If you have ever called customer support at a large company, you've probably heard a prompt to the effect of "this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes." These recordings of agent-customers interactions are usually reviewed selectively to determine if the employee properly greeted the caller and offered disclaimers and upsells, if appropriate.

While call recording is common, not every company uses the collected data the same way. It's possible for the sheer number of calls on file to overwhelm a team's ability to extract any value from them. The data might sit in storage, gathering digital dust despite possibly holding valuable clues about where the organization could improve.

Getting more value from call recording with a contact center solution

Imagine looking for a needle in a haystack, but not knowing what a needle even looked like. This is essentially the predicament in front of anyone attempting to parse call records for insights that might improve productivity, if they don't have any specific key performance indicators (KPIs) in mind.

For call centers, relevant KPIs might include:

• Average durations of sales and non-sales calls.
• Percentage of calls that give a busy/waiting tone.
• First call resolution rates.

With these parameters in place, it's possible to narrow the range of recorded calls that might deserve full analysis. For example, you could zero-in on non-sales calls that lasted for more than one minute – a relatively long time, often avoided by agents who can identify callers who won't convert.

Call recording can help identify successful interactions for training purposes.

Business communications systems with custom call recording can streamline the process even further by letting you apply such filters to vast sets of recordings. That way, you're spared the trouble of randomly sorting through calls that might not shed any light on agent performance.

Outfitted with other features such as VoIP with on-demand recording (i.e., deciding which calls, outbound or inbound, to categorically record, and when to end recordings on individual calls), a unified communications (UC) contact center platform puts all the information you need for more productive operations right at your fingertips. What gains can you expect from upgrading to a UC/VoIP call center with advanced recording capabilities? A few of the biggest ones include:

1. Easier regulatory compliance

Call recording is subject to many interlocking regulations around the world. In the U.S., the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is one of the most prominent privacy-related laws. Its titles apply to the exchange of electronic protected health information (ePHI), including phone calls in which this data may be handled.

To avoid the high costs and bureaucratic complexity of noncompliance, it's a good idea to use a call recording system built from the ground up with security in mind. Approach your VoIP system with the same seriousness you would a traditional private branch exchange, ensuring you have all relevant call records on file and protected by access controls.

2. More effective agent training

Support specialists encounter a variety of situations, from routine troubleshooting to more difficult sales/refunds transactions, each day. Thanks to call recording, you can document all of these cases and review them as necessary, both to improve training and take corrective action when necessary.

Successful calls with relatively quick resolution times can be singled out and used as models during trainings. Meanwhile, you can analyze calls in which the scripts provided to agents were ineffective and use that info to revise future prompts. Agents can also be assigned to remedial courses designed to help them close sales consistently, resolve calls more quickly, etc.

3. Future-proof infrastructure

Modern contact centers, like those available from Teo Technologies, feature highly integrated architecture combining call recording, automatic call distribution, CRM access and much more into one convenient platform. They can also be deployed in the cloud, on premises or in a hybrid setup depending on your organization's unique requirements.

The result is a future-proof solution that can be efficiently scaled, modified and maintained even as your needs evolve. A trusted, proven partner like Teo will guide you through the entire process of attaining a contact center that's right for you. Contact us today to learn more!