Speech-Analytics in the News – Capture the Voice of the Customer

Companies throughout multiple industries claim they capture and understand the voice of the customer. However, in order to know if they really are focused on this information, they have to dig deeper into how they gather feedback and manage relationships. Is speech analytics in place to truly capture the voice, or are they simply asking “yes” and “no” questions, leading the customer into agreement?

This recent opinion piece in the U.K.’s The Drum, stresses how easy it is to find evidence of broken relationships between organizations and their customers. When an organization is on the receiving end of criticism, complaints and even official investigations, it’s obvious they aren’t using speech analytics to truly capture – and listen to – the voice of the customer.

The proliferation of social networks to gather and share information makes it increasingly possible, if not probable, that a customer issue can quickly grow into brand damage if not addressed quickly. It is up to the organization to use speech analytics to contain these issues before they go social, capturing feedback over the phone, through e-mails and text messages and then using that information to improve performance.

The contact center could easily be described as the  hidden goldmine for using speech analytics and truly capturing the voice of the customer. These company divisions are responsible for thousands of interactions with customers every day, yet only a small portion actually use speech analytics to capture customer feedback and implement that information into the CRM system.

Call recording systems can also provide a source for speech analytics and valuable information. Such interactions offer unsolicited feedback from thousands of customers regarding what is working and what is not when it comes to products and services. When analyzed thoroughly with speech analytics, the true voice of the customer is revealed.

A recent customer service survey by CCA and sponsored by Verint  (News – Alert) found that only one in five businesses are satisfied that they are actually using their customer data to its full potential. The majority of the CCA respondents believe they could gain more insight from the customer service data they hold; captured with speech analytics, an 82 percent agreed that insights captured from customer interactions could influence products throughout the company.

The study also identified a disconnect between customer service and the rest of the business as fewer than half of respondents agreed that management understood customer service. Only 49 percent of executive compensation was linked to customer satisfaction rates. Plus, one in three respondents was unable to quantify the savings in financial terms of a 10 percent reduction in the volume of calls taken by the contact center.

If your company or organization already has access to customer interactions via live monitoring or customer interaction recordings, it’s critical to use speech analytics to capture the voice of the customer and use it for the value it represents.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf

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