Contact centers are very busy places and agents have to work hard to address all customer concerns as they arise. While some concerns can be addressed in fairly short order, some situations involve the need for more in-depth problem solving; at times, more experienced agents or managers may need to take over the resolution process in order for circumstances to be fully resolved. The things that customers say during these interactions and in the steps leading up to call center interaction can be regarded as a valuable source of data regarding customer opinion about an organization. Speech analytics is a practice that looks at this data systematically in order to learn how customers feel about an organization. Gauging customer attitude about companies and brands helps leaders assess if various outreach and marketing strategies have been effective; within the contact center itself, judging customer attitude and desires can help make the entire process of speaking with an agent much more effective.
Streamlining the Handling of Inbound Calls
Initiating various contact center protocols can be surprisingly difficult, which leaves customers having to reiterate their concerns to a series of agents before they finally speak with someone that is capable of helping them. Each time the steps are repeated the customer will get increasingly impatient with the company – this is especially true when customers are dissatisfied in the first place. Speech analytics can be used to streamline this entire process and connect customers to the appropriate agents with less delay. This saves considerable time on the customer’s part. Agents whose efforts are a better fit for resolving other concerns can focus their attention on other calls, while customers in need of particular attention can be routed directly to relevant personnel.
Obtaining an Accurate View of Brand Opinion
Customer attitude about a company and the brand that represents it can change for many reasons. Quality assurance agents, as well as employees that oversee contact center operations, have to stay informed of emerging trends related to the perception of a brand and customer opinion of a company. There are many reasons why this is so important; for instance:
- Recent product or service overhauls can result in short-term souring of public opinion
- The introduction of a new website or new online services might be positive, but require intensive guidance until users gain comfort
- Consumer behavior and attitudes particular to identified demographics can be precisely assessed
- The large-scale effect of brand image improvement can be assessed
- Dips in opinion can signal the need for new outreach and marketing strategy deployment
Although the information provided by the analytical systems deployed in your contact center may not appear to mean much in isolation, insightful quality assurance and customer experience administrators will be able to see how the data can be applied to the development of new strategies.
Leveraging the Customer as a Source of Information
Once you think about it, it is pretty easy to see how the customer is a source of a great deal of information about your company. The opinions and feelings that your customers have about your organization and its products can be used to refine the customer experience while also guiding the development of more effective outreach techniques. Speech analytics can play an important role in the achievement of these and other goals.
This blog was first published on LinkedIn.
