By
Markus Goebel
|
Date Published: November 15, 2016 - Last Updated August 22, 2018
|
Comments
The contact center industry is beset with many challenges in 2017, and the focus on customer service and compliance remains a key differentiation point. The ability to amass, manipulate and evaluate large amounts of unstructured data, available through customer interactions, is ensured by the use of speech analytics to evaluate 100 percent of the calls. However, as these systems have grown more sophisticated, they are capturing the voice of the customer in a more positive and predictive manner to transform the entire enterprise.
Speech Analytics and Big Data
During its commercial introduction in 2003, speech analytics was confined to high-volume contact centers, and even then, it exuded an aura of science fiction and the awkwardness of a new technology with a slew of bugs and dubious benefits. That has all changed in today’s era of Big Data and its many applications.
Today, speech analytics can be used to spot the latest marketing trends, analyze the success of marketing campaigns, and provide enterprise-wide information to assist executive decision-making. Capabilities such as emotion detection can be applied to quality monitoring, and the use of keyword and phrase spotting can be targeted at specific “trouble” words and thus flag problematic interactions.
Moreover, the scope of speech analytics amplifies the voice of the customer by reviewing ALL customer interactions instead of just a representative sampling in traditional quality monitoring. And the power of speech analytics in efficient search-and-retrieval enables a review of all the data across multiple platforms.
Speech Analytics and New Compliance Regulations
Speech analytics has become even more critical to ensure compliance with many regulatory and consumer protection requirements in Dodd Frank, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Moreover, the upcoming full implementation of MiFID II in Europe relies heavily on the 100 percent search-and-retrieval capabilities mentioned above.
At the same time, the use of speech analytics for compliance can simultaneously increase revenues when applied by contact centers for debt collection, retail banking and related functions. The efficiency of automated speech analytics also brings positive results by spotting inefficient processes, improving customer retention and first call resolution, and reducing agent handle times.
Speech Analytics and Real-Time Analysis
Speech analytics is merging with other contact center systems like CRM to enable real-time analysis of customer interactions. Capabilities such as predictive analytics are relying on proactive customer recommendations for real-time guidance for contact centers and the entire enterprise alike.
These new benefits of speech analytics are empowering contact centers and integrating them with the entire enterprise. Instead of executing orders from other departments, contact centers are playing an integral role in deciding company strategies and tactics.
Conclusion
Speech analytics is turning the contact center into a gold mine of information for the entire enterprise. Its applications are expanding rapidly, and it is poised to become an essential industry tool. New predictive capabilities will make speech analytics even more powerful in improving customer service.
Note from the editor: Want to stay ahead of the trends in 2017? Join ICMI at Contact Center Expo & Conference. Stay abreast of all the latest developments in contact center technology, management, and operations.