What is Call Recording Compliance?

The definition of call recording compliance is the process of ensuring that the recording of phone calls is legally compliant with various state and international laws and regulations. While recording calls can be a powerful tool for both reps and sales managers, it’s vital to be aware of the legality of recording phone calls across various areas. This is because call recording laws vary from state to state and country to country, and there are typically steep fines for violating regulations.

In the U.S., there are certain states that allow recording of both parties of a call as long as one party to the call consents to the recording (typically the sales rep). However, there are a number of states that require what’s known as two-party consent, in which both parties to the call need to agree to the recording.

One way to ensure that call recording compliance is achieved is to simply ask all prospects for consent prior to recording calls. According to Wikipedia:

“The Federal Communications Commission defines accepted forms of notification for telephone recording by telephone companies as:

• Prior verbal (oral) or written notification of all parties to the telephone conversation.
• Verbal (oral) notification before the recording is made. This is the most commonly used type.
• An audible beep tone repeated at regular intervals during the call.”

During many support calls a notice is used stating, “This call is being recorded for quality assurance purposes.” However, during sales calls, this could be seen as disruptive and invasive. Therefore another way to help maintain compliance is by using a call recording compliance system. This enables managers to turn off call recordings for specific states or only records the rep during calls to states with two-party compliance laws. When using a call recording compliance system, the responsibility falls on the manager to keep up on the latest regulations so that they can successfully disable call recording in states with two-party compliance regulations.