There are two options to improve the service of a call center: You can send all of your call center employees through an exhaustive law enforcement interrogation in which they will learn how to pick up on subtle, spoken clues so future customers can be helped in an efficient and timely manner. Or, you can use call center software that is programmed to pick up on keywords and phrases that help direct the caller to the person in the company who can provide the help needed.
If opting for the call center solution, this system should be a cloud-based speech analytics program that can help even if the caller is not exactly sure with whom he needs to speak.
For most customers, the call center is not the first attempt to fix whatever is not working correctly. Most customers attempt to fix things themselves by going online or reading the manual. Phone calls to the company are made only after the customer could not resolve the problem on his own. After the frustration of having a product that does not work properly, then not being able to fix things on their own, some people are not pleased that they need to call the company for help. Software analytics is an important way to add efficiency to the process so customers are satisfied sooner.
No matter why they called, it is important to get customers to their ultimate destinations quickly. Picking up on cues and words that determine with whom the caller should speak helps create a high-quality customer service interaction. Spending unnecessary time being transferred to the wrong department or being left on hold is unnecessary and wastes everyone's time.
Call recording is another important tool for call centers, and when this data is stored in the cloud, it is accessible indefinitely without taking up storage. Recordings can be valuable for later analysis of efficiencies or as a record when conflicts occur. They can also give comfort to managers that their employees are in compliance with federal, state, and company regulations, and can help evaluate how employees deal with customers.
Overall Benefits of Caller Analytics
When a customer calls with a problem, call center analytics software can direct him to the department or person who can help. Without the genius of analytics and its quality assurance, the options would be to take a message, hope the message is transcribed correctly, then givie it someone who can, maybe, call the customer back with advice about how to fix the issue. With analytics in charge of transferring customers based on verbal cues, the problem could be fixed during the initial phone call.
Call center analytics can also tell which callers attempted to fix their problems on their own by picking up certain keywords that the operator might not recognize. With analytics, the company can see if the manual or Web site should be updated so people can fix problems themselves. The agent who answers the phone can focus on the customer, not on keywords; the computer does that.
Problems with quality in manufactured products can be discovered and often fixed in near real time. Analytics can look for patterns and find problems in how something was constructed, in materials, or even packaging or shipping, then, management can create patches if needed or make subsequent models better. If a problem is with installation, management can direct people in the field to fix it during installation. Field reps can solve problems faster. They can warn clients that a problem could occur. These things make clients trust the people in the field more, which makes it easier for them to do their jobs.
Call center software with cloud-based speech analytics allows businesses to make customers happy, even in unhappy circumstances. Even when things are not going well, a customer who is treated well and can fix the problem is more likely to return.
Jeanne Landau is director of marketing at CallFinder.