Contact centers measure and monitor everything that happens with its employees, customers, and technology. The result is a compilation of data that is analyzed and reports derived from the analysis. There is high pressure in the industry for optimization, efficiency and profitability, and this data will help you know where you are.
Every contact center has its ways of collecting this data and presenting it, and no one can afford not to have that information. Some use dashboards, or scorecards or both. A scorecard shows a historical performance while a dashboard shows the current performance. However, you need to use these tools together with other metrics that measure quality, productivity, customer experience, and costs.
Today’s focus is on how you can use contact center data as valuable insights. To use this data for insights means going beyond keeping score on your agent’s performance, and integrating it with data from other systems to have a comprehensive analysis.
Here are the steps to translate data into insights for decision-making:
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Understand the Trends
The first step is to analyze the data to understand what is happening in the contact center. Consistent data analysis will bring out a trend that shows the value of the data. If the trend is not leading the center to its desired direction or achieving the set objectives, you get to know where the problem is. If it is heading in the right direction, then you know what to keep doing.
Trends can also help you know your position in the industry when you compare with other companies. The secret is to define what you want to achieve with the data collected.
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Uncover the Why
From the trend analysis, you need to uncover and understand why it is happening the way it is. For example, if your analysis indicates a drop in sales of a particular product, you need to look deeper into the data to understand why sales are falling. Turn every leaf over to get meaning as to what is causing the drop.
Only with the understanding of why can you come up with strategies to turnaround the situation.
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Create a framework
With the information above in place, you need to build a structure of next action points. Look at the “what ifs.” You can use multiple charts, tables or graphs to evaluate different what if situations. For instance, if you change a particular strategy, what will be the probable reaction from customers?
The framework will help you see how a certain trend will influence the future of your contact center. The framework will be a compilation of insights that show you what will happen if you do one thing or the other.
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Make the Changes
Data is only valuable when it is translatable to actionable insights. It is time to move to action. You have a working framework and you can only know its success by implementing it.
Establish guidelines to help your team bring to life the insights gathered.
Bringing it all together
Data analysis and interpretation are a continuous process that should facilitate decision making in the contact center. By using these four steps, understanding the trends, uncovering the why, creating a framework and making the changes will help you use the data as insightful information. Point to remember is, data will be as numbers if not translated into valuable insights that are actionable.
