Strategies for Implementing Call Recording in Small Businesses
You can benefit from using call recording as a versatile and valuable tool. However, ensure diligent use and strict adherence to laws and regulations. Your contact center bears the responsibility for compliance. Let’s talk about the importance of call recording and what you need to consider when integrating technology into your small business.
Benefits of Call Recording
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#1 Protection from liability issues
Small businesses can face devastating consequences when disputes arise with customers or suppliers. Without call recording, oral agreements become risky, as there is no way to substantiate or validate what transpired between parties. Thankfully, implementing a call recording system ensures that a detailed record of conversations is always available.
#2 Impactful training resources
You can leverage recorded calls to train agents who are unfamiliar with handling inbound or outbound calls. Training agents with authentic call recordings enhance the customer experience when they start handling their own calls. The calls they have listened to provide them with an understanding of what to anticipate and acquaint them with the requirements for a successful customer service call.
#3 Identifying sales opportunities
To uncover sales opportunities and identify customer trends, you can analyze and score all your call recordings. Analyzing desired call outcomes, like successful sales, alongside specific agent behaviors, skills, and language, allows you to determine effective sales strategies. Evaluating agents based on their adherence to the desired script and their ability to identify language indicating a willingness to make a purchase can test this approach.
#4 Track customer service
If you have a small staff, it’s impossible to monitor each employee at all times. Call recording can help you track your staff’s phone performance. You can assess if your employees adhere to customer service best practices. For instance, if a customer complains about a phone interaction, you can listen to the call to understand what exactly happened and effectively address their concerns.
Strategies for Implementing Call Recording in Small Businesses
#1 Be transparent
Not all countries or states legally require caller consent to record a call, but it’s still seen as a best practice. Customers want companies they do business with to be trustworthy, and undisclosed recordings can make people feel uneasy.
Even if customers have nothing to hide, they prefer transparency. You can ensure compliance and ethics by using interactive voice response (IVR) systems or having agents read a script at the beginning of a call to proactively inform callers.
#2 Phone recording for business
You can record calls on your iPhone relatively easily. Call recorder app iPhone can be used as the basis of your call recording system or simply as an addition. To integrate the technology into your business, you need to download iCall from the App Store. After a short registration, you will have access to a free trial version of iPhone phone recorder. In terms of efficiency and quality, call recorder is not inferior to more expensive and difficult-to-integrate technical solutions.
#3 Ensure data security
Data breaches are on the rise as hackers continuously find ways to bypass security systems. To protect customer trust and avoid legal consequences, the security of call recordings must be at a high level.
Start by securing the physical premises where data is stored. Implement a key or badge system to prevent unauthorized access to the physical systems.
#4 Control access to data
Part of ensuring data security involves further limiting access to customers’ personal data. You should have a designated analyst or a team of analysts examine each call recording to analyze the data and extract relevant patterns or trends. This approach is typically more efficient and secure than having managers sift through the recordings themselves. When managers have unnecessary access to data, there is an increased risk of erroneous data transmission or receipt.
#5 Do not store unnecessary, confidential information
You should not keep recordings of sensitive information such as medical records, credit card numbers, or other personally identifiable information. To ensure data security, integrate a PCI payment system into your contact center platform. This system will automatically stop recording when agents input sensitive information and resume recording after submission.
Avoid requesting personal information from customers unless absolutely necessary. Even in those cases, offer the option for customers to provide the information verbally or through their personal device keypad, if available.
#6 Train agents
Inform your agents about the best practices for call recording and make them aware of what they should consider.
For agents, it is important to:
- Keep cell phones, pens, and paper away from the area where customer data is stored or entered on computers.
- Avoid discussing customers or divulging their real names or information in shared spaces.
Conclusion
Properly adding call recording technology to your business will help increase your credibility and protect you from legal consequences. It’s not that difficult, and the many benefits outweigh the challenges. With proper planning and organization of a call recording system, the collected data will help take your business to the next level.
