This enforcement by the FSA, designed to stop insider trading, follows over a year of consultation with the industry after the successful regulation and implementation of recording landline calls.
But long before the FSA took this decisive action it was reported in the Ombudsman News in 2002 that the Insurance Ombudsman had long since stressed the importance of recording critical conversations.
If insurance companies of any sort could not ‘demonstrate why on the balance of probabilities they should accept its (the company) version of events rather than the customer’s’ the Ombudsman would give the customer the benefit of doubt and find against the company.
And an unsuccessful defence of a customer dispute costs money which is at the real nub of why many businesses today record their calls.
Recording is not only about regulation but about protection of profits and reputation, protection of your staff and importantly rapidly improving your business performance, essential in these times of austerity.
How else would you find out what the your staff are really saying to your customers, who is you best performer, how many sales and cross selling opportunities you are losing and ‘who said what’ in a dispute which drains time, energy and resource and often ends up with an unnecessary and costly concession to your customer?
The next time you hear, ‘I never said that’ think how quickly call recording could prove it.
For advice on any aspect of your business communications, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.
Andrew Edgar
Managing Director
8020 Ltd
01387 250008
