Hitting a moving target requires skill and a lot of practice. Imagine attempting it blindfold — it’s nearly impossible.
That’s what engaging consumers is like for a business without a proven strategy. Along with challenges like the difficulty of handling multiple customers simultaneously, employee disengagement and upgrading from manual, paper-based and high-touch processes, companies of all sizes often struggle to meet evolving customer expectations.
Add data privacy and security issues to the mix, and it’s a recipe for failure. Launching and running a successful business is already an uphill battle — according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), approximately 20 percent of new businesses fail during their first two years of operation, 45 percent close within the first five years and 65 percent shutter within the first ten years. Almost 20 percent of small businesses fail within their first year.
With so much focus during the past few years on meeting consumer preferences, you might think businesses have caught on. However, Forrester’s U.S. Customer Experience Index™ rankings indicate that consumers’ perceptions of customer experience quality have decreased for the third year in a row to an all-time low.
Why the decline in customer experience? Some of it surely is due to nationwide staffing shortages. Roughly half of customer service managers report increased employee attrition over the past 12 months. Replacing those employees isn’t an easy proposition, either. More than 40 percent of customer service leaders reveal that training a new employee for optimal performance takes three to six months.
Insufficient personalization also sometimes frustrates consumers. It’s hard to achieve that level of service during peak periods, though. Sixty percent of customer care leaders report a growth in total calls.
Even business leaders who overcome customer engagement and experience obstacles aren’t fully free to successfully promote their products or services without any trouble. Many industries, from finance and healthcare to telecommunications and manufacturing, are among the most regulated — on the local, state and federal levels — in the country.
Take healthcare, for example. Rules and regulations from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA) require healthcare providers to follow rules designed to promote higher standards of patient safety and ensure security and privacy of protected health information (PHI).
A lesser-known set of guidelines most healthcare entities must follow emanate from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Enacted by Congress in 1991, its purpose is to protect consumers from unsolicited telemarketing calls and messages.
TCPA regulations prohibit businesses from using automatic telephone dialing systems (ATDS) to contact individuals who have not provided consent. The Act also specifies that these entities are not to use prerecorded messages to communicate with these consumers and must follow procedures for maintaining an updated National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry list and providing an opt-out option for each call.
All marketers, common carriers and businesses are subject to the TCPA rules. Business-to-business (B2B) calls and texts are subject to the same TCPA wireless restrictions as those for business-to-consumer (B2C) calls and texts. Under the TCPA, using any kind of ATDS to send marketing calls or texts to a wireless number is illegal without prior express written consent.
Healthcare marketing is subject to compliance with the Act, but there are slightly different rules based on the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCCs) TCPA healthcare exemption. This exemption encourages healthcare providers and payers to promote public health using reasonable and fair communication channels while still protecting patients and consumers from unwanted marketing calls and text messages. It enables healthcare-covered entities to deliver health-related messages to patients and consumers — as long as they comply with HIPAA regulations and certain conditions, including:
Under HIPAA, messages must be healthcare-related and may not include promotional or financial solicitation (e.g., accounting, billing, or debt collection).
Some states adopt their own TCPA rules — often referred to as “mini-TCPA laws” — and implement broader versions requiring consent for telephonic sales calls, texts and voicemails. Roughly half of states have their own rules for calling times and holidays, and others vary on regulations about one-party versus two-party consent in recording telephone conversations.
In a one-party consent state, callers must obtain a consumer’s written consent for marketing messages for each seller. Two-party consent requires both parties to agree to the recording, typically at the start of the conversation.
Businesses subject to TCPA regulations should regularly monitor changes in its rules. In July 2023, the FCC added call limits and opt-out requirements for some types of artificial or prerecorded voice calls, including non-commercial calls to a residence, commercial calls to a residence that do not include an advertisement or constitute telemarketing, calls from tax-exempt nonprofit organizations to a residence and calls about HIPAA to a residence.
In March 2024, the FCC announced effective dates for more TCPA amendments. Scheduled to take effect on April 11, 2025, highlights of the amendments include:
Another new TCPA rule, this one focused on one-to-one consent, was scheduled to take effect on January 27, 2025 but was vacated by the Eleventh Circuit three days prior. The consent rule would have obligated parties making marketing calls using an ATDS or an artificial or prerecorded voice to obtain prior express written consent one seller at a time; required consent to be “clear and conspicuous; and required calls and texts to be “logically and topically associated with the interaction that prompted the consent.”
The FCC announced a ruling in February 2024 regarding the use of artificial intelligence in marketing calls. The agency unanimously adopted a Declaratory Ruling that calls made with AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The ruling makes voice cloning technology used in common robocall scams targeting consumers illegal.
Penalties for TCPA non-compliance aren’t too hefty — unless multiple offenses occur. Businesses that violate the TCPA are subject to steep fines ranging from $500 to $1,500 per individual violation. The per-violation penalty can be as high as $500 and increase to as much as $1,500 per violation if the caller’s violation was willful.
Employed to answer commonly asked questions, automate appointment scheduling, disseminate patient education and expand multilingual support, conversational AI can securely record and store calls for compliance purposes and monitor real-time transactions to identify suspicious activities indicating non-compliance or fraud. By automating repetitive tasks, the technology improves data accuracy, minimizing errors that can potentially reduce compliance.
Conversational AI tools also analyze data to ensure ongoing compliance, identify potential compliance risks and provide actionable insights to mitigate those risks. Well-designed conversational AI platforms can be developed to stay updated on the latest regulatory changes, further promoting compliance.
Recommended steps businesses should take to ensure compliance utilizing conversational AI include:
Businesses burdened by staff shortages, overworked employees, and increased operational costs don’t have to let their limited resources hinder customer engagement. At Revmo, our voice-enabled conversational AI platform is designed to help businesses of all sizes—even in regulated industries—accelerate sales and bolster revenue. It achieves this while helping to prevent unsolicited sales calls by ensuring communications comply with the TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry. Schedule a demo today to learn more!
Note: It is imperative to consult legal counsel to navigate TCPA rules and ensure full compliance.
As a business leader, you know that successfully engaging with consumers produces higher revenue, increased customer satisfaction, and a stronger brand reputation.
Convenience is no longer simply a consumer request — it’s a requirement. Customers expect businesses across numerous industries to provide quick and secure service 24/7.
Failure to comply with government regulations can result in more than fines and penalties. Businesses without a sound compliance strategy risk losing customer trust, tarnishing their brand image and reputation and possibly facing legal action.
With more than one million restaurants in the United States, it’s hard to imagine any American having trouble finding a place to eat.