Call Recording - Benefits at a glance

Recording of telephone calls has become far more prolific over the years than you may initially realise as organisations endeavour to enhance their service to their customers in today’s competitive marketplace.

As an organisation PSU has recognised the benefits of recording both inbound and outbound calls from a training perspective. We have found that replaying recordings back to our Teams such as Telemarketing improves results as individuals can identify where certain conversations could have been handled differently to achieve a better outcome.

We are also able to tag a conversation which enables managers to highlight a specific point in the conversation where our brand or products could be communicated better. It is however important to make people aware their conversations maybe being recorded. We ensure this message is relayed via announcements in the telephones queuing system and additionally on company literature and at the foot of our emails.

We have detailed further guidance on this subject below.

To find out more about Call Recording just contact our
sales team on 0800 1313416 who will be happy to help.

But what are the benefits:

- Avoids repetition

- Easy sharing of information - note-taking / dictation

- Dispute resolution

- Compliance Requirement

- Recording agreements

- Tele-marketing / tele-sales call analysis

- Monitoring performance levels

- Monitoring service levels

- Recording meetings

- Recording instructions

- Clarification of quantities and specifications

- Protection of staff from abusive / difficult customers

- Monitoring nuisance callers

- Ideal for litigation purposes

All calls or specific departments?

This decision depends on what return you wish to achieve from your investment. If it is due to an industry requirement such as the financial sector then all calls may be the preferred route. If however employees are not processing financial information over the phone and you wish to monitor customer service for example, then recording at specific extensions such as the Sales Team may be sufficient which will reduce the initial outlay.

The cost will vary depending on your requirement but as a rule of thumb, if you choose ‘all calls’ or line side recording then you will pay more than an extension side recorder which records specific phone users.

Traditionally metrics focus on statistics such as average length of call and number of calls per sales agent to determine the ROI (Return on Investment).

Unfortunately this has led to a numbers driven environment rather than a customer service driven environment - often with detrimental effects upon customer retention rates.

If your business has a Department which communicates directly with customers then it is important to understand how effective your agents are at:

- Promoting your brand

- Promoting your products

- Dealing with customer queries professionally

Good recording equipment isn’t cheap so it’s important to understand the likely ROI of such an investment.

Reduces Customer Churn

In a Henley Centre study 68% of people questioned said they would prefer to go to another company if a single call is handled badly.

A simple Return on Investment (ROI) analysis could therefore be:

Agent utilisation	80%
Average calls in an hour	10
8 Hours per day	8 x 80% = 6.4
Number of active agents	50
Total calls per day	10 calls/hour x 6.4 hours x 50 positions = 3200
Unhappy customer call ratio	Assume 1 in 1000
Number of bad calls per day	3200/1000 = 3.2
Number of possible calls handled badly (at 68% loss rate)	68% x 3.2 = 2.2 per day
Number of possible customers per year that might defect	2.2/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks = 572

If the average annual customer value were £200 per year
Total cost of lost customers per year could be	1144 x £200 = £114,400 (£2,288 per agent)

If the average annual customer value is greater (£1000 per year) then the figure rises to over £1.1m in lost customers per annum. (£22,880 per agent based on 50 agents).

A typical ‘All-Call’ or line side recorder for 50 agents is likely to cost in the region of £15,000.

If your objective is to improve customer retention by 50% then based on the above example the approximate ROI on an average customer value of £200 would be less than 4 months.

Things to look out for in a good recorder

- How easy is it to identify and retrieve calls

- Can the recorded calls be marked/tagged

- Can the recordings be scored - ie out of 10

- Will the call still be recorded if I transfer the call from extension to extension

- Can the recording be tied down to certain users and account types

- Same goes for people who can listen to recordings

- Are the recordings secure

- What format is admissible in UK courts

- Can the recordings be forwarded by email for review

- What integration will I get with my existing phones

How do you let people know

Although Ofcoms recommendations do not specify precisely how the parties should be informed, most people will now be aware of how many firms are conforming to the requirement. Advertisements that invite calls to a given number, whether the advert appears as a poster, on television or radio or in the print media, frequently carry a message to the effect that calls may be recorded or monitored for quality. Warnings can also be given in literature, terms and conditions, letterheads and on websites.

"Explanatory Guide to the Self Provision Licence (SPL) and the Telecommunications Services Licence (TSL)"

18. The condition provides that you should make every reasonable effort to inform all parties to a call that it may or will be recorded, silently monitored or intruded into. The particular means by which you choose to do this are not specified in the condition. Acceptable options, depending on circumstances, might include warning tones, pre-recorded messages, spoken warnings by the operator or written warnings included in publicity material, telephone directories, contracts, terms of business, staff notices, etc. It may not always be possible to warn first-time callers with whom you have had no previous contact but what is important is that you have a systematic procedure in place which provides the necessary information wherever this is a realistic possibility."

FSA - Rules on Telephone Call Recording

From March 2009, firms will have to record all telephone conversations and electronic communications relating to client orders and the conclusion of transactions in the equity, bond, and derivatives markets. The FSA consulted on the taping rules in 2007. In response to the comments received, the FSA conducted a further review of the cost-benefit analysis and discussed with the industry the scope and practicalities of the new rules. The original proposals changed significantly following this work. The retention period for recorded calls and communications has been reduced from 3 years to 6 months. Mobile phone conversations have been exempted from the taping rules but this will be reviewed in 18 months time. In addition, discretionary investment managers will not be required to record telephone conversations and electronic communications with firms that are subject to the taping rules.

See: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2008/017.shtml