Each year the number of businesses that record their calls increases. In this article you'll find out:
- Why Call Recording is becoming increasingly popular?
- Can it help businesses become more successful?
- Is Call Recording legal in the UK?
- How does call recording work?
1. Call Recording Improves Staff Performance
You may have heard of Pearson’s Law before. It’s a natural law which applies to all aspects of life, including work.
Pearson’s Law
"That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially." - Karl Pearson
To start off with, just by your staff knowing that the call is being recorded and can be listened to at a later day they’re more likely to do their best while communicating with clients over the phone. And I’ve never met anyone who would want to be embarrassed if management ever heard them acting badly on the phone.
With Call Recording, it’s easy for management and the staff member in question to see areas of strength and weakness in their communication. From there you can come up with coaching and guidance to improve their communication and performance.
Once you’ve given guidance to the staff member, you can simply check some of their calls a week or two later. You’ll find one of two things, either the staff member has improved (which is very likely) or they haven’t changed, and the problem still persists, at which point you will want to have another conversation with the person either acknowledging and praising the fact that they have improved, or saying something like "There has no improvement. I would like them to make these changes... Are there any reasons you can't make these changes or do they need help in making these changes?
These are small steps you can take in using call recording that have a big impact on staff performance and communication.
“High-quality communications, imply a high level of service.” – emerald insight, The Journal of Services Marketing
"70% Are willing to spend more with a company they believe offers excellent customer service." – Research conducted by American Express
These 2 statistics make it SO important to invest in your staff to increase the success of your business. We've had Call Recording since day one, and wouldn't go without it.
2. Call Recording Helps Resolve Disputes
If you’ve ever bought something over the phone or taken advice over the phone, chances are you've also been told that the call will be recorded. The reason increasing numbers of companies are recording their calls is that it instantly validates any verbal agreements.
Any call can be listened to, and if needed emailed to someone to validate what was said or agreed on the phone.
Encrypted recorded calls will stand up in court if the dispute ever got to that point, which could easily save any business thousands of pounds.
3. Call Recording Protects Your Staff
It may be rare and hopefully, will never happen to you or your staff. But some nasty people may verbally abuse and threaten your company.
According to the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) verbal abuse (and the fear of abuse) can have a serious impact on an employee's mental well-being and can lead to distress and anxiety, and longer-term stress-related ill health. For employers, the result can be low staff morale, increased turnover of employees, and recruitment difficulties.
By recording your calls, not only are angry callers less likely to verbally abuse your staff, but you also have proof if you needed to get the police to take action.
People who are convicted of committing crimes like verbal abuse over the phone can be fined, or imprisoned for up to six months.
So your staff will be protected and safe with call recording.
Is Call Recording Legal In The UK?
Call Recording is legal in the UK. And, you don't even need to tell your callers that calls are recorded if you don't want to. It's fine as long as you let your staff know calls are recorded, you record calls for your own organisation and for one of these purposes:
- provide evidence of a business transaction,
- ensure that a business complies with regulatory procedures,
- see that quality standards or targets are being met,
- protect national security,
- prevent or detect crime,
- investigate the unauthorised use of a telecommunications system, or
- secure the effective operation of the telecommunications system.
How Does Call Recording Work?
Call Recording is usually a combination of hardware and software built (or connected to) a phone line or phone system.
Whenever a call starts (inbound or outbound) the system starts recording, and it simply stops at the end of the call.
The calls are then stored in a secure, password-protected portal which can be accessed from a PC, tablet or laptop.
You can search and narrow down calls by: date, time, whether it's inbound or outbound, phone number, duration, etc. And once you find the call you'd like to listen to you simply click play.
