When you record and review all calls entering your organization's phone system, you will produce the wealth of raw material necessary to identify the ground-level problems and potential sticking points preventing your customer service representatives from providing the maximum value to your clients.
That being said, you can't jump head-first into call center recording, ignorant to the rules and regulations surrounding the best practices and proper use of your recording capabilities. If you are going to use call center recording technology, whether because you legally have to or because you simply want to streamline your telephony systems, then you need to follow the laws governing this potentially abusive technology to their every last letter.
The Lack of Nationally Unified Laws
First things first- the laws governing call center recording aren't always uniform as they tend to vary from state to state. Before you establish a system for recording your organization's phone calls, you need to first perform your due diligence and ensure your planned recording system complies with all of your state's laws.
Not only should you make sure you're complying with your own state's laws regarding recording inbound and outbound calls, it's wise to make sure you comply with the recording laws set out by any other state you may make or receive calls from. When it comes to recording phone calls it's always better to err on the side of caution and to absolutely minimize your potential liability instead of doing "just enough" to get by.
In essence, every organization with the potential for a national reach or presence needs to ensure consent before a single word is written to tape.
What Consent Means in Telephony
At a national level, there's nothing illegal about recording a phone call you make or receive. At the state level, the legality of recording phone calls depends on whether you received the consent to do so or not.
How states handle the question of consent tends to fall into one of two camps.
Some states require only one half a phone conversation to provide consent to record the call (One Party Notification).Some states require everyone involved in a phone conversation to signal their consent before a recording can be legally produced (All Party Notification).
In each of these states both you and your clients need to signal your consent to have your phone calls recorded before any recording can be made.
Signalling Consent
The word "consent" sounds a lot more intimidating and demanding than it actually is.
"Consent" is a well-defined legal term in the world of phone recording, and it can be acquired through a few different widely accepted methods. At the moment there are three legally acceptable forms of consent you can utilize to stay on the right side of the law when you record your organization's inbound and outbound calls.
The first way to receive consent is through some sort of prior verbal or written permission provided by your caller stating their acquiescence to you recording their calls. For example, you can include an acknowledgement of consent within a contract or service agreement you and your clients enter into together, stating clearly that you can record any future phone calls between the two of you.
The second way to receive content is by providing some sort of aural indication that you've initiated a recording, such as an audible beep or tone repeated regularly throughout your phone call. Most organizations do NOT choose this form of receiving consent because it is more ambiguous than the other two, and because it can potentially disrupt your phone communications.
The final, and most common, form of receiving consent involves some sort of verbal notification that a recording will be made, given prior to the phone call or prior to the start of the recording. This form of consent is the least disruptive, the most flexible, and the easiest to obtain. The majority of organizations who record their calls use this solution because they simply need to playback a pre-recorded statement indicating that the proceeding phone call may be recorded, and informing their callers that remaining on the call indicates giving their consent.
While the regulations surrounding consent do need to be followed, they don't need to impair your organization's ability to provide superior customer service to all of your callers and clients. In nearly all cases, a simple, unobtrusive indication of your intention to record your phone calls and your caller's agreement to be recorded is enough to keep you and your organization on solid legal grounds.
Sam Rozenfeld runs DLS Internet Services, a business VoIP service provider. He shares his thoughts and a service provider's prospective on how hosted VoIP is being adopted by business community. Go to TelephonyYourWay.com/blog to see more.
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