3. Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 1
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THE VALUE OF RECORDING 1
ecord keeping existed long before literature. The oldest
written records dated from 4,000 B.C. For the next
thousand years the topics were exclusively trade and
accounts until The Epic of Gilgamesh appeared in cuneiform.
Imagine the stories that died with the storytellers until then.
What took them so long before someone wrote it down?
Up to that time, writing was strictly a business tool. Only scribes
could read. They were the database analysts of their time.
Demand for their skills kept scribes so busy that they invented
shortcuts. The clay tablet version of printing, etched cylinders
rolled out the logos and letterheads of an ancient business boom.
These businesses boomed precisely because records were kept.
Big business is impossible without an account of its status. Any
account is worthless without data. Businesses lacking records
produce trinkets, not treasures.
For the first hundred years of the telephone, business didn't
happen without a letter, telegraph or fax to back up verbal
agreements. With the advent of credit cards, consumers placed
orders by telephone, but disputes and lawsuits discouraged
businesses from adopting the practice. There was no proof of
what actually happened by telephone until calls were recorded,
R
4. T H E V A L U E O F R E C O R D I N G
Risk Management
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indexed, and stored. Substantiated by this telephonic
documentation, businesses could do business with other
businesses by telephone. Again business boomed.
..........................................................Risk Management
Doing business without considering the associated risks
guarantees its eventual failure. Anticipating and recognizing the
risks are prerequisites to their management. This requires a
history because - whether horse drawn, steam driven or
electronically transmitted - history repeats. As 20/20 hindsight
turned forward, anticipation recognizes the potential of history
repeating under similar circumstances. When the record reveals
an unpleasantly familiar pattern, Risk Management kicks in.
Liability - He said, she said
Liability-related litigation is a constantly evolving threat wherever
health and safety are involved. The 911 (emergency calls) and
311 (non-emergency calls) services in most areas are required by
law to record calls for this reason. Private security companies
such as ADT and Wackenhut have long since recognized the value
of recording their calls, predominantly for reasons of liability.
In an official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP), a policy statement titled “Payment for Telephone Care”
states in the Telephone Care in Pediatric Practice section:
5. .....
T H E V A L U E O F R E CO R D I N G
Risk Management
Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 3
“Telephone care not only is costly but also exposes the physician
to increased medical liability risks.” It cited several reasons,
including: “documentation of the telephone calls is often less than
optimal.” In the Recommendations section: “The AAP believes
that physicians should document telephone care in a consistent
manner.”1
Documentation is stressed as a crucial feature of any risk
management strategy in a Psychiatric News article.2 Their
suggestions include:
• Implement a system for documenting telephone calls and messages
from patients, as well as the response to those calls and messages
• Document all phone calls in which clinical information is discussed
Call centers held by elected officials must document every call to
avert the potential for scandals. There is no better documentation
than a recording.
Without recording, dispute resolution depends upon memory and
hearsay. With recording, the truth is self-evident. Submit
irrefutable proof of client agreement. Resolve accusations with
little or no cost in court fees, compensation and public relations.
Quick dispute resolution creates, preserves and promotes
business credibility. Slow or inappropriate responses can severely
damage customer/public relations. A poorly timed faux pas can
become a PR coup with a swift well-considered response. Replay
the dispute's origin and find the right answers now.
Security - Who said what and when
As businesses grow, so does their profile in the public eye. This
brings increased security threats, with costs and losses that can
hinder further growth. Log entries and incident reports depend
upon memory, experience and assumptions. No matter how
recent the incident or how many witnesses contribute to the
report, details are inevitably missed or discounted as trivial.
1. A policy statement: Payment for Telephone Care, PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 4 October
2006, American Academy of pediatrics (AAP)
2. Talk Not Cheap If You Lower Your Guard, Psychiatric News, American Psychiatric
Association, March 15, 2002
6. T H E V A L U E O F R E C O R D I N G
Compliancy
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Skilled lawyers can introduce doubt or confusion into any
witness’s account. Recording provides details no incident report
can equal and no lawyer can dispute.
Memory cannot be examined forensically. Recording gets to the
bottom of the matter by allowing incoherent calls to be replayed
for careful analysis.
• What was the caller’s age?
• Did they sound educated?
• What were their exact words?
• Was there a noticeable accent?
• What was their emotional state?
• Was that a shot or an impact?
• Was there any background noise?
Knowing that calls are recorded lends its own blanket of security
for all concerned. People will behave better. Customers will
understand they are receiving accurate information. Regulatory
bodies will recognize the institution as secure. By recording, there
is no doubt as to precisely who said what, when and how.
..........................................................Co mpli anc y
Several laws - such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the Health
Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) - require compliance verification
from all affected companies. Often call recording is the only
solution for economically satisfying regulatory requirements for
proof of compliance.
An official publication of the American College of Surgeons
stressed the importance of documenting every call involving a
patient's health for HIPAA compliance as well as to reduce the
risk of malpractice claims.3
Health care providers and health related agencies must prove
they are safeguarding patient information. HIPAA regulations and
7. .....
T H E V A L U E O F R E CO R D I N G
Quality/Workforce Management
Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 5
public concerns regarding Protected Health Information (PHI)
have made recording in all health care arenas virtually a
requirement.
..........................................................Qual ity/ Wo rk fo rc e M anagement
Call recording coupled with a good CRM solution is the great force
multiplier for managers and quality assurance personnel. This
allows calls to be sampled, assigned for evaluation, or monitored
directly. It’s the most efficient ways to ensure customers are
receiving high quality treatment and accurate information.
With call recording, supervisors and QA reviewers enjoy real-time
workforce optimization. They assess individual performance as
well as training effectiveness with sampled records or by direct
monitoring. In turn their assessments validate the evaluation’s
own performance metrics, completing the circle of quality.
Ultimately, this drives performance that guarantees high
customer satisfaction and improved business retention.
3. Chapters from ACS Surgery: Minimizing the Risk of Malpractice Claims, Medscape
Today, WebMD Inc. 2003 (from ACS Surgery: Principles & Practice, American College
of Surgeons, 2003)
8. T H E V A L U E O F R E C O R D I N G
Training
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..........................................................Training
The best way to discourage anyone is to tell them they’re not
good enough without showing them how to do better. This makes
them feel inadequate, isolated and unsupported. High turnover
results. New people replace the departed and they are frustrated
in turn. The cycle continues with no one the wiser. Productivity
and profits suffer. Everybody loses when the training isn’t right.
Evaluation is the most neglected facet of training. Observation is
training evaluation at its best. It’s even better if key points can be
replayed for careful analysis. If the outcome of that training is
produced over the telephone, then reviewing those calls is
essential. Are they applying their training? Has their long-term
behavior changed? Are the changes productive?
The most effective training demonstrates what works and what to
avoid. Recording calls provides precisely that kind of material -
whether training groups or coaching individuals.
Play and replay best and worst practices in action. Retrain and
retain previously confused and discouraged agents.
..........................................................B u s i n e s s I n t e l l i g e n c e
What’s going on inside? It’s all too easy for growing businesses to
disconnect. This happened to Sears when they moved into the
Sears Tower. People accustom to taking a walk to share
information suddenly found themselves several floors apart in
what was then the world’s tallest building. Their departments lost
touch simply because they lost face time. Sears executives were
unaware of the problem. Losing track of their business, Sears
weakened. Their competitors took advantage.
Paying consultants a fortune won’t deliver the pearls of wisdom
that are passing through company telephone lines daily. Use the
business insights people often encounter in the course of their
calls. Recorded calls - retrieved using the appropriate search
criteria - produce a wealth of business intelligence.
9. .....
T H E V A L U E O F R E CO R D I N G
Market Intelligence
Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 7
Recording a teleconference allows those unable to attend to listen
to a new project’s inception meeting while viewing the
presentations weeks later. Record special calls for use later. Index
and store these recordings to create a flexible accessible
knowledgebase that provides data essential for making highly
informed decisions. Record and hear the latest buzz.
..........................................................Market Intelligence
What's driving sales? What's holding sales down? The importance
of obtaining timely market intelligence cannot be understated. It
is always available, but at a price. Market studies can be
purchased. Great amounts of company time can be spent
compiling research from the Internet or alternate intelligence
sources. Companies with complete archives (of calls placed and
received) have another option.
Use the valuable market information that customers give freely
during their calls. Classify indexed calls by department or
campaign. Listen and compare old and new calls for trends. Use
the results to create a unique and highly focused set of market
goals.
Don’t wait for root cause analysis. Postmortems are too late.
Discover the issues that are pushing customers away. Save
campaigns before they crash.
10. T H E V A L U E O F R E C O R D I N G
Summary
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The customers know why it's not working. They're usually not shy
about telling the agent. The problem and the solution often share
the same conversation.
Recording provides timely data essential for making highly
informed decisions. Lend an ear to what the market is doing: now
and in future.
..........................................................Summary
Big business is impossible without documentation. It keeps
management on top of their affairs despite constantly changing
business, market and regulatory conditions. It informs and
coordinates the actions of their people, teams, departments and
divisions. Of all forms of documentation, call recording is by far
the clearest and simplest with ECHO™.
..........................................................A b o u t E C H O ™
ECHO™ is a browser-based digital, VoIP and screen capture
recording product, with an integrated CRM tool designed to
record, evaluate, monitor and archive all telephonic interactions.
It provides a wide-ranging, highly adaptable tool to assist any
business in navigating today's ever-changing world of boundless
possibilities.
11. .....
T H E V A L U E O F R E CO R D I N G
About ECHO™
Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 9
ECHO™ produces searchable synchronized voice and screen
recordings with “over the shoulder” screen clarity (screen
recording optional). It allows unlimited questions and criteria to
be integrated into the evaluation of a campaign's delivery and
results. The recordings and related review material are available
for electronic delivery, storage, or generation of detailed reports
based on customer-specified metrics. Now QA Managers have the
tools they need to accurately assess ability, training and
performance.
ECHO™ includes reports that can be run against archived calls
based on evaluations, comments, agent, etc. These reports are
customizable to meet specific information retrieval needs.
ECHO's integrated archive system makes call retrieval simple and
quick. Search and access archives through a friendly browser-
based user interface. The archiving process is designed to
facilitate DVD archiving, one-step shuttling to an alternate server,
and integration with alternate storage solutions.
ECHO™ is certified Avaya and Cisco compliant. It interfaces
directly with existing Avaya or Cisco switches, reducing the need
for costly phone system upgrades. This direct integration
removes all costs for connection to separate extensions, phones,
or workstations. Everything is handled directly at the switch.
The ECHO™ Contact Center Recording Solution supports focused
customer experience management through real-time monitoring
and agent performance evaluations. These bundled applications
and Teleformix's industry experience make ECHO™ the ideal
recorder for any customer looking for a competitively priced,
feature-rich recording solution. Coaching inaccurate agents and
providing proof of client agreement can pay for itself in very little
time.
INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine has awarded the ECHO™ Digital
Recording Solution with their 2006 Product of the Year Award4
.
ECHO™ also won the 2006 Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Product of the Year Award5
.
4. 2006 Product of the Year Award, INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine, Volume 10 /
Number 2
12. T H E V A L U E O F R E C O R D I N G
About Teleformix
Page 10 - The Value of Recording Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC
These capabilities present a new standard within the CRM
community as the ideal CRM-QA platform for digital voice
recording and quality monitoring. ECHO™ is simply the best
telephony monitoring solution. Words make bond with ECHO™.
..........................................................A b out Te l ef or mi x
Teleformix is an IBM Business Partner developing CRM/eCRM
enterprise-class software applications for the banking, insurance,
financial services and marketing industries. We provide
customizable and highly scalable solutions to seamlessly
integrate into any existing business architecture. Teleformix
offers a comprehensive range of competitively priced CRM-QA
software solutions designed to manage today's business
transaction challenges by optimizing performance for a rapid
Return On Investment (ROI).
Teleformix, LLC
2100 Golf Road, Suite 460
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
800-513-4000
www.teleformix.com
ECHO™ and Teleformix™, along with their respective logos, are trademarked. All Rights Reserved.
5. The 2006 Customer Inter@ction Solutions Product Of The Year Awards, Customer
Inter@ction Solutions Magazine, Volume 25 / Number 9
13. .....
Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 11
Numerics
20/20 hindsight ......................................................... 2
311 ......................................................................... 2
911 ......................................................................... 2
A
AAP policy statement ................................................. 2
About ECHO .............................................................. 8
ADT ......................................................................... 2
American Academy of Pediatrics .................................. 2
American College of Surgeons ..................................... 4
Archived calls ............................................................ 2, 7, 9
Avaya compliant ........................................................ 9
B
Blanket of security ..................................................... 4
Browser-based interface ............................................. 9
Business by telephone ................................................ 1
Business credibility .................................................... 3
Business insights ....................................................... 6
Business Intelligence ................................................. 6
Business retention ..................................................... 5
C
Campaign evaluation ................................................. 9
Circle of quality ......................................................... 5
Cisco compliant ......................................................... 9
Classify calls ............................................................. 7
Coaching .................................................................. 6, 9
Compare calls for trends ............................................. 7
Compliancy ............................................................... 4
Create focused market goals ....................................... 7
Customer experience management .............................. 9
Customer Inter@ction Solutions .................................. 9
Customer satisfaction ................................................. 5
Customer/public relations ........................................... 3
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D-G
Direct integration ...................................................... 9
Dispute resolution ..................................................... 3
DVD archiving ........................................................... 9
Effective training demonstrates ................................... 6
Elected officials ......................................................... 3
Emergency calls ........................................................ 2
Evaluation ................................................................ 5, 6, 9
Forensics .................................................................. 4
GLB ......................................................................... 4
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ............................................. 4
H
Health care providers ................................................. 4
Health Information Portability and Accountability Act ...... 4
Hear latest buzz ........................................................ 7
HIPAA ...................................................................... 4
HIPAA compliance ..................................................... 4
HIPAA regulations ...................................................... 4
History repeats ......................................................... 2
I
IBM Business Partner ................................................. 10
Incident reports ........................................................ 3
Index calls ................................................................ 2, 6, 7
Integrated archive system .......................................... 9
INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine ................................. 9
L
Lawyers ................................................................... 4
Lend an ear .............................................................. 8
Liability .................................................................... 2
Log entries ............................................................... 3
M
Malpractice claims ..................................................... 4
15. .....
Copyright 2007 Teleformix, LLC The Value of Recording - Page 13
Management force multiplier ....................................... 5
Market information .................................................... 7
Market Intelligence .................................................... 7
Medical liability risks .................................................. 3
Metrics validation ...................................................... 5
N-O
Non-emergency calls ................................................. 2
Observation .............................................................. 6
One-step shuttling ..................................................... 9
Orders by telephone .................................................. 1
P
Pearls of wisdom ....................................................... 6
PHI .......................................................................... 5
Private security companies ......................................... 2
Product of the Year Award .......................................... 9
Proof of client agreement ........................................... 3, 9
Protected Health Information ...................................... 5
Psychiatric News ....................................................... 3
Public relations .......................................................... 3
Q
QA force multiplier ..................................................... 5
Quality ..................................................................... 5
Quick dispute resolution ............................................. 3
R
Real-time monitoring ................................................. 9
Real-time WFO .......................................................... 5
Reduce malpractice claims .......................................... 4
Reports .................................................................... 9
Return On Investment ................................................ 9, 10
Risk Management ...................................................... 2
Risk management strategy ......................................... 3
root cause analysis .................................................... 7
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S
Sarbanes-Oxley Act ................................................... 4
Save campaigns ........................................................ 7
Screen capture .......................................................... 8
Search calls .............................................................. 6, 9
Sears Tower ............................................................. 6
Security ................................................................... 3
SOX ......................................................................... 4
Storage integration .................................................... 9
Summary ................................................................. 8
Synchronized voice & screen recordings ....................... 9
T-U
Teleconference .......................................................... 7
Teleformix ................................................................ 10
Training ................................................................... 6, 9
Unlimited questions and criteria .................................. 9
V-W
VoIP ........................................................................ 8
Wackenhut ............................................................... 2
When training isn’t right ............................................. 6
Workforce Management .............................................. 5
