Essentially every one of the 2 billion+ cells phones on this planet has voice mail capabilities, but why do almost none have phone recording software built in, especially devices issued by a company for business-only purposes?
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The lack of mobile call recording in business is one of those white-elephant-in-the-room questions that no one can really seem to answer. Phone recording software should by all rights already be on every iPhone, Android and BlackBerry device, but as we all know, it is not. Let's explore the possible reasons for this:
1. Big businesses don't believe their work-at-home agents are using their cell phone to speak with customers. They are! (likely reason)
2. One of the major mobile platforms hasn't yet built it into their product. (likely reason)
3. No businesses are asking for it. (possible reason; I think every highly regulated business would love it, but it's just not top of mind because phone recording software is largely unheard of at this point on mobile devices)
4. No big company (in healthcare, financial, insurance, etc.) has come forward in the U.S. and said they are going to start recording employee's mobile calls for compliance, quality and dispute resolution. (likely reason)
5. There is no government regulation mandating recording of mobile devices in highly regulated industries - again, like healthcare, financial, insurance, etc. Such a law exists in the UK for financial firms and it is requires financial firms to capture mobile phone calls. But no such law yet exists in the U.S. (likely reason)
6. Companies don't want to spend the money and are simply putting the topic aside for now. (likely reason)
7. No big liability or compliance cases have arisen yet involving mobile phone use. In other words a financial client saying he told his broker to make a big-money buy for him, for example, and claiming that since the trader did not make the purchase, he lost out on millions of dollars. Having that recorded call would sure be helpful to prove the financial firm's case. (likely reason)
NOTE: Phone recording software for mobile phones does not really cost that much at all. It would be a pretty nominal cost to a small, medium or large-sized business.
No one really knows what the future holds for phone recording software for the mobile phone industry, but I'm betting big business is soon going to pull the trigger. There are simply too many liability, quality of service and compliance issues at stake. Once big business jumps in, smaller firms will likely follow suit. The bottom line is that businesses need a way to protect themselves when big dollars are at stake, like the financial trading example. The same holds true for work-at-home call center agents, mortgage brokers, insurance brokers, real estate professionals and enterprise salespersons on the go. By recording such mobile calls, the consumer is also protected since they can request to have their conversation pulled if necessary.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
