Call monitoring, the practice of listening to customer interactions and providing feedback to an agent on how they can improve their sales approach, ranks among the most hotly debated topics within the customer relationship management, or “CRM” market.

While beneficial for a call center, call monitoring can be seen as intrusive to some individuals, while others see it as a way to gauge new business ideas and improve on company operations.

According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, it is illegal to take a telephone conversation in the state of Connecticut without having consent of all parties. In order to ensure that all requirements are met while monitoring a call, consent should be given by all parties involved prior to the call and should be in writing or recorded verbally.

Connecticut-based Coordinated Systems Inc., a company that delivers call monitoring systems for SMBs and enterprise-scale companies, believes that its flagship system, Virtual Observer, or “VO,” is a force for positive change within the call monitoring market.

By creating a sense of empowerment and achievement through knowledge sharing and training, Coordinated Systems Director of Marketing Rich Marcia said, the product represents a commitment to customer satisfaction and that monitoring phone calls is typical a small part of the overall compliance that comes with the industry. 

However, rules that regulate call monitoring vary from state to state. 

For example, in New York, only one party needs to give consent to a call being recorded versus all parties in Connecticut. And, in Texas, as long as a wire, oral, or electronic communication—including the radio portion of any cordless telephone call—is not recorded for a criminal or tortuous purpose, anyone who is a party to the communication, or who has the consent of a party, can lawfully record the communication and disclose its contents. 

So, depending on where you answer a call, you may or may not be required to give consent to have a call recorded.

Will this cause trust issues in a client relationship?

“It is important to roll out your call monitoring system with employee buy-in,” Marcia said. 

This way, all parties have an understanding that call quality monitoring is not aimed at catching employees or callers behaving inappropriately, but used more as a way to help improve customer service, meet overall performance metrics and develop a better customers-agent relationship, he said.