Documenting customer interactions is one of the secret ingredients to creating a customer-centric culture. It helps organizations gain valuable insights into the problems and demands of their prospects and customers, and find solutions to address them. Fortunately, today’s business Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems offer a valuable yet often overlooked tool that helps business document customer interactions conveniently: Call Recording.

Compared to other VoIP features (such as voicemail-to-email, mobile apps, and simultaneous ring), call recording isn’t exactly a new feature. It has been used by established businesses before, and has become more accessible to small and mid-sized businesses today thanks to VoIP. And while call recording doesn’t seem appear to be as innovative or as exciting as the other VoIP features, it, however, brings so many benefits to organizations.

Here are some of the ways your VoIP phone’s call recording feature can give your business a competitive edge.

For starters, recording calls is an excellent way for supervisors and managers to measure the performance of employees, understanding each of their strengths and weaknesses. When you review your staff’s calls, you will be able to determine whether they need further training (in their communication skills or product knowledge), or if they can serve as a good role model for the other team members. Receptionists, secretaries, and sales and technical support representatives, in particular, can take advantage of the coaching that you or your managers can give through recording calls.

Misunderstandings or disputes between customers, clients, and suppliers are an unavoidable reality. They often occur due to miscommunication, which may escalate to costly lawsuits if not resolved properly. Call recording can help you avoid such complications as it lets you track specific information about what was actually said and by whom.

The most common use for this is protecting you against unwarranted claims. For example, an irate customer insists that you owe him a refund of the faulty device because one of your sales representatives promised a money-back guarantee if he was unsatisfied with the product. If you do not have a copy of the said conversation, it would be impossible to check the authenticity of the claim and pacify the angry customer. But if you have a recorded copy of the call, you can easily play it and discover what actually happened, helping you resolve a dispute straight away.

Taking down notes when speaking to important clients is critical so you can review what has been discussed and come up with ideas for a specific project. But sometimes, it can be difficult to participate with the conversation while jotting down notes at the same time. Call recording frees you up from the arduous task of note taking and instead lets you focus on the conversation in real time.

Call recording also gives organizations the ability to detect whether confidential business information has been shared during calls. Furthermore, you can also monitor whether employees are using your business line for personal calls, illegal activities, or other inappropriate conversations that could be detrimental to the business.

Call recording offers so much more than just storing a copy of a phone conversation. It helps organizations evaluate employee performance, resolve misunderstandings, become more effective in meetings, and protect the interest of the business. Depending on your VoIP service provider, you can select specific extensions for call recording or enable this feature company-wide.