Call Centre Recording

One of the fastest ways to improve the performance of a call centre is to record calls.

This can be done in a number of ways.

Ad hoc recording

This is a random monitoring of calls from time to time. This can be a simple way to quickly identify things that are going wrong in the call centre. In my time as a call centre consultant this was one of my first ports of call. Typically within three hours I could identify some of the biggest problems that were happening in the centre.

The equipment needed for this was often very basic – but highly effective. A simple call recording adaptor could be purchased from a company like Maplin for less than 15 and can be plugged into a standard cassette recorder. You can then listen to calls in your own time. I used to listen to them in the cassette recorder of my car on the way home.

A simple call recording adaptor like this one from Maplin allows you to record calls for less than 15 ($27)

To get the calls you had to be connected to the headset port of a supervisor Teleset with the call recording setting selected. This was known as the Supervisor function on an Aspect Call Centre or Service Observe on a Lucent/Avaya Definity.

Call Quality Recording

This is a specialist type of recording system that allows you to record calls for the sole purpose of improving the skills of the agent. With call quality a regular number of calls per agent are recorded – say ten calls per week. The supervisor can then sit down on a regular basis with the agent and review the calls. When both the agent and the supervisor go through the calls together it can be a highly effective way of self improvement. Mistakes can be quicly identified and corrected quickly. It is one of the fastest ways of improving call quality.

Bulk call recording

This is where every call in the call centre is recorded. This is frequently used for compliance or regulatory reasons and is very widespread in the financial services industry – particulalry in applications such as share dealing.

These systems are very sophisticated and is dominated by companies such as Verint.

1 Sep 2003

Filed under Technology , call recording, Verint