Data accumulated through both structured (transactional data collected in call center and CRM applications) and unstructured sources (such as voice recordings, call notes and other ad hoc interactions) can provide a gateway for individual performance enhancement. This proposition was revealed by Aberdeen (News - Alert) Group, a Harte-Hanks in a recent press release.

The group presented a paper, “Unlocking Business Intelligence in the Contact Center,” arguing that through operational intelligence, contact center agents can comprehend performance indicators such as customer satisfaction, first call resolution, SLA compliance, and customer churn/customer retention — and consequently act on the information gathered within time.

 The study was conducted by focusing on the methods adopted by top performing companies to use operational intelligence in order to improve their contact center functioning. Compiled in 26 pages, the research findings revealed forceful facts based on the interviews conducted with more than 70 companies.

Aberdeen's research found:

• Sixty-two percent of top performing respondents to the study apply call center intelligence to customer communications.
• Fifty percent of the top performing respondents to the study are enabling operational business intelligence.

"Speech analytics provides a deeper variation in the data and better understanding of what is actually driving repeat calls. How can the contact center agent reduce repeat callers and increase first call resolution? The answers to these questions are well aligned with the deployment of a speech analytics solution," said Gaurav Patil, research analyst and author of the study. “Utilization of speech analytics in the contact center can better serve the agents to help identify the gender of the speaker, the emotional character of the speaker, the topics being discussed by the caller, or whether the caller asked a question or made a statement during the conversation with the agent."

The finding is going to help a several companies especially the emerging ones that are struggling to upscale their performance, to identify the problem areas and thereby work out a remedy to counter the same.

Rahul Arora is a TMCnet contributor. He has worked as an editor and freelance writer for several reputed organizations in India. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf