The Beginner’s Guide to Speech Analytics Technology

In the call center environment, it’s critical to drive operational excellence at all times – especially with today’s consumer becoming more discerning than ever before.  Recent consumer surveys, in fact, show that just one poor customer service experience can result in the demise of even the longest-standing customer relationship.

So what’s the best way to gain powerful market and voice of the customer insights, leading to improved agent performance and a better customer experience overall?

Speech analytics is one solution.

Speech Analytics: What Is It?

While there isn’t one definitive speech analytics definition – each company will leverage the technology in ways that are appropriate for that particular organization – there are core components of the software.

Speech analytics is typically comprised of a speech engine that converts speech to data, an indexing layer that makes it searchable, a query and search user interface to allow the user to define requirements and carry out searches, and reporting applications to present the analytics.

According to Donna Fluss, President of DMG Consulting, speech analytics can help call centers achieve four primary goals: reducing operating expenses, providing outstanding customer experiences, increasing revenue, and reducing customer attrition.  Fluss also estimates that the ROI of speech analytics can be realized in as little as nine months after implementation, making the benefits far outweigh the costs. Another huge benefit of speech analytics is mitigating regulatory compliance risk and fines.

Key Questions to Ask When Evaluating Speech Analytics

When evaluating speech analytics software, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of solutions available.  Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to speech analytics, but asking the right kind of questions can help companies identify the right solutions to meet their needs.

Consider the following questions:

• What does the organization hope to achieve with a speech analytics solution?
• Can the speech analytics platform be used to build a single view of the customer?
• Does the solution offer speech analytics in real time?
• How quickly can the data mined be translated into actionable insights?
• How does the solution integrate with existing recording technology?
• Does the solution offer easy-to-read reporting dashboards for purposes of agent training?

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but rather meant to give businesses an idea of the kinds of questions to ask when evaluating speech analytics solution offerings.  Additional considerations may include how the technology helps (specifically) with agent performance improvements, regulatory compliance, and contact center efficiency overall.

How to Get Started with Speech Analytics

After a business makes the decision to invest in speech analytics technology and selects the appropriate software to meet its individual needs, the question is: What comes next?

To move from purchase to product installation to a live operation, it’s a good idea to work with an organization that has a startup services package included as part of its overall software package.  CallMiner, for example, offers standard implementation services for our software (project management, installation, technical configuration, testing, and analytics tuning), as well as optional implementation services, which include additional support (best practices, process development, and agent coaching).

The point is to invest in a vendor solution that will provide technical capabilities, in addition to extensive support and training on how best to use the technology.

Final Thoughts

The decision to invest in speech analytics technology should not be taken lightly.  By giving due time and consideration to the right type of software to meet individual business needs, companies stand to reap the benefits of improved agent performance and a better customer experience overall.

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