What is call recording?
Call recording is the process of capturing or recording telephone conversations. After recording a call, the system automatically stores the digital audio file so that later, it can be reproduced and analyzed. Businesses may use call recording for several reasons, such as training, process optimization, and quality assurance. The call recording of telephonic conversations can be done either by voice over IP (VoIP) or via a public switched telephone network (PTSN).
Call recording is generally offered as a feature with contact center operations software. This feature enables recording inbound and outbound calls in the call center. However, it depends on the contact center if it wants all the calls to be recorded or just a few as a sample.
Benefits of call recording
Call recording is done as per business needs. Some benefits of call recording include:
- Improve customer service: With constant monitoring and evaluation of inbound and outbound calls, it becomes easier for the supervisors or managers to keep a check on the quality of service.
- Quality assurance: There are several software solutions that provide contact center quality assurance. However, call recordings provide real-time access to managers and supervisors to monitor the quality of calls. Therefore, it is a critical component of quality assurance and management.
- Compliance requirement: Call recordings help check if an agent has followed all the required compliance criteria and protocols while on a call with customers.
- Monitoring and evaluating call center agent’s performance: Call recording helps to determine an agent’s performance while speaking with customers over the phone. The way an agent deals with the customer and helps to resolve issues is only possible to evaluate with constant call recording.
- Gain customer-centric insights: Information like customer expectations, preferences, grievances, and aspirations is something that can be gained by call recording. This information can be used to offer a more personalized service experience.
- Onboarding and training: Call recordings can coach an agent to perform better in future, but referring to old call recordings can also help new hires understand expectations and give them practical knowledge of how to handle customers in all situations.
- Dispute resolution: In any unfortunate situation when a company needs to maintain their brand reputation, call recordings help resolve disputes with customers.
Call recording best practices
- Informing the customers before recording: Contact centers often use an automated message to inform their customers when a call is being recorded. For example, the message “this call is being recorded for quality and training purposes” is commonly used. This declaration helps build trust between customers and the call center.
- Following customer service call recording law: To record calls, every business needs to be aware of and follow any local government laws and regulations on call recording. They may also need to seek permission about the same.
- Setting up a team to monitor call recordings: The purpose of call recording becomes nullified if there is no one to revisit them. Call recording is just one part of the entire process; in order to get the maximum benefit out of call recording features, a company should set up a monitoring team.
Call recording vs. screen recording
Many software solutions provide screen recording as an added feature along with call recording. While call recording refers to recording inbound and outbound calls, screen recording refers to recording the entire workstation screen of the agent during a call.
Screen recording helps gain insight into the agent's workflow, including how the agent is navigating desktop applications during a call. Screen recording provides a visual representation of an agent’s desktop whereas call recording is an audio reference of the agent’s call with a customer.
Priya Dey
Priya is a senior research analyst at G2 focused on customer service software. Prior to joining G2, Priya worked as a secondary market research analyst in one of the Big 4's for more than 5 years. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her friends and family.
