‘Your call may be recorded for quality and training purposes.’ Nowadays, few customer service calls begin without this phrase, and you would be forgiven for thinking that this automatically safeguards your interests in the event that you ever have a problem or dispute with your service provider. However far too often, companies are conveniently unable to find these recordings when it’s your word against their advisor.
Customer service calls are one of the most effective ways of dealing with a company, however frustrating they may be. This short guide will show you why you should always record your calls, and how to harness these recordings if ever you need to refer back to them.
How to Record a Call
By law, you are allowed to record a call without telling the other person, providing that it is solely for personal use and not to be shared with third parties. If you have a smartphone, most will have a built-in recording feature.
Otherwise, consider investing in a voice recorder that you can hold against your phone on loudspeaker. Double check that you’re confident with how to make a recording before you call customer service – conduct a test if necessary by ringing your mobile or landline.
Storing Your Recording
As customer service and complaints calls can take rather a long time, you’ll soon use up the memory on your phone or recorder if you keep the files on these devices. Instead, save them onto a memory stick or cloud platform such as Dropbox, so you can easily access your recordings if and when you need them, without using up the memory on your everyday technology.
Once a year, you may want to delete the files that haven’t been used as they become less relevant, to keep your folder or USB organised.
When to Use Your Recordings
Verbal contracts, claims made by the sales team, and promises made over the phone are hard to back up – unless you have a recording that is. You may never need to use the majority of the recordings again, but if you do have a problem, you’ll instantly have evidence to support your claims.
It can be helpful to listen back to your recording before the next time you speak to your service provider, to refresh your memory and get the facts right. That way, if they make adverse claims or dispute your story, you can inform them that you have a recording of the conversation. And watch how the tables turn.
Customer service calls can be a highly effective way of dealing with any company, providing you are comfortable with how to record, store and possibly utilise recordings to help protect your consumer rights. Remember that these should be used solely for personal use. And in the event of a problem, you can successfully fight your corner to play customer service advisors at their own game.
In summary then, yes they can record for training purposes and you can record to ensure you have a record of what has been said.
This article is written by Kelly Gilmour Grassam, a freelance copywriter from Yorkshire. You can follow her on Twitter at @KellygGrassam. This article has been written with helpful information from Every Contact Number.