Call recording, QA and compliance glossary

Reviewing every customer call against the same criteria, instead of a small sample chosen by hand.

Manual review rarely covers more than a few calls per agent each month, so problems on the other calls go unseen. Automated review makes full coverage practical. VOIX transcribes every call it receives and answers your checks on each one, so trends, coaching and compliance evidence are based on all calls rather than a handful.

The practice of reviewing customer calls against agreed standards to improve service, sales technique and compliance.

Traditional call QA relies on reviewers listening to a sample of calls and filling in a scorecard. The goal is consistent behaviour across a team: correct information, a clear process and fair treatment of customers. VOIX supports QA with checks answered on every call, each backed by a quote from the conversation, so reviewers can spend their time on the calls that need attention.

Capturing the audio of a telephone conversation so it can be stored, listened to again or processed later.

Businesses record calls for training, quality review, dispute resolution and compliance. A recording of a person's voice is personal data, so under the GDPR it needs a lawful basis and clear information to callers. VOIX connects to your phone system, set up with our help during onboarding, and keeps and reviews your recordings in the EU.

Selecting a small subset of calls, often at random, for manual review as a stand-in for all calls.

Sampling was the only affordable way to review calls when every review meant listening in full. Its weakness is coverage: rare but serious issues, such as a missed disclosure, are easy to miss, and agents may be judged on a few unrepresentative calls. With automated checks on every call, sampling can be kept for deeper human review instead of being the whole process.

An assessment of how positive or negative the tone of a conversation is, usually inferred from what is said.

Sentiment helps spot calls that went badly and topics that frustrate customers. Some tools infer it from voice and tone; VOIX does not. In VOIX, sentiment is one of six quality scores, based on what was said and explained in writing.

A short written account of what was discussed and agreed on a call.

Summaries save people from listening to whole recordings and make handovers between colleagues easier. VOIX writes a title and summary for every call within minutes, in the language of the call, alongside scores, topics from your catalogue and one piece of advice for the rep.

Converting the speech in a call recording into written text.

A transcript makes a call searchable and lets you read or quote it without listening to the audio. Automatic speech recognition makes transcribing every call affordable. VOIX transcribes each call in the language spoken and separates the speakers, so every call can be searched, reviewed and quoted.

A plain-language yes/no question asked of a call, such as "Did the agent confirm the customer's identity?"

In VOIX, check answers come with evidence from the call, so a reviewer can see exactly what was said. Checks can be set for the whole organisation or for a team, and a team can switch off an organisation check. AI can draft checks from a description for you to review before they go live.

Ongoing review of whether conversations follow the laws, regulations and internal policies that apply to them.

On calls, compliance usually means required statements, correct information and fair treatment. Monitoring only a sample leaves gaps, and evidence matters as much as the result. In VOIX you write your requirements as checks, run them on every relevant call, and keep a quote from the call with each answer so a reviewer can verify it.

The record of past interactions with a customer or other contact, kept in one place.

A complete history lets anyone pick up a conversation without asking the customer to repeat themselves. In VOIX, every call lands on the right customer automatically, so each contact shows its calls, tasks and notes in one place, plus the key facts worth remembering, never feelings or sensitive data.

Software that records, transcribes and analyses customer conversations to produce insights for sales, service and management.

Conversation intelligence tools turn calls into searchable, structured data: summaries, scores, topics and trends. They differ in what they analyse and where data is held. VOIX focuses on calls, works from what was said rather than voice or tone, is hosted in the EU, and adds checks with evidence and an assistant, Ask VOIX, that answers questions about your calls.

A period in which a consumer may withdraw from a contract without giving a reason. For distance and off-premises contracts in the EU it is 14 days.

The right of withdrawal comes from Article 9 of the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) and applies to contracts between traders and consumers, including many sales concluded by phone. It does not apply to business-to-business sales. Where it applies, a check can confirm on every call that the agent explained the right correctly.

Under the GDPR, the organisation that, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of processing personal data (Article 4(7)).

The controller is responsible for complying with the GDPR and must be able to demonstrate it. When you record and review customer calls, your organisation is normally the controller: you decide why calls are recorded and how they are used. A provider such as VOIX that processes recordings on your behalf is a processor.

The binding contract between a controller and a processor that Article 28 of the GDPR requires.

Article 28(3) of the GDPR lists what the contract must cover, including the subject matter, duration, nature and purpose of processing, the types of personal data, and the processor's obligations on instructions, confidentiality, security and sub-processors. VOIX includes a DPA on every plan.

Under the GDPR, an organisation that processes personal data on behalf of the controller (Article 4(8)).

A processor may only act on the controller's documented instructions and must provide sufficient guarantees of appropriate security. A provider that stores, transcribes or analyses your call recordings is usually your processor. VOIX processes call data for its customers in the EU, uses AI models with zero data retention, and never uses call data to train models.

An assessment the GDPR requires before processing that is likely to result in a high risk to people's rights and freedoms (Article 35).

A DPIA describes the processing and its purposes, assesses necessity and proportionality, and sets out the risks and the measures to address them. Recording calls at scale, analysing them with AI and monitoring employee performance can all point towards one. National supervisory authorities publish lists of processing that requires a DPIA.

The geographic location where data is stored and processed.

Organisations often require customer data to stay in a particular region, for example to simplify GDPR compliance or meet customer expectations. Data residency is not a GDPR requirement in itself, but transfers outside the EEA bring extra rules. VOIX is hosted in the EU.

The use of AI to identify or infer people's emotions or intentions from biometric data such as voice or facial expressions.

The EU AI Act defines emotion recognition systems in Article 3(39), and Article 5(1)(f) prohibits AI systems that infer emotions of people in the workplace, except for medical or safety reasons, since 2 February 2025. VOIX does not analyse emotion or tone from audio; its scores are based on what was said.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the EU's law laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence.

The AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024 and applies in stages. It takes a risk-based approach: some practices are prohibited, high-risk systems face strict requirements, and certain systems have transparency obligations. Its prohibitions, including emotion recognition in the workplace, have applied since 2 February 2025. VOIX does not analyse emotion from audio or create voiceprints.

A passage quoted from a call transcript that supports an automated answer or finding.

Automated results are only useful if people can verify them. In VOIX, every check answer is backed by the words from the call, and every follow-up task carries the words behind it. A reviewer can read exactly what was said instead of taking the answer on trust.

An action someone committed to on a call, such as sending a quote or calling back, recorded so it gets done.

Commitments made on the phone are easily forgotten. VOIX picks them up from every call and proposes a task for each one, with the words behind it. A person approves each task before it is created, so nothing is promised and then lost.

The General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, which governs the processing of personal data in the EU and has applied since 25 May 2018.

The GDPR sets principles for processing personal data, requires a lawful basis, gives people rights over their data and places obligations on controllers and processors. Call recordings and transcripts usually contain personal data, so recording and analysing calls falls under the GDPR. VOIX is EU hosted and offers a DPA on every plan.

The Dutch public register of debt collection service providers (officially the Register incassodienstverlening), kept by Justis under the Wki.

Agencies already active when the Wki took effect had until 1 April 2025 to register; newer agencies must register before they start. Bailiffs and lawyers are not in this register, but their collection work must still meet the Wki's quality requirements. The public register shows each provider's registration number, name, address and status.

One of the six grounds in Article 6(1) of the GDPR on which processing of personal data can be lawful.

The six bases are consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task and legitimate interests. At least one must apply before you process personal data. For call recording, consent, legal obligation and legitimate interests come up most often, and the right choice depends on why you record. You must tell callers which basis you rely on.

In VOIX, a group of checks that belongs to a particular kind of call, such as a sales demo or a payment arrangement.

Not every check makes sense on every call. A lens bundles the checks for one kind of call, so the right checks run on the right calls and results only cover what matters for that conversation. A lens can also be set to run on every call.

A number that summarises how well a call met a given standard, used to compare calls, agents and periods.

Scores are useful for spotting trends but only meaningful with an explanation. VOIX gives every call six quality scores, for efficiency, agreeableness, balance, motivation, sentiment and understanding, each with a written explanation, plus a success flag. Scores are based on what was said and can be followed over time per team and rep.

Telling the people on a call that it is being recorded, and why.

Under Article 13 of the GDPR, people must be informed at the time their data is collected, including the purposes and legal basis. For calls, that usually means a short announcement or statement at the start, with a full privacy notice available. If your agents give the disclosure themselves, a VOIX check can confirm it was given on every call.

Splitting a recording into segments by speaker, so the transcript shows who said what.

Without diarisation a transcript is one block of text, and it is unclear whether the agent or the customer made a statement. VOIX separates the speakers on every call, so you always see what the agent said and what the customer said.

The GDPR principle that personal data must be kept in an identifiable form for no longer than necessary for its purposes (Article 5(1)(e)).

Storage limitation means deciding, per purpose, how long recordings and transcripts are needed and deleting them when that period ends. Training, dispute resolution and legal obligations may justify different periods. You must also tell people how long you keep their data, or how that period is decided.

A biometric template derived from a person's voice that can be used to identify or verify them.

Under the GDPR, biometric data processed to uniquely identify a person is a special category of personal data (Article 9), which may only be processed under strict conditions. VOIX does not create voiceprints. It separates speakers on a call without building biometric profiles of the people on it.

A customer whose circumstances, such as illness, financial difficulty or limited understanding, make them more likely to suffer harm or less able to protect their interests.

EU consumer law takes vulnerability into account, for example in how commercial practices aimed at particularly vulnerable consumers are assessed under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. On calls, it matters most in collections and service. Checks can confirm that agents recognised signs of difficulty and responded appropriately, with a quote from the call.

The Dutch Act on the quality of debt collection services, in force since 1 April 2024, which requires collection agencies to register and meet quality requirements.

The Wki covers professional out-of-court collection for third parties or of transferred claims, from natural persons living in the Netherlands. Article 13 sets quality requirements, including correct dealings with debtors, filled in by an implementing decree. Several play out on the phone, such as how agents identify themselves and what they explain, and can be checked on every collections call.

An arrangement under which an AI model provider does not store the data sent to it after returning a response.

When call transcripts are sent to an AI model for analysis, the provider might otherwise keep copies for a period, for example for abuse monitoring. Zero data retention limits where copies of customer data end up and reduces the number of places it could leak from. VOIX uses AI models under zero data retention, and call data is never used to train models.