July 10, 2015
As every call to a contact center becomes increasingly important, it’s worthwhile for companies to constantly seek out new advantages.
Those incoming calls are more than just a conversation between two people: They can provide a wealth of information about the caller and serve as a learning tool not only for the employee answering the phone but also for their colleagues and supervisors. A single call can yield a trove of data that can be analyzed, sorted, and categorized in numerous ways.
One method that is being used more frequently is analytics software, a product used to—as its name implies—analyze calls to extract valuable data.
Call center leader inContact recently posted a blog from one of its partner companies, CallMiner (News – Alert). The post by CallMiner's Jason Napierski showed just how much this field is growing.
“In today’s digital world, it would be easy to assume that emerging communication channels (social media, mobile, web chat, etc.) will eventually eclipse traditional channels such as the telephone,” he wrote. “Research, for example, shows that the social customer relationship management market is set to experience explosive growth over the next several years.”
But Napierski cited last year's U.S. Contact Center Decision-Makers’ Guide, which showed that traditional channels still hold a prominent position.
“The message is that channels aren’t being replaced—even letters will continue to be supported—but rather augmented,” the report noted. “Businesses have to accept that they need to develop an ‘omnichannel’ approach, as that’s what their customers are doing. This means that the pressure to unify the view of the customer across channels is a challenge that isn’t going to go away.”
So the solution would be for companies to adopt ‘multichannel analytics,’ Napierski said, outlining some of the reasons behind his thinking. Namely:
Cross-platform data capture: “Because the best multichannel customer experiences are those that provide a seamless transition between channels, it’s critical to capture customer conversations across channels,” he wrote. “Without doing so, companies risk damaging the overall customer experience.”
Historical context: Developing a single view of the customer isn’t just about capturing and analyzing data—it also involves using that data to deliver an engaging and personalized customer experience. “Consumers increasingly expect companies to leverage this type of historical context,” Napierski notes.
Customer journey: “It’s not uncommon for customers to use multiple channels to resolve a single issue, especially when they need immediate action on a pressing matter,” he says. “For this reason, agents need to make sure they understand the entire customer journey to uncover the root cause of issues and determine the best way to resolve them. The end result? A more satisfied agent and a better experience for the customer.”
To read the full blog post and learn more about how multichannel analytics software can work to your advantage, click HERE.