Can you record a call with a customer? Consent rules for business calls

You are about to call a customer in Florida about an invoice 30 days overdue, and your phone system says the call will be recorded. Florida law allows that only when all parties have given prior consent, and your customer has not said a word yet. Here is what the law expects of a business that records its own customer calls, and the one line that covers you in the US, the UK and Canada.

This post is general information for business owners, not legal advice. Check the law where you and your customer are, or ask a lawyer, before you rely on it.

Is it legal to record a phone call with a customer?

In the US, federal law lets you record a call you take part in without asking the other person. Some states, and the UK and Canada, expect you to tell the customer first.

The federal rule is 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d). It makes it lawful to intercept a wire, oral or electronic communication "where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent", unless the recording is made to commit a crime or a tort. A business recording its own call is a party to it, so one-party consent is met.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press describes one-party consent as the minimum requirement across the country. States can set a higher bar, and a group of them do. That is where the risk sits for a business that calls customers in more than one state.

Which US states need everyone's consent to record a call?

California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington are commonly listed as all-party states. Connecticut and Nevada need all-party consent for phone calls.

Sources disagree on Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan and Nevada, so the table, which follows the RCFP recording guide, marks them as contested. "Two-party consent" is the common name, but the laws ask for the consent of every party on the call.

What if you and the customer are in different states?

Apply the stricter state's rule. Courts have not settled which state's law governs a call across state lines, so a claim can be filed in either state.

Record a California or Florida customer from a one-party state without telling them, and you are relying on the wrong state's law. The RCFP guide says the stricter law applies where two state laws differ, and gives the example of a Virginia reporter calling Maryland: a suit may be filed in either place.

The practical answer is one rule for every call: say that the call is recorded before you get into the account. It takes five seconds and meets the all-party, contested and one-party states at once.

Can a UK business record calls with customers?

Yes, under the 2018 interception regulations, as long as the recording is for a listed business purpose and you have made reasonable efforts to tell people that calls may be recorded.

The rules sit in The Investigatory Powers (Interception by Businesses etc. for Monitoring and Record-keeping Purposes) Regulations 2018. Regulation 3 lists the purposes, including recording "in order to establish the existence of facts" and checking compliance with regulatory practices. Keeping an accurate record of what a customer agreed to pay fits the first purpose.

Regulation 4 adds the notice condition: the business must have made "all reasonable efforts to inform every person" who uses the system that calls may be intercepted.

UK GDPR adds transparency. The ICO's guidance on monitoring workers says it is "not usually proportionate to monitor or record the content of calls in all cases", names evidence of business transactions as a justified purpose, and says you must tell callers that you are recording and why. A recorded message is the ICO's recommended way. If that is not possible, the person on the call tells the customer.

Put the recording in your privacy notice, name the purpose, and set a retention period.

What are the rules in Australia and Canada?

Canada has one federal rule: tell the customer you are recording and why, and let them choose. Australia's rules differ by state and territory, so check your state's law before you record.

In Canada, Criminal Code section 184 makes it an offense to knowingly intercept a private communication, with an exception where the originator or the intended recipient has consented, express or implied.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner's guidance on recording customer telephone calls says the organization must tell the customer it is recording, state the purpose as narrowly as possible, and offer another way to deal with the business where the recording is not needed to provide the service. A customer who continues, knowing the call is recorded and why, has given implied consent. The rules apply whether the customer or the business placed the call.

In Australia, listening device law differs by state and territory. Queensland's Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 bans recording a private conversation with a listening device, except where the person recording is a party to it. Other states take different positions, and published summaries of the same state disagree. Check your state's law, and tell the customer at the start.

What should you say at the start of a recorded call?

One plain sentence before you get into the account: "This call is recorded so we have an accurate note of what we agree. Is that OK?" It names the recording and the purpose, and gives the customer a choice.

That line covers what the stricter rules ask for. The ICO wants callers told that you record and why, the Canadian privacy commissioner wants the purpose stated and a choice offered, and Connecticut accepts a verbal notice recorded at the start. A customer who says yes and carries on has consented on the recording itself.

If the customer says no, stop the recording and take notes instead, or offer to confirm the outcome by email. The call still has to end with a date and an amount, which is covered in how to ask for payment over the phone. If nobody picks up, the voicemail script for an unpaid invoice gives you the message to leave, and no recording question arises.

How does recording work when you call from Paidnice?

On the Pro plan and above, you call the customer from Paidnice. Paidnice records the call, writes a transcript and a short summary, and saves both to the customer's timeline. Depending on your region, you can play a recording notice before the call connects, or leave it off.

• Before each call, Paidnice shows the notice "This call is recorded for the transcript. Let the customer know if your region requires it." The line in the section above is one way to do that.
• After the call, the transcript reads as a two-sided conversation with timestamps, and a short summary sits above it on the customer's timeline.
• The summary goes to Xero or QuickBooks as a note, so the promise is in your ledger as well as in Paidnice.
• The Calls page lists every call made from Paidnice, with the contact, who called, the duration and the summary.

Businesses on Paidnice see half as many late invoices in their first 30 days. See the full detail on the in-app calling page, and pricing for what each plan includes. If you call from a desk phone instead, the call log template gives you the fields to capture manually.

Questions about recording customer calls

Tell the customer at the start of every call that it is recorded and why, and you meet the strictest rule covered here for the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

About the editorial team

Written byDenym BirdCo-founder & CEO of Paidnice

Denym started Paidnice in 2022 after customers paying late left his own business short on payroll. He has led it to $1 billion collected on time across more than 1 million invoices, and writes about credit control, late fees and getting paid on Xero and QuickBooks.

Reviewed byJack DaffronCo-founder of Paidnice

Jack is a co-founder of Paidnice. He builds the product that sends reminders, adds late fees and takes payments for businesses on Xero and QuickBooks.