This is Where Telcos are Missing a Trick

We surveyed a sample of SMBs across the US with questions related to SMB call recording, and found some rather revealing results. After analysing the survey, it became clear that many businesses who could benefit from call recording do not use it, and often they have chosen not to because of concerns that only apply to legacy call recording solutions who rely on hardware. The survey results indicated a large target market for call recording that is yet to be tapped. Based on the results of the survey, this is where we think telcos are missing a trick.

Previous research from Harris Interactive indicates the importance of customer service – up to 60% of customers would prefer to pay more for better customer experience, and most significantly, 86% of customers left a company because of a bad experience. These statistics prove that providing excellent customer service is still high priority for all companies and, as call recording is widely used for quality assurance purposes, these statistics also demonstrate the importance of taking measures such as call recording to improve customer experience.

Yet the results of our survey demonstrate that, although 93% of SMBs conduct business over the telephone, a staggering 81% do not use call recording solutions from telcos for their business. When asked why, the survey (in which it was possible to select multiple answers to the question) found that 41% worried it would not be useful, which indicates a lack of education or efficient product marketing by telcos. Majority at 43% said cost was a factor. A further 39% worried about losing time to maintenance, and 35% were concerned about the security of call recording. A staggering 84% were concerned about all of the above.

However, 90% of those who don’t use call recording have concerns that actually only apply to legacy call recording solutions. Dubber has transformed call recording and communications capture to a cloud based platform, thereby eliminating the problems that relate to traditional call recording solution. These concerns are over security, implementation costs, usefulness and management.

The survey also revealed industry insights into what companies would use call recording for, and therefore provides interesting insight for telcos into the market for additional call recording functions. The survey, where it was again possible to select multiple answers to the question, found that the majority (58%) of SMBs indicated they would use call recording to improve their business’ customer service, whilst 43% would use it for dispute resolution, and the same again would use it for staff training. Interestingly, of the 43% who would use call recording for dispute resolution, 44% would be interested in smart search as an additional feature. Smart search features allow users to conduct advanced searches of their captured conversations and locate calls by various metrics that include date, location and keywords. They are a valuable tool for dispute resolution, as this relies on efficiently locating the correct information. For a survey that provided no additional information about call recording additional features, this percentage is high and demonstrates a significant target market. With some education on the benefits, this number could only increase.

Additionally, of those who would use call recording to improve their customer service, 28% would be interested in voice analytics as an additional function, which essentially act as a Shazam for human emotion. Voice analytics tools would serve a significant purpose in customer service, by providing insight into customer communications. Support and sales teams using voice analytics therefore gain an advantage in the provision of good customer service. Again, this is an encouraging start point for a target market, and will only increase as the true value of voice analytics becomes better understood by clients.

The results of the survey show that there is a large and untapped target market for call recording, with over 22.5 million SMBs in the US frequently conducting business over the phone, but not using a call recording service. The survey also demonstrates that this shocking number is in fact a result of concerns that only relate to legacy call recording solutions. As we have seen, over 22.5 million SMBs in the US are not currently using call recording, even though it could improve their productivity and increase their revenue. With Dubber, these SMBs have access for the first time to a call recording solution that has unlimited scalability, high security, rapid deployment, no upfront costs and increased relevance and functionality for everyone. Call recording is therefore an opportunity for a brand new client base for telcos: with a large target market and innovative new technology to offer them. Survey says… it’s a no-brainer.