Silence of the Agents – Call Recording is Nothing to Fear

By Jeff Valentine, CEO, Callfinity. As published in the September 2009 issue of Call Center Times, page 10.

Coming soon to a contact center near you. From the director/producer combo who brought you the sci-fi action-adventure “Automatic Distributor” and the summer comedy “The Hang Up,” comes the hack-and-slash thriller “The Night My Manager Implemented Call Recording.” A contact center agent’s worst nightmare comes true as his new manager begins to take a suspicious interest in his daily activity. After a quarterly review and two performance evaluations, our hero unravels an administrator’s twisted plot to track his every move.

The Fear of Call Recording

For some contact center agents, the mere thought of call recording and screen capture causes panic. Like a scene from a dimly-lit horror film, agents feel the corporate shackle has them chained to their cubicle while sophisticated spy equipment tracks their every move.

But this theatrical trailer doesn’t need to end in muffled screams. Once you remove the mask and dive into the soul of call recording, employees will realize that this ‘bad guy’ has a soft side.

When utilized to its full potential, call recording can help agents become more productive, map out their career path, and increase their pay … and that’s nothing to be scared of.

Put Your Agents Mind At Ease

The primary reason many agents cringe at the thought of call recording is that no one has taken the time to put their mind at ease. Without a proper explanation, the true benefits of call recording may go unnoticed to anyone who isn’t an administrator or manager.

What's In It For Me

When faced with new contact center solutions, it’s natural for employee’s to ask “what’s in it for me.” They don’t think that a call recording system can possibly aid them in their daily routine or help them lasso that team lead position that keeps getting away. If you want to know the truth, call recording benefits employees just as much as managers and team administrators.

Once your contact center team better understands this value, they can begin to assess various call recording features and figure out how these tools can help them accomplish both professional and personal goals.

If your business is searching for a new call recording solution or you feel your agents haven’t yet warmed up to your existing call recording solution, it may be helpful to sit down with your team and list the ways call recording can be used to take each agent to the next step in their telecom career path.

An effective call recording solution can be used to:

• Validate and refine existing training programs so employees are adequately prepared to operate software/hardware and properly serve customers.
• Help employees answer difficult customer questions and improve their ability to react to re-occurring issues.
• Improve productivity, attentiveness, and pride.
• Identify areas where technique modifications may increase profitability.
• Help employees provide superior customer care to valued clients.
• Strengthen team morale by establishing concise goals.
• Improve customer retention rates and workflow.
• Aid employees with real-world examples they can easily implement.
• Help pinpoint weak areas and transform them into strengths.
• Enable organizations to share preferred customer care experiences with all employees.
• Provide immediate feedback to agents using documented recordings.
• Identify and evaluate high-performance employees.

Once your employees understand the true power of call recording, you should note that all of these bullet points can ultimately result in corporate recognition, promotion opportunities, and higher pay.

Soon your agents will begin to embrace call recording instead of running in fear from the evil eye of big brother. It’s up to the administrator to continuously reinforce these benefits by providing consistent evaluations, sharing valuable calls with employees, and using audio files and metadata to locate and develop skills.

Unfortunately, not all call recording solutions make these tasks easy on contact center administrators.

Callfinity knows just how important ease of use is when searching for a viable contact center solution.

After all, what’s the point of recording calls when locating and sharing those calls with employees and clients is a nightmare? Callfinity takes the horror out of call recording by providing maximum search fields for locating calls, permission-based access for sharing calls, and comprehensive evaluation forms for grading performance. With a little guidance, your agents will begin to appreciate the benefits of call recording and in turn create a pleasurable service experience that won’t scare away your customers.