MARKET REPORT Call Recording
“Customer service, such as managing complaints, is still important, but data from recorded calls can also be
used to inform larger scale business decisions to increase customer retention.“
John Hardick, Workforce Engagement Consultant at Avaya
Dave Hawkins, Head of
Channel Sales at KCOM says
that setting up a secure phone
payment solution is complicated
and time-consuming.
“ e larger the organisation,
the more complicated it
usually is. e penalties and
nes associated with being
non-compliant are skewed
towards rms that accept more
payments. is may mean
enterprise organisations such
as banks, insurance rms
and large retailers feel under
greater pressure to comply, but
it doesn’t mean SME and midmarket
rms are ‘o the hook’.
Within the PCI DSS
standard there are 312
controls that rms need to
manage/adhere to. Meeting
this obligation is not that
straightforward and so the
reseller community needs to
work with proven MSPs who
can help them meet their
customers’ needs. is will
involve agreeing which parts
of the compliance puzzle are
managed in-house and what is
outsourced.”
William Sandy of Dubber
says where SMEs are likely to
use call recording for day-to-day
uses like appointment tracking
or dispute resolution, which can
be facilitated by integrating call
data into CRMs, at the midmarket
level call data is being
used for more wide-reaching use
cases.
“Customer service, such
as managing complaints, is
still important, but data from
recorded calls can also be used
to inform larger scale business
decisions to increase customer
retention. For example, call
recording with transcription can
identify where a customer may
mention a competitor’s name
or product. Understanding this
data can give businesses insight
into recurring themes that their
customers are talking about and
ensure they are meeting their
needs.”
Trevor Davis at Enghouse
Interactive says the biggest
di erence is that mid-market
businesses are adopting
value added applications that
complement call recording
much more comprehensively
than smaller enterprises are.
“Medium-sized enterprises
are increasingly engaging with
analytics applications like
speech-to-text transcription,
speech and text analytics and
workforce management for
the purposes of competitive
di erentiation or customer
William Sandy, Channel Marketing Specialist - Dubber
experience management, in
particular.
Smaller businesses, in
contrast, still struggle to
nd the budget, manpower
or expertise to operate such
applications today.”
According to Simon Whatley,
Director of Sales Operations at
Tollring, the basic functionality
provided by call recording
solutions is largely the same
whether in a formal contact
centre or a single user who
needs to record conversations
with customers.
“ e key di erences are
in the application of the
technology in terms of how
policies are applied, which
compliance features are used,
and accessibility, both in terms
of cost and usability.
e mid-market typically has
speci c departments that need
call recording, as opposed to
rules that apply to the whole
business. Often with more
complex GDPR responsibilities,
mid-market businesses need
policies that are tailored to their
own range of interdepartmental
requirements.
In contrast, SMEs typically
have less stringent or varied
requirements that do not need
formal business processes and
are less dependent as a business
on corporate regulations.”
How is the use of analytics
impacting the space, does
anyone just sell call recording
on its own with the associated
management analytics?
Richard Stevenson, CEO at
Red Box says that most call
recording providers give some
level of analytics and reporting
as part of their solution.
“However, customers are
looking increasingly to leverage
voice data sets, alongside
other communication and
operational data, within
Arti cial Intelligence, Business
Intelligence and CRM
platforms.
e AI space is maturing
rapidly with both
innovative niche
players (often startups)
and global providers
such as Microsoft and
Salesforce o ering customers
powerful and best of breed
AI capabilities. At Red Box,
our focus is on building a
platform architecture that
connects customers to the
broadest partner ecosystem in
the industry, allowing them
to choose the best t solution
for their needs a nd desired
outcomes.
‘AI as a Service’ is becoming
the norm, with associated
consumption-based pricing,
and the capture of highquality
audio and metadata,
and an open voice platform
that ensures the accessibility
and portability of this data, is
crucial to enabling this model.”
John Hardick, Workforce
Engagement Consultant at
Avaya, says that recording is
still sold as a standalone app,
although this tends to be at the
smaller end of the market.
“Most customers would
purchase Recording, Quality
Monitoring and Performance
Management as the baseline
with the majority of these
purchasing workforce
management as well.
However, change is in the
air, the market’s understanding
of the value of analytics is
increasing; Speech Analytics
is the rst real step most
customers take into this eld
with Text Analytics following
closely behind.” For now,
desktop analytics is not being
fully accepted; this would allow
the customer to identify how
the client desktop is being
used (which apps and
entries and for how
long) to deliver
a service
to a
startlong)
>
26 | Comms Business Magazine | February 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk