Call recording technology has been essential to every kind of business that takes its customer service and operations seriously. In particular, it’s fundamental for the staff that solicits new business through outbound calls. This is especially true for contact centers (to include hosted centers in the cloud—a virtual call center environment with agents in several locations) where it can increase the quality of service that agents provide to customers.
Nothing turns a customer away like a bad call center experience; it can make or break a business. Therefore, more emphasis has been placed in how representatives help customers via the telephone: call recording has become an essential element of this movement for better service.
Call recording involves recording phone or VoIP lines. It’s been an apt method to increase call center productivity and provide better customer service, if not improve AHT (Average Handle Time) on inbound and outbound calls by agents.
Most customer interaction companies can benefit from this type of technology as it gives supervisors a better idea of what’s going on in the contact center. In fact, they have the ability to screen all activities and engage in real-time monitoring. A supervisor may be able to eavesdrop and listen in on a phone conversation between an agent and a customer or retrieve the recording stream at a later time. Recordings can also be used later for training or coaching in the effort to improve performance.
Anything out of the ordinary by an agent noted by call recordings can be easily shared and used during training sessions. It will give all business representatives a better understanding of how to improve their ability to handle any calls that are problematic, professionally and efficiently.
Exchanges between agents and clients are recorded, so that all can be reviewed when a complaint is filed or as part of a quality assurance check. Regularly, the center will archive recorded agent-customer conversations to protect themselves and for legal liability.
All things considered, call center recording (along with call center management) is the tool that can improve agent productivity and performance, as it holds people accountable for their actions and helps to identify who are the most and least successful representatives. It can prevent bad customer experiences and help resolve customer complaints/disputes, increase employee productivity, and reduce liability, while complying with legal requirements.
A recent post from No Jitter featured an interview with Corey Tolmasoff, marketing director at Versadial, a call recording provider, about the state of customer service today. From the interview, the public understands why call recording is shaping the future of contact centers and how it affects both the customers and the agents who provide the services.
Everyone knows that bad customer service can lead to lower sales and lost business, but one may not be aware of the fact “that nearly $83 billion dollars is lost due to bad customer experiences,” Tolmasoff said. He mentioned that nearly 90 percent of consumers who faced a bad experience will turn elsewhere to make their purchases or receive a service. In addition, 71 percent of them decide to abandon or skip the whole order altogether.
According to Tolmasoff, in order to improve customer service, a business needs to start with agent training, which aims at promoting and maintaining a positive workplace culture. The idea is to coach new as well as established agents to ensure a high level of performance throughout the organization. He emphasized the need to provide agents feedback for the unique situations they encountered in handing customer interactions by “showing and playing actual successful or unsuccessful [call recordings] during real-life business situations,” as it can serve as an aid to improve customer service.
Actually addressing situations and issues before they escalate, by listening in to call recordings and engaging in live monitoring of agents while they’re assisting a customer, can prove to be important in order to maintain a level of quality within the organization.
Not all problems can be avoided, such as dealing with unpredictable customers, but negative outcomes can be greatly reduced. Call recording can help resolve customer issues or disputes right away, in a timely manner and before they escalate. Call recording has always been a way to auditing agent performance and manage service quality, while training has been the means to verify knowledge and determine coaching needs of the agents.
Edited by Alisen Downey