Sponsored by Contact Center Analytics Empower Enterprises
Table of Contents Executive Summary... 1 The Changing Mission of Contact Centers... 1 Contact Center Goals... 1 Contact Center Analytics... 2 What are Contact Center Analytics?... 2 Figure One: Contact Center Analytical Applications... 3 Contact Center Analytics Market... 4 Benefits of Analytics... 4 Getting Started with Analytics... 6 Final Thoughts... 7 About the Author... 8 About the Sponsor... 9 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. White Paper November 2007 i
Executive Summary Within the next 8 to 10 years, contact centers will become one of the most important revenue generating departments in most enterprises, DMG Consulting predicts. Now is the time for contact centers to start focusing on the revenue side of their profitability equation. As peopleintensive organizations, contact centers will always be required to meet high departmental productivity standards. Today, however, contact centers are poised to do so much more. Powerful and effective analytical applications are emerging that enable contact centers to contribute significantly to enterprise goals by generating revenue and by enhancing and extending customer relationships. The Changing Mission of Contact Centers Contact centers are entering the Age of Analytics the most valuable, but challenging period in their history. These organizations are too expensive to be used only to service customers and take orders. While service is an essential part of their mission, it s time for contact centers to evolve from cost centers to revenue generating profit centers. The financial impact of contact centers is far greater than what is reflected in their departmental budgets; the true costs include all of the opportunities to build and extend customer relationships and loyalty that are missed because many contact centers do not have the appropriate tools and processes in place. Contact center agents interact with customers more frequently than any other group within an enterprise. Unfortunately, today s agents are not empowered to optimize each of these interactions. This is going to change, and analytics will be an important catalyst driving this innovation. Contact Center Goals Contact centers around the world have three primary goals: 1. To provide an outstanding customer experience 2. To increase revenue and enhance customer loyalty 3. To operate productively and effectively Contact centers must be equipped with the tools and best practices that enable them to achieve these objectives. Analytics is the answer. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 1 - White Paper November 2007
Contact Center Analytics Contact center managers need to evolve their reactive, cost-oriented organizations into proactive, engaged, real-time revenue generators. To achieve this critical corporate goal, managers require new applications and technologies that will empower them to build and enhance relationships with their customers. Managers must also adapt their culture, business processes and staff mindsets so that the contact center can play a new and expanded role in interacting with customers. In today s highly competitive environment, it is essential, but not enough, to provide a consistently outstanding experience to each customer, whether they call, email, chat, or send a SMS. Leading contact centers are increasingly using analytics to determine the best way to service their customers while extending relationships and enhancing loyalty. What are Contact Center Analytics? Contact center analytics are a group of solutions that provide managers with actionable insights and recommendations. These tools capture, structure and analyze data in order to find patterns and provide guidance or recommend actions about how to best address an issue, challenge or opportunity. See Figure One. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 2 - White Paper November 2007
Figure One: Contact Center Analytical Applications Real-time analytics Quality scores Customer feedback Speech analytics Predictive analytics Performance management Customer value analytics Source: DMG Consulting LLC, September 2007 The majority of analytical solutions used throughout enterprises, including the contact center, are reactive, meaning that they assess information that has been collected over a period of time. There is also an emerging group of analytical solutions that capture, structure, analyze and make recommendations that can be acted upon in real time. These solutions are highly valuable in contact centers, where the most critical opportunities to enhance the customer relationship and generate incremental revenue occur while the customer is still on the phone. Contact center analytics solutions include: Customer feedback surveying applications that capture and measure customer satisfaction with a company s products and service. Customer value analytics applications that measure and communicate the value of each and every caller. These applications have been used by marketing for years and have now entered the contact center, where they are used for prioritizing call routing and assisting agents in deciding how to handle each customer. Performance management applications that improve the performance of the contact center by aligning its goals with those of the enterprise. These applications are also used to produce dashboards and scorecards that can measure the performance of every individual, group and site in the contact center. Predictive analytics applications that use predictive algorithms to identify the most appropriate offer for each customer. They eliminate the guesswork in identifying the best 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 3 - White Paper November 2007
cross-sell or up-sell opportunities. Ideally, a real-time predictive analytics solution should enable an agent to make recommendations while the customer is still on the line. Quality scores applications that tie agent quality scores back into the day-to-day activities and performance of the contact center. Real-time analytics applications that structure the unstructured data in captured customer emails, faxes, feedback forms, chat sessions or other text-based transactions in order to identify customer needs, wants and insights. Speech analytics applications that take recorded phone conversations, structure the unstructured content and automatically identify the root cause of customer interactions as well as customer needs, wants, insights and the actions enterprises should take in response. Contact Center Analytics Market Activity in the contact center analytics market is exploding, giving end-user organizations many choices of partners and solutions suited to their goals and needs. For years, workforce optimization (WFO) vendors have delivered analytically-oriented solutions, such as quality assurance, surveying and performance management, to improve the performance and quality of contact centers and their agents. Vendors with a strong marketing orientation have introduced predictive analytics and customer value analytics to contact centers, recognizing these applications vast potential for enhancing customer-facing functions. In 2004, vendors of speech analytics applications, which had been developed for use by government, security and the military, found a large commercial niche in contact centers. These solutions are now sold by vendors large and small with different functional strengths, including workforce optimization suite providers, best-of-breed solution providers, contact center infrastructure providers and marketing automation providers. Benefits of Analytics Contact center analytical solutions deliver quantifiable benefits for enterprises, contact centers and their customers. (See Figure Two.) The specific benefits vary based on the applications used, however all of them contribute to providing a cost effective, outstanding customer experience while enhancing the relationship and increasing loyalty. While each of these solutions has unique features and uses, their benefits are similar. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 4 - White Paper November 2007
Benefits of Contact Center Analytics Application Customer Contact Center Enterprise Customer Feedback/Surveying - Communicates customer feedback on a timely basis - Allows customers to share their needs and wants - Provides actionable feedback on agents and processes - Identifies agent training needs - Notifies management when there is a problem - Allows enterprise to take action before an issue gets out of hand - Improves the customer experience Customer Value Analytics - Improves customer satisfaction - Increases customer loyalty - Enables contact centers to accurately segment and service customers based on their value - Decreases servicing costs - Improves the customer experience - Decreases customer attrition - Increases profitability Performance Management - Increases first call resolution rates - Provides a better customer experience - Enhances the customer experience - Reduces servicing costs - Increases revenue and profitability - Creates a strategic differentiator - Increases consumer confidence in the brand and builds loyalty Predictive Analytics - Identifies and prioritizes what customers want - Matches service quality to customer expectations - Reduces servicing costs - Increases agent satisfaction - Increases revenue - Decreases cost of sales - Increases revenue and profitability - Increases customer retention Quality Scores - Provides a better customer experience - Reduces the need for call backs - Decreases cost of service - Improves agent satisfaction - Increases profitability - Increases likelihood a customer will recommend - Increases customer loyalty Real-time and Speech Analytics Source: DMG Consulting LLC, November 2007 - Identifies the root cause of customer contacts, enabling the enterprise to resolve issues on a timely basis - Improves service quality and customer satisfaction - Improves the customer experience - Identifies training needs and reduces agent attrition - Reduces negative impact of operational issues - Increases revenue and profitability - Decreases the cost of sales and service - Improves public perception and builds brand - Reduces customer attrition and builds loyalty 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 5 - White Paper November 2007
Contact Center Analytics Empower Enterprises Getting Started with Analytics Contact center managers are expected to continuously expand their contribution to the enterprise s bottom line by increasing revenue generation and decreasing operating expenses. With the right tools and processes, these goals are attainable. The best practices below will help you get started with analytics. Identify a specific business problem or opportunity to address operational challenge, competitive situation, sales opportunity, quality issue, etc. (The analytics solution that you select may address a variety of needs, but your chances for success increase by concentrating on one area at time.) Create a cross-functional analytics project team with constituents from all impacted organizations. Schedule regular reviews and status meetings. Determine exactly what you want to improve and measure. Conduct a baseline analysis or assessment of the issue/opportunity, so that you can determine later on if you ve achieved your goal. Identify the appropriate analytics solution to address this challenge/opportunity. Undertake a selection process and choose the best vendor for the job. Start small, so that you can test the concept before spending a great deal of money. If appropriate, begin with a pilot. Assess the results of the initial implementation or pilot and compare them to your baseline analysis. Communicate the success of the initial implementation/pilot. Enterprises welcome effective solutions that can benefit other areas of the company. After proving the value of the application, obtain a sponsor to champion its roll-out. (If the application benefits another operating area, such as sales or marketing, obtain a sponsor from one of those groups. The broader the sponsorship, the better the chances for success.) With the support of the project champion, obtain funding and roll out the solution to the rest of the enterprise. As analytics is an iterative process, identify the next opportunity/challenge to address. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 6 - White Paper November 2007
Contact Center Analytics Empower Enterprises Final Thoughts Contact centers know more about customers than any other part of the enterprise. The simple reason is that customers share a tremendous amount of information about themselves with contact center agents when they call or email. The challenge is being able to capture and use this information on a timely basis. Classic and real-time analytical solutions give managers the tools to capture and apply the wealth of data in the contact center to enhance the customer experience and benefit the enterprise s bottom line. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 7 - White Paper November 2007
Contact Center Analytics Empower Enterprises About the Author Donna Fluss is the founder and President of DMG Consulting LLC, a firm specializing in contact centers and real-time analytics. Ms. Fluss is a recognized thought leader and innovator in CRM, contact center and real-time analytics. For over 23 years, she has helped end users build worldclass differentiated contact centers and vendors develop high-value solutions for the market. She is the author of the recently published book, The Real-Time Contact Center, and many leading industry reports, including the 2007 Contact Center Performance Management Report, the 2007 Speech Analytics Market Report, the 2007 Contact Center Surveying and Analytics Report, the 2007 Contact Center Surveying and Analytics Report, and the annual Quality Management/Liability Recording Product and Market Report. Donna s articles and columns are carried by publications around the world. More information is available at www.dmgconsult.com. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 8 - White Paper November 2007
Contact Center Analytics Empower Enterprises About the Sponsor Verint Witness Actionable Solutions Verint Witness Actionable Solutions was formed as a result of the company s successful combination with workforce optimization provider, Witness Systems. Verint Witness Actionable Solutions enables organizations to capture and analyze customer interactions, improve workforce performance and optimize service processes in contact center, branch, and back-office operations. With the industry s broadest portfolio of innovative solutions for customer service analytics, workforce optimization, quality monitoring/full-time recording, workforce management, elearning, performance management, and customer surveys, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions helps companies uncover business trends, discover the root cause of employee and customer behavior, and power the right decisions to help ensure service excellence and achieve continuous performance improvement across every aspect of customer operations. More information is available at www.verint.com. 2007 DMG Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. - 9 - White Paper November 2007