The contact center industry has also evolved over time, with many organizations significantly expanding their use of on-premises or cloud software, CRM platforms and data analytics solutions that help streamline business processes and improve performance.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at how to best use technology to gather data-driven insights that allow you to achieve business objectives.

Using data to increase customer service performance

Data. Data. Data. At times, it feels that the ultimate goal in business is to generate as much information as possible about your customers, industry and business environment. This can be quite a challenge when you consider how quickly customer preferences and the competitive landscape can change – sometimes evolving overnight!

Not having access to real-time data analytics that provide insight into important business metrics such as revenue, CSAT, customer loyalty, attrition, and whatever you’re trying to measure is no longer an option, but… Managers are frequently overwhelmed by the amount of data that can be collected, which is one reason why many businesses struggle to improve their metrics. They just don’t know what to focus on!

The ability to use data insights effectively has become a top priority and a major competitive advantage. Many companies are using business intelligence software tools that collect and analyze business performance information in real-time to help them make informed business decisions based on the latest customer trends, sales numbers, and industry developments.

Having access to such high-quality information about customer service performance, product/service satisfaction and other business sentiments also provide valuable insights into how a business is performing from the perspective of its customers. In fact, most businesses today understand that they need to focus on delivering an outstanding customer experience to be a successful growth-minded business – making data that much more valuable.

Make Informed decisions

To streamline business processes and boost metrics, data provides contact centers with the ability to create business performance dashboards that help them make informed business decisions based on actual data – not hypotheses. The real key is to collect accurate, scalable and dependable information about business metrics that impact your goals, objectives and growth drivers – such as customer service satisfaction (CSAT), 360-degree feedback reports, agent engagement levels, business performance, etc.

Here’s an example of how businesses are using data effectively to improve customer service performance – An online retailer systematically collects feedback from their customers about specific customer journey processes or transactions, such as a recent purchase that they made through the company website. This type of feedback – both positive or negative – allows managers to gather business performance information from actual customers that when properly analyzed and measured against benchmarks, can lead to improved business processes that boost overall customer service levels.

In addition, when you have access to contact center process data that is analyzed in real-time, your team can make informed decisions about their specific roles – such as how they can best help a specific customer persona or improve the actual process to better accommodate the customer or even the agent.

And it’s all because of big data

You’re wasting any chance of creating memorable customer experiences if you only collect data to use it for seasonal or occasional purposes. Sometimes referred to as BIG DATA – large, unstructured and time-sensitive information – should be collected from all your customer channels, at all times:

• Live agent interaction (voice)
• Website
• SMS
• Chat
• Email
• Social media

Big data can be used to generate highly accurate models that can conduct real-world simulations to estimate expected sales volume, expected customer satisfaction and more.

Let’s take a look at how a few key data-driven technologies are helping the contact center become more efficient and support their underlining objectives.

Business Intelligence Tools

Customer data alone does not boost company growth and performance – because it’s not the data, but what you do with the data! That’s where business intelligence tools come in.

Business intelligence (BI) tools are business software solutions that provide real-time business insights delivering accurate and timely visibility into what is happening inside your organization, so you can make optimal business-critical decisions.

BI is a term used to describe the technology, applications and processes for collecting, analyzing and sharing information with business leaders.

BI helps companies stay laser-focused on their strengths by increasing business process performance and improving business outcomes, while also empowering their employees with real-time data insights to make informed business decisions in support of company goals.

BI tools can also help business leaders identify business opportunities and risks by providing a holistic view of the business from the perspective of key business performance metrics – such as sales trends, product/service satisfaction (NPS), CSAT scores, agent engagement levels, etc.

After all… the more you know about your business, your customers and how they perform, the better business decisions you can make as you plan for growth and business success.

As previously stated, there’s no shortage of data. Mostly, the problem lies in being able to generate and collect business performance information that’s accurate and dependable – at scale. By using business intelligence software tools such as KPI scorecards (customer experience scoring), contact centers can easily identify customer service trends and quickly address issues.

Automation and integration for seamless processes

The demand for 24/7, 7 days a week customer support – delivered when and where needed, requires that businesses adopt greater automation and AI integrations to meet customer and market expectations. Seamless automation and AI-powered solutions provide your agents with the critical tools to complete tasks more effectively and efficiently. Whether it’s automated business process applications, chatbots, voicebots or virtual assistants – the integration of AI and automation work in unison to deliver an exceptional customer experience, while easing the strain placed on agent demand.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered tools are becoming more widely adopted in business settings to deliver better business outcomes through improved collaboration, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness for all employees. The rise of intelligent systems is driving greater business empowerment and business growth.

• Increased productivity ultimately improves business outcomes by freeing up valuable employee time, while allowing them to focus on what matters most.
• Improved customer satisfaction and business results through effective problem-solving.
• Enhanced business growth by arming managers with the right data to make more informed business decisions and empower greater business outcomes.

Speech analytics, also powered by artificial intelligence is one of many technology tools that can be used to achieve higher-valued information from voice interactions across multiple channels (voice, chat, SMS, social media).

Contact centers are challenged with how to gather business intelligence from the sea of voice interactions created by their customers. With these challenges come new opportunities for contact centers looking to grow and expand. To keep up, businesses need a view into what is happening across all channels in real-time – something that can only be achieved through technology that is scalable and flexible.

Let’s dive deeper into speech analytics.

Speech Analytics Software

To achieve greater customer service quality control, contact center organizations are using speech analytics software to analyze live and/or recorded customer interactions, paying close attention to the interpretation of emotional signals.

Speech analytics is a technology solution that provides business insights across all communication channels – allowing companies to make better business decisions by gaining valuable insight into the customer’s needs, wants and expectations. Contact centers use speech analytics software tools powered by machine learning algorithms to automatically transcribe customer interactions from voice, business applications, social media and other communication channels.

Though speech analytics solutions employ artificial intelligence (AI) generated voice recognition technology to analyze language, much like voice recognition solutions, they take it one step further by also analyzing the customer’s human emotions that may provide significant insight into the overall interaction performance.

Customer-focused call centers use these technologies to identify and detect when their customers are agitated, angry or dissatisfied, allowing them to respond in real-time and take this data to continuously improve well beyond the initial interaction. This information derived from conversations is used to gain more business intelligence on customers – uncovering patterns in customer interactions that would otherwise remain hidden. This knowledge of how customers interact with your company allows you to make better decisions for future growth by knowing what is working well and where opportunities remain.

Speech analytics solutions can:

• Record customer calls
• Analyze voice calls in real-time
• Provide insight into the emotional state of the customer
• Monitor agent interactions and performance
• Keep an archive of recorded calls

Generally, a main feature in quality recording applications, speech analytics delivers a library of call recordings (or other interactions for a wide range of customer channels) that can be viewed, sorted and analyzed.

Speech analytics can also be used to monitor business processes and improve business performance. By looking at data from multiple business processes, contact centers can generate better business insights that drive continuous improvements across the customer experience.

Speech analytics software also helps businesses improve productivity by helping agents monitor their own performance – giving them immediate feedback on calls and the opportunity for coaching and training when problem areas are identified or growth opportunities are established.

Using data to support growth and business objectives

Your customers want to connect with your business across a range of channels, including digital and self-service – especially during this pandemic – where there is a greater need for an enhanced omnichannel customer experience.

Contact centers are compelled to reconsider their processes, operations and the technology tools they use as new operating and customer service models force management to examine their metrics to increase customer loyalty and their bottom lines. Maintaining a good client experience while adapting to a changing market, necessitates the adoption of technologies that align with company objectives.

As business objectives continue to shift, the tools used by contact centers must be able to accommodate these changes and help you gain enhanced insight into your customers – ultimately allowing you to deliver an improved customer experience that drives loyalty and profitability.

Not sure where to start? Count on our team to assist in implementing the tools required to gather data, and perhaps more importantly, help you define and determine the metrics that should be analyzed (based on your organization’s needs), while also helping you better manage change and evolution through data-driven insight.