The Journey into Speech Analytics

Transcription

1 The Journey into Speech Analytics 2013 Edition ComputerTel Ltd.

2 The Journey into Speech Analytics We have certainly noticed that Speech Analytics is now becoming a realistic consideration for the Contact Centre Marketplace, so we thought it a good time to share our experiences of how we and our Customers have taken the Journey into Speech Analytics. Speech Analytics early pioneers have already defined its feature rich and operational methodology. As a result, it s sitting at the edge of a much wider market uptake than it did twelve to eighteen months ago. Our own client-base is turning it s attention to this technology and interest has certainly increased. Crucially, business benefits are more widely distributed and appreciated for their metamorphic commercial impact across the whole business operation. It s a Journey to take together, Not A Daytrip! Speech Analytics must be implemented as a mid to long term project. It is always a great mistake to focus on the technology and believe that once it s bought and Installed, it s ready to go. Speech Analytics doesn t work that way! One of the key insights from our feedback was Know What You Are Getting Into, because there is a journey involved and it requires a clear, defined strategy that has to be shared with both the technology partner and the key project team members. Our experience is that implementing speech analytics takes time; a clear and defined understanding of what information is to be used for analysis and what benefit this information will have to the Organisation, once imparted, should be in place. Analytics requires knowledgeable internal resources so plan ahead. Involve as many key members of the management team as necessary, so that all aspects of the business operation will have knowledge, understanding and input into the project, because the content and relevance of business information that will become available through speech analytics implementation, will be relevant and insightful for many departments and key personnel. With this in mind, Speech analytics needs the right people to control it:- People who can think creatively, who can think logically, who can spot and articulate business benefits and who can present a case for change. By working together with internal teams of the right calibre and your solutions partner to guide and share their expertise and experience gleaned from others, the Speech Analytics project will begin to take shape. 1

3 Speech Analytics is not a Silver Bullet Speech analytics is not an antidote for your business problems; it s one of many tools that can help you improve your business, operationally. What speech analytics engines do well is process tens of thousands of conversations looking for examples that match the categories that have been built. The skill in deploying analytics effectively is in the category or search phrases that are built and understanding the words and phrases that people (customers or agents) use in different conversations, whilst at the same time understanding how to make the categories specific enough to return specific examples of the sort of calls you are looking for. It will only match what it has been set to find. This is normally attempted with all the trial and error that comes from doing something new within the gaze of a wider audience that probably expected instant results! Once found, the next process is to manage and co-ordinate this information for business consumption. Knowing this important point, before implementation helps shrink the time and effort between business case and benefit. It won t give useful instant results, the information it provides needs to be analysed, assessed and utilised to the best purposes for the business, which is a learning curve too! 2

4 Find a Business Issue to Focus On First. A key best practice that we found useful to suggest to our clients was to find a juicy business problem before starting the project. In that way the insights uncovered by the analytics have instant relevance and appeal to the business, which helps resource prioritisation. What those insights might look like will depend on individual business operational needs and objectives, however, when a relevant business issue is picked, what came through in every case, was a wealth of low-hanging fruit for improving servicing costs, customer satisfaction scores, staff productivity and motivation. Even the broader issue of front to back office efficiencies can be part of a quick wins programme. Running low-risk pilots allowed them to discover where their first areas of benefits lay, propelling and justifying the project s purpose. Quality assessment management and Speech Analytics An additional ROI that you may not have considered. Some of our customers are utilising speech analytics for quality assessment management purposes. Speech analytics allows automatic access to the right calls, therefore providing strategic performance strategies to be developed. Coaching interventions can be based on exceptions to standard average performance levels and therefore use coaching resources more effectively. Individual trend reporting can be set up to help track performance changes after coaching. This is an effective way to provide reinforcement. Once implemented and bedded in, Speech analytics will become an absolutely indispensable tool in making both coaching and compliance a more effective operational process.

5 Final thoughts Instead of asking yourselves, What can I do with speech analytics, it may be more useful to ask, what does the company need to know about the conversations we re having with our customers, what intelligence is there in these conversations and what s the best way to get at it? Our clients impressions of Speech Analytics grows as they get under its skin and delve into the potential it can bring to their business. Translating this into real work benefit isn t easy initially, until the analysis engine is running properly, however, once the results began to take shape, a confidence that improvement opportunities could at last be accurately scoped and quantified through impartial, measurable success, was created. Making that happen is then all about the skill and energy needed for effective execution. A conversation between a customer and an agent is the single biggest indicator of customer behaviour. Understanding what it is about a conversation that makes customers behave more positively can have a huge effect on business performance if the analysis is robust and representative. Speech analytics can provide this. To receive a recent case study on one of our customer s Journey into Speech Analytics, please us at [email protected] About ComputerTel ComputerTel offers advice and expertise to assess your business needs in relation to improving staff performance, capability, competency and customer service. We then provide the most suitable solution(s) that match those needs, that will include phone call recording, employee assessment systems, PC Screen recording and speech analytics devices, helping you make informed decisions on how best to improve and adapt your business, then monitor and measure performance. We also provide nationwide installation, project management, maintenance, user training and customer support with offices based in Kent and Manchester & field service teams located in Liverpool, Kent and Northamptonshire. [email protected] Tel: