The average small or medium-sized business (SMB) makes and receives hundreds of calls monthly. So when prospects and customers ring your business, you need to be ready to take their call and provide them with a stellar customer experience (CX).
This is where call recording comes in.
What is call recording?
Call recording involves recording calls with prospects and customers (whether inbound or outbound) so that you can listen back to them later.
Issues resolved by call recording
Call recording helps solve a wide range of common small business pain points. Here are just a few:
Callers don’t need to repeat themselves
More than 70% of customers cite feeling frustrated when asked to repeat themselves multiple times to different agents. Unfortunately, CallRail research shows that 96% of small business employees say customers are often or sometimes told to repeat information. Call recording eliminates this entirely by providing a transcript for agents to refer to so they don’t need to ask the caller for information they’ve already provided in the past.
Agents can focus on the customer
Let agents focus on valuable customer interactions rather than frantically scribbling down notes. Show that you’re actually listening to what callers are saying. Give agents the tools they need to pay attention to the person at the other end of the line. With Lead Center by CallRail, agents are able to take notes and add tags in real time – but if they don’t get something down, they can refer to the call recording transcript to keep track of callers’ needs.
Provide a personalized experience
Call recordings ensure no stone is left unturned. For example, callers might subtly mention that they’re looking for a realtor as their previous one was slow to reply, showing that responsiveness is their top priority. This insight will then guide how you treat this customer moving forward.
Monitor prospects’ and customers’ language
Imagine your orthodontist practice, for example, refers to ‘clear braces’ on your website. However, after recording calls from prospects and relistening to them, the term ‘invisible aligners’ is more common among leads. Reverse-engineer your marketing according to the language your customers are using to glean insights that have real impact on your business.
Enhanced staff training
Back in 2018, McKinsey stated that 94% of senior customer-care executives expect the skill demands placed on their agents to increase in the next five years. They weren’t wrong.
By recording calls, you can identify areas where your team needs extra training. Perhaps a few members on your team are overly casual with customers, whereas you’ve found that a more formal tone works best. Similarly, you may have standout agents that succeed using a particular talk track, and you may want to standardize that talk track throughout your entire team.
Maintain compliance standards
No company hopes for a lawsuit or compliance issue. However, by recording your calls, you can ensure that if something does go wrong, you have a clear log of everything that’s been said.
For instance, licensed realtors might benefit from having records of all their calls that provides them with a safety net in case a client makes a claim against the company.
Features of CallRail's call recording system for businesses
Lead Center by CallRail — the cloud phone system that helps you win more business — captures both inbound and outbound call recordings. Lead Center connects your marketing to the leads who contact you, so you can have smarter conversations that convert — and confidence your marketing dollars are working as hard as you do.
Beyond call recording alone, Lead Center provides a rich set of features to help companies improve their customer experience at scale.
Connect your entire marketing strategy
Lead Center connects conversations to your marketing and promotions, whether digital ads, direct mail, or billboards. When a contact calls, Lead Center agents know each step they’ve taken along their path to purchase. They know, for example, that the first time a prospect called, they were responding to an ad. And the next time, they texted about pricing.
Add tags, notes, highlights, and qualify prospects in real-time
Lead Center allows agents to add tags, notes, highlights and even qualify prospects in real-time. In fact, having set up call recording, you can then use CallScore’s advanced machine learning models to automatically score incoming leads.
Know exactly who is calling and why
Recent CallRail research shows that 91% of employees spend valuable call time learning why a prospect is calling — and that small and midsize businesses (SMBs) lose 16 hours per week tracking down information. Research suggests that 75% of calls are spent with agents doing manual research (such as discovering who's calling and why).
With Lead Center, businesses gain a complete interaction timeline showing who callers are, when they previously got in touch, and what they last spoke about.
Manage and re-listen to all calls in a unified team inbox
As vital as call recordings are, they’re not the only customer service channel you need to care about. CallRail research suggests that 93% of small businesses feel they would benefit from a collaborative inbox. That's why Lead Center provides an all-in-one hub where you can manage your team’s calls, texts, and chat messages.
Benefit from complete call transcripts
Relistening to call recordings is a valuable endeavor — but it’s incredibly time-consuming. Lead Center provides complete call transcripts, while you can also pair it with Conversation Intelligence to gain even richer insights.
FAQs about call recording
Still not sure how call recording works? Check out our list of common call recording FAQs below.
How does call recording work?
Lead Center by CallRail automatically records inbound and outbound phone calls to your business numbers.
How are call recordings stored and for how long?
Replay call recordings by heading to your call log or email notifications, or leverage our automatic call transcription services to receive full transcripts of each call. We store all communication records (including call recordings) for 25 months, per our Data Retention Policy.
Is call recording legal?
Different state and federal laws apply to call recording — for example, some require both parties to consent to calls being recorded. Check your state’s laws before proceeding.
To help you stay compliant, CallRail allows users to enable automated, fully customizable verbal greetings. We’ve also taken additional steps to ensure that our healthcare clients remain HIPAA-compliant.
Can call transcripts be deleted?
Yes, they can. Administrators can delete call recordings as needed. Note: this permanently removes the recording and its transcriptions, though we still keep a record of it in your call log and your reports.
Are all users able to play recordings?
Agents with access to Lead Center can play call recordings.
Can I try call recordings?
To review calls at any time with call recording, try Lead Center free for 14 days.
