6 Ways Call Recording Solutions Offer Top-Notch Business Benefits

"Your call is being recorded for quality assurance purposes."

This statement has become part of the customer service lexicon. It's as commonly heard as "Please hold," "Thank you, come again," and "Would you like fries with that?" What does quality assurance purposes actually mean, though? What else can companies do with those recordings? And how do call recording solutions benefit businesses?

Business Reasons to Press 'Record'

When you think about call recording, you might envision large companies with large call centers. However, businesses of all sizes and across multiple industries often need to capture and document conversations with customers. To do so, they often rely on two types of call recording solutions: company-wide and on-demand.

Through company-wide recording, the system automatically records certain calls based on predetermined criteria. Users can't access the recordings, but systems administrators can. With on-demand recording, the recording feature is available on an extension-by-extension basis. Users initiate the recordings and can access the files afterward.

With cloud-based call recording, files are hosted online for easy, password-protected access and greater storage capacity. These recordings help businesses with the six following situations:

1. Clear Up Customer Disputes

Occasional misunderstandings are inevitable in human communication. This is why there are so many great sitcoms, and it's why there are so many call recording benefits for businesses.

In the past, if an employee and customer disagreed about the details about a conversation, it was one person's word against the other's. And since the customer is always right (even if he's not), companies typically erred on the side of the customer's story. This was demoralizing for employees, who couldn't prove they were right, and frustrating for managers, who had to make amends with unhappy customers by giving them discounts or free stuff. With call recording solutions, managers can listen to disputed conversations, back up employees when they're right, and prove when customers are wrong (in the nicest way possible, of course).

2. Reduce Legal Liabilities

More often than not, misunderstandings simply lead to a subpar customer experience, which is bad. However, in some cases, they can lead to lawsuits, which are way, way worse. Even when companies win those lawsuits, court costs can add up quickly.

Call recording helps protect companies against false claims. Simply playing the recording for the customer might be enough to make the headache go away. If not, it can be powerful evidence in court.

3. Document Customer Authorizations

Speaking of covering yourself from a legal standpoint, call recording solutions also enable companies to capture customer authorizations. This is particularly useful in healthcare, government, e-commerce, financial services, and other industries that handle sensitive data or have compliance regulations.

In the past, customers would have to fax or email written approval in order to make certain financial transactions or request private information such as medical records. However, in some cases, a verbal contract can be as good as a signature, at least when it's recorded.

4. Train Employees

Even the most talented employees have room to grow. By listening to some calls, managers can provide specific feedback and coaching that helps their teams sell more effectively, provide better customer service, or use more appropriate business phone etiquette.

Recorded calls also provide concrete examples that managers can use when training the whole team or onboarding new employees. Given real-life examples, teams can discuss what the employee did right or wrong, or how to handle scenarios that don't often arise but require a lot of poise.

5. Get to Know Your Customers

Most customers aren't angry, inappropriate, or litigious. In fact, many have positive feedback, useful ideas, and great stories. By capturing these conversations, companies can use them to better understand customers, improve their processes and products, and strengthen their marketing. And when satisfied customers are particularly eloquent about why they love a company or product, marketers have ready-made testimonials and customer success stories they can use in advertising campaigns (with the customer's approval, of course).

6. Listen More Actively

With on-demand call recording, employees can capture important calls and review the details later. Of course, they could also just take notes during the conversation, but most people can't type, talk, and listen at the same time (at least not well). Recording the call enables them to be more engaged in the conversation, to come up with insightful questions, to fully hear the responses, and to know that any critical details are just a "Play" button away.

To record or not to record? That's the question for your business. If any of these use cases would help you better serve customers or protect your company, it might be time to look into your options.

To learn more about call recording solutions, speak to a Vonage Business representative.