ORECX CALL RECORDING BLOG

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.

When you look at a phone recording software provider, all you should really care about is answering "yes" to these questions:

1. Is the product is any good?

2. Is the product affordable? 

3. Is the company reputable?

4. Will the company provide ample support?

5. Is the company going to be around for a while so they can support my ongoing needs and upgrades?

6. Does the company have a solid reputation (i.e. testimonials)?

7. Will the product fit easily/smoothly into my environment and will it work as prescribed?

If a phone recording software provider and its software passes this test, then you have found a winner.  So why then are analyst reports so focused on revenue as the sole determinant of ranking? I mean just because you have $700M in revenue, for example, should that really make you number one?  What about the five criteria above?  

Let's think about this for a moment.  You could be ranked the number 1 or 2 or 3 phone recording software provider in the world according to a leading industry analyst but you might not have a great product, it might be very expensive, and your solution might not integrate well into your customers' environments.  Hmmm.

This is an interesting point.  Consider the revered "Magic Quadrant".  It ranks companies on "Ability to Execute" and "Completeness of Vision".  How truly important are these aspects to you if you are a 20-agent call center or a small law firm, for example?  You wouldn't really care, would you?  You are most concerned with questions like 1 through 7 above, right?

What if there was an industry ranking or analyst report which based its ranking of call recording software providers on such non-financial criteria?  It would matter to you, wouldn't it?

All revenue really tells you is whether or not the vendor is making money, and yes - whether they are likely to be around for a while.  Revenue doesn't really tell you much more, does it? Then why is it so darn important?

All I can hope is that I am not the only one that thinks this way, and perhaps, some day companies will be recognized for more than just their sales figures. 

Phone recording software (aka call recording software) is a very effective tool in not only assessing and evaluating call center agents but also in helping to train them to enhance their skill sets and performance.  Phone recording software with quality monitoring capabilities empowers supervisors, team leaders and agents them

selves to review good and bad past calls to identify best-practices and areas for improvement.

Here are 10 ways you can use phone recording software to improve customer service skills within your contact center.

1. Create an online repository of weak phone calls between agents and customers.  Include all types, such as: cancelled account, customer complaint, dissatisfied customer, very long call, etc.  Use these calls to train new and existing agents on what "not" to do.  Keep these calls fresh and update regularly so the repository does not become stale.

2. Create an online repository of best-practice strong phone calls between agents and customers.  Include all types, such as: new customer, renewed subscription, successful upsell, successful cross sell, highly satisfied customer, etc. Also use these calls to train both new and existing agents on what to do and how to handle specific situations.  Make it a contest and have agents submit their best calls.  Pick the best calls and reward agents accordingly.

3. Combine recorded-call evaluations with live monitoring for a 360-degree assessment of the agent's performance.  Live monitoring enables supervisors/evaluators to give immediate feedback when necessary following the call, while recorded-call evaluations gives the evaluator more time to review the call on a number of factors.

4. Hold "rapid fire" group call-review sessions to go over good and bad recorded calls together and discuss as a team.  This gives all agents, customer service managers, evaluatory and supervisors the benefit of hearing other team member's perspectives.

5. Evaluate the evaluator - allow call center agents to evaluate a call or two of their team leader through an evaluation form.  This empowers the agents and makes them feel like their input on call performance is important.  Inadvertently, it also helps them with their own training.

6. Self-evaluate - Have supervisors or team leaders pick specific calls for agents to review in order to grade themselves on their own performance.  This also empowers the agent and gives him/her a non-threatening opportunity to see what went right and what went wrong during their call.

These are simply some of the many tips you can use to improve agent performance using call recording and quality monitoring software.