In 2024, leveraging call history to monitor employee activity and track employee productivity has become a vital strategy for many businesses aiming to enhance productivity and measure employee performance accurately. 

By utilizing advanced data collection methods, companies can ensure that employees are meeting their performance metrics and identifying areas for improvement. Tracking employee productivity through detailed call history provides valuable insights into daily workflows, allowing employees to optimize their activities and ultimately boosting overall productivity.

This approach not only helps monitor employee performance but also supports data-driven decisions to enhance operational efficiency. Effectively utilizing call history to measure employee productivity will become increasingly important as businesses adapt to new technologies.

In this blog, we will learn how to use call history to track employee productivity and performance with call history definitions, benefits, and best practices.

What is call history?

Call history, also known as a call log or call list, is a record of phone calls made, received, or missed, including information such as the date, duration, and contact. It can be stored on various devices, including phones, phone systems, and routers.

Your phone service provider can also save your call history. This can be useful for businesses that make or receive many calls, as it can help them understand when calls are coming in, make staffing decisions, and improve performance. 

Some voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) business phone systems or VoIP phone extension providers can automate the call-logging process and keep record details for later review.

Here is the difference between manual call history and automatic call history.

Manual call Record Automatic Call record
Data collection and updating are more controlled by users. Data collection may be limited, and updates may occur without the user’s knowledge.
High flexibility, allowing for a wider variety of data collection methods and content. Low flexibility, with data collection and content typically limited to predefined parameters.
Cheaper and requires minimum infrastructure compared to an automatic recording method Costly and may require dedicated software, hardware, and expertise than the manual recording method.
Chances of human errors while keeping manual records Less errors due to automated data filtering, validation, and error correction mechanisms.
Manual data collection, organization, and updates consume more time. Automation reduces the need for manual work and time consumption associated with data collection, organization, and updates.
Data volume and complexity increase, making scaling harder and less productive. Handles large volumes of data efficiently and productively.

What are the benefits of tracking call history

Call tracking offers a wide range of benefits, such as:

I. Understanding your customers

Using call data, businesses will be able to identify how many calls they receive per hour. This will allow call center agents or customer assistants to plan how to handle calls during peak hours and improve customer satisfaction.

II. Enhancing Productivity

Call history helps to ensure the calls are directed to the right departments or agents. Call history gives insight into past calls; analyzing the conversations of the details of past calls can help optimize the interactions and improve future customer interactions, and reduce call escalation with tailored conversations. This results in the enhancement of the call center and sales agent productivity.

III. Data-driven decisions

Monitor the call volume generated by a specific location to identify sales leads and increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

IV. Quality Assurance

By reviewing the call recordings in the call log, businesses can ensure that employees follow the scripts, adhere to company policies, and provide quality customer service. Call history facilitates agents with the understanding of the errors and mistakes made in past calls to identify flaws for improving future call interactions.

V. Improved Business Operations

Optimize call routing: Streamline call flow by directing calls to the most appropriate department or agent.

Identify service gaps: Analyze call data to uncover areas where your services or products may fall short of customer expectations.

Measure employee performance (combined with other data): Track call volume, handling time, and customer satisfaction to get a well-rounded view of agent performance.

Difference between call history vs call recording

Call History:

Focus: Information about the call activities and records.

Records of information:

  • Number of calls (incoming, outgoing, missed, rejected).
  • Call duration (length of the call).
  • Time of day (when the call occurred).
  • Caller ID (if available).
  • Call direction (inbound or outbound).

Benefits of call history:

  • Helps identify patterns in call volume (peak hours, staffing needs).
  • Provides basic insights into employee activity (availability, call handling speed).
  • It can be used for marketing purposes (identifying call sources and campaign effectiveness).
  • Track the performance of call center agents and workforce productivity with productivity data, including call duration time and attendance tracking.

Limitations of call history:

  • Doesn’t reveal the content of the call.
  • Limited insights into call complexity and customer needs.
  • Doesn’t capture any post-call tasks completed by the employee.

Call Recording:

Focus: The actual audio content of the phone conversation.

Records of information:

Everything that’s said during the call (by both parties).

Benefits of call recording:

  • Enables detailed analysis of communication and customer interaction.
  • Useful for training and coaching employees (identifying strengths and areas for improvement).
  • Provides evidence for dispute resolution or quality assurance purposes.

Limitations of call recording:

  • Privacy concerns (requires legal compliance and employee consent in some regions).
  • Storage space requirements for audio files.
  • Time-consuming to review and analyze recordings.

Call history is a log of call details, while call recording captures the conversation of call details. Both offer complementary information to help you better understand your phone interactions.

How to use call history to track employee productivity?

1. Centralized information

You need information to evaluate and support your remote employees. Call recording gives you this information by letting you hear remote worker interactions directly. Instead of guessing about a remote worker’s customer service, you can listen for yourself. Call recording makes every phone conversation with a customer available to you.

These recordings can benefit your business in many ways. For instance, you can use employee monitoring software to listen to a random sample of calls to get a general idea of your customer service quality. This method provides a representative snapshot of your overall service.

If you want to assess a specific remote employee, you can listen to some or all of their calls. Monitoring software allows you to focus on specific details when necessary. Since it captures everything said over the phone, you have plenty of information to work with to monitor employees and ensure quality service effectively.

2. Instant reports generation 

You need to analyze information to get the most out of it. Dialaxy’s call recording and call history call features software is a quality control module that helps you create progress reports and evaluate calls.

You can design custom forms that fit your business needs and generate reports for each employee. These quality control forms and reports make it simple to assess your employees. You can then use these reports to provide feedback and training.

3. Identify agent coaching

Call recording is most effective as a learning tool for evaluation and improvement, not just a measure of success or failure. Employees don’t respond well to “gotcha” evaluations. Instead, managers should collaborate with employees to develop their skills and improve customer service.

Evaluation reports from recorded calls should be seen as starting points for improvement, not final grades. As a manager, you have insights into customer service calls that employees might not have. By giving constructive feedback based on specific details from the calls, you can help employees improve significantly.

Call recording is a great learning tool because it provides real examples of job performance. You can give feedback tied to actual call details. You can even reenact challenging calls to coach employees on better customer service.

4. Combining positives and negatives

Call recording and records can easily be used to review problematic calls. If a customer complains, you can quickly listen to and assess the call. However, call recording can also be used to highlight good performance. When evaluating employees, focus on their strengths as well as their weaknesses.

Comparing good and bad calls can be very useful. Playback both types of calls for the employee, showing why one was effective, and the other was not. As a result, the employee can learn from you and himself.

5. Self-assessment opportunity

Call history and recording are valuable tools for employee evaluation because they allow employees to review their own performance. During a meeting, you can play back a call and ask the employee for their feedback. Discuss what they think went well and what could be improved.

You might also ask them to complete a report on the call and compare your notes with theirs. By listening to the recorded call, employees can reflect on their performance from an outsider’s perspective, which can be a great learning experience. Also, you can foster long-term growth by providing them with self-assessment opportunities.

FAQs

Can I use call history to track employee productivity?

Indeed, call history data is a valuable tool. It can provide crucial insights into call volume, handling time, and availability. However, it’s important to remember that factors like call complexity, customer needs, and post-call tasks can also significantly impact productivity.

What kind of information can I get from call history?

The call history typically contains the following information:

  • Numbers of calls: Incoming, outgoing, missed, and rejected calls can reveal an employee’s overall call volume.
  • Call duration: Average call length can indicate efficiency in resolving customer issues.
  • Time of day: Patterns in call frequency can help identify peak hours and areas for potential scheduling adjustments.

Is it okay to monitor employee calls?

It depends on the local regulations whether employees are monitored or not. It’s crucial to:

  • Ensure that employees are aware of the call monitoring practices.
  • Obtain consent if required by law.
  • Rather than micromanaging employees, focus on improving customer service.

Prasanta Raut

Prasanta, founder and CEO of Dialaxy, is redefining SaaS with creativity and dedication. Focused on simplifying sales and support, he drives innovation to deliver exceptional value and shape a new era of business excellence.

Prasanta, founder and CEO of Dialaxy, is redefining SaaS with creativity and dedication. Focused on simplifying sales and support, he drives innovation to deliver exceptional value and shape a new era of business excellence.