Call recording has become an important issue for many businesses and organisations. Recording digital communications, such as mobile voice calls and messages provides valuable insights into customer service and for performance optimisation – and is necessary to ensure compliance with a number of key regulations, such as MiFID II. With more and more employees using mobile devices, the need to include mobiles within recording and compliance programmes has grown.

But, recording mobile calls and messages isn’t a straightforward process. In this article, we explore why it’s become necessary and what you need to look for in a mobile voice and message recording solution.

Why Record Calls?

So, why do companies record phone calls anyway? There are several reasons, some of which may be more relevant to your company than others.

Compliance

In many countries and specific industries, recording business calls is a requirement by law or regulation. Some laws require businesses to record entire calls, others need more data (such as caller name, number, duration, etc.) In general, organisations have to store and retain the recordings for months or, in many cases, even years.

Compliance may be required for ensuring privacy and security for customers. It can also protect your business from litigation such as trade or customer disputes. Businesses can avoid situations involving he said/she said with call recording.

Quality Assurance

If your business has a contact centre, you should be recording calls. Your workers are human, which means they make mistakes occasionally. Additionally, agents can also learn from best practice, so that standards can be maintained across an organisation. Recording customer service calls can help managers provide and monitor quality of service. Contact centre agents can review their calls to spot areas of improvement and learn from successful sessions. Many companies use recorded calls in training seminars to highlight crucial information for performance enhancement.

Find Important Details

Sometimes you need to record details from service calls such as customer requests or transaction details. If you depend on workers to enter them manually, there is the potential for error. People miss important information or forget to record them until it's too late. Recording your calls helps avoid mistakes that can potentially ruin your company.

Capture Customer Feedback

How often has customer feedback slipped through the cracks in your business? Sometimes a customer might offer valuable insight that is lost because no one bothered to record the details. We can prevent such situations by recording all calls.

Mobile Voice Recording

Mobile phone usage in increasing by the day, including in the workplace. Smartphone penetration now exceeds 80% in Singapore1 reflecting the maturity of the market. So, where do people use their phones? At home, in the office, even on the way to work. And it's not just customers. Your employees also use a variety of devices to do their jobs. It's fairly common to see workers switch between fixed lines, mobile phones, and computers.

What this means is that mobile voice recording is more important than ever before. And the solution you select should work on every device out there. Most call recording solutions focus on fixed lines. While that is sufficient for now, it won't be in a future where most calls happen on mobile phones.

How to Implement Mobile Voice Recording?

Mobile voice recording has to be:

• Seamless - it should work out of the box
• Supported across iPhone and Android phones
• Integrated with the network for proper security and storage
• Tightly coupled with mobile operator’s infrastructure, no recording on the device
• No user intervention - no apps to install or maintain
• No hardware to deploy on premises - why should you waste time and resources on managing equipment?
• Lightweight - should not require or use additional resources like bandwidth

Optional services for call recording are apps or a variant of IP solutions. Unfortunately, neither option ticks all the boxes.

Sure, there are several apps you can use on various phones to record calls. But it has multiple drawbacks.

• Apps are not available across every mobile platform.
• Apps do not provide comprehensive call details which means the business doesn’t have an audit trail to fulfil regulatory requirements
• They are controlled by users, not the business
• Do not meet MiFID II or GDPR compliance requirements as recordings are stored locally
• Recordings should be protected with permissions-based security measures, accessible on a need to know basis. This is something a local app cannot support.

What about VoIP you ask? The issue with VoIP-based solutions is that they are not fully integrated with the mobile network. Some services require users to download a separate app for it. VoIP call recording also needs high-speed internet and bandwidth to work. So, if employees are on 3G or other networks, call recording through this approach simply won't work. App-based solutions also need users to upload the recordings over the mobile network – consuming data and increasing costs. This approach is neither practical nor feasible.

What businesses need is a network-based solution that is integrated with the MNO (Mobile Network Operator). It should capture the recording as well as metadata. The solution should also send the recording to a secure storage facility for the business to access later.

Touch Mobile Voice Recording

Touch offers mobile voice recording as a hosted service. It is a comprehensive service that covers every device a business uses - from mobile phones to fixed lines and also includes mobile messaging.

How Does It Work?

The Touch call recording as a service doesn't need any app. It is seamless and convenient. The service is provided over the mobile network, so it simplifies infrastructure management for companies. It is tightly integrated with your mobile operator, which means it’s available for all calls to and from devices in your organisation. It’s available through Singtel, in Singapore, providing a comprehensive service for all Singtel customers that wish to adopt mobile voice recording for their business.

Support for 35 Communication channels

Touch supports every business device imaginable. From Skype for Business calls to SMS, companies can capture calls across multiple channels. Businesses have complete control to add calls from other sources as well. The service is independent of the OS, so it doesn't matter if employees use iOS or Android mobile phones.

Ensures Compliance

The mobile voice recording service from Touch complies with several regulations including:

• Personal Data Act, such as PDPA, GDPR
• Financial regulations, for example, MiFID II statutory requirements
• Local and international legal requirements
• Industry regulations

It is a comprehensive programme that covers multi-channel enterprise communication. At the same time, it doesn't require businesses to buy new hardware or software. All recordings are stored in secure facilities and accessible through an intuitive web interface.

Whether you want to record calls for compliance or to solve business problems, the Touch service has a solution. It is simple, efficient, and effective. With mirrored data storage for disaster recovery and secure access, businesses will never lose their data or control over it. Contact Touch today to discuss how mobile call recording can transform your business.