subject: Five Things Youll Learn From Recording Your Calls. [print this page] Call recording can be really usefulCall recording can be really useful. While you may record employees calls for legal or training reasons, you may also find that recording calls can be help you in day-to-day conversations and help make you a better communicator.
Here are five things you can learn from using a phone recorder for your own calls:
1) What other people say on the phone - Most people are not good at listening and, sadly, that probably includes you. (We know it includes us.) According to the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance, research indicates that most people hear only 25 percent of what is said and, after two months, remember only one-half of that. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have concluded that most people are half listeners.
You may be a better than average listener, but if the average is 25%, youre still losing a lot even if youre twice as good. By recording your calls, you can pay attention better (see #4 below) and have a complete record of the conversation if you need to refer to it later, when youll only remember half of it.
2) What you say on the phone - Most people dont listen well, which isnt very surprising. But it may be surprising that you dont remember what you say. Most of us will remember what we meant to say, but thats not necessarily the words that came our mouths. And many studies show that its difficult to listen while were talking. A recent public radio show illustrated this beautifully, when a man listened to his side of a call with a date and realized that he sounded completely different from what he meant to say.
3) The entire content of the conversation - The actual words are a small part of the content. According to the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance ...38 percent of the message [in a conversation] derives from the speaker's voice inflection, and only 7 percent of the message involves the actual words spoken. So even if you are excellent at processing the words someone speaks, are you really getting the whole message? By recording the call, you can pay attention better (see #4 again) and review the tone of the person speaking if you need to.
4) Remembering whats important - By recording, you can focus and listen. Researchers at Stanford have shown that forgetting unimportant details helps you remember important things. Other studies have shown that taking notes can actually hurt your memory of conversations and lectures. By freeing you from the need to take notes, recording calls enable you to focus on listening to the full conversation, knowing youll be able to go back to the important details if you need to.
5) The power of keeping people honest - We have no research to cite here, but since we record all our calls - and tell people that we do - weve noticed the effect it can have. First, its been terrific for getting rid of junk calls. And it hasnt been disruptive or distracting. But theres a definitely an effect. One tip on this: because we use a digital phone recorder, we offer to provide copies of the recordings we make to anyone we talk to, so they can have the same information we have. It eliminates any defensiveness.
