Phone recording

What is phone recording?

Phone recording (also known as: voice recording, call recording, or call monitoring) consists of attaching a recording device to phone, radio or other audio lines in a business setting and having a way to play back these recordings. Not to be confused with wire tapping, the difference between the two is that phone recording is done with the knowledge and consent of the parties being recorded. Business call centers were early adopters and most of us are familiar with the recording at the beginning of a call that reminds us that “this call may be recorded for training or quality control purposes.” Phone recording is now a horizontal market and phone recorders are used by all types of businesses to reduce liability and increase customer satisfaction.

The benefits and ROI of business phone recording

So why are so many businesses implementing phone recording solutions? What are the benefits to a company’s bottom line? Versadial has been in the phone recording business for over ten years and this is what we’ve found. Here are the top 5 reasons businesses invest in a phone recording system:

1. Reduce liability: This is the number one reason why most businesses purchase a phone recorder. It allows them to easily resolve disputes and protect themselves with recorded evidence. A phone recorder easily resolves disputes by providing an impartial record of what really happened in a call. In most instances if these recordings are done properly they may be admissible as evidence in court. However, the existence alone of such recordings is often enough to stop a lawsuit from even being filed. An example of this comes from a towing company in Massachusetts that uses a Versadial phone recorder to record all incoming orders. A customer called in and gave directions for a towing job. However the customer gave the wrong directions and consequently the towing company was unable to find the location. The customer was irate and threatened a lawsuit. The towing company reviewed the call in question and when the customer’s lawyer called they sent him a copy of the recording showing what had happened. The lawsuit was immediately dropped. How many lawsuits does the average company face a year that could be diffused by simply installing and using a trouble-free phone recording system? How much money and time could your company save?

2. Improve quality: This is the first benefit most people think of when thinking of phone recorders. By recording phone calls, errors can be detected and often corrected before they become costly mistakes. A customer making an order into a call center might give information to an employee that is typed into the computer. What if the employee accidentally makes an error in the order number or the customer’s address? By quickly accessing their own call before shipping the order information could be confirmed or corrected saving money on shipping and returns. Not only this, but customer satisfaction is improved. Rather than having to call the customer again, the recording can be reviewed and the mistake corrected without the customer even knowing. Supervisors can also routinely check calls to make sure proper dialogs are being used and offers made. The results are superior quality, lower costs and increased customer satisfaction. Watch an online demo of Versadial software quality control features here.

3. Increase security: The simple presence of a phone recorder on company lines often acts as a deterrent to all types of security breaches or inappropriate employee calls. Such security breaches or inappropriate calls can be detected and then used to either address the problem with the employee or if necessary to act as evidence. This results in increased productivity as well as reduced costs and liability.

4. Better training: Training and performance reviews are made easier when call recordings are easily available to trainers and managers. Trainers could search and find calls that exemplify excellent customer service or salesmanship. These could be easily emailed to other reps as an example or played in a training meeting. Likewise, poor quality calls can be found by managers and be sent to the employees that made them to allow them to learn from their mistakes and improve. Bette P. of PRco. Inc. uses a Versadial phone recorder to allow her customer service staff to review their own calls and know how they come across to customers. This has made it easy for employees to improve their own performance.

5. Sales and marketing data: A phone recording system gives your sales and marketing departments valuable data that will help them discover exactly what sales techniques or marketing campaigns are working and more importantly, why they are working. A sales manager can review calls that resulted in successful sales and glean ways to improve the sales dialogs for the entire sales staff. A marketing manager can listen to the same calls and discover what offers are working best, or the reasons customers give for not taking those offers. This helps the marketing department choose the most successful offers and create better offers in the future.

How phone recorders work

First a phone recorder has to be attached to the phone, radio or audio lines to be recorded. Most business phone recorders will cover multiple phone lines. These lines are also known as channels or ports. The phone recorder keeps track of each line and records it separately saving these recordings to a computer hard drive, CD, DVD, or in older units, to analog tape. Finally software is used to search, access and playback these recordings. In some systems phone lines can also be monitored live while the recording is being made.

The 3 types of phone recorders in use today

Tape: The very first phone recorders were huge machines that used reel to reel tape. They were expensive, difficult to learn how to use and expensive to maintain. With the advent of cassette tapes it became feasible for small companies to also record their calls but finding calls was a nightmare and the user was required to remember to start and stop their own recordings as well as change tapes. Faster computer and recording media such as hard drives, CDs and DVDs have made tape units obsolete.

Proprietary hardware: This is the most common type of phone recording device used today. It was developed to replace the tape phone recorders. It consists of proprietary electronics and proprietary software for recording and playback. The advantage of this is that everything usually works well together. The disadvantage is that the only way to repair, upgrade and maintain the proprietary unit is through the company that sold it, or their licensed technicians. This is usually quite expensive and it may be difficult or impossible to find that company’s technicians in some countries or regions. Because the hardware and software was all built into a single unit upgrades were often impossible. This meant that companies had to often throw away old proprietary systems when they wanted to record more phone lines, or started using a different type of phone line such as digital or VOIP services. Proprietary hardware phone recorders come in all shapes and sizes from one channel boxes that sit on a desk and record to a CDR all the way up to huge rack mounted servers that recorded hundreds of channels and have very powerful software to analyze voice patterns and link to databases.

PC integrated: The newest type of voice recorder integrates the power of a multichannel phone recorder into an inexpensive and easy to upgrade PC. Specialized PCI cards are installed into a personal computer that enables recording up to 256 phone lines. Software is then installed to enable live call monitoring, search functions, archiving, playback and in some cases custom reports and grading. If the phone recorder is attached to a network or the Internet, some phone recording software will allow by multiple users on different computers to access those recordings. Costs are lower because PCs are relatively inexpensive and upgrades can be as easy as installing new PCI cards or inserting a CD to update the software. Maintenance and service are also much less expensive because parts can be purchased from a variety of vendors and a specialized technician is not needed. Learn more about Versadial's trouble-free phone recording software and hardware here.

Unique benefits of a Versadial phone recorder

Versadial phone recording systems are the PC integrated variety. A Versadial phone recorder consists of 3 parts: 1) A Windows based PC, 2) Voice recording PCI cards, 3) VS Logger software. Versadial was the first company to offer Kit versions of its phone recorders. A Kit version consists of the Voice recording card and the software and allows the user to install these into their existing Windows based PC. This option brought the power of a full-featured phone recorder into a price range that even small businesses could afford. A unique benefit of a Versadial phone recording system is that the software used to monitor and manage the phone recordings can be installed on multiple computers at no additional charge. This is a huge price savings to larger businesses that wish to have multiple supervisors and managers access and use the phone recordings. Most other phone recording companies charge a seat license fee for each computer the software is installed on. Read more about Versadial’s unique benefits here. Another unique feature is that the Versadial phone recording software can be accessed via a wireless network on a PDA. (Read an article in "Call Center Times" about the benefits of PDA call monitoring.) Versadial phone recorders are known for their quality and reliability. After ten years of business product returns remain at nearly 0%. Versadial phone recorders can record in a variety of settings and configurations, each with unique benefits. (View a PDF with some example uses and setups here.)