Call Recording - Six Steps to Compliance
Contact Us to help you setup call recording on the Rinble phone system.
As operators of hosted phone systems, we get a lot of questions about call recording. Usually, it’s “can you do it?” But the better question is “how to do it?” In a business context, the prevailing legislation is the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Thankfully, most of the provisions that govern call recording are straightforward. A little common sense and courtesy will put you on the right path toward compliance. We’ve created this six step list to help our customers think about how to comply with the provisions:
1. Let your customers know they're being recorded
Let your customers and employees know they’re being recorded. For incoming calls, play a quick auto-attendant message such as “please hold while we connect your call; this call may be monitored for [state reason].” For outgoing calls, your employees may have to personally let the other party know. Consent is required, but it can be implied by the caller choosing to continue after being informed of the recording.
Employees don’t get to hear the automated messages and employers often forget to notify them. Include notice in their training and remind them often. This can easily be done by training them to be more compliant with PIPEDA in their recorded interactions with your customers.
2. Be honest about the predominant reason
Be honest about the predominant reason for recording the call. Don’t say the recording is for training and quality assurance when it’s really to record the terms of a contract. You can still word it in a less intrusive and customer centric way. For instance, “this call may be recorded to ensure the accuracy of your order.” Stating the predominant purpose is important because it sets the callers expectation of what type of information is being retained and for how long it might be kept.
3. Minimize the amount of private information held
Minimize the amount of private information you keep in your recordings. Recordings should be no different than your other electronic records. Train your staff to pause the recording while the customer shares sensitive financial or identifying information that doesn’t fall into the predominant purpose of the recording.
4. Be discriminating in what you record.
Don’t just record every call in and out of your office. Your recording activity should be more targeted and precise. Record calls to the key phones or phone queues necessary to fulfill the predominate reason for the recording activity.
5. Don't keep your recording forever.
The length of time you keep the recording should be commensurate with the stated purpose of the recording. For instance, if you told your customer you are recording for “training purposes” but then you held the recording for 7 years, you’re probably offside. But if you let your customer know that you are recording the call to ensure that you accurately record their instructions, you could likely hold it for longer periods of time.
6. Encrypt your recordings
Make sure your recordings are stored securely. Are the files encrypted? Are they accessible if needed? Is there a risk of loss? Your customers have the right to ask for the recording (just as they have the right to ask for other personal information you may store) so you want to know that you can get the recording when needed. Encryption is a must to minimize your exposure in the case of a data breach.
PIPEDA is principled base legislation. The principles are based on reasonable expectations, common sense, and common courtesy. Being compliant means being polite to your customers and employees which is good for your business. Your phone system is your partner in compliance. The Rinble phone system allows you to set recording options on separate phones and queues and to customize the retention period for each. Recordings are stored on secure servers and encrypted for double security. The system allows you to automate your recording notifications to reduce potential friction between your callers and your employees.