Everything You Need to Know About ... Calltrunk

Until the advent of the cellphone, it was impossible to communicate with someone if you did not know where he was. Today, although most retirement plan advisers can reach their clients anywhere and at almost any time via email, sometimes phone conversations are still the best way to connect. However, keeping track—and records—of those voice conversations presents a new challenge. Calltrunk, a suite of applications (apps) that record phone calls from any type of phone—mobile, landline or computer-based—can help plan advisers store and sort through the important discussions they have with their plan sponsor clients and within their own firm.

The Calltrunk apps may be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Android Market, or by logging in to the company’s mobile website, m.calltrunk.com. To start, advisers must sign up for the program with their email address, and new users may take advantage of a 30-minute free trial to record a conversation on a landline or mobile phone. 

To begin a call from a landline, an adviser must log in to the Calltrunk website. New calls may also be initiated by adding “Calltrunk Robot” to a Skype call or, for Mac users, via the desktop app for MacOS.

At the start of a call, advisers can either select an automated message to let clients know they are being recorded or notify them personally. Many states require only single-party approval for recording conversations—meaning only the person making the call is legally required to approve the recording, so long as it is not shared with a third party or otherwise distributed without the second speaker’s knowledge.

After finishing a call, users can pull up their stored conversations on any device—a useful feature for advisers to review their conversations with plan sponsor clients and participants.  Recordings are automatically and securely stored during the call on Calltrunk’s cloud-based “Trunk” servers, where the content can be replayed, shared, downloaded or transcribed.

To help advisers locate a particular point in any discussion, ARGOsearch can filter out specific spoken words, phone numbers, dates and times from all stored conversations. When advisers select a conversation—e.g., to find out what, exactly, a particular investment committee member said when presented with new plan design features—Calltrunk will show the date and time of that conversation. Also, the results of your search are color-coded for easy reference: For example, “enrollment” could be highlighted in red, “deferral” in blue and “participant” in green.

Calltrunk’s Premium transcription services are securely stored and can be reached from the “My Conversations” panel on its website, and advisers may order a write-up of any or all of their calls for $1.50 per minute of phone time. All transcriptions are performed by humans to ensure maximum accuracy. Delivery is guaranteed within 24 to 72 hours of placing the order, and a human editor will confirm speakers’ identities and review the quality of the final product.

The service is available for a monthly fee at various price points, depending upon adviser needs. The “Basic” offering gives users 85 phone minutes per month for $5; at $10, “Economy” offers 250 minutes; “Premium” has 1,000 minutes for $30; and “Unlimited” minutes cost $50 a month. For less frequent callers, a “Pay as You Go” system costs 8 cents per minute on a prepaid credit card.

Calltrunk may be a useful resource for retirement plan advisers, especially those who depend on personal communications for their business. It can improve sales calls and client services, analyze the type and efficacy of calls with clients, and help them to stay on top of messaging to plan sponsors and participants, as well as pertinent discussions shared by other members of their firm.