Call centre operators must be more aware of disabled people's needs, says regulator

Ofcom has produced guidance for call centre operators and the companies which use them, outlining some of the problems faced by disabled customers phoning call centres and giving advice on how those difficulties can be minimised.

"Research commissioned by Ofcom into the needs of disabled people when using communications services showed that difficulty dealing with call centres was a common problem. The same issue is also regularly raised with us by disability organisations," said the guidance.

"Blind people have reported that call centre workers assume that callers can see, and are unable to divert from the script – even when they know that the customer cannot do what they are asking, e.g. read a serial number," it said.

"Deaf people report that call centres regularly hang up when they call via the text relay service [and] hard of hearing people have told us that requests to speak more slowly are often ignored," it said. "People who have learning disabilities or have suffered a head injury tell us that they find menus and entering numbers (e.g. their account number) difficult."

Ofcom recognised that being able to interact with companies at any time of the day or night and being able to do it over the phone made life easier for many people with disabilities, for whom visiting a high street outlet can be difficult.

It has produced the guidance, though, because too often the call centre experience takes no account of the particular needs of disabled users. This not only acts against the business interests of the companies, but could break the law in some cases.

"Making services more accessible to older and disabled consumers makes business sense. As the population gets older, this becomes even more important – for example, among people over the age of 60, 54% are deaf or hard of hearing and 8% are blind or partially sighted," said the guidance.

"The Disability Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of disability in the provision of goods and services, and says that service providers must make reasonable adjustments to enable disabled people to use their services," it said.

Ofcom said that businesses that use call centres must make sure that staff are given disability awareness training; that they must offer the chance to communicate by post or email as well as by phone; and that customers should be able to conduct a written review of complex details.

The guidelines also say that businesses should conduct a technical review of the systems they use to make sure that there are no practical barriers to their use by disabled customers.

"Call centre speech levels (at headset and system output) should meet international standards and should be checked on a regular basis," it said. "If you advertise a textphone number, make sure that your staff know how to answer and use the textphone. Keep call routing menus short (4 is a good maximum) and give an option of speaking to an operator in the initial menu."

"Allow the caller the option of repeating the menu. The system should transfer the caller to an operator if no option is chosen or if the caller cannot do what is being asked, e.g. enter an account number; [and] menu options should be logical for the customer rather than based on your organisational structure," it said.