The best ways to utilise Speech Analytics in the contact centre

Speech Analytics (term used to also cover Interaction* and Real-Time** Analytics for the purposes of this article) in the contact centre is by no means a new concept.

Analytics is call centre software that organisations have been implementing and considering for a while now. However, many organisations may struggle to embed this technology into their culture and workflow processes.

So why has the uptake been so slow?

Here is another interesting statistic – according to Smart Customer Service, 43% of companies do not yet know what Speech Analytics really is or how it can benefit their business.

Below are the best ways you can utilise Speech Analytics in your contact centre.

1. Analyse 100% of interactions taking place

They say ‘what gets measured gets done’. This may be the case but how would you ensure that you are measuring and collecting information correctly? With a Speech Analytics solution you are able to make sense of the millions of interactions taking place in your contact centre. The technology does all the hard work for you by “listening” to all calls and forms of communication such as email, text, webchat etc. rather than just a random sample, to spot predefined keywords and expressions that can indicate problem areas (such as competitor names, mentions of pricing and words typically associated with customer complaints).

2. Share valuable interdepartmental knowledge

It may not always be emphasised, but there is a huge potential for untapped knowledge and valuable insight hiding within a business’ operation and its agents. This insight when captured, can go well beyond helping agents on the frontline, towards helping those departments who play a pivotal role in your customer’s journey such as marketing, sales and billing. Marketing for example, may use speech analytics to track customer remarks after a large marketing campaign has gone out, identifying if key marketing messages were understood. This will in turn help them better formulate clearer messages in future campaigns.

3. Isolate and analyse successful behaviours

With a Speech Analytics solution you are able to monitor customers and call centre agents alike. For example, by isolating and tracking successful calls, it can reveal agent behaviours that lead to a completed sale or a satisfied customer. It also identifies specific factors or agent behaviours during the call that may hinder a successful outcome. Being able to quickly group these calls, (tagging calls by type – e.g. successful/unsuccessful), you can detect specific knowledge and training gaps and provide more targeted and focused agent coaching sessions.

4. Uncover opportunities hidden between the lines

Listening is a skill, and although your agents may have good listening skills, they are only going to be focused on what they expect to hear. Incorporating Real-time Speech Analytics into the mix will automatically capture and analyse the entire customer interaction as it unfolds to uncover opportunities hidden between the lines. Within seconds, a tailored next-best-action guidance message can appear on the desktop of the agent handling the call. Identifying keywords and phrases, as well as additional customer background information (already stored in the database), analytics will take these factors into consideration before making its next best action recommendation. For industries with the need for revenue generation for example, analytics is useful for highlighting hidden opportunities for up-selling or cross-selling to increase agent sales.

If you need some more advice or information on how Speech Analytics technology can benefit your business, then speak to our team or check out our Speech Analytics blog category.

• Interaction Analytics – Monitoring all multi-channel voice and text interactions including email, online forms, chat, social media, phone calls, surveys and more.
• Real-Time Analytics – Automatically capturing and analysing the entire customer interaction as it unfolds, formulating a tailored next best action guidance message on the desktop of the agent handling the call.