New Regulations Require Businesses To Record Phone Calls
The FSA (Financial Services Authority) have come up with some new regulations that come into effect from March 2009 which means that all UK companies that have dealings with money issues will have to record all their inbound and outbound telephone calls and store the calls for more than six months.
For those financial establishments that don’t at present have a system in place for recording calls, this might well mean an expensive outlay for large hardware options.
A more cost effective way of recording calls is available however which removes the impact of large hardware:
The simple solution to this would be to utilise online recording solutions that many telephone numbers that aren’t area specific.
Non-geographic telephone numbers (e.g.0845 numbers, 03 numbers etc.) work in tandem with existing landline/mobile numbers and simply sit ‘on top’ of them. This type of number is a more memorable number for callers and works well when in conjunction with advertising.
Here are 8 reasons why call recording with non-geographic numbers is becoming increasingly popular:
1. It’s controlled completely online or using the phone and negates the need for physical equipment (hardware).
2. All recorded phone calls are sent to a nominated individual within your organisation allowing you to store as you will.
3. Recordings can be shared with colleagues easily – they can be forwarded via email.
4. Recordings can be activated instantly at the touch of a button (e.g. by pressing the hash key).
5. To free up your servers, large quantities of your calls can be stored on external servers.
6. Businesses can meet the new legal requirements of the FSA (from March 2009 using this form of phone call recording can help meet the new legal requirements (from March 2009) of financial organisations (as outlined above).
7. By simply activating the system you can do away with having to frantically jot down notes on an important conversation.
8. Choose the calls that you record ensuring your company stays in complete control of what is recorded and what isn’t.
By introducing an 0845 number for example you enable your phone system to be much more flexible allowing people to be much more efficient and ensuring that all of your calls are managed.
The feature I have mentioned so far is just a minute part of what the numbers can do for you.
Additional features that are easily added to non-geographic numbers include:
online call statistics packages lets companies monitor all the inbound calls to their non-geographic numbers.
This allows them to see: the total amount of calls to all numbers, the location of callers, busy periods and missed calls. This information can assist organisations with their marketing and improving customer service[/spin].
Instant diversion of calls give businesses complete control over their non-geographic numbers. Whether they have a single number or several
numbers, call divert means that they can reroute enquiries to
another landline/mobile/call answering service at the touch of a button. This control is crucial in the event of landline trouble or in an emergency and for this reason this service can be
without cost with a number, if you know where to look.
As this article illustrates, non-geographic numbers can be a powerful addition to any organisation – giving them greater flexibility/control over their phone systems and helping them meet their legal requirements - without needing extra office space.