VoIP (voice over IP) systems have become a mainstream part of nearly every business. These phone systems are essential for making businesses profitable and efficient. However, as VoIP phone systems become more common, companies seek additional functionalities from their service providers. One of such additions is the feature of VoIP call recording.
Call recording can help businesses improve their service and address the concerns of their customers. Although call recording has existed for a while, it used to require additional hardware/software deployment.
Furthermore, the equipment and software used for call recording were often expensive and out of reach for most businesses. However, with the advent of VoIP, call recording has become easily available for organizations of all sizes.
Companies can now start using call recording for their businesses at minimal costs. Yet there are many types of call recording, and each one has its own benefits. In this article, we will discuss some of the key use cases of call recording in VoIP.
Active vs. Passive Recording
A call recording can be of two major types: active recording and passive recording. In passive call recording, the VoIP system uses packet capture while a network switch or gateway hub is monitored to listen to and record real-time audio traffic.
Passive call recording is an efficient method to record calls. However, this method lacks the capability to capture calls made on peer-to-peer communication channels or off-site. It happens because internal calls made through the VoIP phone system do not flow through the network gateway.
On the other hand, during active call recording, the audio packets are duplicated and then channeled to the recorder. The VoIP recording service is able to accomplish it by making the recorder an active participant in the ongoing call.
As a result, this method can effectively record calls regardless of whether they are made from remote locations or internally. Having said that, active call recording could potentially affect the quality of the call since it adds another participant to the call.
Hardware vs. Software Only Recording
Enterprises using on-premise equipment have a variety of options for call recording that either in the form of hardware or software solutions. Choosing a suitable solution depends upon the existing network of the organization and the purpose for recording calls.
If a business is using a hosted VoIP solution, it can simply turn on call recording through an online dashboard. Therefore, it doesn’t need additional hardware but can incur additional costs if it not included in your plan.
How Can Call Recording be Useful?
Call recording is a useful tool for employee motivation. It can help companies in training employees for improving customer service or sales. Employees can listen to their own call recordings and improve the way they engage customers.
Furthermore, managers can also use these recordings as a measure to evaluate the performance of each employee, especially during performance appraisals.
Nevertheless, the use cases of call recording in VoIP go beyond employee evaluation. Industries that highly regulated might need call recording for complying with the law or acts as evidence to resolve disputes. Call recording allows companies to have irrefutable and documented evidence, which can help in the organization’s legal defense.
Furthermore, these companies can use call recording to reduce the probability of lawsuits and to increase security. It’s common for security breaches to occur because of employees who transmit information either inadvertently or maliciously. By reviewing recorded calls, these companies can identify the source of the leak.
Similarly, the company can use these recordings in resolving disputes with customers. Not only it helps the company avoid unnecessary costs, but it also ensures that the company’s relationship with the customer remains positive.
Using call recording to address customer complaints can help your employees understand the root cause of problems. This allows them to deal with the problem more quickly, effectively, and efficiently.
For instance, if your employees notice a spike in calls and all of them are reporting a similar fault in the product line, you can easily identify the main problem. As a result, you will be able to avoid a lot of unhappy customers, along with high customer service costs.
Which Calls Can I Record?
In the event that you intend to record phone calls or in-person discussions, you ought to know that there are government and state wiretapping laws that may constrain your capacity to do as such. We are going to discuss these laws in our future articles.
DLS Internet Services has been offering comprehensive VoIP solutions since its inception in 1995. The company implements all the best practices in VoIP and delivers innovative business-to-business PBX solutions. PBX call recording feature is a part of the DLS Hosted PBX communications toolkit for business.