Contact centers in the United States these days is a huge industry, and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 12% by the year 2025 [1]. This growth means more and more businesses are looking for solutions and technology that will help them maintain their relationships with their customers and achieve actionable insights that will benefit the bottom line. And one solution that many are turning to is implementing speech analytics. In 2016, speech analytics adoption increased by 62%, and is expected to continue to grow in 2018 [1].
However, numerous businesses still do not consider implementing speech analytics to be a necessity in their contact centers, or they have a solution but are not taking full advantage of its uses. If you find yourself on the fence about speech analytics, or have it but are not utilizing it, here are some ways implementing speech analytics can be both a cost-saving and profit-making tool for your company.
Improve the Customer Experience by Implementing Speech Analytics
Even with all the options available to contact a company these days, the majority of people still prefer to use the telephone. A phone call allows for a higher degree of real-time interaction, which also means customers expect a higher degree of service. Remember, when it comes to successful business practices, ask not what your customer can do for you, but what you can do for your customer. Companies need to understand their customers not just on a marketable level, but an emotional level, as well. With speech analytics, agents can learn to identify specific words and phrases that may indicate what is most likely to connect with a customer, or when a call may be in danger of going off the rails so they can get things back on track. As a result, customers feel like the agent (and the company) really understands them, and are more apt to do business with said company. Not only that, but they will most likely be returning customers and tell their friends, which means even more business for a company.
Implementing Speech Analytics Will Provide Better Agent Training
All the intentions of offering a superior customer experience are futile if agents are not receiving the right training. Contact center agents are on the front lines each and every day, and an insufficiently trained agent can cost a business money in a number of ways. One way is when agents fail to adhere to script compliance, they open the company up to costly litigious actions, especially in heavily regulated industries. Speech analytics can detect when agents may be failing in compliance, and help them stay the course. Also, if agents do not know how to effectively handle specific questions or problems, it could lead to a disappointed customer – a customer who may not only fail to bring their business back, but could cost the company other customers, as well. Speech analytics provides agents with proven tools to successfully deal with any situation that may arise. Finally, speech analytics can help keep agents happy in their jobs, which reduces agent attrition, saving the company even more money.
Identify Sales and Marketing Opportunities
While the contact center is usually the first place businesses think to apply a speech analytics solution, it certainly shouldn’t be the only place. The truth is that all departments can benefit from speech analytics, particularly the sales and marketing departments. Speech analytics can help identify both cross and upsell opportunities, and give agents the information needed to know the best time during a phone conversation to make these pitches to ensure a positive customer reaction. Also, speech analytics can reveal unspoken customer desires when it comes to products and/or services, and allow companies to respond accordingly, giving the customers what they want, even without the customer having to specifically tell them. And when it comes to marketing, speech analytics can see which investments in terms of product development and advertising are yielding the most optimum ROI. As a result, businesses can make wiser decisions in the future on how their budgets are best spent.
Businesses that acquire a speech analytics solution and use it to implement improved business processes based on actionable data see real results. In fact, studies show that speech analytics can pay for itself in just three to nine months [2]. As the speech analytics market continues to grow, be sure your company isn’t falling behind.
Sources:
[1] https://www.satprnews.com/2018/03/26/future-of-speech-analytics-market-global-industry-insights-trends-outlook-and-forecast-till-2025/
[2] https://searchcrm.techtarget.com/report/Top-five-benefits-of-speech-analytics-for-the-call-center
