Call Recording Featured Article

Lakeland Electric employees, listen up. Be careful how you handle that obstinate customer demanding to know why his power outage lasted six hours longer than his neighbor’s; your boss is now listening.

City commissioners recently approved a new $65,000 call center recording system for the public utility company that will allow supervisors to monitor phone calls to improve customer service, according to an article posted on theledger.com.

In six weeks those employees who get a little too fresh with Lakeland Electric customers will be caught in the act as the new recording system will be installed that will permit supervisors to review calls if there are disagreements between customers and employees.

Since Lakeland Electric, a Florida-based company, has a lofty mission statement – desiring to exceed the “expectations of our customers, who are also our family members, neighbors and friends,” according to the Web site - perhaps a recording system is just the thing to ensure success.

The decision to implement the new recording system, however, has raised concerns, particularly over whether supervisors will be able to listen in on employee’s private phone calls, according to the article.

However, according to company officials and city commissioners, only calls on the customer service, customer advocate, collection, medical support and the consumer programs lines will be documented. Only select supervisors will be allowed to monitor the calls.

According to the company, the new system, which will be installed by DataElectric, Inc., will be used for training purposes and will be installed for three years. No outbound calls will be recorded. At the conclusion of the three-year period, officials will revisit whether the system is still needed.

According to a city commissioner, Don Selvage, Lakeland Electric responds to customer complaints about how Lakeland Electric employees sometimes do not offer the best customer service, theledger.com reports.

While Lakeland Electric employees might be hearing the phrase “call center recording system” for the first time, the premise is not new for a lot of companies. Almost 90 percent of call centers record their calls, according to VirtualLogger (News - Alert), a provider of contact center recording and quality monitoring on a hosted or ASP basis.

Although in a day where people should be fighting to hold onto their jobs, as there is always a person waiting in line to take your spot, perhaps Lakeland Electric employees should already be making sure they get the job done professionally with every call, instead of the company having to rely on recorded calls for performance reviews.