VoIP Call Recording

After the recent revelations of digital surveillance by the American government, most consumers regard call recording as an invasion of privacy rather than a feature. Even without that added perspective however, most users have little need to record voice calls under normal circumstances. So it is not surprising that most consumer grade VoIP phone services do not include that feature.

But there are many legitimate reasons for businesses to utilize this feature. There are very few hosted VoIP services that do not offer some form of call recording for organizations. Sometimes it is included in the basic package but quite often it is only found in the more expensive tiers. Call recording is usually turned off by default even if it is included in the subscription plan. Fortunately turning it on can be easily accomplished through the web dashboard.

Purpose of Recording VoIP Calls

There are many reasons for business organizations to record all, any or a few VoIP calls in particular. Recordings of interactions with customers can be used to improve training for sales executives or customer service representatives. It is often used during performance evaluations, to provide feedback to new agents or even as a defense against potential legal action.

Sometimes calls have to be recorded as per regulation or under particular laws by specific organizations. Generally speaking, such legislation will apply for certain categories of calls and it is not necessary for enterprises to record every single call.

Yet another reason for recording calls – especially with customers – is for data analysis. Analyzing all sorts of data is becoming crucial for creating value-added products and services for businesses. Organizations are even using information posted on social networks by users in order to improve their service offerings or customer support. But voice conversations are generally not stored and archived for later analysis as it can require a lot of space and processing power.
With VoIP, call recording is a much easier task and so many businesses are utilizing this feature in order to gain important information that was previously not being retained. Analyzing previous conversations with a single customer or even a group of customers can yield insights into how the organization can improve in certain aspects or even create a new service/product that satisfies customer needs better. This form of data analysis would be all but impossible without the ability to record calls in real-time.

VoIP Call Recording Features

The way call recording is implemented can vary significantly between different providers. With hosted VoIP services, recorded calls are usually stored in the cloud or some datacenter. This means it takes up precious space. So some vendors only allow users to store a certain amount of data – often described in terms of the number of days. For example, a vendor might say that 30 days worth of recorded calls can be stored for such and such time. VoIPstudio allows clients to store as much data as they need and many vendors follow this practice.

Generally speaking, call recording can be activated or deactivated for a particular user or even a group of users by administrators. Depending on the configuration and requirements of the organization, control over call recording can be given to the end-users as well. Sometimes enterprises prefer to enable or disable call recording on a global basis while other businesses enable it only for certain departments or project teams.

While recording calls with VoIP phone systems is certainly easy, organizations should also keep in mind that there may be
legislative requirements or guidelines to be followed. For instance many states in America require that users should be informed that the call is being recorded. Some places require that both parties should consent to being recorded. This is the reason why customers are often greeted with an automated message that states the call may be recorded.

Call Recording in VoIPstudio

Recording calls in Voipstudio’s free phone application is pretty straightforward. Simply make a call as usual – either by dialing a number or by selecting a person from your contact list. While you are being connected, a list of icons will appear at the bottom of the call window. Clicking on the record button will toggle the feature on and off for the particular call.

Naturally whether or not the feature is enabled for an individual employees will depend on the global configuration settings. It may be unavailable for certain users but turned on for others.

VoIP call recording can be combined with many other features to provide much greater value for businesses. For instance, VoIPstudio offers free and automatic transcription for voice calls for all users. This feature can also work on archived conversations and voicemails. It means that clients can record voice calls and have them automatically transcribed into text – whether immediately in real time or later on.

It is important to remember that recording calls requires infrastructure and comprehensive systems in the backend. The employee may only see the toggle and use the feature. But after the calls are recorded, they need to be stored safely and securely. Many conversations take place between high ranking officials or senior executives and as such can be tempting targets for hackers and criminal elements.

Not all companies consider security when enabling phone features but it can be a crucial element going forward. This is especially true in an era where consumers are increasingly aware of issues like data privacy and security. It is better to proactively implement security measures rather than worry about security breaches after they have happened.