Finding those disgruntled callers...automatically

Contact center supervisors are now using Speech Analytics to automate the process of identifying the calls they really want to listen to.

With some centers recording 10s of 1000s of calls per day, the process of finding the calls was like trying to find the needle in the proverbial haystack.

 The process was made simpler if the contact center agent tagged the call, or if the supervisor knew details about the call - customer name, caller id or agent name, you could then cross-reference a query against those call details, if your system had that information.

Customers now can have all of their recorded calls processed and "listened to".

By creating a category of specific keyword phrases, such as "Disgruntled Callers", the query can be run against the index of analyzed calls and matches can be displayed on screen in seconds.

 What kind of keyword phrases could you use to identify "Disgruntled Callers"?

 "speak to a supervisor"
"mad as hell"
"cancel my service"
"not very happy"
"have to call again"
"need a refund"
"just doesn't work"
"same old runaround"
"find a better deal"
"getting angry"
"HULK SMASH"...and so on.

 There are many different types of speech analytics systems, but they can usually be broken down into two categories: The “Dictionary” based and the “Phonetic” based.

The dictionary-based systems require users to define words and phrases in advance so the speech engine can look for or “spot” those words as the engine is analyzing the audio.

The “Phonetic Based Indexing Engines” are much faster and don't require you to program words in advance.

Our solution, "Virtual Observer Call Insight" is a phonetic-based, enterprise-class Speech Analytics solution that is simple, effective and affordable enough for contact centers of all sizes.

Call Insight provides the ability to receive important search results in real-time within our web-based interface.

Automating the call scoring process with speech analytics

Speech analytics used to be a big, intimidating, expensive undertaking, offered only by the call recording industry giants.

Now we've seen 8 or more other call recording vendors release their version of speech analytics.

Almost all of them have decided to invest in a technology from the UK rather than developing their own product - including my company, CSI.

It's a good business decision -- why reinvent the wheel when an existing, proven technology is out there with OEM / white label availability. Saves time and resources.

Some of the call recording companies have decided to just go to war with the same out-of-the-box vanilla features which come with the API.

A few, like CSI, have fully integrated the speech engine within their own optimization suite.

Some have taken it a step further and created unique, differentiating features. One such feature is the automated scoring feature from Virtual Observer Call Insight.

As soon as a call is indexed by the phonetic speech engine, Call Insight scores the call based on scoring forms built by the customer.

10,000 calls recorded on tuesday? 10,000 calls are scored.

It's pretty dramatic when compared to a live supervisor, who can score, maybe, 30 calls a day. Of course, you'll still want to use a supervisor to evaluate your most important calls. The speech technology can also help you more efficiently identify which calls are those "most important calls".

The automated scoring process works best in a script adherence format, where questions can be answered with either a true/false or yes/no type of answer. Most existing scripts can be refashioned into workable scripts for Call Insight to do it's thing.

It's extremely powerful for telemarketers, who are typically script-driven to begin with, but as we're seeing with more and more different types of implementations, it can be applied in many different industries across many different types of contact centers.

8 ways Speech Analytics can help your organization ramp up call center quality

It's a given that Speech Analytics has good buzz, but let's step back a second before we assume everyone understands what Speech can do for you.

Different people interpret Speech technologies in different ways. Speech is being used in more and more diverse applications every day.

For purposes of this post, we're speaking of Speech Analytics for the call center, where recorded calls are indexed by a speech engine and then made available for search and reporting.
Here are eight ways Speech Analytics can impact your quality process, in no particular order:

* Improve agent script adherence: Modify imperfect agent processes by quickly finding instances where agents have used slang ("Umm", "Err", "Yo", etc.)

* Flag important calls for evaluation: Highlight calls where customers have mentioned a competitor's name.

* Fine tune your training programs: Identify trends in the types of calls your center is receiving: are they sales calls or support calls? Allocate your training resources appropriately.

* Increase First Call Resolution (FCR): Find out which callers have called in about the same issue more than once.

*  Reduce Average Handle Time (AHT): Discover process improvements as Speech Analytics reveals new insights into how agents respond to common questions. Some agents may be making the same mistakes over and over again. A simple speech search on the response will show exactly how many times it was used.

* Identify trends in customer displeasure: By grouping together keyword phrases which may indicate displeasure ("I'm not happy", "not working", "your service sucks") and instantly see how many calls match this category.

* Ensure compliance: Create a search using agent-trained trigger phrases such as "credit card number" or "social security number" to identify calls where sensitive data may be spoken and recorded. This has direct impact for Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance in particular. Someone tasked with removing these types of media or the specific data in question will appreciate a view where they can just see a list of calls which match this particular query.

* Fine tune your marketing campaigns: By creating search categories using your product names, brand names, ad slogans, and other keyword phrases, you can analyze emerging call trends on what's hot and what's not among all of your campaigns.

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Enhancing Quality Monitoring with Speech Analytics

We are pleased to officially announce our Speech Analytics suite as an integrated feature in the Virtual Observer call recording and quality optimization solution.

We have partnered with Aurix to leverage their phonetic-based speech engine, offering CSI customers the ability to enhance their quality monitoring processes with phonetic speech analytics features such as automatic call scoring and automatic call tagging.

You can read more about the strategic partnership with Aurix and more about our Speech Analytics features on our website.

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