How great would it be to have the ability to analyze each call that comes into your contact center to gain real-time insights into what is working and what is not? That is no longer a pipe dream. With the emergence of speech analytics powered by natural language processing, it’s a modern reality.
Speech analytics software examines data gathered from communications between contact center agents and customers and provides direct insight into the voice of the customer.
These tools allow contact center managers and agents to closely analyze every single call that comes in and provide real-time data for quality assurance without the need to manually evaluate calls. Ultimately, speech analytics provides contact centers with a better understanding of how certain interactions can be improved.
Here are some specific benefits of implementing speech analytics for your contact center.
What are “speech analytics”?
Speech analytics is a form of conversation intelligence: the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze voice conversations. This technology analyzes tone of voice based on word choice, conversation themes, customer and agent sentiment, and more. What’s even better, speech analytics can be provided in real time to solve problems in the moment instead of on follow-up.
We bet you can already see how this kind of AI can improve customer service. Let’s dig in deeper to find some specific benefits for your contact center.
6 benefits of speech analytics for contact centers
There are tons of ways that speech analytics can help improve your contact center. Here are just six of our top benefits:
- Improve overall service quality
- Get deeper customer experience insights with sentiment analysis
- Identify upsell opportunities
- Reduce noncompliance risk in regulated fields
- Cut back on supervisor micromanaging
- Fix problems in the moment with real-time analytics
1. Improve overall service quality
Speech analytics software can assess all communications in a contact center in real time, enabling contact center supervisors to keep close tabs on agent-customer interactions and monitor agent effectiveness more closely.
Using speech analytics can also improve the outcome of initial calls and reduce operational and performance issues that sometimes occur in contact centers. Paying attention to speech analytics helps agents “get on the same page” as customers, which ultimately increases the resolution rate of first calls and thereby reduces overall call volume. In turn, this can alleviate the stresses that overwhelmed agents may face, especially during peak call times. Agents are happier, and customers are more satisfied with their interactions with the contact center.
2. Get deeper customer experience insights with sentiment analysis
A main priority of contact centers is optimizing customer experience through a reduction in repeat calls and average call time. With the implementation of speech analytics, contact center supervisors can access insights into the reasons for repeated contact center calls. Identifying the fundamental cause of various issues is key to improving the operations of a contact center.
With such information in hand, contact center supervisors can pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t and make improvements and changes accordingly.
3. Identify upsell opportunities
Contact centers may be able to use speech analytics to identify opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to boost revenues. This software may also pinpoint the types of responses that specific customer demographics provide and make changes or improvements as necessary. Contact center speech analytics can help agents and supervisors create customized upsell or cross-sell tactics that are designed to target each customer’s needs.
4. Reduce noncompliance risk in regulated fields
There are regulations that are put in place to ensure that agents do not infringe on the privacy of customers, but over the course of an agent’s duties, breaches may occur.
With speech analytics, agents are provided with real-time data to make sure they stay on track and avoid saying or asking anything that would be considered outside the scope of regulatory compliance. The software can track all calls and alert agents when they veer too far off the script.
For instance, real-time speech analytics will alert an agent if a certain keyword or phrase is uttered that may go against compliance rules. In turn, agents can immediately correct themselves. By preventing non-compliance, contact centers can avoid stiff fines that may come with failure to adhere to industry regulations.
Further, unnecessary callbacks can be prevented and certain processes can be automated to reduce the need for overstaffing. Speech analytics provides one more way for contact centers to run a more cost-effective operation that protects their bottom line.
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5. Cut back on supervisor micromanaging
Speech analytics can ensure that supervisors are more productive on the job without having to spend a lot of time manually coaching each call. Instead, they can take a more broad role in assessing how calls are handled.
The automated assessments provided by speech analytics can help supervisors identify where help is needed on the call floor without spending too much time with each individual agent.
6. Fix problems in the moment with real-time analytics
Measuring call quality and customer experience is a crucial metric in every contact center. Though collecting this information and assessing it after-the-fact is certainly helpful, nothing beats real-time data and assessment.
Real-time speech analytics can be used while a call is being handled to give agents guidance needed to make necessary improvements to the interaction on the spot.
For instance, agents may be offered an appropriate response to a query or be prompted for the next actionable step. They may also be reminded to read over current legal disclaimers. These tools may also alert a supervisor that an agent may be in need of assistance.
Rather than allowing errors to take place and fixing them afterward, real-time speech analytics helps rectify any issues immediately. Ultimately, this leads to optimal agent efficiency, improved customer experience, and better business outcomes.
Speech analytics software joins the ever-growing landscape of digital tools available to contact centers to improve customer experience, keep agents engaged in their work, boost company revenues, and keep operational costs low. Streamlining contact center operations is key to competing as an effective and profitable contact center, and digital technology has become a must-have in that endeavor.
RingCentral offers cloud-based software to help contact centers meet these needs. Our solutions are designed to make messaging, video conferencing, and telephone communication easier and more flexible for contact centers.
Level up your CX game with speech analytics
RingCentral was the first to launch AI-powered conversation intelligence in 2022 before anyone else. Find out how our AI-powered contact center platform can improve customer experience and keep your agents happy and onboard.
Get in touch with a customer representative from RingCentral today and request your free demo.
Originally published Mar 04, 2022, updated Jan 08, 2024
