The ability to pause and resume call recordings is essential in any contact centre, as it gives your agents manual control over what’s recorded in the system and what is left out. It allows them to comply with customer requests on data entry – for example, if they want to pause the recording before saying something confidential.
There are five ways in which agents can pause/resume calls in an enterprise telephony system:
- Using an Online Portal for Manipulating Ongoing Call Records
A contact centre solution’s agent UI will show the status of the call in progress and if the recording is turned on. Typically, call recordings will be turned on by default, which is why the pause/resume function is so important. The agent can simply click on the pause button, and click un-pause once they want to resume recording. Do keep in mind that the administrator may need to assign special privileges so that agents have the right to control recordings, in addition to the contact centre manager.
- Using the Telephony Device or Touchtone
A physical telephone also gives you the option to pause and resume call recordings. This will vary from provider to provider but is typically an alphanumeric combination comprising *, #, and multiple digits. In this method, the agent puts the customer on hold, initiates a new call, and dials the alphanumeric combination to pause call recordings. They should hear an automated message, confirming that the recording service is now paused. The agent can return to the customer, and once they want to resume recordings, they can repeat the process – this time entering the alphanumeric code to resume call recordings.
- Using a Mobile Application
This method for pausing and resuming call recordings is applicable when your agents use a softphone platform. The softphone application will include an indicator that tells you if the ongoing call is being recorded. The agent can simply press this button to pause the recording, and press it once again to resume it. Note that the positioning of the pause/resume button and recording indicator will vary based on the application in use.
- Using Browser URL Address Recognition
Browser URL address recognition is becoming an increasingly popular method to automate how calls are recorded. Essentially, it comprises a simple application that runs in the background, monitoring agent browser activity. If the agent initiates a sensitive transaction – e.g., processing card payments – then the URL address recognition technology will automatically pause the recording. Once the transaction is complete, the recording is resumed automatically as well.
- Using Speech Recognition and AI
Speech recognition offers another automated way for pausing and resuming call recordings. It converts whatever the customer says into structured text, and the moment they say something like “here are my card details,” or a similar keyword, the recording paused automatically. Automated methods like these are gaining more traction as it means that agents don’t have to be privy to sensitive data in the first place, and there is no risk that an agent might forget to resume the recording once the transaction ends.
