Call recording can be classified into two varieties. Call recording sometimes means recording everything on the headset audio, both during calls and between calls.  This offers an additional insight about a call that just took place as well as agents' perceptions of their jobs and employers.  Other call recording systems record only the call audio and not idle conversions with coworkers in between calls.  There are some other calls recording devices, which can work in either mode, allowing the call center management to decide which is appropriate for their center.

Quality assurance is the most often cited use of call recording.  With calls being recorded, supervisors and managers can easily and quickly retrieve, review, and evaluate agent calls.  By integrating a program of silent monitoring, with side-by-side coaching and statistical measurements, an agent's overall effectiveness can be evaluated and verified. Call recording allows areas of deficiency to be discovered and items of excellence to be celebrated.  

Call recording has its arguments and counter arguments. The first issue to be raised is, the question of whether one or both the participating parties should have knowledge of the call recording. This can be solved by simply notifying the agents when the call recording is happening, i.e. one party notification. The customer can also be notified of the call recording by a preamble recording (“This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes”). The call recording may have a periodic beep tone, which would mean a two party notification. Call recording can thus be an easy process once this is verified legally and done in accordance to the state laws.