The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to look into the use of offshore call centers and ways to require phone operators to be proficient in “American Standard English.”
The FCC is seeking comment on proposals aimed at bringing call center jobs back to the United States, including one to require workers to be proficient in English or “be trained appropriately for resolving issues with U.S. customers.” According to the agency, nearly 70% of U.S. companies have shifted their customer service and call center operations to foreign countries.
“Today, consumers in the U.S. regularly experience frustration and poor customer service when they connect with a call center located abroad,” the FCC wrote. “There can be communication and other barriers that make it difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to get a satisfactory resolution to their problems.”
The release outlines problems that have arisen from this shift, citing “frustration” and “poor customer service” from call centers outside the U.S., going on to say that communication barriers make it difficult to resolve problems.
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The new proceeding includes proposals to get consumers to transfer calls to a U.S.-based
location and require calls involving certain sensitive information to be handled domestically. The FCC is also weighing a mandate requiring call centers to disclose the location from which they are fielding the call.
The FCC also points out that these foreign call centers have contributed to robocalls and bad actors defrauding Americans.