How To Get The Most Out Of Call Recordings In A Call Center

A Contact Babel study found that 91% of call centers use call recording software, recording 100% of incoming and outgoing calls.

A call recording software records telephone conversations via VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) or PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), and stores them in digital audio format. The software may also have call log functionality. It is important that call centers have it to provide excellent customer service, and thus increase their sales and service.

Why Are Call Center Call Recordings Important?

• Because they play a central role in monitoring, measuring and improving the quality of calls.
• Because they mitigate risks. They are a direct account of the interaction between a customer and an agent.
• Because they protect both agents and users.

What Are The Best Ways To Use Call Recordings?

Call recordings aren’t just for quality and conflict resolution. Conversations between customers and agents provide a wealth of information about products, sentiment, marketing or company policies, among others.

1) Quality Management

Any good quality management program involves listening to and evaluating a sample of call recordings. Assessments ensure agents adhere to customer experience (CX) standards, resolve issues efficiently and accurately, and follow compliance procedures. They also help to identify agent-training needs. When instructed in their quality evaluations, they should have access to the related recordings. If not, they may not remember the call (probably) or may remember it differently than what happened.

2) Conflict Resolution

A call recording provides a direct account of what happened during the interaction between an agent and a customer. It may even be admissible in court if the proper consent rules have been followed. Listening to the call helps contact center managers understand what happened, identify the best way to handle the situation with the customer, and determine if action is needed.

3) Agents’ Training

Taking that first call can be scary for new agents. Even after full training, they may still not have the confidence. A new agent who has no faith in himself will have a difficult time delivering a satisfying customer experience. So playing good and bad call recordings during training could be the learning and confidence boost that some agents need. It will help demystify the interaction process and provide agents with some real-life examples of what to do and what not to do.

4) Identification Of Problems

Call recordings can help identify problems. These can range from coupon codes not working on the website, product defects, and shipping issues. Call centers are dedicated to solving problems, so they are often notified of them before anyone else in the company. Major problems can be identified simply because they generate a high volume of calls. Call centers that are good at discovering problems add additional value to their organizations.

5) Voice Of The Customer

Call recordings contain information directly from the customer’s mouth. Marketing, product and CX teams can all benefit from them. They can learn more about customer needs, find out their perception of the company, and even get new product ideas. When combined with other customer experience data, the information contained in call recordings can help companies understand the customer journey.

6) Employee Recognition

Call centers are always looking for new ways to recognize and motivate agents. As quality analysts review the calls, they can choose calls that exhibit all the characteristics of the ideal interaction. Leaders can replay call recordings at team meetings and recognize agents for their performance.

7) Screen Recording

Listening to call recordings is great, but it only provides one dimension of interaction. To get a more holistic view, call centers should also record agent screens. This allows quality analysts to see how agents navigate the system (s) and what data they enter. With this “video” of the interaction, additional ways can be identified in which agents can be more efficient and accurate in the way they handle customer inquiries.

Call recordings contain a lot of really useful information about customers, inquiries, conflict resolution, and agents. Listening to and evaluating them can identify calls that can be used in training, for agent recognition, and to inform other leaders within the company. But to get even more value from these recordings, organizations should consider implementing voice analytics tools that can assess 100% of contacts and provide more actionable insights.