Q: It has come to our attention that we may have some compliance issues within our company. While we are recording a high volume of calls, we are unable to listen to all of them. We would like to understand how we could leverage speech analytics to uncover hidden information in our audio. For example, we would like to uncover inappropriate agent requests or responses and report and react to these breaches swiftly. Are we on the right track by pursuing this technology?
-- Concerned About Compliance in California

A: Dear Concerned about Compliance,
Compliance is a tricky word that can send some executives running for the hills, or more likely, to their CIOs and CFOs. There are countless pieces of legislation regulating how business is done, but also what privacy laws should protect when it comes to personal data.

Let me describe a few hypothetical scenarios for you that outline the value of speech analytics.

1) A company has reason to suspect too much personal, identifying information of a specific customer was requested by an agent during a routine call. How can the company verify whether or not this has happened, and if it did, how it happened so the mistake is not repeated?

2) A company has noticed an increase in the amount of calls requesting information on billing status. This information is available online, and has been for several years, so what is causing the up tick?

3) A company would like to know how effective it is for their call center agents to ask callers if they are positive they would like to cancel their order and if taking an extra 20 seconds to discuss their problem would decrease the amount of cancellations.

All of the companies in the preceding scenarios would benefit from speech analytics technology. Companies have been recording calls for decades, but their methods of retrieving this data is very manual -- people would sit and listen to individual calls, trying to piece together information based on the sampling of recordings available to them. Now, software can review, analyze and report on the same recorded data in an exponentially shorter time and provide much more detailed and helpful analysis.

The company in the first scenario used speech analytics technology to review calls handled within a certain time frame for key customer data points by agent. In this way, users narrowed the scope of the area in which they were working, allowing them to determine if data were in fact revealed. If this was the case, they should be able to determine how it happened, and by which agent, and if corrective measures were necessary.

The company in the second scenario had no idea why there was an increase in questions pertaining to billing. However, they used speech analytics technology to evaluate all of these billing-related calls and were able to find the source of the problem. Searches revealed most customers knew they could find the answer to their billing question online, but suddenly, that Web page wasn’t as easy to access. It turns out the company had restructured the Web site and the page so many were referring to was moved deeper into the site.

The third scenario shows this company was willing to go the extra mile to keep their customers. After using speech analytics technology, they determined the rate of cancellations declined significantly if the call center representative spoke with the customer for at least 20 seconds longer about the problems they were having.

Concerned, you are on the right track. Just know what you are looking for.


Q: We worry about customer retention. We would like to know if our agents have the proper tools to address customer concerns or promote new products/services and how our call center metrics are impacting customer retention. Any ideas?
-- Nervous in Nashville


A: Dear Nervous,
The most important step in retaining your key customers is to evaluate your customer service team to make sure they are properly trained and prepared for the most common scenarios, but you also must be sure they have the necessary tools and knowledge when faced with something extraordinary.
The exchange between an agent and a customer represents the story of the business itself. The resulting information can be a primary driver for business initiatives. The key is to take the data you have hopefully recorded and mine them for insights into your business. The story is there. You just have to listen for it.