Fostering a great relationship with customers is essential to every organization, and always has been. That’s not something that’s going to change, either. What is changing— and constantly at that—is the toolbox we have to work with.
The best call center software gives us many new avenues for interacting with our customers, but it also provides more than just the ability to directly communicate; it also provides us with tools to analyze those communications and interactions.
Call center software analytics have evolved significantly over the past five years. In fact, they’ve improved and expanded so much that many organizations are unaware of the incredible benefits offered by the most recent software. Call center software analytics can be used to analyze customers’ voices to assess their moods and to drill down into consumer data to take note of purchase patterns and changes to them.
Why is Call Center Software Analytics Important?
An organization’s effective use of call center software and analytics can improve its interactions with customers by anticipating their needs in advance and by providing them with more personalized and efficient service. Being able to boost agent performance with contact center reporting using KPIs, hold times, and first-call resolution rates can increase the close rates of leads for your company. Call center software analytics can provide valuable insight into where your staff may be having trouble with calls and help provide them further support.
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Call Center Software Analytics Types
There are numerous different types of contact center solutions as well as call center software with analytics, and the list is getting longer all the time. Each of these offers unique benefits and opportunities for improvement. Some of the most important are:
Voice and Speech Analytics
Voice and speech analytic applications can be used to monitor not only customers or clients but also to analyze your call center employees’ performance. Are employees following policies and provided scripts? How are customers reacting to your policies? This type of data in call tracking software can increase conversions and improve the call experience.
Today’s organizations can use contact center speech analytics to detect stress or emotional reactions from the client through the tone and intonation of the voice. Such information about customer reactions can be valuable to determine call script effectiveness and help update the call scripts more effectively.
And, of course, there’s the informational content in the calls themselves that can be tracked in call center software: what problems are cropping up frequently? What issues are agents resolving quickly, and which are presenting them with difficulty? As the ability to mine this data via speech analytics improves, the need for manual reporting decreases—which means less time spent on paperwork and more time spent on developing successful strategies for improvement.
Text Analytics
Much as voice analytics can be used to mine data from phone calls, text analytics can be used to mine and analyze the information received in client and customer emails, online chats, and other communications. With the rapid growth of social media and more accessible ways to communicate with customers, it is very important to mind the language used in calls.
A call center analytics comparison can distill vast amounts of data to give your organization a better understanding of your customer’s wants and needs, which you can then use as a guide for improvement.
Desktop Analytics
While many of the analytical applications used in the call center software focus primarily on identifying issues related to customers, desktop analytics generally aim to provide the company with information about their agents, their agents’ efficiency, and their overall performance.
By analyzing how your agents are using their terminals, you manage customer experience effectively and strategize workflow improvements and process changes that lead to more efficient resolutions for your customers and higher morale for your employees. One way desktop analytics can help is by identifying repetitive tasks and suggesting automated solutions to free up your employee’s time.
Predictive Analytics
Call center software is an important technology because predictive analytics can improve your call center and help your company forecast frequent problems and solutions for them. For example, if you have noticed a steady increase in call center activity during the winter holidays, predictive analytics can help manage the increased load by allocating more staff during the holidays. Predictive analytics can also provide historical data regarding current problems and help find solutions to such frequent queries.
Self-Service Analytics
One of the most difficult things for call centers to face is being overwhelmed by the sheer number of clients contacting them. Sometimes, this is because there are issues regarding the center’s efficiency, agents’ performance, or problems with the product or service itself that need to be addressed. But in other cases, the client contact is desirable and agents are performing as efficiently as possible.
One way to reduce the pressure is by encouraging customers to use self-service call center software solutions (like online tools, interactive automated receptionists, etc.). Self-service analytics help to identify customer pain points related to your self-service offerings—what annoys them? What discourages them? What issues aren’t being resolved? Improvements to your company’s customer self-service tools “trickle-down” to benefit your call center software as well. Self-service analytics in call center software can also help direct you in a direction to reduce overhead costs related to customer service.
The Importance of Data Analytics in Call Center Software
We’re in a technological era that has given organizations unprecedented access to data in a form that can be better understood through the use of analytical applications such as call center software. In many cases, this information is already being collected and recorded, and companies are simply unaware of how beneficial call center analytics can be and are missing out on significant ways in which they can improve their call centers and customer service.
Call center software will already include a call center analytics dashboard as part of the service package which means you just have to pay attention to analytics reports to understand how things are usually handled in your contact center.
Just a few years ago, these types of call center software analytics were considered to be revolutionary, but as more companies adopt approaches that include the use of these applications, they become increasingly necessary for maintaining a competitive edge. Comparing the best call center software can help you explore the benefits and products available to help your organization move ahead of the competition.