Call Center Management Featured Article
The Benefits of Customer Analytics Go Beyond the Customer Relationship
We all know that the purpose of the contact center is to be there to resolve customer issues and answer questions. Customers today expect more and more of the companies they do business with, so the providing a top notch customer experience is a must for any company that wants to win and keep customers. Increasingly, contact centers are using analytics to achieve this aim. Using analytics to collect both structured and unstructured data – from phone conversations to e-mails to social media to buying habits – companies are better positioned to customize the experience for each customer. Analytics, however, can have a whole host of side benefits that go far beyond offering personalized support to each customer. They can also help you understand what your customers want from you at the product and service level.
Sometimes, it helps to ask customers what they want directly in the form of surveys. But it’s possible that customers don’t really know what they want, or can’t articulate it properly. This is where analytics can be very helpful, according to a recent blog post by Monet Software (News - Alert) CEO Chuck Ciarlo.
“You can ask them, of course, with customer feedback surveys, but analytics provides more detailed and accurate insight into every aspect of the customer experience,” he wrote. “Used properly, analytics deliver a proactive view of current and future trends that will impact forecasting, product development, marketing and other operations.”
If a critical mass of customers seeking assistance from the contact center are asking about a certain product feature you don’t offer, for example, it may mean that the product development department has an opportunity to add a feature that will differentiate you from competition, for example. Sure, sharp-eared and responsive contact center agents might report this feedback to bosses and managers, and those managers might relay that information to the c-layer of executives, and those executives might connect the dots. Running a business on too many “mights” and “ifs,” however, doesn’t make sense. An analytics solutions can also spot trends that aren’t articulate in phone calls, also, and since non-voice interactions are becoming more common, this is important.
“While analytics has traditionally focused on calls, the same strategy can be used for social media (now the first choice for millennials), as well as self-service and digital channels,” wrote Ciarlo. “You may not be able to sense mood from a customer’s voice this way, but contact patterns and word choice can be analyzed to determine the most appropriate next step.”
Analytics solutions such as those offered by Monet provide both speech and desktop analytics solutions to analyze customer information wherever it resides (and in whatever form). This analysis produces actionable intelligence that can not only help the agent provide the customer with what he or she really wants and needs, but can also yield deeper knowledge into opportunities for the company as a whole.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi