Should you record your calls?

It always surprises me when I work with a new client and they not have call recording established. In my opinion, this is an essential component of any successful BDC or sales team. The bulk of your customers will call before visiting the dealership, and if the first contact they have is poor, they likely will not visit in person.

Why it’s important to record calls

One of the best ways to ensure your team is practicing good phone etiquette is to record their calls. This is also a great tool to have if you receive customer complaints, as it allows you to validate their concerns and address them if necessary. The most important reason to track calls however, is so that you can use them for training purposes to help your team improve. If you record their calls, you can hold them accountable to providing great customer service.

Some of the most successful dealerships I have trained, sit and listen to calls with their staff. The Sales Manager or BDC Manager will pull each team member aside once a week and simply review a call they took with them. You can stop the call and make corrections or praise your rep if they really rocked the call. Doing this is good for a few reasons.

1. It gets your team in the mindset of providing awesome customer service. If they know you are going to listen to their calls, they are going to want to be sure they are quality calls.
2. Tracking calls allows you to hear exactly what your team says to customers over the phone, and evaluate if they need additional training.

You can’t be everywhere all the time and you can’t listen to every call on a daily basis, but choosing a few random calls and reviewing them with your team, will help them improve and show that you care about the customer service they provide.

Recap:

You always have the option of hiring a call monitoring provider like myself, to listen to calls and grade and coach them. Yet I still stand by reviewing them with your team on a consistent basis. Accountability is key and if you can provide them with tips on how to improve for future calls, you will hear them improve with each phone call they take.