Call Center Management Featured Article
Call Recording Just Makes Sense
Many years ago, I was an agent in a call center. While I enjoyed the work, I did not particularly like the days when management would plop down next to me by my workstation and jack into my calls for review and training purposes.
It wasn’t just that I became less effective when put under a microscope. It also was that such training and quality assurance sessions did little to actually boost my skills or improve my quality. The system was archaic and random, more useful in theory than practice.
But thankfully there better options for call centers today such as call recording. Call recording in the call center usually is a capital expense, so some call centers skip the practice. Others record calls but inefficiently, effectively recording them but never really using the recordings in an optimal way. Any call center not recording all calls and utilizing these recordings for training, performance and protection is missing the boat, however.
There are at least five good reasons why every call center should have a modern call recording setup in place: performance, service, training, customer satisfaction and protection.
“Each recorded call is a source of information that can be used to grade the performance of call center agents,” wrote call center optimization provider, Monet Software, in a recent blog post. “Everything from the initial greeting to the use of the call script to the rapid resolution of any issues can now be reviewed. When this information can be gathered digitally, for all agents at all times of the day at every call center, it is far more efficient than one manager directly monitoring one agent’s performance on one call.”
Along with performance, recording software improves service.
“When an agent is able to review their performance, and a manager is able to quickly identify areas of concern and suggest improvements, issues are solved faster and more customers benefit from the results,” wrote Monet. The blog post points out that an agent can sometimes go unnoticed for days or weeks without call recording software in place.
Striking at the core of training, call recording also provides agents with the opportunity to self-evaluate. So not only does call recording help management concretely show areas of improvement, but it also can allow agents to self-correct by having them study their own calls and see what they did wrong. Most agents hear the issues if they step back and re-listen to their calls; it doesn’t always take the hard edge of a critique from management!
Compliance is a fourth benefit of call recording software in the call center, according to Monet.
“Even with a strict adherence to best practices, an occasional dispute with a customer is inevitable. A recording of what was said can help to resolve this dispute, especially if it escalates into legal action,” it noted in the blog.
Finally, at the end of the day call recording isn’t just about training and covering liability. At the end of the day, it is about a better customer experience. And call recording software helps here, too.
“When agents are getting the training and feedback they need, when a call script can be analyzed for how well it is achieving its goals, and when calls are handled quickly and efficiently as a result of improved staffing and scheduling practices, the result is a satisfied customer,” wrote Monet. “Call recording software plays a key role in making this happen.”
That’s the ultimate reason for call recording software, and why I hope everyone will heed this advice from a former call center agent: Skip the archaic sit-ins and get modern call recording software.
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Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli