Central Coast Council
P: 1300 463 954 E: ask@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au W: centralcoast.nsw.gov.au
A: Wyong: 2 Hely St / PO Box 20, Wyong NSW 2259 Gosford: 49 Mann St / PO Box 21, Gosford NSW 2250
Contact Centre
Call Recording Policy
June 2020
Policy No: CCC067
Policy owner:
Approved by:
Date of approval:
Policy category:
Content Manager No:
Review by:
Community Engagement, Connected Communities
Gary Murphy, CEO
30/06/2020
Operational
D14047867
June 2022
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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Contents
Contents ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Purpose ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Policy summary .................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Background ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Scope ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
General ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Compliance, monitoring and review ................................................................................................................................ 5
Definitions .................................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Related resources .................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Appendix 1: Request to Access Customer Contact Call Recordings .................................................................... 7
History of revisions ................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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Purpose
1. The purpose of this Policy is:
a. To provide guidance to the community and Central Coast Council staff on the purpose of
recording incoming and outgoing calls to the Customer Contact Centre (Contact Centre).
b. To govern the procedures and management of access and use of telephone recordings.
c. To support effective training and delivery of excellent customer service, and
d. To enable the council to deal efficiently with internal or external complaints.
Policy summary
2. This Policy details Council’s approach to the recording of calls in Council’s Contact Centre.
It covers notification to the community and staff, customer requests not to have calls recorded,
outlines the reasons that recordings can be accessed, and what measures are in place to ensure
records are securely stored to ensure privacy is maintained.
Background
3. Central Coast Council (Council) is committed to providing quality customer service and aims to
respond to greater than 80% of enquiries to our Contact Centre at that first point of contact.
Call recording provides the ability to:
a. establish the facts in the event of a complaint either by a customer or a member of staff
and so assist in resolving it;
b. help identify officer training needs and to support training new and existing officers; and
c. assist in Council’s quality control to identify any issues in Council processes, with a view
to improving them.
4. Council regularly surveys customer satisfaction and strives for continuous improvement. From
time to time Council receives feedback about the information customers have provided or the
manner in which the information was delivered by Contact Centre staff, which may result in an
investigation being undertaken. Often the accounts of the interaction do not align and it is
difficult to determine the best way to resolve the matter. Having access to call recording reduces
misunderstanding, improves accuracy and allows the facts of the interaction to be considered.
Scope
5. This Policy covers personnel employed by Council; any person or organisation contracted to or
acting on behalf of Council; and any person or organisation employed to work on Council
premises or facilities and all activities of the Council. The policy is particularly relevant to any
person working in Council’s Contact Centre and to customers who call our Contact Centre.
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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General
6. Notification to staff: Staff working within the Customer Contact Centre will be notified that
incoming and outgoing calls will be recorded when they commence in the position. Existing staff
will be notified that call recording is being enabled.
7. Notification to customers: Council will advise customers via the IVR that calls to the Contact
Centre are recorded in the following manner:
A message on the phone system that they will hear before they reach an Officer in the
Contact Centre stating:
“Calls are recorded for quality and training purposes.”
A notice on Council’s website on the ‘Contact Us’ page.
In the Community Feedback and Complaints Handling Policy.
In the case of outgoing calls, the staff member is to advise the customer at the
commencement of the call that the call will be recorded.
8. What calls will be recorded: All incoming and outgoing phone calls with Council’s Customer
Contact Centre via 1300 463 954 will be recorded, except those identified in paragraph 9.
9. When a customer declines to be recorded: Where a customer requests not to have their call
recorded, the Customer Service Officer taking the call will disable the call recording function.
Refer to Procedure: Requests For Calls Not To Be Recorded.
10. Reasons we record: The reasons for recording and approved reasons why recordings can be
accessed include:
To identify Contact Centre staff training needs;
To improve Contact Centre staff performance and consistency in information provided;
To protect Contact Centre staff from abusive or nuisance calls;
Establishing the facts in the event of feedback or a complaint made either by a customer or a
member of staff, to assist in resolving it;
To assist in quality control to identify any issues with Contact Centre processes, with a view to
improving them;
To confirm that calls have been accurately transcribed into Council’s Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) system or other corporate databases;
Evidence for use in crime investigation or prevention purposes;
To assist in the defence of legal claims.
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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11. Storage of recordings: Recordings constitute the personal data of both the caller and the
operator. Therefore they will be managed in such a way that the rights of data subjects (callers
and operators) can be fulfilled, and all the obligations of the data controller (Central Coast
Council) are observed, as per the council’s Privacy Management Plan. The recordings will be
stored in Council’s call centre software system for a period of three months in line with State
Records Act (1998) requirements. Following a period of three months, the audio records are
permanently and securely deleted. Where it is identified that the content of the call may be
required for evidence or investigation purposes beyond a period of three months, the call
recording file can be extracted and securely stored.
12. Who has access to the recordings: Requests for access to recordings by internal staff must be
made by way of the form in Appendix 1 of this Policy. Customers/callers have the right to listen
to or have copies of recordings made of their own calls, requests for access need to be made via
the Council’s Informal GIPA applications process.
13. Credit Card Payment requests: Alternate payment channels are available and payments with
credit card via the Contact Centre are discouraged. In the case where a Customer Service Officer
is required to process a payment for Council Services via credit card over the phone, the
customer is to be advised that the recording will be paused so that credit card details will not be
retained in the recording. Recording is to recommence immediately after the credit card number
is confirmed.
14. Selection of calls for training and quality assurance purposes: Calls will be selected at
random to be reviewed by the Customer Service management team. The reviewer will maintain
a record of the date and time of the calls.
15. Reviewing calls for investigation or legal claim purposes: Where call recordings need to be
reviewed to assist with investigations or legal claims, approval to access the files is to be sought
from the Unit Manager Community Engagement. The request to access customer contact call
recording (Appendix 1) is to be completed and forwarded to the authorised officer for
consideration. The recordings are to be replayed in an enclosed area.
Compliance, monitoring and review
16. Suspected breaches or misuse of this policy are to be reported to the Chief Executive Officer.
Alleged breaches of this policy shall be dealt with by the processes outlined for breaches of the
Code of Conduct, as detailed in the Code of Conduct and in the Procedures for the
Administration of the Code of Conduct.
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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17. Staff must maintain all records relevant to administering this policy in a recognised Council
recordkeeping system.
18. This policy will be reviewed every two years or when significant changes to the call recording
system take place.
Definitions
19. In this policy:
a. Council means Central Coast Council (CCC) and in context, elected Councillors, staff of
Central Coast Council and engaged representatives.
b. Monitoring means listening to and/or recording communications.
c. CCC means Central Coast Council.
Related resources
20. Legislation:
a. Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth)
b. Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW)
c. Local Government Act 1993 (NSW)
d. State Records Act 1998 (NSW)
e. Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW)
f. Health Records and Information and Privacy Act 2002 (NSW)
g. Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW)
21. Associated Council documents:
a. Code of Conduct
b. Complaints and Feedback Management Policy
c. Privacy Management Plan
d. Customer Service Procedure: Request for Calls Not to be Recorded
e. Customer Service Procedure: Request to Access Call Recording
f. Customer Service Procedure: Outgoing Calls to Customers and Call Backs.
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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Appendix 1: Request to Access Customer Contact Call Recordings
Date
Officer
requesting
record
Officer Title
Reason access
Requested
(tick)
Call Centre monitoring / identifying Customer Contact staff training
needs;
Improving Customer Contact staff performance and consistency in
information provided;
Protecting Customer Contact staff from abusive or nuisance calls;
Establishing the fact in the event of a complaint made by a customer;
Establishing the facts in the event of a complaint made by a staff
member;
Assist in quality control to identify any issues with Customer Contact
processes, with a view to improving them;
Confirming that calls have been accurately transcribed into Council’s
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or other
corporate databases;
Evidence for use in crime investigation or prevention purposes;
To assist in the defence of a legal claim.
Date of
Recording
Approx.
time of
recording
Phone number
Recorded
(if known)
External
number
Internal
number
Additional
Request notes
Approval granted Yes No
Name of
approving officer
Signature of
approving officer
Names of Officers
present
Signatures of
Officers present
Date recording
reviewed
Contact Centre Call Recording Policy
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History of revisions
Amendment history Details
Original approval authority
details
Gary Murphy - Chief Executive Officer
30 June 2020
This Central Coast Council policy replaces the former Wyong
Shire Council policy in relation to customer service call
recording.
It provides guidance to the community and Central Coast
Council staff on the purpose of recording incoming and
outgoing calls to the Customer Contact Centre, and governs
the procedures and management of access and use of
telephone recordings.
The policy supports effective training and delivery of excellent
customer service, and enables Council to deal efficiently with
internal or external complaints.
