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CAN-SPAM Updates and collections
Last month, new updates to the Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM)
went into effect, changing slightly the way that businesses
communicate with their customers via email.
This is important for the collections industry as email becomes
an increasingly more efficient way to contact certain customer
segments today, and as it becomes an ever larger part of contact
efforts in the future.
If your contact center is utilizing email to communicate with
customers, you should consult your legal council to make sure your
email practices are in compliance with CAN-SPAM. As of this change
in the Act, the main highlight is that consumers must be able to opt
out of receiving e-mail marketing communications in one step, having
only to enter an e-mail address to opt-out. Here are some of the
takeaway points from the new regulations, which can be found in
detail here.
To opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender, an e-mail
recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other
than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any
steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single
Internet Web page.
The definition of "sender" was modified to make it easier to
determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail
message is responsible for complying with the Act's opt-out requirements.
A "sender" of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered
post office box or private mailbox, established under United States Postal
Service regulations, to satisfy the Act's requirement that a commercial
e-mail display a "valid physical postal address."
A definition of the term "person" was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM's
obligations are not limited to natural persons.
The Federal Trade Commission has clarified the definition of a "Person" to
include all groups, associations and organizations including Non-Profits.
As such they are all subject to the CAN-SPAM Act. In the end, these changes
won't interfere dramatically with outbound email campaigns, but it is very
important that all email campaigns be reviewed by legal council to make sure
that they are still in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act updates. Key point
to note: manage your subscribe/unsubscribe process carefully!
Having helped manage the collections practice
for the third largest financial institution in
the United States, Allyson Boudousquie brings
a practical perspective to her role as director
of business process marketing for collections at
Aspect Software.
As a subject matter expert on the collections process,
Allyson is responsible for understanding the needs of
the market, identifying drivers and trends for future
growth and applying this insight to help create
value-added products for Aspect customers focusing
on the collections process. Before joining Aspect,
Allyson served as an officer for NationsBank. Among
the projects she managed while at NationsBank included:
creating and implementing the analysis of outbound
predictive dialer strategies and daily operations for
the collections departments, collections of delinquent
credit card accounts and developing and coaching staff
supervisors and associates on the collections process,
as well as design and implementation of automated fraud
detection solution for credit card security area.
