Successful call centers have always proactively captured customer service feedback to adapt to changing customer preferences and expectations. Recorded calls are a source of “Big Data” that has been cumbersome to analyze in the past. Now other channels, including social media, web surveys and focus groups, have added to the innumerable sources of data that could be analyzed, but seldom has been in the past, at least not effectively.
Now VoC (Voice of the Customer) software programs are emerging that can capture and analyze all of these data types almost instantaneously. It is becoming another exciting 2014 trend, as more and more organizations implement VoC programs that can capture and analyze feedback across a variety of channels. One of the newest is Emotion Detection, an interesting development that analyzes how a person feels based on their tone of voice. Forrester Research predicts annual growth of about 20 percent in the coming years for VoC. According to Jim Davies, Research Director at Gartner, it is “now being viewed as a must-have strategy.”
Acting on Customer Feedback – Capturing customer feedback is essential, but it’s what you do with it that really distinguishes one organization from another. There are multiple ways of collecting feedback, the most common of which has been scoring; however it’s essential not just to collect scores but also to capture customer comments in order to gain a sense of what customers actually think. Speech analytics, can help companies gain deep insights from customer interactions that can be used to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and improve operational efficiency.
In an article by Drew Robb, posted February 19, 2013 on EnterpriseAppsToday.com, the author reminds us, “It was front page news in 2005 when it was revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency had secretly captured emails and recorded phone conversations, then used sophisticated software to conduct key word searches. That’s nothing compared to what many contact centers are doing, thanks to increasingly sophisticated speech analytics applications. At some centers, software is used to record and analyze every phone call, email, Web form, survey and social media contact….Speech analytics has caught on in the contact center. It’s likely to become even more popular, thanks to Big Data, SaaS and other trends.”
Speech analytics software is seeing rapid growth in the call center, thanks to its ability to reveal customer insights. With no need for a psychotherapist, call centers can use software to analyze what customers are saying in real time. Some even say that the analysis is far more accurate than months of analysis by a doctor. In addition to helping companies discover what customers are thinking, speech analytics software can reveal how well staff is performing and offer ways to improve customer service.
Vitec Contact Center Solutions assures those looking to buy, “All you need to get started are recorded conversations with your customers—from any call recording system. Our closed-loop, turnkey solutions analyze the why, what, who and when within these conversations and turn them into actionable insight and recommendations, enabling you to drive significant improvements within your business continuously.”
Speech Analytics software is revolutionizing the contact center performance management world. With a turnkey solution and proven consulting methodology, you can expect a rapid return on investment. When you are looking for a solution for your contact center, be sure to ask if the vendor’s product will enable you to:
- Increase sales conversion and wallet share
- Identify and implement key differentiating sales skills
- Understand customer objections and successful deflection strategies
- Design products and services that meet the customer’s needs
- Enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness
- Implement performance-based targeted coaching
- Facilitate customer self-service
- Ensure compliance with regulatory and auditing procedures
- Enhance customer experience and intimacy
- Understand and alleviate the root causes of customer discontent
- Identify at-risk customers early for preemptive action
- Refine interaction delivery to meet customer expectations
Speech analytics often includes elements of automatic speech recognition, where the identities of spoken words or phrases are determined. It may also include analysis of one or more of the following:
- the topic(s) being discussed
- the emotional character of the speech
- the amount and locations of speech versus non-speech (e.g., call hold time or periods of silence)
One use of speech analytics applications is to spot spoken keywords or phrases, either as real-time alerts on live audio or as a post-processing step on recorded speech. This technique is also known as audio mining. Other uses include categorization of speech, for example in the contact center environment, to identify calls from unsatisfied customers.
By analyzing and categorizing recorded phone conversations, useful information can be mined relating to strategy, product, process, operational issues and agent performance. This information gives decision-makers insight into what customers really think about their company and their service so that they can quickly react
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When used effectively, speech analytics can help to:
- Improve the customer experience
- Coach and monitor call center agents, improve service quality
- Reduce operating expenses and save money
- Identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, boost revenue
- Reduce customer attrition
More about emotion detection
Certain words spoken during an interaction may indicate high levels of emotion. However, sometimes emotion can only be detected by analyzing the voice and tone of the speaker. Emotion detection is a relatively new speech analytics technology that analyzes the voice of the speaker and identifies emotion via slight variations of pitch or tone. High levels of emotion are a reliable gauge of both customer dissatisfaction and agent skills.
DMG Consulting reveals in their 2014 – 2015 Speech Analytics Product and Market Report,
The contact center speech analytics market, in its 11th year, delivered exceptional performance in 2013. DMG has long praised these solutions for their ability to help organizations realize significant tangible business benefits. As speech analytics solutions continue to evolve, and users realize new and greater returns. This success will only increase. The number of reported contact center speech analytics seats grew by 26.0%, from 2,292,733 in July 2013 to 2,889,031 as of the end of May 2014. The vast majority of these seats are from sales of post-call solutions, although the adoption of real-time speech analytics is beginning to pick up.
Acting on Customer Feedback
As you consider what the growing trend in the use of speech analytics could mean to the success of your contact center, compare companies that offer the technology while asking yourself, “What can you do for us and our customers now and as new trends become more important to our success?”