Speech analytics is a technology that extracts valuable information out of unstructured data during an interaction between contact center agents and customers. It’s mainly used to analyze customer behavior to generate deliberately planned strategies, thus improving the quality of service in future interactions. Simultaneously, companies are able to oversee contact center agents’ performance.
Particularly, a research by Opus shows that speech analytics is effective for improving average handling time (AHT), which is one of the most critical KPIs in contact agents’ performance. 40% of surveyed contact centers confirmed that this tool has helped to boost agents’ productivity and engagement rate. Therefore they were able to handle more interactions within the same period of time.
Nearly 3-in-4 customers are willing to switch to a competitor after one bad experience. So speech analytics can be an additional tool for improving the quality of service in contact centers. Let’s look at the most common benefits that speech analytics offer.
Greater customer service & reduced churn rate
Speech analytics technology allows monitoring all incoming and outgoing calls in a contact center. That’s why owners can easily control agents’ engagement and check if they adhere to scripts and follow industry regulations.
No customer is willing to call and explain the same issue multiple times. Speech analytics can increase the first call resolution (FCR) rate. The technology finds similarities in repeated calls searching for common expressions like «I called two hours ago» and identifies the most frequent queries. Improved FCR rate will reduce the number of calls during peak time, helping resolve more customers’ issues and increasing overall satisfaction.
For example, Voice Biometrics developed by Neuro.net allows maintaining personalized interaction as the system is able to authenticate customers before they reach the agent or while helping them.
Following the same logic, speech analytics helps discover reasons why your customers are leaving. The tool indicates the moments of dissatisfaction with your service during interactions.
Minimized expenditures
By analyzing consumer behavior, businesses can make financial decisions based on data, not intuition or trends. This will eliminate unnecessary expenditures in various cases.
As mentioned above, reduced call volumes during the busiest hours will decrease the attrition rate, because frustrated customers won’t need to hang up and switch to a competitor. Or, for instance, knowing the needs of a particular customer will give additional options: to use an AI-agent instead of turning on an irritating “hold the line” ringtone.
Finally, improved AHT, less repeated calls and automated compliance checking will also impact the amount of investment in retaining your customers.
Risk mitigation
First, speech analytics tools help detect if call center agents adhere to industry regulations and internal company rules while interacting with customers. The system can also identify whether agents follow the established script or if there is a leakage of sensitive information. So you’ll be notified as soon as possible and intervene promptly.
Second, a contact center is an attractive medium to commit fraud as authentication procedure is easy: to access customers’ data, fraudsters simply need to say personal information and password. Speech analytics is a powerful tool to fight fraud as well. While being always alert, the system can identify keywords in a conversation marked as red flags.
Voice Biometrics can prevent fraud on both sides: it uses voice-fueled employee validation for internal processes and at the same time compares voiceprints to the blacklist voices associated with the confirmed fraud attempts from the outside.
Revenue growth
Contact centers owners can use speech analytics to analyze the effectiveness of upselling and cross-selling strategies. Are customers satisfied with offers? Did they buy or order new features? Did they feel pressured? How customers of different ages, genders and statuses reacted to offers?
All of these questions can be easily answered with the help of speech analytics. The analysis demonstrates the current status quo, allowing companies to adjust their business strategies, satisfy and retain customers, increase conversion rate and as a result revenue.
