The contact centre market has been responsible for driving the development of voice recording globally. This experience is now being picked up on by the financial sector in reaction to new compliance regulations that require them to install this technology.
Contact centres have always taken a positive and proactive approach to installing voice recording systems which has lead to the development of many new applications and levels of functionality. These have all enhanced the range and quality of services provided, improved business processes and helped contact centre operations to achieve a competitive edge.
Historically, the financial sector has taken a more reactive approach to installing voice recording to meet regulatory requirements. The recent changes in these regulations relating to the recording of mobile phone-based transaction has raised the profile of these systems in the market and an increasing number of firms are now starting to realise that there is more to gain than just installing the cheapest recorder they can find just to achieve FSA compliance.
The times are changing and financial organisations are now starting to understand how voice recording is being used in contact centres to drive business and performance improvements. These firms are now actively looking to see how similar systems can be adopted in their own operations, not just for compliance, but also in the hope that it will help present a cleaner image to the public which has become accustomed to the regular bad press received by the industry.
The innovations driven by the contact centre market include powerful, integrated quality monitoring applications that use rules-based sampling that automatically selects the calls to be monitored according to predetermined criteria such as call length, time of day, agent position, etc. Financial firms are finding that this provides higher levels of control over the activities of customer-facing staff, something that the contact centre industry has known and understood for years.
More recently, the introduction of analytics tools has provided an even greater understanding of what is being said over the phone to customers. This too is now being embraced by the financial sector as it provides rapid identification of miss-selling to comply with FSA regulations. Flagging up all non-compliant calls will ensure that quick and immediate action can be taken to protect the interests of clients and the business alike.
Whilst the finance sector may have historically lagged behind the contact centre industry in their adoption of voice recording technology, this situation is now being redressed as firms rush to achieve compliance with the stringent regulatory environments under which they operate globally.
By Paul Manyweathers, md at CyberTech UK Ltd
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