
Zendesk
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PhoneBurner is an outbound call center solution that allows users to log in from their computer and make calls from the connected phone, using imported or admin-provided lead lists. The system offers functionalities that include p...Read more
RingCentral MVP is a cloud-based business communications solution that offers tools for Messaging, Video and Phone. Core features of the solution include conferencing, auto-recording and unlimited long-distance and local calling. ...Read more
GoToConnect (formerly Jive) delivers a cloud-based unified communication solution to organizations of all sizes across the U.S. GoToConnect includes integrated products for business VoIP, video conferencing and contact center whic...Read more
ExecVision is a cloud-based conversation intelligence platform that helps organizations train sales teams and monitor performance. It is primarily designed to transcribe calls and provide managers key metrics. Firms can use t...Read more
MiCloud Connect (formerly ShoreTel) is a cloud-based VoIP phone system that offers collaboration and conferencing tools to enable information flow within the organization. The solution enables system administrators to manage use...Read more
In order to attract and retain customers, businesses need to make sure that they’re following best practices in customer interactions. If these interactions take place over the phone, call recording needs to be in place for adequate quality control.
While call recording is nearly universal in contact centers, there are a number of ways to implement it ranging from server-based to cloud-based strategies. Moreover, some solutions offer advanced options for businesses with specialized needs and businesses in specific industries.
We’ll take a look at the available options to help you decide on the right software to support your business’s call recording needs. Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Is Call Recording Software?
Common Types of Call Recording Software
Common Functionality of Call Recording Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Call recording software captures digital audio recordings of telephone conversations over a Voice over IP (VoIP) or public switched telephone network (PTSN). Many solutions employ packet-sniffing technology to detect audio calls and automatically record them. The software packages and stores the digital audio file so it can be played back and analyzed. This analysis can be done for any number of reasons, including training and quality assurance.
Quality assurance teams or departments often also implement similar but separate call monitoring solutions, which allow them to listen in on live calls as they're happening. Call recording software, on the other hand, differs in that it also facilitates the recording of calls to listen to after the call has happened. Call monitoring is almost exclusively about ensuring agents are providing a good customer experience, and is generally used alongside other quality assurance tactics like training programs and one-on-one agent coaching. Call recording is often used for a similar purpose, but may also be used for such purposes as record keeping and compliance.
As we’ve mentioned, call recording can be implemented in a variety of different ways. Your implementation strategy should be guided by the volume of calls you need to record as well as the ways in which you want to initiate call recording.
Some businesses need on-demand, employee-initiated call recording. This allows agents to record problem calls in the moment, and other business users can use call recording for storing important conversations (meetings, interviews etc.).
Generally, however, call centers need to record either a statistically significant sampling of their calls, or all of their calls. This kind of call recording requires specialized solutions for contact centers.
There are three basic types of systems that offer different levels of call recording capabilities:
On-demand call recording | Employees can initiate recording, as opposed to the system automatically selecting calls to record. |
Call recording rules | Supervisors can set rules for which calls to record based on agent, caller ID info, extension etc. |
Remote monitoring | Enables users to listen to live calls for quality assurance without disturbing the conversation. |
Pause and resume live recordings | Lets agents pause a recording during the conversation (for example, if they have to put the client on hold to complete a task). |
Online dashboard | Provides details on a collection of recordings, including: date, time, length of recording and any other data fields assigned to the file. Many systems can filter recordings by category and subcategory. |
Speech and text analytics | Speech analytics enables the automated scoring and categorization of calls via analysis of callers’ vocal tones (frustrated, happy etc.) and keywords in the conversation. Text analytics allows for categorization of text-based interactions (emails, web chats etc.) via detection of keywords. These features are typically found in the quality management modules of advanced call center systems. |
Desktop analytics | Allows for the recording and analysis of agent interactions that take place in software applications. Supervisors define a workflow for using the application (e.g. a standard sequence of selections in a CRM system as agents move through the call), and can then track agents’ behaviors in the application and the time they spend using it. |
Encryption and masking features for PCI Compliance | Contact centers that deal with payment card data will generally need to avoid storing this data after processing to ensure compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. Speech analytics can be used to detect payment card information in audio files, and text analytics as well as other methods can be used to analyze textual data. Sensitive information in textual data can then be encrypted or deleted, and white noise can be added to recordings in places where callers provide sensitive information. |
Quality management | Quality management modules are found in call center suites, and some vendors also sell them on a standalone basis. They typically include call recording in addition to advanced features like speech and text analytics. These modules also supported templated evaluation forms to enable systematic manual evaluation of calls by supervisors, and push metrics from these evaluations to agent dashboards. |
Now that you know your call recording software options, you can determine which system is best for you.
To get a bit more specific:
Regardless of which solution you choose, call recording capabilities can provide invaluable insights into the quality of the interactions your contact center handles and the performance of your agents. This explains why call recording software is the top user-requested feature for call center software buyers that have contacted us. It’s also one of the top six user-requested features for VoIP buyers we’ve interacted with who are looking for a new solution.