Call recording is here to transform your business
- July 11, 2020
- Category: Call Recording
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This call is now being recorded.
Why, you wonder?
Call recording can be an effective tool in your business belt (no matter how small or large) and can help drive decisions that impact cross-organization performance. It can act as an important deterrent, provide proof in he-said-she-said situations, and is a goldmine of data about what your customers think about you – and even your competitors.
Here are some of the key benefits of call recording for small businesses:
Depending on the nature of your business, call recording can serve myriad purposes. For example, banking and finance companies are often fraught with issues of fraud and cyber crime. Educational and medical organizations may face diligence issues. In such a scenario, companies must have proper records of business calls.
Call recordings can be crucial at times of clarification of details, or confirming the exactness of the interaction between the customers and the business agents/representatives. Beyond providing proof of transaction, call recordings are a useful resource for data that can be converted to future business predictions and insightful decisions for businesses.
In the US, call recording laws for businesses differ from state to state. Non-compliance can cost businesses heavily. For example, banks and collectors in the US are required to record every business interaction over the phone. In today’s highly regulated business environment, both small and large enterprises must follow regulations and best practices.
When it comes to regulatory compliance, every business must operate with best practices to safeguard itself from unwanted fines, lawsuits, or issues arising due to noncompliance. Call recordings can help to:
- Stay protected from legal issues
- Save costs and unwanted legal expenses
- May help fight lawsuits filed against them
- Maintain service-level compliance
If calls are analyzed with clear and specific goals, small businesses can proactively identify gaps, improve processes, and even reduce costs and increase efficiency.
For example, a financial services company that was experiencing a high volume of repeat calls ran analytics on its call center agents who had a low-resolution rate or were spending too much time to solve minor issues. With the help of call recording analysis, the company managed to identify gaps and systemic issues, and reduced repeat calls by 15%. This meant, the agents were able to take an increased number of new calls at the same cost to the company and increase efficiency.
What does the customer want? Is the product/service meeting customers’ needs? What is the customers’ demography? What are their behavior patterns? Which competitor product do they prefer? Call recordings could help find important information and data from customers, which could be utilized to meet marketing and business goals.
Based on data gathered from call recording analysis, businesses can make changes to their sales agent scripts, improve products, and develop new products. Let’s apply this to the banking industry with the case of American Express. By recording 100% of its business calls and conducting two-layer monitoring by supervisors and a centralized quality group, the bank successfully drove sales through its call center performance.
The only way for businesses to assess the performance of its call center teams is by way of recording calls, listening to them and analyzing them. It can help small businesses assess agents’ performance and provide them with feedback to improve. Managers and supervisors can train agents in communication skills, sales skills, and problem-solving skills, technical and soft skills, among other skills for overall efficiency.
A key factor for any business’s success is consistency. A particular business may have a highly rated brand image, a loyal customer base, and a credible legacy, but if it doesn’t maintain its quality and standards, it could lose its competitive edge. Call recordings are an effective way to assess the quality of business service, the gaps, and drawbacks, customer grievances about service and product, among other crucial information. This information could help businesses improve and ensure that it maintains quality standards across aspects of its business.
Call recording has a much larger role to play in a business as opposed to the general assumption of it being just a point of contact for the customers and the agents.
Its benefits span across business operations, departments, and processes. Businesses can harness its benefits with the use of business call recording platforms and call monitoring software such as SonicView, which is cost-effective, easy to install and use, and provides essential advanced features. Every call tells a story. If woven together, it can offer useful insights. So listen to calls and turn them into success stories.