ORECX CALL RECORDING BLOG

It doesn’t take great insight to realize that everyone – preteens and retirees, techies and non-techies alike – relies on a cell phone these days.  In fact, recent reports by Forbes magazine indicate that more than 80% of all employees use at least one mobile device for business, and that figure keeps climbing as mobile technology grows more accessible and affordable. Consider, too, the increasing number of home-based employees (including those in sales, customer service/support, telemarketing, and the like) who depend on a cell phone, not a landline, to perform their work. So while you may be taking great care to record the phone conversations that occur on landlines in your physical office space, here’s an important question to consider: Are you also capturing the calls that are taking place on these numerous and ubiquitous mobile devices?

For most organizations, capturing data through recorded calls makes wise business sense. The truth is, every industry has specific reasons for wanting to record calls, reasons that are unique to their individual operational, legal, and regulatory requirements. Consider the following industries and the reasons why they might want (and need) to record calls:

• Financial services: Verify trades and other customer transactions; settle potentially costly customer disputes.
• Insurance: Verify insurance coverage and pre-authorization; settle potentially costly customer disputes.
• Healthcare: Ensure that medical staff complies with regulations regarding patient privacy and medical records (including compliance with HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act).
• Retail: Ensure adherence to regulatory requirements regarding credit-card data and processing (including compliance with PCI-DSS – Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).
• Telecom and Consumer: Monitor staff to ensure quality, compliant customer interactions.

And this list could go on …

When assessing call recording software for a mobile environment, make sure you’re getting the most up-to-date, flexible, and versatile technology possible. For example, one of the biggest challenges is finding a solution that can capture calls centrally and not simply on the device itself. That makes sense: If a phone becomes damaged or lost in the field, then you want to ensure that the call recordings are protected. It’s also important to find a call recording system that can seamlessly record calls on any type of mobile platform, specifically the three platforms used by nearly all mobile workers:  iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

If you’re ready to take the next step in selecting a mobile call recording provider, look for solutions that:

• Can automatically capture inbound and outbound mobile calls, regardless of where they take place
• Do not require you to enter codes, re-route calls off the mobile network, or change SIM cards
• Record calls in real time
• Do not require any new infrastructure
• Are easy to use and install
• Are affordable

As mobile technology evolves to become an ever-important aspect of our business and personal lives, make sure you have all the resources in place to capture, analyze and, ultimately, act on the vital information you can acquire by recording mobile calls.

How do you know when it's time to shelve the old call recording software and purchase a new call recording solution?

There are several signs to look out for, some of which may seem obvious while others may not:

1. The product's end of life is coming up and will no longer be supported.

2. The product can no longer scale up to support your growing needs (channels, sites, etc.).

3. It cannot easily integrate with other software you are installing. 

4. It requires too many IT support resources to maintain the system.

5. You are heavy into M&A activity and the current system cannot support the multiple PBXs of the various merging entities.

6. It does not have the added capabilities you need, such as quality monitoring, screen capture, live monitoring or even mobile recording.

7. It costs a lot of money to bring on new users, sites and/or capabilities, and it requires expensive professional services support to do these things.

8. The software does not support all of the compliance requirements you have to deal with, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, Do Not Call, etc.

9. It is complicated to use and learn and takes too long to get new users up to speed.

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.

According to Forbes (May 2012) 81% of employees use at least one mobile device for business use.  What’s more, home-based workers are increasingly using their cell phone as their primary business line.  This includes telemarketers, inside-sales professionals, survey proctors, order takers, support technicians and so on.  Are you recording these calls like you do landline-based business conversations?

If your business does not capture business calls made over mobile phones, you can’t:

1. Settle a customer dispute by replaying the call

2. Verify customer orders

3. Monitor your staff for quality assurance

4. Ensure HIPAA, Truth in Lending, and PCI compliance

Recording for Compliance

In November of 2011, the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) imposed a federal law requiring all financial firms to record mobile business calls for compliance purposes.  FSA mobile phone recording already has many on Wall Street and beyond talking about such legislation coming to the U.S.  Many of these same U.S. firms are already jumping into mobile recording in anticipation of such impending U.S. law and also to ensure corporate compliance (such as ensuring traders follow corporate protocol when taking customer orders), like they do already with landline calls. 

Mobile-Phone Recording Technology

When contemplating which mobile recording software to implement, it is important to consider a recording system that can capture calls centrally and not just on the device itself.  If phones become damaged in the field, recordings would therefore be protected.  It is also important to employ a system that can seamlessly record calls on any type of mobile platform – from iPhone’s IOS to Blackberry and Android.  There is ubiquitous usage today of all three platforms by mobile workers.

Industry-Specific Recording Application

Different industries have different business needs when it comes to mobile call recording software.  Many firms already capture a sampling of staff/customer calls or every call.  Following is a breakdown of some of the different industry applications for mobile call recording software: 

Financial Services – Verify trades and other customer transactions; settle potentially costly customer disputes

Insurance – Verify what the insurance company pre-authorized in terms of coverage; settle potentially costly customer disputes

Hospitals – Ensure medical staff comply with regulations regarding patient privacy and medical records

Telecom and Consumer – Monitor staff to ensure quality/compliant customer interaction

These are only a sampling of industry applications.  Every vertical today can in fact make a case for recording mobile calls.  Regardless of your industry, mobile recording is certainly something you should begin considering for your business. 

In closing, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

“Do I record landline staff calls today?  If so, why don’t I also capture mobile-based business calls for the exact same reason?”  The rationale for recording both types of calls in your environment should be the same if you think about it.

If you capture a sampling of landline agent calls today to ensure quality customer interaction, for instance, why wouldn’t you do the same with your home-based agents that use their cell phone as their primary business line?  Likewise, if you record all office-based calls today made by your insurance agents (to ensure compliance and to settle he-said/she-said disputes, what about all of the other calls your agents make to the very same customers using their cell phones while outside of the office? 

With the overwhelming ubiquity of mobile phone use in business today, the time is right to look into mobile call recording software for your organization.