taken into consideration. Possible implications: Larger contact centres consider managing to a rate lower than 3% Consider the 72 hour rule perhaps turn it into a forever rule i.e. dont overdial that customer again. TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Time of Day This is new for this year and is unspecific. However, DMA and FCA guidelines ought to be mitigating. TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Calls to same number or recipient TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Unchanged Factors Calls must ring for 15 seconds Information message The rules havent changed, but there is a sting in the tail: PECR (i.e. TPS) compliance CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited The Consultation TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Consultation Questions Section 3 QuestionGeneral Thrust of Response Q1Should Ofcoms policy on persistent misuse continue to have as its main focus the tackling of silent and abandoned calls? With abandoned calls making up 4% of the 4.8 billion nuisance calls, this seems disproportionate especially since under the definition of an abandoned call i.e. message played, fully compliant they are only made by organisations attempting to comply. Q2Have we identified the main causes and effects of silent and abandoned calls, and are there any others we should take into account? Almost no mention of agent hold times generating the experience of a silent call. Q3Do you agree with the other forms of misuse we propose to include in the policy? Some. Defining all abandoned calls as misuse will drive out the responsible organisations, and do nothing to stop those with no intention of being compliant. Q4Is there any other evidence we should take into account in relation to the causes and effects of the other types of misuse identified (misuse of ACS, misuse of a CLI facility and breaches of the PECRs)? Failed to take into account the effect of over- ringing on DECT devices Q5 TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Consultation Questions Section 3(continued) QuestionGeneral Thrust of Response Q5 Do you have any comments on: a) the evidence of consumer harm from the forms of persistent misuse we propose to include in the policy (and on silent and abandoned calls in particular); and b) our approach to estimating the consumer harm from those forms of misuse? In all your responses, please state your reasons and provide evidence to support your views. Some anomalies in research methodology TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Consultation Questions Section 4 QuestionGeneral Thrust of Response Q6Do you agree with our provisional view that we need to make changes to the 2010 policy in order to address the causes and effects of persistent misuse in a more effective way? Yes, broadly. Agree with focus on silent calls. However, its lack of enforcement on the 4.6 billion that is a bigger issue. Q7 Do our proposed changes target the right forms of persistent misuse and their causes and effects? If not, which forms, causes and effects should we target? Good for silent calls. However, as above, missing the bigger picture. Q8Do you agree with our proposed definitions of (i) silent calls and (ii) abandoned calls? Other than missing the use of hold queues as a cause of silent calls. OK. However, would be better defined from the point of the experience of the recipient Q9Do you agree with the proposed policy on silent calls that these should be Ofcoms highest priority for enforcement action, however caused and in whatever number? Do you have any information that would help to quantify further the potential costs and benefits of the proposal? Yes, silent calls are bad. But they are not the only thing thats bad. Malicious calls, hoaxes, message blasting all seem to get an easy ride. Is that because you expect other agencies to manage those forms of misuse? TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Consultation Questions Section 4 (Contd) QuestionGeneral Thrust of Response Q10Do you agree with the proposed policy on abandoned calls: a) that cases where a callers abandoned call rate is three per cent in any 24 hour period or more should represent a higher priority for enforcement and; b) where we take enforcement action, we should take into account all abandoned calls a caller makes? (a)- OK (b) -not OK. Disproportionally punishes larger organisations which seems to be against natural justice. Could have unintended consequences. Q11 Do you have any information that would help to quantify further the potential costs and benefits of this proposal? Any input from the call welcome what are the costs of turning off dialling? We can help with the maths. Q12Q12: Do you have any comments on our proposed changes to the policy in relation to persistent misuse arising from: a) misuse of ACS; b) misuse of a CLI facility; and c) breaches of the PECRs? Yes defining all abandoned calls as misuse. TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Consultation Questions Section 4 (Contd) QuestionGeneral Thrust of Response Q13 Do you agree with the way we propose to assess the harm from cases of persistent misuse and prioritise enforcement action? In particular, have we identified the right factors to take into account and do you agree with the way we propose to apply them? Same as previous answers Q14 Do you have any further comments or views on other aspects of this consultation or the proposed policy set out in Annex 5 which are not covered above? Focus on the definition of misuse and persistent misuse CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Q&A and Discussion CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Agree next steps CONFIDENTIAL Azzurri Communications Limited Thank you.