Call and Voice Recording – Customer Versus Call Centre

It's a battle between you and the customer when it comes to customer service in a call centre, so when “the customer is always right”, a call and voice recording technology could save your job. To find out more visit http://talkbusinessmagazine.co.uk/

These days, the size of a complaints department does not indicate the downfalls of a company, but often the successes. 

Disgruntled customers and negative feedback is just something that all businesses will encounter with growth, whether they are catering to the consumer market or in the business-to-business world.  However, businesses that rely on contact centres to manage their sales and customer services happen to have the highest level of unhappy customers - could the wonders of call and voice recording technology turn that around?

Call and voice recording is used to record calls made by contact centre staff.  The purpose of call and voice recording is to monitor staff performance, monitor the content of incoming calls, and for training purposes.  But with consumers becoming more and more demanding, call and voice recording could save your job.

Is the Customer Always Right?

Businesses that rely on contact centres to manage their sales and customer services are reported to receive a high level of complaints.  But is this fairly reported?  Would we discover any shocking revelations about the consumer world if we listened to every call and voice recording in the telemarketing sector?  Or would the outcome be the same?  After all, the customer is always right.

Marshall Field, founder of the department store, Chicago and Harry Gordon Selfridge of London's Selfridges first put into practice the mantra we know as, “The customer is always right”.  First applied 100 years ago, businesses everywhere soon adopted the concept and it has successfully led us into the twenty first century of internet shopping and lethargic mentality.  The famous mantra has become an inherent part of the retail world, the business-to-business world and most definitely, the world of contact centres.  In an environment where “the customer is always right”, call and voice recording is an integral part of training and quality monitoring.

But if the customer is always right, does that mean that the friendly lady in customer services is always wrong?  Most people could assume that 'customer services' is all about providing services to the customer.  But as it turns out, 'customer services' can often be a battlefield.  When it's you against the customer, keeping clear records of who said what could be quite handy.

Call and voice recording technology has been around for some years now and it ensures that all calls are dealt with to the highest quality.  But sometimes this just isn't enough - no matter how convenient life is compared to how it was ten years ago, most of us seem to forget this and take cash machines, internet and telephone banking, and wireless broadband for granted. 

The Benefits of Call and Voice Recording

In many enterprises, the contact centre is the heart of all customer-facing operations.  The heart of such an important part of a business, the very best training is compulsory.  All interactions with customers determine whether a customer will return again for business, whether they will tell one person how good the company is, or whether they will tell ten people how bad the company is.  There are many outcomes of a good or bad call, and voice recording software is the ultimate training tool. 

By using call and voice recording systems, high quality monitoring can be achieved.  Live monitoring and manual records can leave room for human error.  Call and voice recording ensures 100% accuracy. 

Some businesses use live monitoring, hand-written forms, and manual reports to evaluate agent performance. Businesses are finding that live monitoring is significantly inefficient compared to today’s new automated call and voice recording solutions.

The problems with live monitoring:

·      Time constraints - supervisors can take up to five times longer to monitor the same number of calls than call and voice recording software

·      Not a true evaluation - most supervisors monitor a minimum of 3-4 calls per session and this may lead to inaccuracy.  Call and voice recording software can monitor calls thoroughly

·      Inaccurate – A call and voice recording device can eliminate the possibility of human error

Call and Voice Recording – Putting the Customer First

Consumers have really seen the benefit as industries of all types have worked so diligently to put customers at the heart of what they do and how they do it.  Contact centres have entered the business landscape, with a principle that states, “The customer is king.”

Protection for a business is something that can be offered with a call and voice recording device, but call and voice recording also serves a more important purpose – achieving better customer services for the customer.  Training is an integral part of quality management in contact centres.  Telephone manner, handling difficult situations and problem solving is all part and parcel with contact centre training. 

With the aid of call and voice recording, training and call coaching will follow a consistent training procedure.  This will nurture huge respect from the customer and ultimately ensure the most excellent customer service.

Cheerfully Cheap and Not So Cheerful Customers

Today, the average consumer is overwhelmed by choice.  The divide between luxury and economy products is growing wider everyday – but the differentiation between them is not.  Very often, confusion sets in as people start to ask why their economy product isn't performing as well a high-end product.  The answer is of course in the price, but how do you explain that to a disgruntled customer over the phone?  Problems will immediately increase the difficulty of a call, and voice recording software can monitor how a customer services clerk handles a tough situation. 

Many companies have tried introducing grades of service, defining service levels and trying to match customer service expectations accordingly.  But it’s not always that straightforward.  To tackle this issue, call and voice recording systems coupled with efficient training is something that call centre management must not omit.