How VoIP Call Recording Works (and Why It Matters)

What Is VoIP Call Recording?

VoIP call recording is a feature built into some cloud phone systems that creates an on-demand audio recording of phone conversations. These recordings are stored on the cloud and are usually available to be played as soon as the call ends.

How Does Recording VoIP Calls Work?

Many phones have built-in call recording capabilities. This means that a conversation can be recorded without any additional settings or conditions needing to be created.

If you’re using a VoIP system with an in-built call recording system, you’ll be able to record a phone call on every device or specify certain phone calls that you want to record. It’s usually as simple as choosing the right setting. Once the recording has taken place, it becomes an audio file, allowing you to play it back at your leisure.

Types of VoIP Call Recording

To record VoIP phone calls, there are three options that you can choose from:

1. Automatic call recording. This means that the admin of your call center can choose all calls to be recorded automatically.

2. On-demand call recording. With this setting, users select the record button during or just before the call, allowing them to record a call when they want to.

3. Custom call recording. This sets up triggers for calls to be recorded according to your specific demands.

Useful Features To Consider

When you’re choosing your VoIP solution, it’s important to know the most useful call recording features so that you can find the right option for you:

• Built-in storage for recordings. The best VoIP systems include built-in storage for your call recordings: Vonage Business Communications includes 500 hours of storage as standard, with options to purchase more.

• Options to share recordings. In order to pass on specific information or share good practices for training purposes, you have to be able to forward call records to others.

• Custom automated messages. These alert callers that a recording is happening. Vonage offers preset messages which let callers know that they’re being recorded automatically, without your agents having to waste time on this.

• Security measures. Make sure that your call recordings are secured with password protection to ensure compliance.

• Custom call recording rules. You’ll want to be able to set up rules for call recording that are specific to your needs, which Vonage enables you to do easily through its VBC Admin Portal.

• Playback/playlist option. If you want to use calls in training, it’s important that there are options to play back the call according to your requirements.

• Recording management. Vonage allows you to manage your recordings in detail alongside your existing tools or by creating your own dashboard for recordings.

• Multitrack recording for conference calls. Recording conference calls requires multiple tracks to be recorded, with Vonage allowing you to record up to 32 speakers in separate tracks.

• Transcription. Automated transcription tools can save a lot of time when you’re looking to turn calls into written documents.

• Sentiment analysis. Insight into customer’s feelings and emotions can be provided through sentiment analysis, which can give you a real-time understanding of the customer’s experience as the call is ongoing.

5 Benefits of Recording VoIP Calls

Managing a VoIP system can be a challenging job on its own, so why should you bother implementing a call recording system in your VoIP operations? Here are the five biggest benefits of recording VoIP phone calls:

1. Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Making and maintaining records is a great way to protect you and your employees against legal and regulatory issues. That’s because some companies are legally required to record calls, meaning that recordings are essential to protect yourself. This includes organizations in fields such as financial services, law, banking, and insurance.

Even if call recording is not required to be compliant with your industry’s regulations, it’s still a useful tool to ensure that legal and regulatory compliance is secure across your organization. This is because supervisors can use call recordings to make sure that the right procedures are followed — and can offer support to improve regulatory compliance.

2. Improved Quality Assurance

Monitoring regulatory compliance is a crucial form of quality assurance, but it’s not the only form of quality control that call recordings can be used for. You can easily assess the quality of your customer support by listening to call recordings, helping to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your customer support agents.

This isn’t limited to just the few calls that you have time to listen to in full. With AI transcription and analysis of call recordings, you can monitor all of your agents. This allows you to recognize general trends within your team and across an individual agent’s performance — meaning that you know exactly what you need to improve.

3. Better Customer Experience

This quality assurance isn’t about trying to catch your agents out. Rather, it’s a crucial component of improving the customer experience. Listening to call recordings or using sentiment analysis gives you a direct insight into the experience of callers when getting in touch with your organization.

This means that you can create tailored improvements to rectify customer pain points or problems that you otherwise would never have noticed, helping to improve the experiences of all customers.

Call recordings also provide a more operational way to improve customer experience. Let’s say a customer gets in touch with a difficult problem that needs time to solve. A recording will allow the agent to return to the details of the problem once they get time to resolve it, making customer support more efficient.

4. Easier Employee Training

VoIP call recordings are an excellent tool that you can use to improve your employee training. By recording employee calls, individual agents are able to listen back to their conversations and recognize any issues. These recordings can also be used in a coaching model, where a supervisor constructs feedback with the agent.

Larger staff training programs can also benefit from VoIP call recordings. Examples of best practices could be used in onboarding operations for new recruits, while you can also play model calls if you’re introducing a new feature to your team. Continually reviewing call recordings is also a great way to make sure that training is specific to your team’s needs.

5. Resolve Disputes Efficiently

If you get into a dispute with a client, being able to go back into the recording of a call can be a great way to resolve the issue. You might find that the source of the disagreement was an error by the agent, for instance, meaning that you’re able to decide that it’s probably best to resolve the issue by offering some sort of deal or free upgrade.

More importantly, though, using a VoIP call recording device can make such disputes less likely. You’ll have a better understanding of what works with customers and what doesn’t, improving the overall customer experience and reducing the chances of upset customers.

The Legalities of Using VoIP to Record Calls

While call recording can be a great way to ensure compliance, they also bring additional legal and regulatory demands. You’ll have to be aware of the different laws that apply to your organization, as state legislation varies.

In general, though, you should make sure that customers know that they’re being recorded and give them an option to refuse a recording. Although federal law says that only one party needs to consent to the recording, informing your customers ensures that you’re fully protected and builds trust with the client.

How To Record VoIP Calls With Vonage

Call recording is a great tool to add to your VoIP tech stack. With Vonage, you can choose the VoIP call recording software that suits your company’s needs. VBC company call recording allows you to automatically record all of your conversations — alongside customizable triggers — which are then stored and managed through a simple-to-use admin portal.

In addition, Vonage’s on-demand call recording tool can be used on top of your Vonage VoIP, giving individual users the ability to record phone calls as and when they want. These recordings can then be shared, managed, and deleted by the user. With Vonage, you also have access to its Voice API, which ensures that calls are high-quality and clear.

So what are you waiting for? Discover how to record VoIP calls with Vonage today!