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Why Communications Compliance is a Top Priority for Contact Centers

ContactCenter Compliance
ContactCenter Compliance

Why Communications Compliance is a Top Priority for Contact Centers

Contact centers are, by definition, all about communication. And the richness of the communication has been enhanced immeasurably by the deployment of unified communication and collaboration (UCC) tools with their wide range of features and functionality. That said, firms have not always been able to take full advantage of much needed functionality due to potential compliance concerns which have led some users to switch features off. UC providers are alive to the need from customers and are prioritizing helping by providing more ways to solve recordkeeping and supervision needs – the announcement from Zoom on its approach serves as a positive example on what firms can (and should) expect from their communication and collaboration providers.

Indeed in a webinar, Zoom, Theta Lake and PCI Pal explored ‘Navigating Compliance Challenges: Strategies for a Robust Contact Centre’ and highlighted how Zoom is simplifying compliance via a fully integrated suite with Zoom Compliance Manager being powered by Theta Lake. These tools enable organizations with communication compliance features, to better manage streamlined communication compliance policies that fully address their regulatory obligations.

For financial services firms, contact centers are not only on the front line of customer communications but also need to meet stringent compliance requirements.

In the UK contact centers will need a particular focus on the Consumer Duty and its expectations including the ability to be able to evidence the effectiveness of business communication. In the U.S. there are multiple rules including SEC’s electronic recordkeeping requirement Rule 17a-4 updated in 2022. Regulators have also updated their expectations regarding the handling of sensitive information types like emojis, with the clear expectation (as pointed out by Micheal Solomon, head of FINRA’s national examination program at the FINRA conference in May 2023) that firms need to be able to recognise, retain and act on emojis as part of any (written) communication. A specific example cited was that the ‘angry face’ emoji may well need to be considered as a complaint.

For contact centers, there are also key considerations for the management and governance of data, including non-public personal information and, specifically, credit card and other financial information. Firms must implement custom policies that address their unique compliance challenges and set clear permissions for communication compliance policies to maintain proper governance over their communication channels. Recordkeeping and data governance are not just regulatory necessities but fundamental components of an effective compliance program. Contact centers must adopt tools and strategies that meet evolving regulatory demands and the broader compliance landscape.

Recordkeeping: A Core Competency for Contact Centers

All aspects of recordkeeping are an expected core competency for financial services firms, and for contact centers acting as a key communications hub, it is even more vital. Contact centers must be equipped to handle the upstream capture and retention of all relevant records, enabling firms to downstream manage their compliance responsibilities and provide evidence of compliance.

Only with a complete, secure, and accessible data set can firms fulfill their regulatory compliance obligations while also gaining actionable insights for strategic management. Recordkeeping and the associated data governance requirements begin with the effective capture and retention of all relevant data points, ensuring compliance with both local and global standards.

As contact centers increasingly use video to enrich the customer experience, firms will need to enhance their investment in effective communication compliance technology to be able to oversee all elements of communication. This includes not only voice, written communications, and video (including screen shares) but also emojis, GIFs, and reactions. Organizations will also benefit from technological communication compliance updates that align with these modern communication modalities. 

How Theta Lake can help

Backed by the investment arms of Cisco, RingCentral, Salesforce, and Zoom, Theta Lake is a recognized leader in Digital Communications Governance and Archiving (DCGA). Its multi-award winning product suite provides patented compliance and security for modern collaboration platforms, utilizing hundreds of frictionless partner integrations including RingCentral, Webex by Cisco, Microsoft 365 and Teams, Slack, Zoom, Movius, Box, Mural, Asana and more

Theta Lake empowers organizations to safely, compliantly, and cost-effectively expand their use of unified communication platforms by enabling capture, compliant archives, and acting as an archive connector for existing archives of record across video, voice, and chat collaboration systems. Theta Lake supports Zoom Contact Center, RingCentral’s RingCX, RingCentral Contact Center, NICE CXOne and customers benefit from:

  • The ability to ensure that all aspects of messaging can be preserved, and a full audit trail provided to supervisors and regulators. For example, chat messages can be viewed in their native format over the entire history of the conversation, with full context retained including images, GIFs, emojis and reactions.
  • Searching instantly across participants, all modes of unified communication and collaboration tools, meshed conversations, and timelines in an easy to navigate search system that covers and provides full replay for voice, video, chat, email, images, emojis, files, whiteboards, and more.
  • Patented AI & ML to detect, surface, and enable actual response for regulatory, privacy, and security risks in an AI assisted review workflow with remediation and patented UCC security control integrations for protection across what is shared, shown, spoken, and typed.
  • Theta Lake’s risk and compliance suite provides an advanced security and privacy architecture named STAR3 (Secure in Transit, Access, in Redaction, Remediation, and Removal), which is  SOC2 Type II certified with ISO 27001 mapping, PCI DSS certified, 17a-4 and audit trail attested, BAA supported, and undergoes regular penetration testing so our customers, partners, and regulators worldwide are confident in That Lake’s data and system security, integrity, and privacy.

Contact Theta Lake today to learn more about how its tools can simplify access to robust communication compliance and support your organization’s compliance objectives.

Ways to learn more

  • Theta Lake’s Digital Communications Governance & Archiving (DCGA), Compliance and Security Report 2024/25 can be downloaded here
  • Visit: ThetaLake.com | LinkedIn | X at @thetalake
  • Request a demo today from the friendly Theta Lake team here

 

This blog post was originally published on 04.25.2024. It was last edited on 01.04.2025.