BPO sector fights back against proposed US call center restrictions

The Philippines’ information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector has warned that American businesses could face higher operational costs if the United States (US) government pushes through with plans to discourage offshoring. Industry advocacy groups representing the IT-BPM industry submitted a position paper dated May 18 to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging it to reconsider proposed offshoring policies that threaten to negatively impact the sector’s contributions to the Philippine economy. “We respectfully submit that several of the proposed measures, particularly those that would restrict offshore customer service delivery based on location, risk undermining these objectives by increasing costs, reducing service availability, and misdirecting regulatory focus away from the actual sources of consumer harm,” the paper read. The position paper was jointly signed by the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham), and the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC). The groups issued their response after the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) last March to explore measures that would encourage businesses to bring call center jobs back to the US and improve customer service at existing domestic facilities. Among the controversial measures are empowering customers to transfer calls to a US-based location, ensuring that calls involving certain types of sensitive information are handled domestically, and mandating that service providers disclose the location of the call center during customer interactions. The FCC also wants to require call center workers to be proficient in American Standard English and appropriately trained to resolve issues raised by US customers. The federal agency said these measures aim to address the “frustration and poor customer service” regularly experienced by consumers when connecting with offshore call centers. While the industry groups welcomed the intention to address the concerns of US consumers, they stressed there...