November 18, 2015
Those who work in or manage a call center are already well aware of the value of data. It’s one of this year’s buzzwords, and that buzz is only getting louder.
And while a new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (News – Alert)) Although a supposed breakthrough in the study of data was recently touted, sticking to the basics will also yield strong results.
That’s the gist of a recent blog from Annette Miesbach, product marketing manager at inContact, a leading provider of cloud-based call center solutions. She cited MIT’s announcement that the university is working on removing the human element from big data analysis.
“Their new system—[a] ‘Data Science Machine’—not only searches for patterns in data, but also determines which features of the data to scrutinize so that the data analysis has predictive value,” Miesbach wrote. “This selection process has required human intuition and experience. While MIT’s results are amazing, I believe the contact center’s ‘human touch’ will continue to be needed well into the future.”
Her point is well taken, as human intuition is valuable when analyzing data—something that machines have not yet mastered.
To that end, Miesbach highlighted some solutions from inContact designed to help call centers better understand callers and their needs. These improvements include:
- Access to data based on a different summarization methodology—the company’s “Contact Start” paradigm. “This summarization method is frequently used for auditing and third-party billing. And choosing the paradigm that’s right for your report is easy—just a mouse click,” she notes.
- New Personal Connection data model: This new data model provides access to metrics directly related to outbound dialing list management. Inbound and outbound, all in one convenient, intuitive tool.
- API-based access to both real-time and historical reporting: This option provides full access to contact records directly from a contact ID via easy-to-use API calls. “Furthermore, the API calls contain the complete contact information in both real-time formats for active contacts and historical formats for completed contacts,” she writes.
- A new IVR Press Path report in Central provides permission-based access to 90 days of history within a 30-day window. It also includes filtering options, Miesbach adds.
In short, while MIT’s efforts are impressive, similar results can be achieved by letting your employees do what they’re best trained to do.