Keep in shape, tape and train

It’s amazing how many times I meet clients who have established outbound telebusiness teams that don’t do any call recordings. Somehow, somewhere, someone had a bad experience with it so they decided to shelf the idea. Their legal department may have caught wind of this and demanded disclaimers on outbound calls, which kills any opportunity to develop rapport and establish trust in those precious few seconds.

I would compare call recording to looking at yourself in the mirror before you leave for work in the morning or video taping yourself for a stand-up presentation. If you are spending up to 40 hours per week on the phone,  it is so important to hear what you sound like- your voice tone, word choice, organization and pacing.  It’s one of the most insightful things you can do to develop yourself. I still always record my calls and find myself picking up new “non-words” that I never realized I had, such as “wow” or “awesome” or “got it.” When you hear 30 of these words in one conversation, you become aware of a new habit.

The execution and implementation is where most people run into snags, so here are some tips:

1. Make a decision- detemine how and why you want to integrate call recordings into your department.

2. Decide on the messaging- this is where you can get into trouble as it’s very delicate and can easily be misunderstood. Your goals should be to create a safe and trusting call recording culture and not use this as a way to punish team members.  

3. Decide on the type hardware you’ll be using- it can be as easy as an old recorder with casette or a digital recorder where you upload your MP3 sound files.

4. Purchase the hardware and set it up- find a technical guru in the group who can be the “go-to” person for everyone.

5. Record all types of calls- mostly first introductory calls or 2nd-4th calls. Record the call from beginning to end.

6. Sit with your manager or your peer and review. Listen to the entire call- beginning, middle and end. Evaluate the call.

7. Learn from this, request feedback and try it again. You can always erase and start over again.

What’s your worst call recording experience? What happened? Please respond with comments.