ORECX CALL RECORDING BLOG

The results from the annual Future Of Open Source survey are in, and they confirm everything we already knew: Open source is now the default.

The survey reports that 78 percent of its respondents are now running their businesses with open source software, and two-thirds are building software for their customers that’s based on open source software. More significant, the percentage of respondents actually participating in open source projects has increased from 50 percent to 64 percent, and 88 percent say they expect to contribute to projects within the next three years.

Click here to read more of this article ("The Rise and Rise of Open Source") from InfoWorld.

Companies spanning every industry, every size and every geography are realizing the true power of call recording software as a resource to ensure service quality, resolve disputes, train and coach call center agents, verify orders, ensure compliance and much more.

In fact, a survey of 80+ call center, sales and marketing professionals cited 14 areas of value that call recording capabilities provide.  See the graphic below.

Let's take a deeper dive into the top five areas on this chart:

Ensure service quality/assess agents

Call recording software can help ensure agents are delivering the best possible service. Recorded calls offer insight into how agents are doing their jobs – all the way from making sure they’re polite and respectful to ensuring they’re equipped to tackle tough questions. Quality of service is a business imperative when you consider a report by the U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which cites 68% of businesses cite the number-one reason why customers leave as the negative treatment they receive from agents.

Resolving Disputes and Verifying Orders

With call recording, you have an easily referenced resource to resolve he-said/she-said customer disputes. Call recording provides protection to battle these disagreements, and it offers a valuable resource should the problem escalate to litigation. With the actual interaction stored on your server, you can pull it up whenever needed to verify precisely what was said, and not said.

Training/Coaching/ Developing Staff

Through call recording you can gain insight into which regions of your customer base have the most individuals who agree to a subscription upgrade or a cross-sell, for example. This information can help your sales staff spend their time on the most promising targets.

In addition, listening to customer calls is useful in training agents to close more deals and to ensure they correctly understand a customer’s intent to purchase or not. 

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Did you know that a single PCI Compliance violation can cost your organization upwards of 10,000-$50,000?  Multiply this figure many many times if you have a call center with thousands of agents, because whether you have the necessary contingencies in place, breaches and violations will happen. With call and screen recording software you have a definitive record of how a call was handled to help you prove proper compliance was followed.  This could go a long way toward avoiding unnecessary and costly fines.

Gleaning Sales and Business Intelligence Data

Call recording software can give you an inside glimpse into the activities of your competitors. How? Sometimes when a customer or prospect calls into a call center, they’re unsure about whether or not they want to make a purchase and may reveal information about your competition, as in “I get a free 30-day trial when I sign up with XYZ Corporation.” This competitive intelligence can provide your sales and marketing organization with insight to help re-align their campaigns or promotions.   

These are just some of the many ways in which call recording software can significantly impact your business and its bottom line.

What if your business could have a window into what your customers actually think – such as how they view the level of service you’re providing, or how satisfied (or dissatisfied) they are with your products? Or, wouldn’t it be valuable to have a window into whether your staff is actually performing their jobs as they should? That window exists, and it’s more accessible than you may realize, thanks to call recording.

For businesses big and small, operating across the world or just down the street, call recording can provide critical information for sales and marketing intelligence, customer service, compliance, and staff development. Organizations spanning all industry sectors – even non-profits and government entities – can realize benefits from using a call recording system to capture, monitor, and track customer interactions.

Call recording can enable any organization to enhance its:

Service quality: Call recording captures customer interactions so that managers can see that their people are providing the highest level of service. Recorded calls also help in dispute resolution.

Regulatory and industry compliance: Call recording can help to ensure that the proper procedures – from a PCI or HIPAA compliance perspective – are being followed. This includes guaranteeing that credit-card information and personal data are being properly handled.

Operational performance: Call recording allows managers to screen employees’ activity to identify areas where workflow was hampered or interrupted. It can also assist with staff training and development.

Call recording isn’t just for multinational companies with complicated IT systems and thousands of customer service reps. Small business owners might be surprised to learn that it can take minimal technical expertise or aptitude to install and use a call recording system. For small business owners, the best solutions are ones that:

-Can be remotely downloaded and installed, in some cases in fewer than 30 minutes.

-Need no special hardware; they can run on existing workstations or servers.

-Require absolutely NO maintenance.

-Can be learned and used in minutes; no technical expertise is required to install, operate, or manage the system.

Of course, financial considerations are a concern for any business, global enterprises and sole proprietorships alike. The truth is, today’s technology has evolved to such an extent that what used to take tens of thousands of dollars can now be purchased for just a few hundred. Those costs include a small upfront or monthly fee, but with the right system, there are no fees for implementation, maintenance, training, or troubleshooting.

Ready to take the next step? Then here are some questions to ask when choosing a call recording vendor and solution:

1. Is the solution designed primarily for a company my size?
2. Does the solution support multi-site and multi-tenant capabilities, if and when I need them?
3. What does the implementation process look like and what does it cost?
4. Is there phone support available in case I have any questions?
5. How open and interoperable is the solution, given my current IT environment?
6. Does the call recording vendor have experience with businesses in my industry?
7. Is the solution designed to address my specific industry and regulatory requirements?

Customer service should always be on our mind, and 2015 is no exception.  In fact, a majority of companies surveyed state they plan to increase their customer management spend in 2015 (2014 Call Center Executive Priorities Report).  You might also find it interesting that it is projected by 2020 that customer experience will be the most heralded competitive differentiator for businesses, beyond products and services even.

Here are some more interesting statistics from 2014 to help you optimize your customer experience in 2015 and increase customer retention.

1. 82% of consumers say the number one factor that leads to a great customer service experience is having their issues resolved quickly.
(LivePerson)

2. Reducing your customer defection rate by 5% can increase your profitability by 25 to 125%.
(Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy and Mark Murphy)

3. 62% of organizations view customer experience provided through contact centers as a competitive differentiator.
(Deloitte: Contact Center Survey)

4. 51% of companies increased the staffing of their centralized customer experience team in 2014. (Temkin Group) 

5. By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. (Customers 2020 Report)

6. 70% of customers will do business with you again if you resolve their complaints. (Ruby Newell-Legner) 

7. Only 14% of respondents in a 2014 survey of CMOs rated the customer-centricity of their organization as high; and only 11% believe their customers would say the same.  (2014 CMO Council Mastering Adaptive Customer Engagements Report)

8. 65% of 1,000 consumers surveyed said they’ve cut ties with a brand over a single poor customer service experience. (2014 Parature State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey)

9. 92% of companies surveyed reported a decline in customer satisfaction; consumers were most disappointed by inconsistent service.  (Salesforce.com)

10. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% while it falls to just 5-20% for new prospects. (Forbes)

11. Commerce spending for repeat customers is on average 105% higher than for new customers. (McKinsey)

12. 60M hours a year are wasted on hold with call centers. (Fonolo)

To answer this question about live monitoring versus selective call recording, we asked professionals spanning 30+ LinkedIn groups and various industries.  These are a few of the responses we received:

"All calls should be recorded. When an unsatisfied customer is identified, monitored calls show exactly what happened during the call. Live and recorded call monitoring should be used to gauge your agent’s soft skills, their technical competency, and professionalism. Both are great coaching and training tools." (Tom A., Tech Support Center Manager)

"I believe they both have a place. As Tom suggests, recordings are productive especially if you are reviewing outbound calls where the connect rate with a customer is much more variable than in an inbound center. I like listening to live calls to take the pulse of the floor of what's happening in the moment and, to check in with my reps to see if after a coaching session they are making progress implementing ideas that we discussed or if they could use some additional support or guidance." (Jane F, Managing Partner at IT consulting/training firm)

"I use both methods. I do believe live monitoring can be a better aid for a coach as the teammate is in the moment. With recorded calls a team mate might not get full affect from coaching for things he should improve on. Live listening is super for giving real time positive feedback!!!" (Brenda Y., Customer Experience Lead at large, global online auction site)

"Both are important. Side by side monitoring permits real time feedback and a review of methods used entering/processing information." (Don F., Call Center Executive, education company)

Due to the various VoIP apps available for both desktop and mobile (including call recording software), video conferencing has become part of everyday life – for many of us it's how we keep in touch with family members and friends. Video conferencing is also commonly used to discuss business (or startup) ideas with friends. From there, it's just a small step to using such solutions to keep in touch with business partners, investors, and possibly customers.

The latest technologies now allow you to take the conference room with you on the go, eliminating the need for face-to-face meetings, reducing traveling costs, and saving precious time. Users are able to join scheduled meetings or last-minute, on-the-fly meetings with a tap of a finger or a click of the mouse on their mobile device or personal computer.

If you've been considering using any of the available VoIP apps such as Viber, Tango, FaceTime, Skype, or Google Hangouts (just to name a few), you may want to reconsider, because these tools lack the most important features a business needs for conducting a video conference. Some also lack the ability to connect more than two people and are limited to a single platform, such as FaceTime, which only works within the Apple ecosystem.

A professional video conferencing tool works on all platforms – both desktop and mobile – and it incorporates the ability to moderate a meeting, such as inviting participants, granting requests to speak, putting participants on mute, blocking participants' video, disconnecting unwanted attendees, recording meetings, and much more.

One such solution is Scopia, a video conferencing application for desktop and mobile from Radvision, an Avaya company. The application is compatible with every major platform in the form of a simple browser plugin on the desktop. By installing Scopia on mobile or desktop, you will be able to create the perfect meeting environment for remote workers, clients, and vendors.

The app delivers HD video conferencing from mobile devices and also incorporates an advanced audio system providing echo cancellation and background noise suppression.

Digitcom (an OrecX call recording reseller) is proud to be an Avaya partner in providing the ultimate virtual video conference room for businesses. For more detailed information about how Digitcom can help you can grow your business, improve your customer service, and increase productivity, visit digitcom.ca.

OrecX is also an Avaya partner, with proven integrated call recording integrations.

We all know that call recording and quality monitoring software can help your business capture customer calls to assess customer service performance, settle disputes, maintain PCI/HIPAA compliance and so on.  But what you may not know is that there are a host of unique ways to also leverage your call recording software. These are ideas to help you realize even greater value from your existing call recording system, or to provide additional incentive for purchasing your first recording solution.

Here is the list:

• Share Recording Snippets on your Website - Capture select segments of high-performing agents while on the phone with actual customers and include those excerpts on your website as a testament to how well you treat and service customers.  There is no better way to demonstrate great service than to provide actual examples.

• Use Voice of the Agent for Marketing Campaigns - Similarly to number 1, you can take best-practice segments of customer interactions and use them in your advertising/marketing campaigns. Telcos, computer companies, travel industry firms and the like are always touting their stellar customer service capabilities but we all know sometimes the view under the covers isn't always as pretty.  Why not share audio segments through online banner ads or other promotional vehicles?  NOTE: Keep the customer's name or other personally identifiable information out of the recording sections you choose.

• Create a Hall of Fame of Recordings - There is no better way to incentivize your phone staff than to recognize them.  Why not create a customer service hall of fame on your internal website featuring the very best interactions. This will instill pride in those that are chosen and inspire those that were not.  It can also serve as a great training tool to new staff.

• Kick off Team Meetings - Start team meetings with best-practice and worst-practice calls as a means of sparking discussion around what to do and what not to do when servicing prospects and customers. You will surely find the resulting discussion very illuminating for all.

• Create a Tag Cloud of Customer Praise - Extract key phrases of customer praise from your best interactions and use them to create a tag cloud that you can blow up and put on the walls in your call center.  You might even share it with the broader company for them to display as well.

Voice over IP (VoIP) is on its way to becoming the dominant means of transmitting telephony conversations.  In turn, this move from traditional circuit-switched to packet-switched technology will have a significant impact on those systems used to record such voice communications. 

When considering a VoIP recording solution, there are several key points to think about, including:

1. Recording must be considered at the design and configuration stage of a VoIP network to ensure that packets can be routed to the recording nodes within the network.
2. You require less hardware and much less cabling than circuit switched Recording.  
3. Recorders can be deployed on industry standard hardware.
4. Low capacity recorders will be sold as software-only solutions while higher capacity units will use add-in cards to provide additional compression capability where needed.
5. VoIP will facilitate the provision of recording services ‘within the cloud’ which can be offered by the network providers and retrieval of calls will be accessed via browser technology.
6. VoIP recording will become just one aspect of overall IP recording solutions.
7. VoIP recording will become a standard feature of all VoIP systems…like voice mail.

What is VoIP?

Voice over IP is a means of transmitting speech over a packet-based infrastructure such as the Internet. The continuous stream of bytes representing the audio signals are chopped into (fairly) small packets – each holding, typically, 20 to 30 milliseconds of audio and sent across the data network to their destination. By sending a stream of such packets in each direction, two-way telephony can be achieved.

The technical issues around quality of transmission are not discussed here but obviously the compression algorithms used, the time taken to deliver the packets and the proportion that get through to the far end determine the overall quality of the call.  Given the ready availability of bandwidth, the inefficiencies of using IP packets to transmit relatively small payloads can now be largely ignored as the savings in other areas outweigh this.

How Does VoIP Impact Recording Systems?

With a packet-switched network, the speech packets are transmitted over a path determined by the routers and switches in the network. In a complex network with multiple paths, it is difficult to predict where packets will be sent. Successive packets on a given connection can even follow different routes or arrive out of sequence.

Two basic approaches can be taken to record calls in an IP environment:

1. “Passive” – in which the recorder attempts to ‘sniff’ or ‘snoop’ the network without any of the parties involved in the call needing to be aware of this.
2. “Active” – in which at least one of the parties involved in the call is ensuring that the required data is deliberately sent to the recorder.

Organizations of all sizes today employ call recording software to help optimize sales, service and compliance; and when chosen and managed correctly, these solutions can be invaluable in this regard.  However, call recording software is not always selected or utilized properly, and when this happens, its effectiveness can be significantly stifled.

Below is a list of the top 5 mistakes companies make when purchasing, deploying or managing a call recording software system:

1. Neglecting to try the software out first before purchasing it.  You wouldn't buy a car without first test driving it. The same holds true for call recording software.  You must install it in your environment and give it a test run before committing to a full purchase.  Not all call recording software providers offer such a trial, but some do. Demand that you get to trial the software upfront.

2. Ensuring it has the necessary compliance capabilities.  Most firms today fall under some sort of regulations - PCI-DSS, HIPAA, Telemarketing Sales Rule, etc. You want to be sure your new software supports these requirements with call masking/muting, e.g. to eliminate sensitive information from the call recording, or other capabilities.  

3. Not creating and saving specific search queries.  You should be able to develop highly specific search queries for pulling up all calls that meet certain criteria - such as all calls over five minutes that mention the word "cancel", or all calls involving support for a new product, etc. These search parameters need to be able to be saved and running in the background so these interactions are automatically cued for you for quick and easy discovery. Speech analytics software may need to be installed in concert with call recording software to bring these capabilities to life.

4. Not leveraging call recordings for the benefit of the full organization - There is no better way to tie your complete staff directly to the voice of the customer than by letting them hear the actual voice of the customer.  If you have a loud speaker in the office, notify all staff to listen for three minutes - once a week or so - while you play a good service call for them.  If you don't have a broadcasting capability, simply email a select recording to all staff and require them to listen to it, again, once a week or so. Almost no organizations today do this, but it's a fantastic way to tie the customer and all of your employees together.

5. Not ensuring the software has an open API or tested and easy integration to your PBX, CRM system, and so on. The last thing you want is a new solution that is very difficult to integrate with your current environment.  Be sure to ask for testing certifications from switch vendors, proof of a true open API, etc.  This is a very big pitfall that many organizations fall into.  Call recording vendors love to tell you that they can integrate seamlessly with any PBX but when push comes to shove it's a clunky, complicated, arduous and time consuming process.  You want to avoid all of this hassle at all costs.  It slows down your implementation, rings up your cost and creates a whole lot of unnecessary headache.