Political Prescription

By Tim Searcy

As I write this column, we are just coming up on the election. What is going to happen? Who is going to win? For teleservices, without a doubt the outcome is already determined… more attempted regulation. I feel obligated to give the incoming freshmen of Congress as well as the historical hacks a bit of advice for how to handle our industry from their lofty perches of power. I believe that the advice medical schools have been giving new physicians for over one hundred years is probably a good guideline: listen, do no harm, and help. I address these three points as an open set of advice to my old and new friends in Washington.

Number One: Listen

As a politician, you have an unbelievable number of special interests, constituents and single issue advocates parading into your office every day. It is almost mind numbing to sit in your offices and watch the conga line of petitions that vie for your time. However, teleservices is rather unique, and our group of interested parties is fairly diverse:

Consumers — yes, we represent the consumer, and we are seeking the best balance of their interests and the interests of legitimate business. As you listen to concerns about technology, customer service, and offshore representatives, please temper your opinion with the benefits the consumer has received from less restricted teleservices. The near and real monopolies of telecom, credit cards, network television and hundreds of others were broken by the leveling of the playing field of competition through inexpensive access to the effective medium of the telephone.

Employees – The industry employs 5.3 million contact center personnel in the United States. Each time new regulation is contemplated, the unintended consequence has been a reduction in jobs. This is a universal axiom. Regulations create expense, and to address the expense, organizations move jobs overseas to lower labor costs or to automated solutions, which take the human being out of the customer interaction. Every district in every state has one or more contact centers employing the hard to employ single mother, college student, retiree, veteran or handicapped individual. The ripples of additional regulation crash upon the shores of these people’s reality of trying to pay bills and make ends meet.

Businesses – There are over 56,000 contact centers in the United States with at least 20 representatives employed per center. The lion’s share of these businesses would be considered small business. These companies are a source of employment and an engine for an embattled economy. Although the profit motive is alive and well in our industry, our first goal is survival.

American Teleservices Association (ATA) – We are the only trade association dedicated exclusively to the teleservices industry. As the voice of the industry, we work to balance the interests of all constituents… much like you do. We would like to be your partner in this process. We will help you understand the business, the issues, and we can be a voice of assistance to get your more valuable legislative agenda out into the marketplace.

Number Two: Do No Harm

Now you might think that we think all regulation is bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. We desperately want you to add more funding to the prosecution and enforcement of U.S. fraud laws. The telephone is not fraudulent by its nature, but fraud is perpetrated using the phone. We want fraud to stop so that legitimate businesses can do business. Additionally, there is an economic penalty to the best in our industry if they cover the costs of compliance only to watch someone else go unhindered in business without being compliant. The consumer does need protection, and we would like to help you create the balance that we so adamantly request. For this reason, the ATA has created a self regulatory organization (SRO) which audits and provides accreditation to firms that can demonstrate through audit that they are capable of

Tim Searcy serves as the CEO of the American Teleservices Association (ATA).

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