New customer service law. Recently, the Council of Ministers approved the preliminary draft Law on Customer Service Services. A norm that now faces its next step: being sent to the Congress of Deputies for parliamentary processing as a bill.
A new customer service law that involves major changes in the customer service process in a call center or a contact center and the rights of consumers. But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves by telling you everything. Do you know what this new Customer Service Law consists of? Keep reading, we tell you all the keys here!
New customer service law: which companies are affected?
Before getting into the matter, it is important to know which companies are affected by the new law. The companies directly affected by this new standard are those, public or private, that regardless of their size provide services, among others:
- Water and energy supply and distribution services
- Passenger transport in the different means of transport
postal services - Electronic and telephone communications
- Financial services
- Etc.
New customer service law: an end to eternal waiting times
This is, without a doubt, one of the most important updates in the new customer service and it directly affects the call center sector. The new customer service law sets, for the first time, a maximum time of 3 minutes for users to be attended by telephone in basic general information, claim and after-sales services.
This limitation to three minutes of waiting time will benefit not only those who contact for basic services. The aforementioned reduction in waiting time will also favor those users affected by incidents related to basic continuity services: electricity, water or gas.
News in general and basic services
Precisely we want to stop here to explain another of the keys. Once the rule comes into force, electricity, water and gas companies must not only inform the consumer, but also give an estimated time for the restoration of supply services within a maximum period of two hours.
In addition to this, both the basic and general services mentioned above will have to offer a free customer service channel 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
New customer service law: news in the management of complaints and claims
We have talked before about incidents but now we want to focus on another important update: the management of complaints and claims. Some complaints and claims whose resolution period is also shortened with the entry of the new law: from 30 business days (currently) to 15.
In this sense, although automation will continue to be very important in the customer service of the call center (that is, that the call has been initiated through answering machines or chatbots), the consumer will have the right to be attended by a call center agent with specialized training.
Finally, energy operators must report on energy saving and efficiency measures, as well as the possibilities of contracting energy from renewable sources. For more information on this, we recommend you consult the official website of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
Conclusions
Once we have seen the most important keys of the new norm, we are clear that consumer rights will be given great importance. A new law for which the contact center sector must be very prepared to be able to face all these changes with guarantees and adapt to all the needs and requirements of users.
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