The ins and outs of call listening: What you should know

Trying to keep tabs on calls without call listening tools can feel like playing a game of telephone in your own business.

What kind of questions are you getting? And more importantly, are customers getting the help they need?

If you’re looking to answer these questions through call listening tools, this article takes a closer look at what you should know, including what call listening is, why it matters, and the best practices to help you get started with confidence.

What is call listening?

Call listening is the process of reviewing customer conversations to help your team improve, train new reps, and ensure compliance. The goal is to keep tabs on customer conversations so everyone provides consistent service and shares the right information.

Keep reading for a list of tools you can use to help with call listening.

The best ways you can listen to calls

Whether you want to review past conversations or stay on top of live interactions, there are a few ways to listen to calls. Let’s take a look at four:

1. Call recording

Call recording is one of the easiest ways to keep track of past customer conversations. It’s not hard to see why: you can choose between manual or automatic call recording to review conversations at any time.

Unlike live call monitoring, recorded calls let you pause, rewind, and replay key moments at your own pace. Plus, since reps aren’t being observed in real time, they can handle support calls naturally without added pressure.

If you’re looking for a way to automatically log call recordings in your CRM, a business phone provider like OpenPhone makes it easy with integrations for HubSpot and Salesforce. These integrations help you automate part of the call listening process and keep everyone up to speed.

2. Call summaries and transcripts

Some VoIP providers take call recordings a step further by converting them into text. This lets you quickly review conversations without having to listen to hours of recordings.

For example, with OpenPhone’s AI summaries and transcripts, you’ll get:

• A detailed list of action items for follow-up messages
• A breakdown of speakers with timestamps, including linked contacts and team members
• A summarized version of key discussion points

3. Call tags

Transcripts and summaries help you quickly review conversations, but call tags keep them organized. The right tags allow you to categorize conversations based on topic, urgency, or the disposition of a call.

With OpenPhone’s call tags, you can create custom labels that automatically apply when a call ends (like ‘escalation’ or ‘billing issue’). Then, you have everything you need to look for trends in customer calls or prioritize contacts with more pressing needs.

You can also use call tags to spot patterns in team behavior. If certain reps consistently receive lower customer sentiment scores, you can step in with personalized coaching and support. But you can also use call tags to celebrate positive interactions, like a great sales close or an above-and-beyond instance of customer service.

4. Group calling

Need to listen in on live conversations? Group calling has you covered.

With group calls, you can easily shadow newer team members and see how they handle customer interactions in real time. You can also have new employees shadow experienced reps to learn the ropes alongside an expert.

Setting up group calls in OpenPhone is simple, whether you’re using a desktop or an iPhone or Android app. And at just $23 per user per month, you can get the benefits of live call listening without the hefty price tag of traditional call monitoring (more on this later).

Related: Want to create better customer experiences? Learn the best strategies for customer interaction management.

3 ways your team benefits from call listening

Let’s look closer at the benefits of call listening:

1. Enhanced customer satisfaction 

Studies show that 86% of customers would leave a brand they love after just two bad customer experiences.

Call listening can help you avoid negative exchanges by spotting recurring issues that frustrate your customers. For example, you might find common pain points that could be solved by updating internal support resources. Or you might find tools in your tech stack that are slowing down how quickly customer issues get resolved.

Keeping an ear to the ground with call listening tools lets you spot and solve problems before they get out of hand. That way, you can meet (and exceed!) your customers’ expectations and keep their loyalty and retention high.

2. Find new coaching opportunities

Providing clear feedback isn’t always easy, especially if you’re training newer team members.

But with call listening, you can find areas for improvement, like checking if reps offer straightforward and helpful answers to customers, begin and end calls professionally, or if their tone sounds natural while following company guidelines.

To keep everyone aligned, you can also use recordings for call calibration, ensuring all reps follow the same standards. 

3. Keep tabs on quality assurance

Call listening ensures that conversations align with company policies so customers can trust that their personal details are in good hands. 

By reviewing past calls, you can:

• Confirm that reps are following security protocols, like verifying customer identities before sharing account details.
• Check to see if customer problems are resolved on the first call. Are reps providing accurate information? Are there knowledge gaps that need fixing?
• Improve your first call resolution rate or look for recurring gaps in customer service quality assurance. 

How is call listening different from call monitoring?

Call listening and call monitoring are often used interchangeably. While both call monitoring and call listening involve assessing call quality for specific reps, the key distinction some make is that call monitoring may involve intervening on a live call.

4 best practices for using call listening

Here are four ways to get the most out of call listening for your business:

1. Give reps constructive feedback, not just criticism. Call coaching is necessary to help reps improve, but too much criticism is a recipe for burnout. To balance your feedback, acknowledge what the rep did well and provide one or two specific behaviors or actions the rep can improve.
2. Respect privacy and compliance rules. Since most call listening starts with call recording, you need to make sure you’re getting proper consent. Call recording compliance laws vary by state and country, so the easiest solution is getting all-party consent (aka letting everyone know you’re recording the call). It’s a good idea to read a disclosure script before pressing record or add an automated message informing callers to your phone menu greeting.
3. Follow up with action steps. Feedback without focus won’t drive improvement — your team needs clear guidance on what to do differently. For example, if a team member tends to (unintentionally) interrupt customers, a clear goal could be focusing on active listening and waiting until the customer finishes before responding. 
4. Let coworkers know when you’re listening. You don’t have to let team members know you’re listening to their calls, but transparency builds trust. Plus, being upfront turns call listening into a coaching tool rather than something that feels secretive or disciplinary.

How different types of businesses use call listening 

Not sure how to use call listening for your business?

Here are some use cases to help paint a picture:

1. Insurance: With call listening, insurance reps can review conversations to make sure they’re explaining policies clearly. They can also look more closely at call quality and service. For example, they might use AI call tagging to track upward trends in specific questions, which can help them refine call scripts, FAQs, and policy explanations.
2. Real estate: Call listening helps agents build prospecting skills and sharpen negotiation tactics by seeing what phrases resonate most. Plus, transcripts and summaries make it easier to follow up with next steps without having to listen back on entire conversations.
3. Recruiting: Setting up call tags for specific roles or titles can help recruiters quickly sort through prospects. They can also set up group calls to interview candidates as a team or have new employees shadow experienced recruiters.
4. Professional services like plumbing and HVAC: Call listening helps ensure staff explains pricing and repair options clearly and avoids scheduling mistakes. By reviewing past calls, teams can spot common customer questions, like those about cost or appointment availability, and make sure they’re giving clear answers. It also helps train new team members to handle urgent repair requests and respond to tough questions.

OpenPhone: The best way to implement call listening

You don’t need to be a contact center to enjoy the benefits of call listening. With the right VoIP phone system, it’s easy to capture, tag, and store past phone calls so you can make the most of every conversation.

OpenPhone makes it easy to get built-in call listening tools starting at $23 per user per month. No third-party tools or complicated setup required— just automatic call recordings, AI-powered transcripts, and AI tags organized in a shared inbox for your team.

But the proof is in the pudding. So why not give us a try?

Sign up today for a seven-day free trial and see how OpenPhone works with your team.

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