Call recording continues to be a phone solution feature requested across many types of organizations, but let's start with the basics...

What is a Call Recording System?

Call recording systems empowers organizations to record phone calls either over a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or VoIP (Voice over IP) in a digital format. Call recording systems is language for a technology which helps businesses record, secure, store, playback, share and reclaim audio files. This technology is offered on both premises based phone systems and cloud phone systems.

Call recording systems should not be confused with call reporting, call accounting or call monitoring technology. For example, logging (collecting, assessing and reporting technical and analytical facts about phone calls) and call monitoring (real-time analytics on agents or system users). Call recording systems objective is to record the conversations between the caller and the callee.

How do Call Recording Systems for Business work?

As discussed, call recording systems can be deployed as part of a premise-based system, like an Avaya IP Office, or in a cloud environment with a VoIP phone system.

Each business phone system type offers advantages, a call recording system in a VoIP model can administer certain benefits in flexibility, scalability, ease of use, data recovery and not to mention a significant difference in cost structure. Below is a short video of how easy it is to enable call recording on the Recent Communications VoIP phone system.

Businesses using landlines and PRI phone lines with an on premise PBX can record calls too, but it tends to be more complicated. In this model, businesses are required to make a connection at the deskphone or phone line with physical hardware to record the call. Even if this can be accomplished, managing the audio files can be clunky if not implemented properly. Call recording systems can be 'bolted on' in order to encrypt and store the call recordings, but the licensing fees can often be cost prohibitive.

Is it legal to record calls?

We've been asked this before... and our lawyers tell us we pay them so we don't have to pretend. With that said, the answer is complicated.

Telecommunication privacy laws differ among states and the federal government.

Generally, federal law prohibits recording phone calls without the consent of at least one party. This is known as “one-party consent law” 8 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d). This law states that anyone who “intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication or anyone who discloses or uses information obtained through such an interception violates federal law." Breaking this law may includes imprisonment and fines.

“One-party consent laws” have passed in 38 states. State to state details may vary slightly, but callers who record a conversation with one party’s consent should be well within their legal rights. Some states, however, require all-party consent under some or all circumstances. These states include California, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.What qualifies as “consent” in call recording? The definition of “consent” is not consistent from state to state, and consent can be either expressed or implied.In some states, breaking the one-party consent law qualifies as a felony, and in others, it’s a misdemeanor.

Whether operating a formal call center or looking to leverage recordings to improve customer service and employee performance, here are several industries that utilize these tools.

• Law Firms

• Insurance Firms

• Financial Services

• Facilities Services

• Healthcare

• Utilities

• Transportation

• Human Resource Consulting

• Staffing and Recruiting

• Retail

Not sure if your organization can benefit from recording phone calls? Check out three ways we help organizations leverage these tools.

1. Employee Recordings

Recording employee phone calls during onboarding and training periods can allow leadership teams to evaluate employee interactions with customers, vendors, partners, and colleagues. This real-time data can help improve employee engagement, increase performance, and reduce turnover.

Call recording systems can deliver numerous benefits for contact center environments including how well agents are handling calls, evaluating the training requirements in a particular area, or which agents are more talented and should be benchmarked against. From an end-user perspective, this ensures the customer experience is positive and aligned with organization values and standards or within regulatory requirements.

2. Customer Experience Improvements

Improving the customer experience is a top of the mind priority for organizations of all sizes. Access to a view of the customer journey will help management teams understand how effective employees are when engaging with customers. If customers service levels could be increased, think about the recurring revenue, future business, and improved net promoter scores. Check out more tips to leverage phone solutions to improve customer experiences.

Call recording software can also support revenue and sales conversions, by identifying the techniques that provoke a positive customer response.

With customer satisfaction at the forefront of business growth, call recording solutions are a necessity. By understanding the customer journey within your organization, you can make decisions and deliver information to agents much faster with a recording system.

3. Complaints and Legal Disputes

Access to historical phone conversations provide factual and unbiased information to consider when the 'he said, she said' scenarios arise. Whether internal conversations or engagements with customers, vendors, or partners, having access to call recordings allow additional information to help settle complaints or legal disputes. By securing, storing and organizing these audio files, you business can ensure any misunderstandings or conflicts made over the phone over any payment transactions, deliveries, orders, etc. are quickly resolved, avoiding fines and poor scores against the business.

Before recording any phone calls, know the laws! Call recording laws vary by state, so it's important to understand required notifications and consent before implementing this phone solution feature.

Check out this overview showcasing state-by-state call recording laws from a Wisconsin-based law firm, Matthiesen Wickert & Lehrer.

Call recording is one of hundreds of features to leverage when finding the best fit phone solutions for your organization!

Know a business or organization that could benefit from understanding the advantages of call recording and monitoring? Let them know about our local, full-service telecom company at Recent Communications, Inc. Help out a friend, business partner, vendor, or customer and share this post!

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